Starduster
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StardusterParticipantPlease note my post and pics on the It’s Dark=Lights thread: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?7693-It-s-dark-lights/page5
Until what time the US market vendors listen to their market and address the glare issue in traffic, you can buy from *the* lighting guru himself, http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/, or get your local bike shop to order for you.
And I will have a posting on Missed Connections that involves a close call and a flashing headlight [sigh].
StardusterParticipantWidewater section of the C&O?
StardusterParticipantBravo Zulu! Well said! 😎 Sue Fuchs
StardusterParticipantThat last pic: [ATTACH=CONFIG]6840[/ATTACH]
StardusterParticipantAs promised:
We were talking about glare earlier. All of us, moi included, have stories of being blinded by oncoming riders’ headlights on the trails, steady mode, or worse, in flash mode (POP POP POP!). Yet we all have to be able to see where *we* are going. The problem- when the first high power LED emitters arrived (blue LED with yellow phosper coating), they first finally exceeded the output of a traditional AA Mini-Maglite, then transcended the best that a Euro-spec 6 volt 3 watt halogen bike bulb could do. And rapidly advanced from there. While there have been hi-power battery lights powered by water bottle-size Ni Cads for some time, you now had a light source so powerful that blinding oncoming motorists/riders had to be dealt with. (Disclosure- I am that Euro-lighting Geek your parents warned you about, lol.) In Germany, the one place where there are bicycle lighting codes as precise as SAE and ECE automotive lighting codes, the StVZO spec evolved to mandate limits on glare. So your current German commuter bike will have a dynamo-powered headlight with a beam that is very much like an automotive low beam lamp. Light *on the road*, but not in oncoming drivers’ eyes.
Here is what is possible. The headlight is a Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ Premium CYO T, dynamo powered (there is a battery powered IXON IQ available with the same emitter and optics).
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6835[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6836[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6837[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6838[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6839[/ATTACH]
As it appears on the road at speed, and on the wall. Very sharp beam cutoff. Oncoming eyes are above the light’s hot spot. As you see, the hot spot is… quite hot. The last pic (on the next posting) is a Bontrager Ion 2 at full brightness, for reference.
My open challenge to all the US market lighting vendors- Listen to your customers! Particularily with the new & evolving urban cyclist market in mind! There are many wonderfully high-powered headlights on the market, but nearly all of them (at the high end) are designed with off-road racing in mind. Those requirements are very different than the commuting or city cyclist who *must* share the road with others. Beyond “safety lights” that simply allow you to be seen, I have seen *no* domestic brand put out a “city” headlight to equal product from Busch & Muller, SON, or Supernova. No one has considered the oncoming glare issue. The need is there. The opportunity is there. And if you get StVZO approval for your creation, there’s your entry into the European market!
A thought on blinkies: Remember a few decades ago, when the best light out there was an incandescent dynamo headlight? There was a guy, local, who put out an auto battery powered kit with an automotive glass sealed beam fog light. Yes it was heavy. He chose a construction barricade flashing light for the rear. Which said much about the attitude of the time. A defensive device. Go to present time, and all the front and rear flashing lights remain defensive devices to get the attention of cars and trucks that could otherwise kill them. I do run a combination of steady and flashing rear on the road. On the bike trail, you no longer need to run the defensive lighting mode. The heavy vehicles are gone, and *you* are now the “biggest meanest mutha” on the trail. Steady mode is so much more polite- a hint that hi-powered flashers are just plain rude.
StardusterParticipant“Originally Posted by mstone
At some point it comes across as desperately trying to rationalize something.”
Hasn’t the compact chainring craze (pardon me-trend) been about “reducing weight”?
StardusterParticipantThank you!!! 😎 Couldn’t find Trollheim, but I think I know where it is…
StardusterParticipant@Steve O 97249 wrote:
This is a day old, but on Thursday about 10:30 AM I encountered a female cyclist who had gone down on the Trollheim bridge at the usual spot. She was shaken up and lying on her back on the boardwalk. Ultimately she got herself up and determined she was all right.
*Trollheim*? I need an index card here…
StardusterParticipant😎 Multiple topics in one thread! Responding to the first:
Memo to any *bike ninjas* out there: You might think you’re cool and avoiding all manner of “perceived threats”, but you are blind (pun intended) to the other risk- a motorist whose only clue they hit someone is their passenger saying, “Honey, I felt a bump!”
That said, there are just too many riders out there after dark with no lighting at all, observed on a daily basis. Sometimes the only way I see them (besides carefully maintained lights on both car and the ’81 Trek) are because of the only reflectors that haven’t been removed/fallen off- on the pedals. As noted by others, with our bunch, I am “preaching to the choir” here. I know that. We’ve certainly spent time here complaining about being blinded by glare on the MVT. More on *that* in a separate reply, coming later. SO… we have a responsibility to pass on our knowledge to others- to be teachers. There are plenty of fellow cyclists who are unaware of the risk. Or the need.
Both Revolution Cycles and BikeArlington have done lighting giveaways on the trails. Bravo. Keep it up. Though there is always the question of how many you actually reach- measured by what happens when it is finally time to change the batteries. That shouldn’t be an excuse “not to”.
There is one segment of the cycling community that presents a challenge in reaching- many “working poor” who are just plain happy to have wheels, period. For your reference, the BikeArlington blinkies retail for $20 a pair. Which might be a hard sell for someone working his a__ off at minimum wage. That many are part of the growing Latino community in Arlington adds to the cultural/language challenge. But it is still important to connect with them, for everyone’s sake. They *are* our fellow riders, after all. The bike is an ideal way to bridge all these barriers.
Stay tuned- later I am going to issue an open challenge to US market lighting vendors.
StardusterParticipantbobco85: If your employer will tolorate your bike in the office, do it. For your peace of mind.
OK, so the Ballston Common garage is Arl Co’s, and management has indicated by word & deed that they *don’t & won’t care*? BikeArlington and Tim Kelley? Your mission, should you choose to accept it…
StardusterParticipantYou wound up *inside* DCA with the bike? 😎
StardusterParticipantFrom this past Sunday- A photo update on the Doctors Run Connector (part of the 12th St Bike Boulevard):
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A little bit closer to reopening…
StardusterParticipantGillian: Sorry I couldn’t make this one- picked up my sister at DCA. Next time…
Hope all went well.
StardusterParticipantACK! You answered my question about what Maine Ave is like on two wheels. (I see it every day taking my wife in to work… on 4 wheels).
When you think of how much worse this could have been…
OK everybody, using Root Boy Slim’s voice: “Guardian Angel. Workin’ hard for you!”
StardusterParticipant@Steve 95320 wrote:
The notion that we shouldn’t create a bike trail because of environmental concerns is…..well……..(deep breaths).
All the more reason to be *visible and audible* at the Board meeting when the construction contract comes up. Let us all know when, please…
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