Active side Lighting

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masterrer

Member
Hello fellow cyclists

It's nice and original idea, and I though I would share it with you:
Active Side Lighting for bikes, which make you visible from any distance in twilight, bad weather or nigh time conditions.

There is this startup on IndieGoGo that has more details:
http://www.indiegogo.com/LightWheel?a=618885

20120612042944-Pallete.jpg
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
I think it's supposed to be yellow or orange at the side.

It would have to offer a big advantage over passive retro reflectives to interest me. These are my bikes a couple of years back. Since this picture they have had crank and fork reflectors (3M tape) added.
bike reflections.JPG


That's the reflection from the 35w flourescent light in my garage, taken standing in the garage doorway with the bikes at about 15m distance.
 
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OP
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masterrer

Member
The key word here is Active
Reflectors are passive, they reflect light
this solution emits light without any need of external light, so if you are approaching a junction, you will be visible much sooner.

Reflectors or reflective tape you will only be seen when lit by headlights

Regarding color, light-green'ish is a natural color of photoluminescent material used as a light source here

There is no law that permits use of green side lights as far as I know

What camera did you use to take the photo?
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
The key word here is Active
Reflectors are passive, they reflect light
this solution emits light without any need of external light, so if you are approaching a junction, you will be visible much sooner.

Reflectors or reflective tape you will only be seen when lit by headlights

Regarding color, light-green'ish is a natural color of photoluminescent material used as a light source here

There is no law that permits use of green side lights as far as I know

What camera did you use to take the photo?

Headlights or as my photo shows, any other light incident from the same direction as that from which the driver is looking - street lights, shop lights or any other source of ambient light, from that direction.

I'm well aware of the difference between active and passive, and retroreflective means that light is reflected at 180 degrees to its incidence. To make the active option wothwhile it has to be more effective than the retroreflectives already available. Your picture suggests that your active solution has a very long way to go to catch up with 3M's efforts.

The camera was a Fuji A300, flash off, auto exposure as far as I remember..

I ride a good deal after dark, and my main area of concern isn't junctions. My front lighting makes me highly visible from well before and right up to any junction. My concern from the side is unlit roads, where I'm concerned with being seen at angles across the gaps around bends. The spoke and other reflectors I have fitted are targetted at that.

Bluntly, I have far less problems with being seen after dark than I do in daylight, and would be far more likely to spend money on a device for increasing daytime visibility than I would after dark, where I don't think I can usefully improve on what I have.

Ultimately the issue with visibility, day or night, has nothing to with the available technology or techniques and everything to do with drivers who don't pay attention to where they're going and don't look. What we need is some means of waking up the 1% of drivers who don't pay attention! No light, front, rear, side, up or down is of any value if the driver of the car coming the other way, behind you, at the junction, is looking at the screen on his iphone, looking at the passenger while chatting, is asleep, etc. or just doesn't notice the gorilla walking across the room.

An RPG plus launcher might be the answer.
 

MrJamie

Oaf on a Bike
I use 3m spoke reflectors and 4 spokelit active lights, 1 red 1 yellow on each wheel. its very eyecatching because you can see them moving rather than the static light from the indiglo lights. ill have to post up a video sometime :smile:
 

gaz

Cycle Camera TV
Location
South Croydon
3m spoke reflectives, 1 red fibre flare on each seat stay and 1x orange fibre flare on the down tube. Side visibility for the win.
6232332156_cbb656fa63_b.jpg
 

Recycler

Well-Known Member
Regarding color, light-green'ish is a natural color of photoluminescent material used as a light source here

Sorry, but if those lights use photoluminescent materials they are unlikely to be very bright at all. They also need to be exposed to fairly strong light which is "absorbed" . The absorbed light, in effect, is emitted to make them "active" but it fades away relatively quickly. On a dark road they will glow a bit (but only for a limited time) and, on a well lit urban road, they will be all but ineffective as they just won't be bright enough.

I used to work with photoluminsecent materials. I wouldn't expect them to be much use on a bike. Sorry.

Having said that the link in the OP talks about LED's and batteries, so I'm not sure where the "photoluminsecent materials" come into it? It's very confusing.
 

MrJamie

Oaf on a Bike
Having said that the link in the OP talks about LED's and batteries, so I'm not sure where the "photoluminsecent materials" come into it? It's very confusing.
I think theres a little light in the forks that keeps the glowy bit glowing by shining a light on it as it goes past.
 

Recycler

Well-Known Member
I think theres a little light in the forks that keeps the glowy bit glowing by shining a light on it as it goes past.

Even having a LED on the forks is unlikely to make it bright enough to be much use.
The pictures in the OP and the subsequent ones showing the use of reflectors tell the story much better than I can. :smile:
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
If you really want effective active side lighting why not just make a seat stay mounting light like the bright (Smart, Blackburn etc) back ones but with an orange 120 degree high brightness LED in it instead of a red one?
 
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