Lights 2015
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- This topic has 98 replies, 44 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago by
cathy liang.
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AuthorPosts
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November 17, 2015 at 9:41 pm #1041324
Powerful Pete
ParticipantBest solution:
1. L&M Urban; and
2. L&M Vis 360 on the helmet.Happy, able to see and able to seen Pete.
November 17, 2015 at 10:34 pm #1041336Steve O
Participant@NicDiesel 128097 wrote:
For $100 if it lasts a year it’s money well spent.
If you’re planning to spend $100/year on one light, then get a dynamo hub and light system that will last 15 years.
November 18, 2015 at 2:18 am #1041348Powerful Pete
ParticipantOk, let me rephrase things. Steve O’s setup is the best solution. Mine is fine for the mere mortals amongst us.
Dyno-hubs are uber cool.
November 19, 2015 at 11:37 am #1041450Raymo853
Participant@Tim Kelley 128096 wrote:
The batteries in the Urban’s don’t seem to hold up after a couple years of heavy use, but the Taz’s and the Seca are still amazing.
I have three urbans. A three year old 400 and a two year old 600 & 800. All are being used and charged often. The oldest one is a champ, shows no drop in brightness nor run time. The newer ones seem to be less tough, they are both looking haggard, their run times are down, and their USB sockets are wonkey.
I am not disappointed at all, the newer two were free replacements. I melted my TAZ1000 but leaving it on in a car trunk, and L&M gave me full credit towards anything of theirs I wanted. So I got the two urbans plus one of their taillights.
November 19, 2015 at 2:23 pm #1041442NicDiesel
Participant@Steve O 128135 wrote:
If you’re planning to spend $100/year on one light, then get a dynamo hub and light system that will last 15 years.
Dynamo doesn’t make a hub strong enough for me. Besides, depending on the weather conditions and where I’m going I like being able to take the light off the bike instead of leaving it exposed to the temps and theft.
November 19, 2015 at 7:18 pm #1041470Steve O
ParticipantBringing over from the “My Evening Commute” thread
@ursus 128276 wrote:
I swivel my headlight instead of covering it because I don’t feel that I am in complete control of my bike, especially with someone heading toward me, with one hand covering my light. I often wonder if the colored light which normally goes toward the side and is facing forward when I swivel the light still causes trouble to an oncoming rider.
Even those of us who try to practice courtesy suffer from the problem that we don’t know what we look like to others. I have both my fork-mounted dynamo light, and my blazing-circle-of-light helmet lamp (used for shining in the eyes of drivers who just might not notice me…and for illuminating upcoming curves and turns). I swivel my head waaay to the right, but I don’t cover the dynamo at the same time. It’s an engineered beam that points down onto the trail, designed (by Germans!) specifically not to blind riders. I have it aimed so that the highest point on the beam is when it leaves the light: fork height. I have had two riders (actually, it may have been the same guy twice) yell at me to cover my light since October. I can’t stand in front of my bike and look, because it only shines bright when the wheel is spinning.
I don’t know if the guy(s) who yelled had a legitimate gripe or not, because I can’t see myself from up front.
From Peter White’s page:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]10113[/ATTACH]November 19, 2015 at 7:39 pm #1041471wheelswings
ParticipantI too have been wondering how others perceive my lights. Nobody’s ever said anything. I used to cover my light when I had only one, but these days I often use a second (the one I won in the Bike Arlington raffle
) and it’s tricky to cover both, especially since I stand on my pedals. I use the lowest beam settings (200, I think) and keep my lights facing at a downward angle if I’m riding at times when there are others are on the trail….
Is it only the bright lights that bother other trail users?November 19, 2015 at 8:00 pm #1041475Emm
Participant@wheels&wings 128281 wrote:
I too have been wondering how others perceive my lights. Nobody’s ever said anything. I used to cover my light when I had only one, but these days I often use a second (the one I won in the Bike Arlington raffle
) and it’s tricky to cover both, especially since I stand on my pedals. I use the lowest beam settings (200, I think) and keep my lights facing at a downward angle if I’m riding at times when there are others are on the trail….
Is it only the bright lights that bother other trail users?I think the focus needs to be minimizing how annoying you are and the danger your light poses to others vision, while maintaining your own safety. I keep my lights pointed down and at 600 lumens on the MVT (800 in darkest sections) because I have tried 400 lumens and I dont feel like I can see enough in front of me to ride safe, and I’m only biking 13-15 mph. In well lit areas like on the trail along Potomac Ave, I drop it down to 400 or lower. But I try to keep my light at the lowest safe setting possible to maintain safety, and battery life. I’ve seen low-beam lights that’ve blinded me though–it’s mostly where they are pointed. Directly into my eyes hurts, even with a low beam. So I try to keep mine pointed down.
I had been wondering for a few weeks if my spoke lights were annoying for people since I could see how a light flying around in a circle could be distracting. They also change color (without blinking). I finally saw someone else with them last night and was able to confirm they’re not at all annoying. They just looked like a nice blue light jogging down the trail. I think the fact they’re a soft and not very bright light helps. But I could see someone who is sensitive to lights and easily distracted finding any moving light annoying on a trail. But you know what? They’re VERY useful for when cars come up my side. I’ve gotten 2 comments so far from pedestrians and drivers saying how they appreciated the lights on the side of my bike. Plus they’re RAINBOW. So yea. Worth it.
November 19, 2015 at 8:31 pm #1041476Tania
Participant@Emm 128286 wrote:
I think the focus needs to be minimizing how annoying you are and the danger your light poses to others vision, while maintaining your own safety.
YES. I tried swiveling my light and covering it and I almost ran off the trail because I couldn’t see! Not to mention I spent the entire ride swiveling and covering, swiveling and covering, swiveling and covering.
I don’t want to blind people but I also don’t want to crash myself. I keep it pointed down and on the lowest setting which I didn’t realize until just now is stupidly weak (150!). I’ll try the medium (350) and see if anyone yells at me.
I haven’t yet encountered a too-bright light in an oncoming bicyclist.
November 19, 2015 at 9:10 pm #1041478bentbike33
Participant@wheels&wings 128281 wrote:
Is it only the bright lights that bother other trail users?
It is for me, specifically the very intense flood-light types. That said, I’ll just raise a hand in front of my eyes rather than expect the oncoming riders (and sometimes even joggers!) to cut their lights (and actually prefer that oncoming riders not completely shut off a headlight as I find this frighteningly disorienting on very dark trails for some reason).
I run a pair of German-made dynamo-powered headlights all the time (no battery worries). Because they conform to German regulations, these lights have a cut-off to the most focused and brightest part of the beam, much like car low-beams. While light does shine above this cut-off, it is much dimmer than below the cut-off. I aim the cut-off at about waist-high for the average pedestrian on the trail, so the bright part of my lights can only shine in oncoming traffic’s faces if I am cresting a hill (or speed hump), or it’s a low-slung recumbent trike. Nonetheless, I get occasional complaints about failure to dim my headlights on the trail (even, curiously, from the rare intense phobophobe during daylight hours).
November 19, 2015 at 9:13 pm #1041480GovernorSilver
Participant@NicDiesel 128246 wrote:
Dynamo doesn’t make a hub strong enough for me. Besides, depending on the weather conditions and where I’m going I like being able to take the light off the bike instead of leaving it exposed to the temps and theft.
By “strong” do you mean the brightness of the light, or are you literally talking about the hub?
I asked an LBS what it would take to steal the headlight and taillight off my dynamo hub-powered system. The answer: More trouble than it would be worth for most thieves – there’s like 3 bolts you have to unscrew on the headlight alone, plus you need something to hold the nuts on the other side of the bolts. Even if a thief came along that had the tools and was willing to put in the time, this light is the cheapest of the B&M LED line and would cost relatively little to replace.
The headlight is adequate when I forget my helmet light. It’s not bright enough to blind anybody. I feel a lot more confident riding that dark section of MVT between 14th St Bridge and DCA with my Cygolite Expilion 850 mounted on my helmet. I usually have the Cygolite pointed to the ground at the lowest or 2nd lowest lumens setting – it can get pretty freaking bright, rain or no rain.
November 19, 2015 at 9:13 pm #1041481MFC
ParticipantCovering your light is risky because it makes it a lot harder to see what is front of you. I have mental image of two riders crashing into each other because they have covered their lights and can’t see one another and don’t have both hands on their handlebars – hit a bump and you’re toast. Swiveling lights doesn’t seem much better. I think the amount of energy people spend getting worked up about other peoples’ lights blinking or being too bright far exceeds the energy it takes just to cope with it.
Talking Heads: more songs about buildings and food.
This forum: more griping about brightness and lights.
November 19, 2015 at 9:14 pm #1041482mstone
Participant@Steve O 128280 wrote:
I have had two riders (actually, it may have been the same guy twice) yell at me to cover my light
Some people have decided that covering a light is necessary. That’s ridiculous, ignore them.
November 19, 2015 at 9:55 pm #1041485annoyedindc
Participant@mstone 128293 wrote:
Some people have decided that covering a light is necessary. That’s ridiculous, ignore them.
Light covering isn’t necessary. But if someone yelled at me about my light I may have to wonder if there was a reason.
November 19, 2015 at 10:21 pm #1041487mstone
Participant@annoyedindc 128296 wrote:
Light covering isn’t necessary. But if someone yelled at me about my light I may have to wonder if there was a reason.
I’d probably check that my light was aimed properly, but there are cranks out there that shout about all lights all the time. (This is why the cranks are a menace–they make perfectly responsible people worry unnecessarily.) Once the equipment is properly adjusted, I’m going to put safety ahead of worrying about the occasional person with a bug up their saddle. Playing with a light while you’re moving isn’t safe, and turning the light off because some people don’t like lights isn’t safe. It also seems to me that there’s a subgroup that has decided that putting a show of covering a light is a mandatory ritual or something–I don’t really understand the nuances. Pro tip–if you’re covering your light within 20 feet of another rider, it’s pointless for any kind of light abatement purpose, and I assume that it’s being done solely as some kind of secret handshake. If your light is maladjusted, it’s annoying from far more than 20 feet away, and if it’s so badly mis-aimed that it’s shining in someone’s eyes within 20 feet, then for the love of god just point it properly rather than periodically covering it.
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