Lights for road riding

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

When I'm riding on the road, I use two small white flashing LED lights,
to
be seen, rather than to see with, as I'm riding on the road where
there's street lights.

For riding without street lights, you want a decent luxeon LED or a
halogen or HID lamp, or you can *just* get away with some of the 3 or 5
LED lamps if you ride slowly. Talk to your LBS, and have a look at
what they have in stock to show you.

In aus.bicycle on Mon, 4 Sep 2006 13:29:12 +1000

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

I love my hub dynamo and lumotec LED light.

I have the fancy German dynamo, but you can get a Shimano one for
about $150, the light is around $80, and a rear is $35.

Never have to worry about batteries again! And while the light is
"only" 3 watts, it's a very bright and well focused 3w.

Zebee

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding .. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..
Any suggestions?

As bleve has said, lights generally fall in to two categories, the see-me lights and the I-can-see lights.

Some HID lights have see-me settings which last far longer than when on the I-can-see setting. IMO it's worth having at least two lights front and two lights rear. Being seen is fundamental to safe riding on the road, it makes sense to build in some redundancy.

Bleve said:

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

When I'm riding on the road, I use two small white flashing LED lights,
to
be seen, rather than to see with, as I'm riding on the road where
there's street lights.

For riding without street lights, you want a decent luxeon LED or a
halogen or HID lamp, or you can *just* get away with some of the 3 or 5
LED lamps if you ride slowly. Talk to your LBS, and have a look at
what they have in stock to show you.

It's very important to be visible to other road users. I tend to wear
fluoro yellow or similarly light coloured jerseys if I am riding home
after dusk.

Flashing red rear LED's are good, and if you have a couple they should
go out of phase after a while and much more visible. Is there a word
for this? - phototactic (thats movement in response to light)?

Flashing front single LED's are ok to be seen, especially if again you
have a couple and they are out of phase. I also place a couple of
single LED's on the bike helmet so a flashing LED follows my
axis-of-sight and 180 deg a red one.
Side streets- err defensive riding and anticipation of [censored] driving.

I tend to believe a solid bright light is less visible than a flashing
light, but a combination works well. I have a couple of triple-LED
front lights that can be set to flashing or solid, tends to work pretty
well in combination with the rest. Easy switching between modes.

On 2006-09-04, Bleve (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

When I'm riding on the road, I use two small white flashing LED lights,
to
be seen, rather than to see with, as I'm riding on the road where
there's street lights.

All depends on what you're riding through. Riding through bridge
road, richmond, with all the light clutter, drunks, and careless
individuals pulling out without looking, I would not consider anything
less than a 15W halogen, if I was doing it every day. When I was
doing it once a week (return), I still was thinking the risk of not
doing so outweighed the slight invonvenience of setting up the 5W as a
helmet light, and 15W on the bike. Chewed through the batteries, but
the 15W only stayed on through the busy sections.

Now that I only ride there occasionally, the bother outweighs the
risk.

Quoted message said:

For riding without street lights, you want a decent luxeon LED or a
halogen or HID lamp, or you can *just* get away with some of the 3 or 5
LED lamps if you ride slowly. Talk to your LBS, and have a look at
what they have in stock to show you.

When I was a kid, riding from the observatory to the house on the edge
of town, with no intervening street lights or traffic (at 3am), the
2.4W krypton globe worked fine everynight, as long as I took some
spare batteries. I wasn't going fast 🙂

--
TimC
[On being overcaffeinated...] Yes, this is possible - symptons include
the sun being too loud and grokking in full what Adams meant by
"unpleasantly like being drunk". -- Steed in ASR

gumby said:

I tend to believe a solid bright light is less visible than a flashing
light, but a combination works well. I have a couple of triple-LED
front lights that can be set to flashing or solid, tends to work pretty
well in combination with the rest. Easy switching between modes.

While flashing may be more visible 🙄 , it also is seems to scream out "slow bicycle". I have been turned in front of a number of times with clearly flashing lights. I think distance perception is harder for an oncoming vehicle.

I now feel safer with both. Seems to have reduced the incidents of people turning into my path.

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

Any suggestions?

I hate changing batteries, so here's what I did:

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/6/20/83754/2658

Basically, I've used a hub dynamo to charge a set of five 800mAh AAA
NiMh batteries. The charge controller circuit board also has a flasher
unit built-in, which drives six 10mm high-brightness LEDs, which are
housed in trailer clearance lights where the reflectors used to be
(three in each light). The headlight is your basic 4xAA
handlebar-mounted krypton unit, wired up to the battery pack.

A single toggle switch turns all lights on or off (I also hate pressing
tiny buttons repeatedly on LED flashers).

Since those pics were taken I've moved the control box to the stem, as
it's more convenient. Total cost, about $75.

BTH

In article <[email hidden]>,

dgarry said:

Hi all,Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road
riding.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it
also..Any suggestions?ThanksDavid-- dgarry

I was in the same boat recently. The key is how much light do you need
to see.

Riding in Sydney inner West, I bought a front white and rear red combo
set and found it to be more than adequate. It's 5 white LEDs at the
front and is good enough to supplement the street lighting up to 10m and
it's clear enough for others to see. The rear red has 7 LEDs and has
various flash pattern. The brand is called Basta. I think it's pretty
widely available. The other advantage is that it runs on just 2 AA
batteries for the front white. So it's relatively light.
--

On 2006-09-04, Artoi (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

dgarry said:

Hi all,Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road
riding.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it
also..Any suggestions?ThanksDavid-- dgarry

I was in the same boat recently. The key is how much light do you need
to see.

Riding in Sydney inner West, I bought a front white and rear red combo
set and found it to be more than adequate. It's 5 white LEDs at the
front and is good enough to supplement the street lighting up to 10m and
it's clear enough for others to see. The rear red has 7 LEDs and has
various flash pattern. The brand is called Basta. I think it's pretty
widely available. The other advantage is that it runs on just 2 AA
batteries for the front white. So it's relatively light.

Note that any flash pattern that doesn't simply flash all LEDs on then
all LEDs off, is next to useless.

If you alternately switch half on, then you simply are left with a
light half as bright, as from a distance, you can't pick the scanning
pattern.

I've seen lights that have 9 LEDs, and one of the patterns is to
continually scan up and down, a single LED at a time. So it's now 9
times less bright, and from 200m, you wouldn't be able to tell that it
is scanning at all -- it just appears as a constant light 9 times less
bright than what it should be.

--
TimC
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers.

sinus said:

While flashing may be more visible 🙄 , it also is seems to
scream out "slow bicycle". I have been turned in front of a number of
times with clearly flashing lights. I think distance perception is
harder for an oncoming vehicle.

I think you're correct here..

I've had many a vehicle wait for me with my 3W white luxeon+10deg lens
on the front, when they had plenty of room to get in front of me....
but on the flipside, I had some bloke ask me the other night "where are
your lights?" when I went past him.... so I clearly need to add a
wide-angle light to the arsenal.

duncan

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

Any suggestions?

Yep, you're in luck.

A few months ago Torpedo.com had dual beam halogen light sets for $99NZ
and half the newsgroup ran out to buy them. I've got a set and am
quite happy with them.

Well now they're clearing out their last stock of them:

http://www.torpedo7.com/page/australia/PROD/Clearance/ACLRH-20_C

Travis

In article
<[email hidden]>,

TimC said:

On 2006-09-04, Artoi (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

dgarry said:

Hi all,Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road
riding.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it
also..Any suggestions?ThanksDavid-- dgarry

I was in the same boat recently. The key is how much light do you need
to see.

Riding in Sydney inner West, I bought a front white and rear red combo
set and found it to be more than adequate. It's 5 white LEDs at the
front and is good enough to supplement the street lighting up to 10m and
it's clear enough for others to see. The rear red has 7 LEDs and has
various flash pattern. The brand is called Basta. I think it's pretty
widely available. The other advantage is that it runs on just 2 AA
batteries for the front white. So it's relatively light.

Note that any flash pattern that doesn't simply flash all LEDs on then
all LEDs off, is next to useless.

This one does flash per your description.

Quoted message said:

I've seen lights that have 9 LEDs, and one of the patterns is to
continually scan up and down, a single LED at a time. So it's now 9
times less bright, and from 200m, you wouldn't be able to tell that it
is scanning at all -- it just appears as a constant light 9 times less
bright than what it should be.

The rear red light has 3 options. Steady on, flashing all 7 LEDs,
scanning.
--

TimC said:

On 2006-09-04, Artoi (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

dgarry said:

Hi all,Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road
riding.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it
also..Any suggestions?ThanksDavid-- dgarry

I was in the same boat recently. The key is how much light do you need
to see.

Riding in Sydney inner West, I bought a front white and rear red combo
set and found it to be more than adequate. It's 5 white LEDs at the
front and is good enough to supplement the street lighting up to 10m and
it's clear enough for others to see. The rear red has 7 LEDs and has
various flash pattern. The brand is called Basta. I think it's pretty
widely available. The other advantage is that it runs on just 2 AA
batteries for the front white. So it's relatively light.

Note that any flash pattern that doesn't simply flash all LEDs on then
all LEDs off, is next to useless.

If you alternately switch half on, then you simply are left with a
light half as bright, as from a distance, you can't pick the scanning
pattern.

I've seen lights that have 9 LEDs, and one of the patterns is to
continually scan up and down, a single LED at a time. So it's now 9
times less bright, and from 200m, you wouldn't be able to tell that it
is scanning at all -- it just appears as a constant light 9 times less
bright than what it should be.

--
TimC
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers.

Even worse, I think, is 'blink' is too slow... some cyclists spend a good part of the time invisible because of this. If it is too slow for a glance to *always* see it, then it is impossible for a driver glancing in a mirror to see it.

ali

In article <[email hidden]>,

Duncan said:

sinus said:

While flashing may be more visible 🙄 , it also is seems to
scream out "slow bicycle". I have been turned in front of a number of
times with clearly flashing lights. I think distance perception is
harder for an oncoming vehicle.

I think you're correct here..

I've had many a vehicle wait for me with my 3W white luxeon+10deg lens
on the front, when they had plenty of room to get in front of me....
but on the flipside, I had some bloke ask me the other night "where are
your lights?" when I went past him.... so I clearly need to add a
wide-angle light to the arsenal.

I suspect more of a case of single light vs two headlights of a car.
Distance and motion is harder to judge when there's only one point light
source.
--

"Artoi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Duncan said:

sinus said:

While flashing may be more visible 🙄 , it also is seems to
scream out "slow bicycle". I have been turned in front of a number of
times with clearly flashing lights. I think distance perception is
harder for an oncoming vehicle.

I think you're correct here..

I've had many a vehicle wait for me with my 3W white luxeon+10deg lens
on the front, when they had plenty of room to get in front of me....
but on the flipside, I had some bloke ask me the other night "where are
your lights?" when I went past him.... so I clearly need to add a
wide-angle light to the arsenal.

I suspect more of a case of single light vs two headlights of a car.
Distance and motion is harder to judge when there's only one point light
source.
--

One thing I've noticed with a single light on roadbars, is that the hoods
and your hands can obscure the light to traffic from the front left around
45 degrees. Commonly this is on roundabouts with traffic entering on the
left. I took an idea from dutchie (I think?) and stuck one of those little
flashers on my helmet with velco. Dorky...but effective.

Adam

On 2006-09-04, adam85 (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

One thing I've noticed with a single light on roadbars, is that the hoods
and your hands can obscure the light to traffic from the front left around
45 degrees. Commonly this is on roundabouts with traffic entering on the
left. I took an idea from dutchie (I think?) and stuck one of those little
flashers on my helmet with velco. Dorky...but effective.

Oi! Is not dorky!

--
TimC
Ah, so many of life's little problems can be solved by head
vaporisation. -- Zixia in ARK

Artoi said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Duncan said:

sinus said:

While flashing may be more visible 🙄 , it also is seems to
scream out "slow bicycle". I have been turned in front of a number of
times with clearly flashing lights. I think distance perception is
harder for an oncoming vehicle.

I think you're correct here..

I've had many a vehicle wait for me with my 3W white luxeon+10deg lens
on the front, when they had plenty of room to get in front of me....
but on the flipside, I had some bloke ask me the other night "where are
your lights?" when I went past him.... so I clearly need to add a
wide-angle light to the arsenal.

I suspect more of a case of single light vs two headlights of a car.
Distance and motion is harder to judge when there's only one point light
source.
--

Here's an idea. Headlights in the brake/gear levers.

Briftights™

--
BrettS

In article <[email hidden]>,

BrettS said:

Here's an idea. Headlights in the brake/gear levers.

Briftights

Bar end lights are already available I thought. Here comes the Christmas
tree!
--

dgarry said:

Hi all,
Just wondering are using for a front light for night time road riding
.. I'm looking for a light so that I'm see and I can see with it also..

Any suggestions?
Thanks
David

Make your own! It's not hard to make basic lights, and the quality is
only limited by your imagination and materials.

I have several examples here:

http://www.thefathippy.com

You can do better! ;^)

Tony F