Self Illumination?

[Norm]

When you have decent lights, the hiviz becomes pointless. Useless in fact.

I had three cyclists coming the other way at different times during my drive home this evening, all on unlit roads with 60mph limits.

The first one had a helmet light as well as the light on his bars, but I could still easily see the reflectives he was wearing. His head light was mounted very high so there was a huge separation between that and the one on his bars, and the geography there (he was bottoming out on a hill) could have easily had me thinking it was two bikes some distance apart. However, the point for the purposes of this thread is that I could easily see the reflectives on his hi-viz jacket, even though he had two fairly powerful lights and they made it much easier to gauge his distance and speed than the lights alone.

The second cyclist, with just a single fairly powerful front light, could have been a mile or a hundred yards away without the reflectives. His light was so bright that it was difficult to look at it but, because I could see the H-pattern above the light, it was very easy to identify it as a cyclist and to judge his distance

The third cyclist just had the single front mounted light.

Wearing hi-viz and reflectives is a long way from pointless, even with decent lights. Maybe, from my experience with the second one, I'd even say that bright lights make decent reflectives even more important at night.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I often find having bright lights seem to suck in the light around them, often making people using them harder to see than easier.

Thoughts?

There's a perfectly good reason for that, mate! See here: https://www.msu.edu/...hysics/dark.htm.

Oh, by the way, Happy New Year and all the best for 2011, everyone, as this is my first CycleChat post for the year. Hope the English Winter's not treating you too badly.

Regards,

--- Victor.

 

[Jezston]

There's a perfectly good reason for that, mate! See here: https://www.msu.edu/...hysics/dark.htm.

Now, I'm no expert in physics but I'm not entirely convinced by that article!

 

[summerdays]

I've just cycled home from doing the school drop off looking like an angry bee... either I didn't switch off my son's light before putting it in my pocket or it switched itself back on... I walked with a friend for a bit and chatted to some policemen (who were going to tow the car I had seen on my way in blocking a road but someone else had obviously reported it already), and nobody commented on my rear view!!

I only noticed when I hung up my coat! I decided it probably would make motorists notice me....

 

[gaz]

Let's not forget that the point of this was to shine a light at your own Hiviz to make it more visible. And not how visible it is from peoples experience. We all cycle in different places with different lighting etc which will affect the performance of Hiviz.

 

[Jezston]

Let's not forget that the point of this was to shine a light at your own Hiviz to make it more visible. And not how visible it is from peoples experience. We all cycle in different places with different lighting etc which will affect the performance of Hiviz.

Actually it was about shining a light on yourself so other road users can see you are a human being on a bicycle rather than a UFO.

 

[BSRU]

Actually it was about shining a light on yourself so other road users can see you are a human being on a bicycle rather than a UFO.

I think car drivers are less likely to pull out in front of a UFO than a bicycle, for fear of being anally probed.

 

[gaz]

Actually it was about shining a light on yourself so other road users can see you are a human being on a bicycle rather than a UFO.

I was close enough
Is it working?