Lights Hypicroacy me or him?

[Terpfan]

Last night it was closer to 70% of people covered for me. Most after they saw me do it. Of course the few who didn’t were running like 1,000 lumen lights. Only two times did they really irk me. One was in a straight away stretch on MVT where I literally cannot see if my left side is blinded because my right side is blinded by cars. And the other was a dude with helmet mount literally turning it right into my eyes sans any turn. Otherwise, impressive how courteous folks were.

[cyclingfool]

When I had my light mounted on my handlebars, I covered it most of the time. I have since attached my headlight to a small front platform rack. While I can (carefully) reach far enough to adjust the angle of the light or get to the on/off button. That said, my light is aimed down and I’m using a lens filter to disperse the light horizontally so I hit a wider swatch of the ground in front of me. I see people cover their lights and sometimes wish I could reach down and cover mine, if for no other reason to let them know I understand and appreciate their gesture. I’ve even entertained the notion of putting my headlight back on my handlebars, especially since my mounting hardware for the light on the rack set me back all of $5. OTOH, the aim of my light and the lens mean it’s not blinding to oncoming riders, and I tend to run it on the medium setting most of the time.

Can’t wait until I eventually replace my lights with dynamo powered ones w/ sharp vertical cutoffs so I can be even more sure I’m not bothering others.

[mstone]

Note: if you do decide to cover your lights, the entire operation is counterproductive if you get within a few feet of the oncoming cyclist and then uncover/blind him. Better to not cover at all, so I know to simply keep my eyes averted, rather than sucking me in and faking me out.

[Phatboing]

@mstone 103338 wrote:

Note: if you do decide to cover your lights, the entire operation is counterproductive if you get within a few feet of the oncoming cyclist and then uncover/blind him.

I’ve had this done to me so many times. The worst is when people figure out that I’m not going to cover my light (because, dammit, if I’ve figured out not to look into someone’s light, you can too), and then they deliberately uncover their light to blind me. Just concentrate on the spotlight from your bike light for a few seconds, and all will be well.

[Author]

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