On 2017-07-07 07:49, wrote:
On Friday, July 7, 2017 at 7:25:53 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-06 19:34, wrote:
On Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 1:02:53 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-06 12:40, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/6/2017 3:14 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-06 12:05, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/6/2017 10:54 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-05 17:49, John B. wrote:

Yet people have been riding long distances on
bicycles for years and years. The first Paris - Brest
- Paris randonnée was held in 1891. An essentially
non-stop bicycle ride of 1,200 km. The British, of
course, do it better with the 1433 km London
Edinburgh London 2017 and the 'mericans have the
Boston-Montreal-Boston, again a 1,200 km ride but no
longer an official randonnée and now strictly a
permanent that anyone could ride on their own in a
self-supported manner while still receiving
recognition (validation) from Randonneurs USA.

Think of it, 126 years of successful long distance
bicycle riding without Joerg built lights.


It's simple. Most humans have a habit of accepting
current state-of-the-art as "that's as good as it
gets". I don't, and I derive most of my income from not
thinking that way. And yes, I already had bicycles with
real electrical systems when I was a teenager.

The detail you're missing is that people have always
ridden _successfully_ without the systems you deem
necessary.


As I said, people got used to that this is all they are
going to get. Just like people get used to walking in worn
shoes if they can't afford new ones.


There are always people who are into overkill. Some of
those will claim or pretend that their favorite overkill
item is actually a necessity. But that's disproven by
every person who does well without the overkill item.


A vehicle where the light does not go out or dim way down
is IMO not overkill. The lighting "system" bicyles have
would never pass muster at type certification for motor
vehicles. There are good reasons why not.


For just one example: I'm just back from another club
ride. About 15 people were on the ride. Two of them had
the newly fashionable daytime rear blinkies. This
particular ride has occurred once per week every week
except in winter for, oh, perhaps ten years. Nobody has
ever been hit by a car, despite the thousands of
person-miles ridden (GASP!) without blinkies.


I have never been hit from behind either but the number of
close calls has noticeably decreased since I have bright
rear lights. Mission accomplished. The best is, this was
never very expensive to accomplish.

Now you can stick the head in the sand again and pretend
it ain't so :-)

We've been over this multiple times, but:

If your number of close calls for hits-from-behind has gone
way down, it must have been pretty high to begin with. By
contrast, I almost never experience such a close call;
therefore I'd never be able to see a big reduction.

Why don't those close calls happen to me? Because those
close calls are almost always due in part to rider error -
specifically, inviting close passes by riding too far to the
right.


Yeah, right. The woman who rode in the lane on Blue Ravine
died because of that. The other woman in the pickup truck who
was drunk tried to evade but the lane was now too narrow and
*BAM*

Well, Frank is right. Bicycles offer a far smaller target and if
you wear bright clothing so that you don't catch drivers unaware
you're pretty safe.


AFAIR she had a bright jersey on.


Unless you ride in an area and at times drunk drivers are on the
road.


Not just those, also texting ones and more recently stoned
drivers.

I found that lights are far better than any neon-colored jersey.
Someone with 1/2 watt LEDs that do a police cruiser spiel like mine
can be seen from half a mile away and gets the attention. End of
this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI3iZ-Ch7pY

The lights on the GoPro camera are similar to that. And looking at
the video you can plainly see that the lights make no difference
whatsoever.


Where do you see that? This sort of police cruiser pattern is really
visible. Easily 1/2 mile. I never ride without, on roads it is always on
no matter what time of the day.


... Many of the members of the group I would ride with if I
was feeling OK have those cameras and we get their postings often
enough and in every case you can see that that they consider "close
passes" are done on purpose.


Some are but most in my case were inattentiveness. "Oh, very sorry,
dude. I totally forgot I had that wide trailer behind me. My apologies".
Or the guy with the truck that had windows haulimng racks on the side.
And so on.

Others give wide room and then realize they grossly misjudged the speed
or distance of oncoming traffic. Then they have the choice between a
nasty head-on crash or pushing close to me.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/