New B&M Lights with Wide Beam and Daytime Mode Available

On 11/14/2013 1:00 PM, Andre Jute wrote:
On Thursday, November 14, 2013 4:55:28 PM UTC, Clive George wrote:

Anecdote from Tuesday evening. Driving along an unlit A-road at night. I

saw the cyclist with a normal headlight. 30 or so seconds later I saw a

brief flash out of the corner of my eye, and realised that was a cyclist

I'd not seen at all coming the other way. His flasher was hidden in the

noise of the cars coming towards me.

It depends on the strength of the flasher. I was out walking last night and on a busy road where with good lamps I don't go in the rush hour I saw a guy on his bike with a front flasher I didn't notice until he was almost past me. As you say, lost in the noise.

On the other hand, coming around the corner of a building at the hospital in broad if overcast daylight, the first thing I saw was a front flasher a hundred paces and then some away. I stood stock still watching it, and a driver would have to be blind, deaf and stupid to miss it. I don't know what it was. The girl's rear flasher was the one I recommend for those who insist on battery lamps, the Cateye LD-TL1100; you can do much better these days by getting a hub dynamo and BUMM's Line Plus and leaving it on 24/7 (it lacks a blink mode but is bright enough to make up for it).



A colleague was going home last week during some nasty weather. He had
his front flasher on because he was on a fairly well lit road and was
more worried about the traffic seeing him than him seeing the road.

He said he turned on to a bike path and a few minutes later he hit a guy
who was walking his dog on the bike path. Dressed in black with a black
dog. My friend said that at one flash it was clear and the next he hit
the guy. Here, the pedestrians are supposed to go against the traffic
and usually do but this guy wasn't. I guess neither expected the other
out in that weather.

Anyway, my point was supposed to be that though flashing headlights may
be useful in the daylight, I don't think they're much good in the dark.

On 14/11/2013 18:00, Andre Jute wrote:
On Thursday, November 14, 2013 4:55:28 PM UTC, Clive George wrote:

Anecdote from Tuesday evening. Driving along an unlit A-road at night. I

saw the cyclist with a normal headlight. 30 or so seconds later I saw a

brief flash out of the corner of my eye, and realised that was a cyclist

I'd not seen at all coming the other way. His flasher was hidden in the

noise of the cars coming towards me.

It depends on the strength of the flasher. I was out walking last night and on a busy road where with good lamps I don't go in the rush hour I saw a guy on his bike with a front flasher I didn't notice until he was almost past me. As you say, lost in the noise.

The flash I did catch out of the corner of my eye was pretty bright.

At the moment the thing which mostly makes things stand out as bikes is
an LED front lamp. The colour and position are distinctly different to cars.

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 10:33:21 AM UTC-5, Jay Beattie wrote:

A flasher can be useful this time of year when my commute is in dreary conditions, and a solid beam can be lost in the light noise. I switch to flasher mode in a few places along my commute route. I would like that option on a dyno light, although it is not critical.

You can get that functionality by clamping a kid's toy pinwheel a couple of inches above and in front of the headlight.

Doesn't Scharf have instructions about that on his website somewhere? It goes well with flippy flags! ;-)

- Frank Krygowski

On 11/14/2013 10:00 AM, Andre Jute wrote:
On Thursday, November 14, 2013 4:55:28 PM UTC, Clive George wrote:

Anecdote from Tuesday evening. Driving along an unlit A-road at night. I

saw the cyclist with a normal headlight. 30 or so seconds later I saw a

brief flash out of the corner of my eye, and realised that was a cyclist

I'd not seen at all coming the other way. His flasher was hidden in the

noise of the cars coming towards me.

It depends on the strength of the flasher. I was out walking last night and on a busy road where with good lamps I don't go in the rush hour I saw a guy on his bike with a front flasher I didn't notice until he was almost past me. As you say, lost in the noise.

On the other hand, coming around the corner of a building at the hospital in broad if overcast daylight, the first thing I saw was a front flasher a hundred paces and then some away. I stood stock still watching it, and a driver would have to be blind, deaf and stupid to miss it. I don't know what it was. The girl's rear flasher was the one I recommend for those who insist on battery lamps, the Cateye LD-TL1100; you can do much better these days by getting a hub dynamo and BUMM's Line Plus and leaving it on 24/7 (it lacks a blink mode but is bright enough to make up for it).

Flashing lights are more conspicuous than solid lights, but I can't
imagine using one at night, at least not as the only light.

Now I see a lot of cyclists with both a solid and a flashing light at
night and I guess that's okay if you're willing to deal with multiple
front lights.

A flashing light is what you want for daytime use as a daytime running
light. It's very similar to what motorcycles do with modulated front
lights in the daytime.

What you want to avoid at all costs is riding in the daytime without a
flashing light in the front.

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 5:04:52 PM UTC-5, sms wrote:
On 11/14/2013 10:00 AM, Andre Jute wrote:

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 4:55:28 PM UTC, Clive George wrote:



Anecdote from Tuesday evening. Driving along an unlit A-road at night. I



saw the cyclist with a normal headlight. 30 or so seconds later I saw a



brief flash out of the corner of my eye, and realised that was a cyclist



I'd not seen at all coming the other way. His flasher was hidden in the



noise of the cars coming towards me.



It depends on the strength of the flasher. I was out walking last night and on a busy road where with good lamps I don't go in the rush hour I saw a guy on his bike with a front flasher I didn't notice until he was almost past me. As you say, lost in the noise.



On the other hand, coming around the corner of a building at the hospital in broad if overcast daylight, the first thing I saw was a front flasher a hundred paces and then some away. I stood stock still watching it, and a driver would have to be blind, deaf and stupid to miss it. I don't know what it was. The girl's rear flasher was the one I recommend for those who insist on battery lamps, the Cateye LD-TL1100; you can do much better these days by getting a hub dynamo and BUMM's Line Plus and leaving it on 24/7 (it lacks a blink mode but is bright enough to make up for it).



Flashing lights are more conspicuous than solid lights, but I can't

imagine using one at night, at least not as the only light.



Now I see a lot of cyclists with both a solid and a flashing light at

night and I guess that's okay if you're willing to deal with multiple

front lights.



A flashing light is what you want for daytime use as a daytime running

light. It's very similar to what motorcycles do with modulated front

lights in the daytime.



What you want to avoid at all costs is riding in the daytime without a

flashing light in the front.

You and your unneeded fashing daylight lights. There are MILLIONS of bicyclists, riding in various countries, who never need a daylight flashing light.. Once agai, the flashing mode on most bicycle lights is there *TO CONSERVE BATTERY POWER*.

Cheers

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 12:08:06 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Thursday, November 14, 2013 10:33:21 AM UTC-5, Jay Beattie wrote:

A flasher can be useful this time of year when my commute is in dreary conditions, and a solid beam can be lost in the light noise. I switch to flasher mode in a few places along my commute route.


Same here (back later on versatility).

I would like that option on a dyno light, although it is not critical.

You can get that functionality by clamping a kid's toy pinwheel a couple of inches above and in front of the headlight.


But does not extend battery life, is non-aerodynamic, may jam and
obstruct the light altogether, and... smarmarific!

snip

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 8:55:28 AM UTC-8, Clive George wrote:
On 14/11/2013 15:44, sms wrote:

On 11/14/2013 7:33 AM, Jay Beattie wrote:



A flasher can be useful this time of year when my commute is in dreary

conditions, and a solid beam can be lost in the light noise. I switch

to flasher mode in a few places along my commute route. I would like

that option on a dyno light, although it is not critical.



I also like a lot of light when riding in the rain at night, so the

Super Nova makes sense. OTOH, I don't think a truly symmetrical beam

is very efficient. I've never used a light with a hard cut-off, so I

don't know whether I would miss the spew of my current light (which

has some, minor beam shaping). I do know that the spew is handy for

the climbing and descending portions of my hilly route home, but I

waste a lot of lumens lighting the tree boughs and sidewalks when

riding home on my flatter routes. Someone should design a light with

variable beam patterns.



I rarely see any adult commuters without a daytime flasher anymore (OTOH

I see a lot of school-age kids riding with no lights at all, day or night).



It would be incredibly clueless to not use a flasher if your lights have

that functionality, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a battery powered

light without a flash mode.



While I almost never see anyone with dynamo powered lights, for those

that do choose that option they can either use a Planet Bike Blaze

Dynamo in the daytime (to get the flash mode) and switch to a Supernova

E3 Triple at night (to get sufficient illumination and an optimal beam

shape) or simply add a separate battery powered light for flash mode in

the daytime.



The thing about a powerful daytime flasher is that it helps prevent

drivers from doing stupid things. Not always of course, but enough to

make using one a very intelligent thing to do.



Anecdote from Tuesday evening. Driving along an unlit A-road at night. I

saw the cyclist with a normal headlight. 30 or so seconds later I saw a

brief flash out of the corner of my eye, and realised that was a cyclist

I'd not seen at all coming the other way. His flasher was hidden in the

noise of the cars coming towards me.

My flasher would throw you in to a grand mal seizure. It is visible from outer space. If I ran it all the time, I'd have to carry Dilantin to treat my victims.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 07:05:55 -0500, Nate Nagel
wrote:

On 11/13/2013 07:34 PM, sms wrote:
On 11/13/2013 3:34 PM, Andre Jute wrote:

Whether these new lamps are desirable -- speaking now to cyclists who
aren't BUMMbuddies (who always have to have the latest BUMM lamps, and
think they're the greatest because they're the latest) -- depends on
whether BUMM have fixed the problems of the wretched recent series of
Cyo, most notably the gross hotspot.

Companies are finally learning to design optics specifically for LEDs
rather than trying to re-use the optics that they used for decades on
incandescent lamps. They also seem to now realize that they have
sufficient light that they don't have to focus all the available light
onto a small patch of road directly in front of the bicycle.

The last few lights I've purchased have had almost no hotspot. You can
see a slight hotspot if you look really closely but you'd have to be
actually looking for it. All of these have had spot to zoom optics.

The next goal of B&M should be to offer a version of their product with
optics and features that are highly desirable but that are not allowed
to be sold in Germany. Either they can follow what Supernova did and
state that the lights are not for on-road use, or they can do a version
for the rest-of-world with symmetrical optics and a flash mode. It would
greatly expand their TAM.

Why the **** would they take a perfectly good light and give it a
****tier beam pattern and a useless flash mode? Do you have any idea
what makes a good headlight, Mr. Self-Proclaimed Expert, or do you just
talk talk talk and never listen?

It is likely that the Light People are reacting to popular demand.

Some bloke writes in a blog how useful the flash is and the Light Boss
reads it. Monday he calls the Engineering Guy and says, "George,
everybody is raving about flashing lights. Can we make out light
flash", and George thinks a bit and says,"Yup, we'll have to add a
little solid state thingee - they'll cost about a half a cents each
but we can do it."

The Boss calls the Sales Guy and says "Roger, if we had a flashing
light would it sell better?" and Roger thinks a bit and says, "We
could call the New Improved Version and raise the price $5.00."

The Boss makes a management decision that XYZ Bicycle Lights will
shortly be marketing a new, improved, bicycle light that is vastly
superior to older versions.

A news conference is scheduled to introduce the NEW Z-Lite! The best
thing to happen to bicycle lights since the invention of the candle.

And Swarf tells us about it.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:08:06 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 10:33:21 AM UTC-5, Jay Beattie wrote:

A flasher can be useful this time of year when my commute is in dreary conditions, and a solid beam can be lost in the light noise. I switch to flasher mode in a few places along my commute route. I would like that option on a dyno light, although it is not critical.

You can get that functionality by clamping a kid's toy pinwheel a couple of inches above and in front of the headlight.

Doesn't Scharf have instructions about that on his website somewhere? It goes well with flippy flags! ;-)

- Frank Krygowski

And if you clip a playing card to the front fork so the spokes hit it
you won't need a bell to let people know you are coming up behind
them.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 11:08:04 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:08:06 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski wrote:

On Thursday, November 14, 2013 10:33:21 AM UTC-5, Jay Beattie wrote:

A flasher can be useful this time of year when my commute is in dreary conditions, and a solid beam can be lost in the light noise. I switch to flasher mode in a few places along my commute route. I would like that option on a dyno light, although it is not critical.

You can get that functionality by clamping a kid's toy pinwheel a couple of inches above and in front of the headlight.

Doesn't Scharf have instructions about that on his website somewhere? It goes well with flippy flags! ;-)

And if you clip a playing card to the front fork so the spokes hit it
you won't need a bell to let people know you are coming up behind
them.

Next will come the bumper stickers: Loud Spokes Save Lives!

- Frank Krygowski