On road visibility

coppershark said:

The small white flashing lights that some roadies use are slightly
better than nothing but don't really do much.

I recall watching this very bright flashing light coming up Doncaster Rd
one morning from about 1km away, thinking there must be some serious
wattage involved. When the bike finally arrived it was GPLama with the
$15 flasher. I'd say that was better than nothing.

DaveB

DaveB said:

I recall watching this very bright flashing light coming up Doncaster Rd
one morning from about 1km away, thinking there must be some serious
wattage involved. When the bike finally arrived it was GPLama with the $15
flasher. I'd say that was better than nothing.

Hmmm. Last week while driving into the city one evening I passed a roadie
with a single red LED and it was definitely _not_ visible. Well it was able
to be picked out at about 70 metres, but by that stage he was clearly
visible anyway. Mind you his no hands 'TdF luncheon' style of riding seemed
a little out of place down Alexandra Pde at night :{

Some riders don't keep track of the status of their batteries, or else some
of these little single LEDs are [censored].
--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

coppershark said:

I rode up the one in twenty in the mist on Sunday. I wear a visibility
vest (orange with yellow reflective tape) and have a larger size
flashing white light on the handlebars which I hope gives me some
visibility to other road users (motorists)

Many of the descending cyclists were almost invisible due to dark
helmets and jerseys/rain tops. Racing Team jerseys in dark colours
render the rider almost invisible even though they may contain some
light colours.

The small white flashing lights that some roadies use are slightly
better than nothing but don't really do much.

In poor light conditions the only colour that stands out seems to be
yellow, even a yellow helmet is better than no yellow at all.

"The Shark"

I've noticed that too. Orange is useless, the best colour is "Netti"
yellow. Reflective tape is great, especially on shoes or legs.

"Friday"

DaveB said:

I recall watching this very bright flashing light coming up Doncaster Rd
one morning from about 1km away, thinking there must be some serious
wattage involved. When the bike finally arrived it was GPLama with the
$15 flasher. I'd say that was better than nothing.
DaveB

Yep, and I was trying to out-run the speed of light... but I haven’t quite got the legs..

..and in other news, I did a BR on the SS today... damn the BR route is awesome, it has a little bit of everything.. and I ended up with 1450m of climbing after a few crit laps...

GPL

Peter Signorini said:

Some riders don't keep track of the status of their batteries, or else some
of these little single LEDs are [censored].

I run Cateye TL600s (5LED) and have been caught by how slowly they
fade. I ended up forgetting how bright it was to start with.
Finally learnt that.

On 2006-07-18, Aeek (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Peter Signorini said:

Some riders don't keep track of the status of their batteries, or else some
of these little single LEDs are [censored].

I run Cateye TL600s (5LED) and have been caught by how slowly they
fade. I ended up forgetting how bright it was to start with.
Finally learnt that.

Don'tcha hate that? I need a warning on all of my lights, and then a
sudden cutoff, and/or remember to stick to a regular schedule of
battery rechargeration.

--
TimC
A polar bear is a rectangular bear after a coordinate transform. -- unknown

TimC said:

Don'tcha hate that? I need a warning on all of my lights, and then a
sudden cutoff, and/or remember to stick to a regular schedule of
battery rechargeration.

I think I need a certain amount of redness when I park my bike at
night. Its a static environment so it ought to be repeatable.
But where do I set the arbitrary criteria?

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:59:12 +1000

Aeek said:

I run Cateye TL600s (5LED) and have been caught by how slowly they
fade. I ended up forgetting how bright it was to start with.
Finally learnt that.

That's what made my buy the rear light for the dynamo.

The rear flasher I had was quite bright when I turned it on, but faded
after a few minutes.

Of course I didn't notice until I got home!

The small 3-5 LED headlights with flasher mode are very good. I use
one on the handlebars, as well as the dynamo light on the front
derailleur mount. The dynamo light is about car headlight level, the
flasher about driver's shoulder level, I figure that should do!

Zebee

Friday said:

coppershark said:

I rode up the one in twenty in the mist on Sunday. I wear a visibility
vest (orange with yellow reflective tape) and have a larger size
flashing white light on the handlebars which I hope gives me some
visibility to other road users (motorists)

Many of the descending cyclists were almost invisible due to dark
helmets and jerseys/rain tops. Racing Team jerseys in dark colours
render the rider almost invisible even though they may contain some
light colours.

The small white flashing lights that some roadies use are slightly
better than nothing but don't really do much.

In poor light conditions the only colour that stands out seems to be
yellow, even a yellow helmet is better than no yellow at all.

"The Shark"

I've noticed that too. Orange is useless, the best colour is "Netti"
yellow. Reflective tape is great, especially on shoes or legs.

"Friday"

As a rule of thumb "reflective" is always better than "fluorescent". My
shoes and leggings have reflective strips and/or logos which others have
commented on because they are so visible. I wear a reflective strip on
my backpack too. Fluoro stuff is visible but (if it is truly
fluorescent) you will never get the same amount of light coming off it
as is going onto it (as you would get with a perfectly reflective
surface). Worth keeping in mind next time you think twice about getting
that dorky looking reflective vest!

BTW, does anyone know a good supplier of reflective tape???

--
Bean

Remove "yourfinger" before replying

Bean Long said:

Friday wrote:
BTW, does anyone know a good supplier of reflective tape???

I've bought adhesive 3M Scotchlite 50mm tape from a ships chandler (SOLAS) at $10 per metre, and 50mm cloth tape from an industrial safety store at $4 per metre.

I'm looking for an Australian source of red 3M Scotchlite tape, put putting on rear facing surfaces of my bike. White is easy to find. Conspicuity tape (red/white diagonal lines) is a little harder, but available in some places. But plain red just doesn't seem to be available in small quantities.

There is a mail order place in the USA with a wide range:
http://www.reflectivelyyours.com/
Their prices seem a bit high.

Bean Long said:

BTW, does anyone know a good supplier of reflective tape???

Not sure. But I have a number of reflective ankle straps that were given out by Melbourne City Council and Darebin CC. One ate ride to work day and a few that the kids got for being on a walking school bus. They must be cheap. Anyone know the source of these? I might suggest that our club get some printed up.

In article <[email hidden]>,

ghostgum said:

Bean Long said:

Friday wrote:
BTW, does anyone know a good supplier of reflective tape???

I've bought adhesive 3M Scotchlite 50mm tape from a ships chandler
(SOLAS) at $10 per metre, and 50mm cloth tape from an industrial safety
store at $4 per metre.

I'm looking for an Australian source of red 3M Scotchlite tape, put
putting on rear facing surfaces of my bike. White is easy to find.
Conspicuity tape (red/white diagonal lines) is a little harder, but
available in some places. But plain red just doesn't seem to be
available in small quantities.

There is a mail order place in the USA with a wide range:
http://www.reflectivelyyours.com/
Their prices seem a bit high.

The 3M company is as good as it gets.

A directory of retail outlets can be found at:

<http://www.3m.com/intl/AU/reflective/buy.html>

cheers,
Darryl

Bean Long said:

BTW, does anyone know a good supplier of reflective tape???

Google will put you onto various mail order places.

At this point I should give a plug for a simple safety vest from
Bunnings.

$13 gets you one of those a lime/yellow fluoro vest with wide
reflective tape strips that road workmen wear.

$7 gets you the same, in orange. Orange isn't as visible at night
though.

Travis

slaw said:

Not sure. But I have a number of reflective ankle straps that were
given out by Melbourne City Council and Darebin CC.

Netti used to do one of those, because I've got one that I was given at an
Oaks classic a few years ago. Works fairly well to keep trousers out of
the chain, though my new hard rubbish folding bike with Sturmey-Archer
three speed has a chain guard. Needs some work on the brakes though...

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
We're standing there pounding a dead parrot on the counter, and the
management response is to frantically swap in new counters to see if
that fixes the problem. --Peter Gutmann 18/06/1998

ghostgum said:

SNIP
I'm looking for an Australian source of red 3M Scotchlite tape, put putting on rear facing surfaces of my bike. ........... But plain red just doesn't seem to be available in small quantities.
.

3-4 years ago bought a small roll of red adhesive reflective tape 25mm wide from REPCO - car parts - to stick on the back of the trailer. Think that Supa Cheap Autos might have it also but might not be as good quality.

Cheers
Hugh

Darryl C said:

The 3M company is as good as it gets.

A directory of retail outlets can be found at:

<http://www.3m.com/intl/AU/reflective/buy.html>

cheers,
Darryl

Oooh! Very handy. Thanks Daryl. I did notice, however, that the local
ACT supplier is actually in NSW!! :-)

--
Bean

Remove "yourfinger" before replying

Bean Long said:

Darryl C said:

The 3M company is as good as it gets.

A directory of retail outlets can be found at:

<http://www.3m.com/intl/AU/reflective/buy.html>

cheers,
Darryl

Oooh! Very handy. Thanks Daryl. I did notice, however, that the local
ACT supplier is actually in NSW!! :-)

So is the ACT! What's the problem?

;-)

--
BrettS

Some riders don't keep track of the status of their batteries, or else some
of these little single LEDs are [censored].
--

Peter
This made me think of a situation last night. I had to drive to work and was travelling along chapel st about 5.45pm. If you are not from Vic, then this is one of , if not, Vic's premier blackspot for cyclists. Lots of trams, parked cars, pedestrians walking out in front of you from all directions and idiots trying to do u-turns etc.

As i sat stationery for maybe 3 minutes in the traffic grind, i counted the following and this is no word of a lie.

1 cyclist - no helmet ( no front or rear lights)
5 cyclists - no rear or front lights.. atleast they had helmets.
1 peleton looking lycra clad cyclist flashing away like an xmas tree all over..
1 pannier sporting commuter cyclist with helmet & very weak front light. The back light on his helmet was obscured by his backpack as he leant over.

No reflective/fluoro gear in sight on any of them except for the small little reflective logo off someones knicks

This was in the space of a few mins.. lets just say, i was really shocked to see how many people are not thinking about how invisible they are. There was no stereotype that fit them either. They all seemed to be riding with the confidence of a regular road user..I would hate to think how many near misses these folk have on a regular basis.
And, they give the rest of us a bad name..

In aus.bicycle on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 13:35:28 +1000

coowoowoo said:

Some riders don't keep track of the status of their batteries, or else
some
of these little single LEDs are [censored].

Friend of mine was spitting chips at a trike rider on a low trike with
one, count it one, red LED. At night. Mounted low.

Bugger all you can say when confronted with something like that.

Zebee