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Old February 12th 18, 06:38 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
JBeattie
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Posts: 5,870
Default Battery Replacement on Lights with Internal Li-Ion Batteries

On Monday, February 12, 2018 at 7:56:20 AM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 2/12/2018 7:20 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, February 12, 2018 at 5:25:55 AM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 2/12/2018 5:00 AM, Sepp Ruf wrote:

No, Joerg is claiming that ordinary StVZO tail lights that are visible from
500 meters in Europe are not good enough for his and fellow Californians'
impaired sense of vision, and why he feels tail lights that feature 5000 ft+
visibility are preferable. And he is trying to confuse what can actually be
powered by dynamo with what he "remembers" seeing, back then, on inspecified
cycles in traffic.

The StVZO lights are woefully inadequate. Don't forget that you need one
that is visible in the daytime as well. You don't need a 1500 lumen tail
light, but many are ridiculously weak, 10 lumens, or even less.


I don't know if I've seen a StVZO tail light, but I've see a lot that are invisible either by design or because of dying batteries and a lot that are too bright to ride behind at night. Most fall somewhere in between and are plentiful -- from PDW, Lesyne, L&M, etc. The chronically nervous sometimes have two or three tail lights, which is kind of humorous -- unless they're blinding. Again, in sunshine, I always see the jersey first. I ride up behind someone and notice the tail light when I'm five feet away. It's like a fashion accessory.


"Seeing the jersey first" is great if you're riding with recreational
riders all wearing yellow or orange fluorescent jerseys. For
transportational cycling, which there's a lot of in my area, the riders
aren't typically wearing highly visible clothes like that.


That's fine, and around here, people don't worry. I'm saying if you worry about being seen, be visible. Lights aren't as good as high-viz clothing in daytime. Typical PDX garb: http://deepgreenmovie.com/wp-content...PDX-Bikers.jpg Who is most visible? Note absence of DRLs.


The key to getting more people out on bicycles is to promote equipment
that allows them to ride to work or school in normal clothes, and
provide routes that make the ride practical.

If you've been to Palo Alto, the cross-town bicycle boulevard is
probably about the most usable infrastructure I've seen, and there is no
bicycle lane. It continues through Mountain View. We are working on a
bicycle boulevard system for Cupertino, and in the last election, the
two winners were both in favor of this, while the other three serious
candidates had no interest in bicycle infrastructure at all.


I have been trying to get a bicycle light giveaway going, even though
most riders could afford lights they don't get them. Especially bad is
students riding to school in the early morning when it's dark.


You need lights to see when it is dark and to be seen when it is dark or overcast, assuming you're not wearing bright clothes. A light is useless on sunny days, except in rare instances with hard dappled light caused by tree canopy or similar conditions generally lacking from inner-cities where all the "transportational" cyclists ride.



-- Jay Beattie.
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