Radey Shouman wrote:
Frank Krygowski writes:
On 12/8/2017 5:21 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
Tim McNamara writes:
On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 23:22:35 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/6/2017 9:44 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
I mentioned upthread using my B&M halogen headlight on dusk-to-dawn
brevets and PBP. I saw quite well with that light, but most of those
rides were far out on rural roads with very little ambient light or
light pollution. In town that light is washed out on the road by
street lights, car headlights, etc. Technically the road is just as
brightly illuminated by the lamp as in the country, but the greater
ambient light in town impairs night vision by comparison to a very
dark countryside. Thus the light seems less effective. And since
we're seeing with our eyeballs and not spot meters, it is less
effective in town.

I get good benefit out of a cycling cap with a brim, including at
night. Similarly, I use the visors in my car a lot, including at dusk.
It really helps my night vision to shade my eyes from street lights,
the brighter night sky due to the last bits of sunlight or light
pollution. And of course, if some idiot refuses to dim his high beams,
these things are godsends.

You also need the right glasses!
https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/benicio-del-toro-and-johnny-depp-movie-zoom-7e05789c-1793-4717-9b60-e2f4b67a6094.jpg

I have never thought of doing that and will try it out.

Because you generally want to shield from a flattish \ line of approaching
lights, but not shield your view to the sides, the flatter brims work
better. Just like the curved cutoff in the awful OculuStvzo engineering
sample doesn't work...

(About idiots: Yesterday I was in my car, stopped at a red light at
about 9 AM. The pickup truck lawn service guy facing me had his bright
headlights on, glaring in my eyes. I blinked my headlights once, then
once again, trying to get him to dim his lights. His response? He
turned on the off-road light bar on the roof of his cab. There's no
shortage of idiots.)

That's not idiocy, that's aggression. Well, the two are often closely
related so maybe it was idiocy...

Maybe. Or maybe the guy actually had his lights on low beam, but, since
the headlights were right at Frank's eye level they seemed too bright.
This often happens to me when a large pickup pulls up behind, especially
if he's using lights mounted on a snow plow. It's annoying, but also
not clear how it could be fixed.

black-tinted rear window; auto-dimming mirrors; manure-spreading trailer.

The normal thing to do when someone flashes their brights at you,
supposing you're not on high beam, is to flash back -- I suspect the
pickup had the off-road light relay wired to the high beam. Which might
or might not be legal with an additional switch to disable them, but
it's pretty convenient if you actually use the off-road lights.

Neither idiocy nor malice was strictly required.

It was a very large pickup (sorry, don't remember the make) towing a
trailer of lawn mowing equipment. It had four headlights, with the two
lights on each side stacked top to bottom. All four were on. And IIRC,
when he turned on the light bar, the others did not change.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it might be hard to tell the difference
between high and low beam when the KC daylighters light up.

Had he seen the KC daylighters against the glare, he could have reconsidered
before "escalating" the laserfight with merely two inadequate,
generator-driven high beams.