To share or not to share?

[gavroche]

I saw two cyclists tonight, in the dark, the leading one having a front light but no back light and the one following having no front light but a back light. So long as they stay in tandem, I suppose they can be seen as one but what happens if they get separated?
The other point is that they can only cycle together in the dark . I much prefer having front and back lights and cycle on my own.

 

[DCLane]

Possible one was caught short and the other leant them a light so they could both be seen

I've done that a couple of times on a long ride where I've been the front / rear light.

 

[Smokin Joe]

In the days when bike lights were astonishingly unreliable many an evening training ride ended up with the only rider who still had a functioning rear light having to sit on the back.

For some reason front lights were much better in that respect.

 

[biggs682]

Crazy the amount of bike riders you see who don't even have lights fitted

 

[Profpointy]

I remember student caving trips where 6 of us would emerge from the cave with two working lights between us. My light worked as it was my own which I looked after, but the communal club lights were a lucky dip. When I took over as "lights" man over six months I nursed many of the lights back into use, dumped the zombie lights and we went from maybe 2 dozen dodgy lights to 15 that actually worked. Over the next year they all went downhill again after I got increasingly bored with the job particularly after being presented with a crate of mud encrusted lights to recharge from a trip I hadn't even been on. Hey, I have my own reliable lights, I'd doing this for you lot so got fed up with being taken advantage of

We're spoilt these days, both for caving and cycling in that lights simply work. The old caving lights (miners lamps) had belt mounted recharcheable batteries which weight 6lbs - our current lights' batteries fit on the back of our helmets and weigh maybe 50g and the light lasts for days on low power mode.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Better than nowt.... I expect it was an emergency "get you home". It would be a pretty bizarre and convoluted longer term arrangement to have come to, that's for sure.

 

[derrick]

I saw two cyclists tonight, in the dark, the leading one having a front light but no back light and the one following having no front light but a back light. So long as they stay in tandem, I suppose they can be seen as one but what happens if they get separated?
The other point is that they can only cycle together in the dark . I much prefer having front and back lights and cycle on my own.

Been there done that, works well.

 

[Slick]

I have also done it a couple of times with the latest when I went out with my brother with a fully charged set of lights for a day ride that just took us longer than anticipated to complete, and we split my set for safety. 👍

 

[steveindenmark]

I always carry 3 rear lights and 2 front lights.

I also carry spare lights in the car. I have given a few rear lights out to cyclists and dog walkers. Fortunately, they have all been returned.

I think its important to have 2 on the back. Its easy for one to go without realising it.

 

[Profpointy]

Been there done that, works well.

yup, me too

 

[slowmotion]

I did it on Christmas Eve when the three people in our tribe went out for a jolly. There were four working lights in the group, two of them mine.

 

[annedonnelly]

I much prefer having front and back lights and cycle on my own.

I prefer having two of each in case of battery failures.

 

[Johnno260]

Least they had lights, I almost hit a cyclist just before Christmas, no lights or reflectors, dressed in black on a black bike, on the wrong side of the road, and it was dark.

To say I ripped him a new one when I stopped was an understatement, he called me a typical motorist, so I pointed to the British Cycling sticker on my windscreen.

The guy scared the life out of me as I didn’t see him until the last second.

 

[Drago]

With modern lights being so amazingly cheap, effective and reliable, there is simply no excuse for not having them fitted and working at night. Why riders think their their lives are not worth as much as a tenner is beyond me.

Sadly, in terms of being caught and punished its a safe bet they'll get awsy with it. Without genuinely and highly likely consequences there is little incentive for the eejuts to change such behaviour.

 

[HLaB]

Perhaps the rider in front was a stronger rider with a super bright back light and the bloke behind asked him to switch it off whilst he was towed.