In article said:We had a traffic island pinch point recently installed in our village. While cycling through
this, I make a point of indicating that I am moving out from the kerbside, then I occupy the
centre of the lane until I have cleared the choke point, signal left and move over to allow
traffic to pass giving a friendly wave as I do. I also wear hi-visibility clothing every time I
cycle. Seems to work.
I had a collision (my first for a few years) a couple of nights ago - a car pulling out of a side
road at the same time as I was passing it. This was despite high visibility clothing and 20W of
halogen light (angled down, but with glow ring). Apparently its a common occurance on the road in
question. There are a lot of moving light sources from a nearby main junction which may mask a bike
between it and the driver at the side road??
Fortunately not hurt - road was slippy enough for me to just skid sideways with it and nothing was
coming the other way close enough so I kept my balance, although I used the full width of the road
to do it. (OK, minor muscle pull due to sudden strain of rebalancing, better now)
Looking forward to the trike for more stability in these situations, but whatever the highway code
has to say about flashing lights, its going to be both lumicycles on the boom and flashing white
LEDs on the mudguard or mirror mounts. That _should_ make me visible. Also wondering where I can get
clear flag poles and if anyone's had any luck mounting a high brightness LED at the bottom of one
(lightsaber effect), or if I'd be better gluing some LEDs to the top and running a wire down the
pole to the lumicycle battery.
hmmm, quick digression... I'm sure I've seen the below work, but have forgotten too much about
electronics.
13.2V |---\/\/\/\---|>|-------------------|>|---------| 0V Hi Bri Flashing White Red Hi Bri
forward rear or pair, high brightness red rear, plus small flashing red pointing sideways.
Erk! Maplin's flashing LEDs want a forward voltage of 9V. Hopefuly they don't need 55mA to run.
Farnell's white (order 993864) takes 20mA at 3.6V. They also have internally current controlled
flashing ones which presumably can be seriesed with others, as long as the white LED above allows
enough current to pass when off to drive the chip on the flashing one, and the chip on the flashing
doesn't draw enough current when off to light the white one, and doesn't mind its supply voltage
fluctuating a little.
- Richard
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_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at ntlworld dot com _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ Time is a
one way street, _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ Except in the Twighlight Zone.