antisocial light!

[Bollo]

I don't think anyone's being an @rse - gav's post was a reference to my shoddy reading of the OP (because black holes are f***** ace).

Like anything else, if you've got the ability to upset other road users then you should use it responsibly. Just because my car has a full beam setting, I don't drive around with it on all the time. Similarly, I've got a flip-off bike light, but I only use the settings that are appropriate to the conditions. If there's an approaching car or pedestrian, I'll always dip my lights (by nudging the light downwards or lowering the setting - usually both). The only time I'll deploy full and righteous lumens with an approaching car is if they fail to dip their full beam, just as I would while driving. They usually get the message, and when they do I'll dip mine so we can both see where we're going.

 

[RedBike]

Not wishing to be rude but the Vega 200 isn't 'mega' bright.

If you've got it pointed at a sensible angle so that it lights up the path 10/20m infront of the bike then I would just ignore anyone making funny comments. They'll have you becoming a bike ninga!

 

[semislickstick]

Not wishing to be rude but the Vega 200 isn't 'mega' bright.

If you've got it pointed at a sensible angle so that it lights up the path 10/20m infront of the bike then I would just ignore anyone making funny comments. They'll have you becoming a bike ninga!

But it sounds like its not at the right angle and the OP want to buy brighter ones to really pi$$ people off.
Also you have to remember you pass people who are a lot closer to you and your light on a path then the opposite side of the road going the other way.
If they were whinging about a halogen old stylie light you could probably get away with just thinking they were being drama queens. But if several people are making comments chances are you are doing something wrong with your lights. Isn't that just common sense?

 

[Norm]

Isn't that just common sense?

The least common of all the senses.

From the lights I've seen, if the light is blinding people coming the other way, aside from any anti-social issues, they might not be doing much to light your own path. That might be why the 8kphil feels it necessary to fit something brighter.

 

[Christopher]

this is interesting as I live in Preston and am often blinded by some twit with a too-bright cycle light on an unlit path (the old tramway). Although last time he did dip it as I came past.

I commute out from Preston to Bamber Bridge. There are 2-3 cyclists with very bright lights that go the other way.

TBH the main problem on the unlit path after dark are runners going 2-3 abreast, often in black clothes and with no lights between them.

I do think tho' if you are dazzling oncoming cyclists and peds then you will probably blind car drivers as thier POV is lower.

 

[8kphil]

thats the path i ride on! i ride from bamber bridge to preston,is my light honestly that bright? i have it angled to see the road about 15 metres in front,although the bracket does tend to move about quite a bit on that bumpy path.

 

[johnnyb]

I have a very bright P7 lamp (rated at 900 lumens - but I'm not sure that it's quite that bright) which I mount on my helmet (as well as a flashing cateye on the bars). I'd like to think I wasn't an anti-social cyclist and I do generally 'dip my head' when faced with oncoming traffic, but like earlier folk, there are one or two motorists who fail to dip their lights when a 'mere' cyclist is heading towards them. I like to nod my head a few times and maybe have a look at my nemesis, it generally does the trick. I have also found that the night-runners, who cover a similar route to me, rarely equip themselves with any sort of light. I can't understand these guys as they are even more prone to a careless motorist than we are.

 

[jeltz]

I've met a cyclist on my drive home a couple of times recently who has both a very bright and correctly aligned light on the handle bars and a high power headlamp on the helmet. As cars drive towards he (or she) looks at the car, (my lights are dimmed) and the helmet lamp basically shines in the drivers eyes. Antisocial and dangerous, if a ped stood shining a high power torch in that riders face I suspect he would be quite rightly pi$$ed off.

 

[Trumpettom001]

I got three bike lights off ebay, for a pound-a-piece + 5 shipping.... 53 LEDs per light, They really illuminate the path, although I imagine they're not to nice to have shined in your eyes..

 

[XmisterIS]

ive got a light an motion vega 200 front light,as part of my commute i ride about 3 miles through an unlit park down a long cycle path,i keep getting various comments/remarks,"your lights too bright!,"i cant see anything","turn your light off",to name just a few,anybody else have these issues? im tempted to buy a brighter light! 1200 lumens! see what they say then! muhhahahahah

You'll probably get mistaken for a UFO when it's foggy

 

[Christopher]

thats the path i ride on! i ride from bamber bridge to preston,is my light honestly that bright? i have it angled to see the road about 15 metres in front,although the bracket does tend to move about quite a bit on that bumpy path.

No, not really. It is my usual sense of humour failure! Happy commuting - and watch out for broken glass, it is bad this week.
Actually if you see someone in bike gear sweeping the path or clipping vegetation, it will probably be me . Stop & say hi.

 

[8kphil]

what bike r u on? i'll look out for you

 

[ieperlee]

Being 'blinded' by a bikelight is in many cases a question of psychology or anticipation.

One example of personal experience: As the IQ Fly light was new on market, two runners shouted at me, from about 50 m distance, my light would blind them.

But: This light has a beam shaped according to German traffic regulations, and the light/beam was correctly pointed, and - it was bright daylight.

These runners had never seen before a bikelight that was really visible at daylight, therefore they thought it would blind them.

Try this:

Mount a bikelight directly besides a cars light. Run the cars light on low beam.

Even if you direct the beam of the bikelight directly into the face of a person 50 m in front of the car, the person will, in many cases, not be blinded by the bikelight.

Switch the cars light off, -> the person seems to 'blinded' by the bikelight.

NB: The advice, to point the bikelight the lower isn't allways helpful, it's necessary to have enough light pointing up for lighting trafficsigns.

 

[Browser]

From my limited experience of bright bike lights, all of the retina-searingly powerful ones (I have a 540L Niteflux Enduro 8 single) are not refraction-lensed in any way. In other words, the light source stares out at the world through a cover of plain glass/plastic, to stop it getting damaged, and nothing else. Dipped beam car headlamps, however bright they seem, are lensed to cut the light off at a certain point on the road and bias it to the kerbside, so the oncoming driver isn't dazzled. Just try looking into hedlights when the oncoming car is cresting a rise and you are slightly below them to their right!!
You'll probably find that the bright front lights were nver intended to be used on the road, what I can't understand is why none of the manufacturers make an appropriately-lensed front light for road use?

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

I've been dazzled by cyclists on a shared path when I've been out running and it really isn't comfortable. One time I ended up in brambles when trying to stop and move out of the way. The dazzling has been so bad that you can't tell which side of the path the cyclist is on, or if she/he is in the middle. You can't see the path edges. You can't see obstructions. On each occasion I have been forced to stop.

The cyclist (and it is possibly the same one each time) has never apologised. I'm sure that if I ran in an antisocial manner, forcing each cyclist to come to a halt, I'd be given dog's abuse. Antisocial use of bright lights really isn't clever.