Multiple Blinkers

I run with two Topeak Redlite blinkies on the back and two Topeak Whitelite blinkies on the front. I think drivers can see me reasonably well as I haven't had any close calls. I had my wife drive behind/infront of me one night to give me a report on how they looked from various distances and her only complaint is that they were too annoying...which to me, means they're working just fine. 😄

I run my daily 25 mile (total) commute on one white front and one red rear which i set to flash....So far so good.

I assume more is safer but am not sure of the merits or legality of the various colour options you outline.

Whatever you choose I trust it is effecftive for you and you stay safe.

Regards.

OnYoLeft said:

I'm looking for advise as to what colored blinkers are best seen in weather with reduced visibility. For years, I've used one white and one red blinker on my single road bike and worked well, with the ocassional close call. When I set up my tandem for night riding, I have one white and one yellow blinker on the front and a red, blue and green blinker on the rear. I felt that this gave the approaching driver the impression that he was approaching an emergency vehicle. This lights can easily been seen from two miles away and when riding the tandem 98% of the vehicles DO SLOW DOWN!!!

I'm looking for advise as to setting up my new touring bike, with front and rear panniers. I'm placing 3 on the front and three on the rear. They'll be on the handlebar bag, trunk bag and on each pannier.

Would it be better to place three white and three red or one white and one red with yellows on the panniers for foul weather?

Several years ago, I attending some training for defensive driving for emergency vehicles. In the class the mentioned that the color "blue" is the most effective color at night. The reason - blue is the last color to fade from a human's vision. Red is the first color to go at night. That is why most emergency vehicles use the combination of blue and red lights. I don't have a reference for this other than what I learned from the class. Amber is probably the most visible and effectiive color in both day and night. Amber's reputation is linked to towing and "be ware" though. This probably doesn't help you, but it's interesting anyway. Good luck.

Where can you get blue or amber blinking LED lights in the UK?

I am interested in using a Blue at night. Stuff what the cops say, they'll only tell you to take them off (if they can be bothered to stop you anyway). If it makes the car drivers slow down and give you room ....

There is a great deal of debate as to the "best viewed colours". Red has been thought to be the most visible to the human eye. Certain traffic conventions affect how we interpret red lights...most read into it that they are seeing someone's back end and moving "away". We've found that in many cases, blue lights generate more attention.

Some countries (check the EU in particular) mandate the position of lights blue/white/green in front with red in back. In some cases there is a legally mandated positioning.

More important than the colour is the intensity of the light and the dispursement of light. The wider the broadcast the lower the intensity, while more focussed beam can be seen farther away but only within the narrower area. It is important to look at the lighting manufacturers statements about these to understand who will be able to see the lights. For example a fixed light (back of the bike) with a narrow broadcast may not be ideal because motorists will only see the lights when they move into that field. Whereas the same light on a moving (laterally and up and down) object will afford visibility from a variety of positions thus increasing the likelihood of being seen...at least momentarily.

3M has done a great deal of work helping manufactures understand visibility. Garment makers now spend more attention putting "cut up" reflective in several spots rather than offering one big patch of reflective. Placement of reflective/lights is most effective where there is some motion (eg. arms)

Also, I highly doubt your lights are visible from two miles away as the power requirements to drive such a light would make it prohibitively consumptive of energy.

OnYoLeft said:

I'm looking for advise as to what colored blinkers are best seen in weather with reduced visibility. For years, I've used one white and one red blinker on my single road bike and worked well, with the ocassional close call. When I set up my tandem for night riding, I have one white and one yellow blinker on the front and a red, blue and green blinker on the rear. I felt that this gave the approaching driver the impression that he was approaching an emergency vehicle. This lights can easily been seen from two miles away and when riding the tandem 98% of the vehicles DO SLOW DOWN!!!

I'm looking for advise as to setting up my new touring bike, with front and rear panniers. I'm placing 3 on the front and three on the rear. They'll be on the handlebar bag, trunk bag and on each pannier.

Would it be better to place three white and three red or one white and one red with yellows on the panniers for foul weather?

There is a big difference between physiological affect of light versus the psychological affect. Red is more easily seen but blue (at least for now) is often more distracting. Ask an LED manufacturer to tell you which is more visible...all will tell you red, green then blue....yet when was the last time you saw a blinking green light on a bike?

kspangler said:

Several years ago, I attending some training for defensive driving for emergency vehicles. In the class the mentioned that the color "blue" is the most effective color at night. The reason - blue is the last color to fade from a human's vision. Red is the first color to go at night. That is why most emergency vehicles use the combination of blue and red lights. I don't have a reference for this other than what I learned from the class. Amber is probably the most visible and effectiive color in both day and night. Amber's reputation is linked to towing and "be ware" though. This probably doesn't help you, but it's interesting anyway. Good luck.

yanosan said:

There is a big difference between physiological affect of light versus the psychological affect. Red is more easily seen but blue (at least for now) is often more distracting. Ask an LED manufacturer to tell you which is more visible...all will tell you red, green then blue....yet when was the last time you saw a blinking green light on a bike?

Heres an example of red being more easily seen. Both the headlight and taillight are 120 lumens.
i23.photobucket.comDSC00373.jpgOpen ↗

After a somewhat nerve-wracking ride home in thick fog t'other night, my latest life-saving ploy is to have rear-facing red lights on my handlebars. It makes the bike look three-dimensional to drivers who will instinctively give me more room.
However, I am sticking with standard colours, red backwards and white forewards, don't want to confuse the buggers too much.

A very good friend of mind has been doing quite a bit of night riding this year as he's completing this year's 49th century of 50 tomorrow, as a quest for turning 50 y/o this year. He is also an optometrist and I wanted to speak with him before I replied back, with some accuracy, to some matters in this post.

If you look in a reference text for the sensitivity of the human retina, the
color that the eye is most sensitive to is the yellow-green range of the
spectrum.

While the eye can see both red and blue, these lights have to be more intense (in terms of number of photons) to appear ro have equal brightness to wavelengths in the yellow-green range.

The exact color is slightly different for day vs night conditions but in no way
is it blue.

If you are an emergency vehicle with unlimited power, it doesn't matter; you can make the lights as bright as you need and be seen with any color. For those of us with lower power ( and therefore somewhat dimmer lights) yellow-green will be seen earlier than any other color. This is exactly why the newer fire engines and some of the newer warning street signs are painted the color they are. They are more visible that way.

If you want to see a reference, do a google search for photopic and scotopic sensitivity curves in the human eye. You should find a graph of light energy required to be detected, with the lowest energy required to be seen on the yellow-green wavelengths.

I have 2 red's on the rear. One stays constant on, the other flashes. They are extremely bright and can be seen from a very far distance. The flasher jumps out and grabs attention very easy. Its almost annoying, which is what I want. The more annoying, the better because youll get seen.

On the front I have the same setup only whites. I occasionally will strap on one of those mini cateye red blinkies to my helmet so I got one up top from behind as well.

Personally, I feel the brighter / more annoying / more lights you have, the better off you are at being seen by any motorists. Ive seen plenty of people on the roads (on bikes) at night with ZERO lights, and some even with no reflectors, and it just boggles my mind. They were hard enough for me to see until i was right up on them on my bike. I can imagine how hard it would be to see from a car, and it could be that once you are seen it might be too late.

Id rather be considered, and look "dorky" and have max visibility to others than be cool and end up under a 2 ton vehicle.

I really appreciate this discussion as I've recently purchased a bike for 75% commuting, 20% triathlon, 5% fun purposes...

I would just like to say that although lights will definitely help, it all comes down to being vigilant and being a defensive cyclist...regardless of the number of lights no matter how bright/obnoxious/noticeable/retina intensive they are, will prevent us from getting ripped by a motorist that is not paying attention/not watching for the little guy/gal on the bike. I ride about 7 miles to and from work here in Hawaii. As most of you know, there are way too many cars here to begin with, so just add in your (insert your weight here) among all of those multi-ton cars/trucks, and you can see how the pucker factor goes up.

This really hits home for me because this past week one of my co-workers had a hair-raising closecall with a motorist that fit my description above (my friend had all of the requisite lighting and the motorist wasn't watching for the little guy on the bike). After the near miss, the motorist was nice enough to roll down his window and say sorry, but then he went on to ask my friend, "Hey man, don't you have any lights on that thing?" to which my friend replied, "Yeah! I have three!" My friend actually has two white on the front and a red on the back. I think this is a great illustration to my warning to you to no rely on your lights to save your arses!

Personally I have a gigantic 10watt NiteRider light on the front along with the factory reflector, and a blinky red LED NiteRider on the back; the one on the back can be set to steady or blink, but I agree with one of the other forum writers that blinking and obnoxious is exactly what we want! I also wear a backpack (with all of my required chow for the workday and other odds and ends) so I have strategically wrapped the reflective belt I use when I run around the backpack for some added noticeability (hopefully).

I think I may add one more light on the front, a blinky white one (someone above mentioned that) just to cover all of the bases. I will say that my current battery-powered front light really puts out some light which comes in handy on some of the dark paths I take that I have to share with runners/walkers.......

I almost forgot one more thing I wear for visibility purposes....my "hunter orange" Hash T-shirt,,,,,,,,,,it says "Beer Delivery Guy" in the front, and is quite obnoxious!!!! Ha ha ha!

Thanks again!

be safe!

Im alittle surprised that no one else has come along and posted in this thread for quite some time.

Id really like to hear more about what people do/ use. I know youre out there, I see you all the time on the trails. Some of you have so many blinkies on your bikes ( especially recumbents) that you look like ambulances! LOL! But thats a good thing because man they really are extremely hard to miss.

Im also alittle curious, is there any sort of like "break" light and turn signal lights for the back side of bikes? I dont mind doing the hand signal thing, but I really am not sure that many motorists are actually up on the hand signals.

To me, if they saw a red light come on.. or get alog brighter, they would know a cyclist was slowing down. Same goes for turning. They see a yellow flashing light on the right hand side of the back of the bike, Theyd know you were turing right, with our without a hand signal, that the motorist may or may not know.

Just wondering if anyone has seen any type of break/ turn signal set ups for bikes.

Thanks guys!

I use Two Reds for teh Back

Two Whites for the front set to flash like the very quickly

i also where a roadworkers Vest

and also where stoopid colours when when riding that way you get noticed
most importantly at night

cheers

Ok, so ive updated my rides lighting abilities a bit.

Rear:

I now have two seat post blinkies, one planet bike 5 led one that stays on solid, and one serfas 5 led that I keep on blink. Near the bottom of each side of the rear fork, I have 1 planet bike 3 led blinky that I leave each on solid for constant side visibility. Id like to find some yellow or amber ones to take thier place, but red will do for now I guess.

Front:

handlebars I have 1 plant bike dual spot (single led and two level halogen) in the center. I just leave that one on the single led flahsing. Next to each gear shifter I have an 06 Cateye compact opticube, ( 3 highpower leds each with a 90 candlepower output). They also feature a 360 ring that lights up brigtly for side visibility. These things are almost as bright as car headlights and really flood the trail with light so you can CLEARLY see the trail..a nd any reflective obects 100 feet or more away from you.

On each side of the front break I simply clip on two of the cheap safety light blinkies and leave them on solid for constant side visability. those too I would rather use amber/ yellow, but red will do.

So far, cars not only seem to know that I am there, but have almost always ended up treating me more as a motor cycle, than a bike, especially when coming towards me. Those Cateye led headlights give off a very focused bluish / white light, and two of them working in tandem are extremely bright for inexpensive bike lights. SO much so it looks more like a motorized vehicle coming towards you than a bicycle, and that to me is a wonderful thing as far as being on the road with cars is concerned. Not to mention they really light up anything reflective from a long distance, and have more than once alerted me to another cyclist riding with NO lights on the trails by lighting up thier reflectors.

I really just dont understand people who ride at night, espeically on unlit trails, with ZERO lights, not even a cheap red blinky.

So far this setup has been way more than effective, and im keeing it for now.

90% of my commuting is with a Burley trailer attached. So needless to say I have a few lights on the rig. The bike it self has a 10 Watt head light in the winter, not many street lights on 1/2 of my commute. On the back I have one small 4 light led on the tail bag and one big 7 light mounted on the rack. Both are red and set to flash when the trailer isn't there. Now for when the kid is with me I set the lights on the back of the bike to steady and turn the 2 4 led lights to flash and the 2 nine led lights also on flash. One amber colored light on the lower left side facing forward that I also turn on flash. The combination does make for a rear visability of nearly a 1/2 mile. It seems to be a good combination, but plan on up grading the older 4 led lights all to the ones as the 9 led lights as wallet approves.