Motorists love my lights

I've been hooked up to a sled dog race in Alaska and not getting much
sleep, thus going out on my bike late and returning with dusk already
deep, reaching home in full dark. My bike is fitted to the front with
a Cyo R and a three AAA cell three led flasher turned 12 degrees away
from oncoming traffic and slightly downwards. (At the back I have
another BUMM tail light, very bright, and a Cateye TL-LD1100 to flash,
the best you can buy short of a Dinotte, but this is about cars I meet
coming towards me.) When I meet a recalcitrant motorist, I sweep the
Cyo and the flasher across his car below window height once and if he
doesn't slow immediately, straight through his eyes on the return. No
one has ever been stupid after that because about this point they
realize that I mean business and start thinking about whether they can
afford a new car.

In the last week, on a narrow lane, where I meet people coming home
from work, I've noticed that when they see my lights coming, cars
either slow to a crawl or stop altogether. These are people with whom
I share the road all the time, and they're familiar with me waving
them past when it is safe when they come from behind. When they meet
me coming in daylight, they slow anyway out of courtesy. We raise a
hand in greeting. These, of course, are not the people whom I have to
flash to persuade to do the right thing.

In this past week I've had three favourable comments on the lights
from these courteous souls, including "Thanks for the lights. I saw
you a long way off."

Motorists don't want to hit bicyclists. Motorists aren't the enemy.
BAD motorists are.

Andre Jute
Check out Andre's recipes at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/FOOD.html

On 3/17/2011 4:21 PM, Andre Jute wrote:

Motorists don't want to hit bicyclists. Motorists aren't the enemy.
BAD motorists are.

Nothing wrong with your setup, I suppose but I"m one of those motorists
during my commute. Due to time and distance, my commute isn't realistic
on a bicycle so I'm on a motorcycle.

What I've found to be by far the best as far as being conspicuous is a
lot of reflective material especially those strips on the back of
clothing. The reflection combined with the motion of the leg reflectors
spell out 'bicycle' from far away.

The lights don't necessarily. Frex, I can't tell a bicycle headlight
from a light in front of a house.

Curiously, the reflective material on cheap factory pedals is also
enormously conspicuous. I think it's the up and down motion which makes
it so.

On Mar 17, 11:42*pm, slide wrote:
On 3/17/2011 4:21 PM, Andre Jute wrote:

Motorists don't want to hit bicyclists. Motorists aren't the enemy.
BAD motorists are.

The lights don't necessarily. Frex, I can't tell a bicycle headlight
from a light in front of a house.

After dark, when I see a car coming, I used to exaggerate the normal
bicycle weave a little. That's a mistake. The buggers would slow down,
decide "It's only a bicycle," and speed up again. With the Cyo and the
blinking light above it, they think, "Jesus, here are the cops on a
big motorbike," and slow down.

Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/Andre%20Jute's%20Utopia%20Kranich.pdf

Andre Jute wrote:
On Mar 17, 11:42 pm, slide wrote:
On 3/17/2011 4:21 PM, Andre Jute wrote:

Motorists don't want to hit bicyclists. Motorists aren't the enemy.
BAD motorists are.

The lights don't necessarily. Frex, I can't tell a bicycle headlight
from a light in front of a house.

After dark, when I see a car coming, I used to exaggerate the normal
bicycle weave a little. That's a mistake. The buggers would slow down,
decide "It's only a bicycle," and speed up again. With the Cyo and the
blinking light above it, they think, "Jesus, here are the cops on a
big motorbike," and slow down.

Conversely, a little emphasised weaving can make them think "Oh, he
looks really unstable, I better allow more room when I pass."

I have learned to ride without much deviation from straight, a skill
useful for riding and racing over "pick-a-plank" bridges, and I believe
this makes the motorists think it's ok to pass closer.

This has all to do with rearward visibility and passing distance. Close
passes happen day or night. What increased dramatically at night were
failures to giveway, until I started using my anti-Frank bright light.

JS.

On 3/17/2011 5:21 PM, Andre Jute wrote:
[...]
Motorists don't want to hit bicyclists.[...]

Unless the bicyclist is André Jute.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

On Mar 18, 2:38*am, James wrote:
What increased dramatically at night were
failures to giveway, until I started using my anti-Frank bright light.

JS.

Careful, James. I heard the iconic German lamp-makers Busch & Muller
have registered the trademark Anti-Frank...

On Mar 17, 6:21*pm, Andre Jute wrote:

In this past week I've had three favourable comments on the lights
from these courteous souls, including "Thanks for the lights. I saw
you a long way off."

Yes, I've had that same spontaneous comment many times now. They were
talking about my ancient rear blinkie, bog-standard generator powered
halogen headlight, and ordinary reflectors.

It doesn't take much. If you doubt the conspicuity of your bike at
night, test it with the help of friends. It's both interesting and
easy to do.

- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski wrote:
:On Mar 17, 6:21Â*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
:
: In this past week I've had three favourable comments on the lights
: from these courteous souls, including "Thanks for the lights. I saw
: you a long way off."

:Yes, I've had that same spontaneous comment many times now. They were
:talking about my ancient rear blinkie, bog-standard generator powered
:halogen headlight, and ordinary reflectors.

You clearly ride somewhere where there is no bad weather and no other
copetition for driver attention. for those who ride somewhere other
than Utopia, that's not going to cut it.

:It doesn't take much. If you doubt the conspicuity of your bike at
:night, test it with the help of friends. It's both interesting and
:easy to do.

Easy to find when you're looking for it, sure. People looking for
bikes aren't who I worry about.

--
sig 79

On Mar 18, 10:39*am, David Scheidt wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:

"... I saw you a long way off."

:Yes, I've had that same spontaneous comment many times now. *They were
:talking about my ancient rear blinkie, bog-standard generator powered
:halogen headlight, and ordinary reflectors.

You clearly ride somewhere where there is no bad weather and no other
copetition for driver attention. *for those who ride somewhere other
than Utopia, that's not going to cut it. *

As I've said, I've ridden in lots of places in the US and Europe.
Apparently Utopia is more widespread than people think!

But where is the evidence for the scary places that other people ride,
where an ordinary decent headlight is dangerous? Does someone have
data on large numbers of night cyclists killed or seriously injured
because their headlights were "merely" up to German standards?

It's not Germany, nor any other northern European country. If it
were, they'd have changed the standards long ago, because their
millions of nighttime cyclists would have demanded an end to the
carnage.

It's not Paris-Brest-Paris, as extreme as that ride is. Check out
http://www.bikequarterly.com/BQPBPEquipsurvey.pdf and it's graph on
page 6, where only 9% of responders with generator lights want
improvement, vs. 24% of battery light users.

I think it's yet another case of exaggerated fear.

Remember, there have been many times I've led nighttime rides for my
bike club. A few of those included "Night Lighting Workshops." In
those, we traded bikes, drove by bikes and let owners evaluate their
own bikes from a driver's perspective, and noted what was visible and
what was not. It was interesting and fun.

None of the participants - not even the most safety-fixated - has ever
rated a conventional headlight as insufficiently visible. Quite the
opposite. It's been clear to everybody that if a headlight adequately
shows you the pavement, it is very visible to motorists.

And I've had my family evaluate my lights several times, as I've tried
different headlights. They've always been very satisfied that my
headlight will keep their breadwinner alive.

Get a few friends together and observe your lights. I think it will
calm your fears.

- Frank Krygowski

On 3/18/2011 11:57 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

It's not Paris-Brest-Paris, as extreme as that ride is. Check out
http://www.bikequarterly.com/BQPBPEquipsurvey.pdf and it's graph on
page 6, where only 9% of responders with generator lights want
improvement, vs. 24% of battery light users.

I'm actually rather surprised by this statistic. Given the unsuitability
of battery lights for all-night riding, particularly on a multi-day
event with logistical issues, I'm surprised that battery lights were
found at least adequate by over 3/4's of those who used them. I'm also
surprised at the number of complaints about generator lights, given that
they were all (probably expensive ones, too) hub generator models.

Hub generators are a slam-dunk for radonneurs, but they're hardly a
typical population, particularly since they're the high disposable
income crowd who can afford to fly to France for a 3-4 day event and
ride on their Ti & CF bikes (~50%). Not exactly "everyman" lights. I'd
venture that if they had been using standard-issue civilian lights
there'd be a lot more than 10% unhappy customers. I'd also take their
expertise with a grain of salt seeing that half of them didn't use fenders.