The Google Express Bikeway at Night

Last night I took a different route home. A little out of the way but
more pleasant.

In Mountain View, the Stevens Creek Trail is a very heavily used
commuter route from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Symantec
Google has several campuses near the path. There are spurs that lead to
these campuses from the main path. Google has put in their own “path�
between two arterial roads that lack a public path, but their route is
open to the public with “right to pass…" signs.

See http://oi66.tinypic.com/15n0l1s.jpg

Except for the section in the Google campus, the path is unlit and very
dark. But there are so many bicycles, and most of them have very good
lights, so it might be possible to draft someone with good lights if you
were stuck with something like dynamo lights.

My 1300 Chilumen light was probably about in the 30th percentile of
brightness of the lights I saw. I definitely would have liked something
a brighter. The average was probably in the 3000 Chilumen range. I only
saw one bicycle without lights. The traffic is mostly southbound at
night, but none of the few northbound cyclists had blinding lights. None
had flashing front lights. Cyclists wait at the end of the spurs for an
opening to enter the main path. Since I'm a geezer, and most of the
cyclists are young tech workers, I was passed a lot. The younger riders,
with the brighter lights also almost certainly have better night vision
than me. I was glad to have a mirror so I could see when there were
cyclists about to pass me, though most either had bells or said “on your
left.�

There was a lot of debris on the path because it had been very windy
earlier in the day so a wide beam was useful to be able to see branches
in the path. Joerg would probably have had several broken parts of his
mountain bike fall off or disintegrate during this ride. A wide beam was
also good because there are several very tight turns where the path
climbs up to overpasses and you need to be able to see around the
corner. I think the new Trustfire 12,000 Chilumen, seven head, light
might be the optimal choice, see
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12000mAh-8-4v-Battery-Trustfire-12000-Lumen-7x-CREE-XM-L-XM-L2-LED-Front-Bicycle/711140_1732743967.html.

I did encounter two bicycles with blinding lights, neither on the path.
One was riding an electric bicycle the wrong way on a sidewalk on Mary
Avenue in Sunnyvale with a blinding light. There was one bicycle with a
blinding light on the Mary Avenue Bicycle Bridge over 280.

A good ride that demonstrated the necessity of having adequate lighting
for unlit paths and roads.

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 9:24:08 AM UTC-5, sms wrote:
Last night I took a different route home. A little out of the way but
more pleasant.

In Mountain View, the Stevens Creek Trail is a very heavily used
commuter route from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Symantec
Google has several campuses near the path. There are spurs that lead to
these campuses from the main path. Google has put in their own "path"
between two arterial roads that lack a public path, but their route is
open to the public with "right to pass..." signs.

See http://oi66.tinypic.com/15n0l1s.jpg

Except for the section in the Google campus, the path is unlit and very
dark. But there are so many bicycles, and most of them have very good
lights, so it might be possible to draft someone with good lights if you
were stuck with something like dynamo lights.

My 1300 Chilumen light was probably about in the 30th percentile of
brightness of the lights I saw. I definitely would have liked something
a brighter. The average was probably in the 3000 Chilumen range. I only
saw one bicycle without lights. The traffic is mostly southbound at
night, but none of the few northbound cyclists had blinding lights. None
had flashing front lights. Cyclists wait at the end of the spurs for an
opening to enter the main path. Since I'm a geezer, and most of the
cyclists are young tech workers, I was passed a lot. The younger riders,
with the brighter lights also almost certainly have better night vision
than me. I was glad to have a mirror so I could see when there were
cyclists about to pass me, though most either had bells or said "on your
left."

There was a lot of debris on the path because it had been very windy
earlier in the day so a wide beam was useful to be able to see branches
in the path. Joerg would probably have had several broken parts of his
mountain bike fall off or disintegrate during this ride. A wide beam was
also good because there are several very tight turns where the path
climbs up to overpasses and you need to be able to see around the
corner. I think the new Trustfire 12,000 Chilumen, seven head, light
might be the optimal choice, see
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12000mAh-8-4v-Battery-Trustfire-12000-Lumen-7x-CREE-XM-L-XM-L2-LED-Front-Bicycle/711140_1732743967.html.

I did encounter two bicycles with blinding lights, neither on the path.
One was riding an electric bicycle the wrong way on a sidewalk on Mary
Avenue in Sunnyvale with a blinding light. There was one bicycle with a
blinding light on the Mary Avenue Bicycle Bridge over 280.

A good ride that demonstrated the necessity of having adequate lighting
for unlit paths and roads.

My CygoLite Rover II light has 250 (two-hundred and fifty) real lumens ans is bright enough to light a two lane road at night when it's dark.

See around corners with a bicycle light? You'd need a massive black hole or something to bend that light beam. Light travels in a straight line and thus won't allow you to see around corners especially if the light is mounted on your bicycle.

You DON'T need thousands of lumens you just need a good beam shape. Flashlights or flashlight-like beame just don't have that good of a beam pattern.

Cheers

The beam shape is the missing part in other bike lights. Big round beams can't lean into the turns with you. My beam as shown on my website video of descending Highway 9, does lean into turns as the bike leans.
Evenness of illumination in both intensity and color temperature over a projected distance within the beam shape is the other key factor in "usable visibility". That maximized depth perception and contrast.
Then you don't lose your peripheral vision due to the eye and brain filtering out and stopping down from the big bright spot in the middle that other lights have.
Some lights try to make a more even light field by using multiple big round beams. But those beams are uncontrolled so can't project the light field further downrange, draw much more battery power, need separate battery packs, make much more heat, and cast off tons of disturbing glare. Beside that they don't have the features, functionality, programmability, and warranty that my made in USA light does.
Since some of you are local, you're all invited to stop by my exhibit at SF Bike Expo this coming Saturday. I'm at booth 150.
The Show Special deal will be 30% off, at $160, with spare battery included..
I guarantee that if you put this alongside your current light, you will agree that my beam is the best there is, whether or not you want to buy my lights.
if there is interest, we can also do a demo ride around the local trails and roads that "sir" describes in his posting, to show my lights alongside any others you're currently using.
Helmet side up,
Barry
www.BarryBeams.com



On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 6:40:02 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 9:24:08 AM UTC-5, sms wrote:
Last night I took a different route home. A little out of the way but
more pleasant.

In Mountain View, the Stevens Creek Trail is a very heavily used
commuter route from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Symantec
Google has several campuses near the path. There are spurs that lead to
these campuses from the main path. Google has put in their own "path"
between two arterial roads that lack a public path, but their route is
open to the public with "right to pass..." signs.

See http://oi66.tinypic.com/15n0l1s.jpg

Except for the section in the Google campus, the path is unlit and very
dark. But there are so many bicycles, and most of them have very good
lights, so it might be possible to draft someone with good lights if you
were stuck with something like dynamo lights.

My 1300 Chilumen light was probably about in the 30th percentile of
brightness of the lights I saw. I definitely would have liked something
a brighter. The average was probably in the 3000 Chilumen range. I only
saw one bicycle without lights. The traffic is mostly southbound at
night, but none of the few northbound cyclists had blinding lights. None
had flashing front lights. Cyclists wait at the end of the spurs for an
opening to enter the main path. Since I'm a geezer, and most of the
cyclists are young tech workers, I was passed a lot. The younger riders,
with the brighter lights also almost certainly have better night vision
than me. I was glad to have a mirror so I could see when there were
cyclists about to pass me, though most either had bells or said "on your
left."

There was a lot of debris on the path because it had been very windy
earlier in the day so a wide beam was useful to be able to see branches
in the path. Joerg would probably have had several broken parts of his
mountain bike fall off or disintegrate during this ride. A wide beam was
also good because there are several very tight turns where the path
climbs up to overpasses and you need to be able to see around the
corner. I think the new Trustfire 12,000 Chilumen, seven head, light
might be the optimal choice, see
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12000mAh-8-4v-Battery-Trustfire-12000-Lumen-7x-CREE-XM-L-XM-L2-LED-Front-Bicycle/711140_1732743967.html.

I did encounter two bicycles with blinding lights, neither on the path.
One was riding an electric bicycle the wrong way on a sidewalk on Mary
Avenue in Sunnyvale with a blinding light. There was one bicycle with a
blinding light on the Mary Avenue Bicycle Bridge over 280.

A good ride that demonstrated the necessity of having adequate lighting
for unlit paths and roads.

My CygoLite Rover II light has 250 (two-hundred and fifty) real lumens ans is bright enough to light a two lane road at night when it's dark.

See around corners with a bicycle light? You'd need a massive black hole or something to bend that light beam. Light travels in a straight line and thus won't allow you to see around corners especially if the light is mounted on your bicycle.

You DON'T need thousands of lumens you just need a good beam shape. Flashlights or flashlight-like beame just don't have that good of a beam pattern..

Cheers

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 6:40:02 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

My CygoLite Rover II light has 250 (two-hundred and fifty) real lumens ans is bright enough to light a two lane road at night when it's dark.

See around corners with a bicycle light? You'd need a massive black hole or something to bend that light beam. Light travels in a straight line and thus won't allow you to see around corners especially if the light is mounted on your bicycle.

The problem with a lot of lights is that they have a very narrow beam
pattern that doesn't illuminate much off to the sides. On tight turns,
as you begin the turn, a narrowly focused light is useless, you need a
wide beam. It's not about "seeing around corners" which is of course not
possible. It's about being able to see as you begin the turn. Kind of
like the center headlight on the Tucker. Swivel headlights have been
available on higher end cars for a while.

There is also a lot of hanging stuff on this trail, and really stupidly,
a tree with low hanging foliage at the south end of our multi-million
dollar bicycle bridge, See
,36m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x808fb479559034c9:0x4a741 0da010d599
but the Google Earth and street view views are way out of date and the
tree is much bigger now.

You DON'T need thousands of lumens you just need a good beam shape. Flashlights or flashlight-like beame just don't have that good of a beam pattern.

You need to avoid beams with a sharp horizontal cutoff when riding in
areas where it's necessary to see slightly up. That's the problem with
StVZO lights. A round flashlight beam is not optimal, but it's better
than most of the lights out there. The optics on the Durabeam eliminate
the hot spot and in flood mode it's very good for riding in areas where
you need a wide beam. Too many lights boast about their horizontal
cutoff and that may be fine for riding on roads where you never need to
read street signs or look out for low hanging branches, bu that's not
real-world riding.

The Barry Beams light has a wide beam so it would work well on the
Stevens Creek Trail, at least in terms of the tight turns. The problem
with it is explained he
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?345223-New-bike-light-on-kickstarter-Barry-Beams.

There's no easy solution. You don't want to blind oncoming traffic
whether vehicles or bicycles, but especially on heavily wooded multi-use
paths you absolutely need so upwards illumination or spill.

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 4:27:38 PM UTC-5, Barry Beams wrote:
The beam shape is the missing part in other bike lights. Big round beams can't lean into the turns with you. My beam as shown on my website video of descending Highway 9, does lean into turns as the bike leans.
Evenness of illumination in both intensity and color temperature over a projected distance within the beam shape is the other key factor in "usable visibility". That maximized depth perception and contrast.
Then you don't lose your peripheral vision due to the eye and brain filtering out and stopping down from the big bright spot in the middle that other lights have.
Some lights try to make a more even light field by using multiple big round beams. But those beams are uncontrolled so can't project the light field further downrange, draw much more battery power, need separate battery packs, make much more heat, and cast off tons of disturbing glare. Beside that they don't have the features, functionality, programmability, and warranty that my made in USA light does.
Since some of you are local, you're all invited to stop by my exhibit at SF Bike Expo this coming Saturday. I'm at booth 150.
The Show Special deal will be 30% off, at $160, with spare battery included.
I guarantee that if you put this alongside your current light, you will agree that my beam is the best there is, whether or not you want to buy my lights.
if there is interest, we can also do a demo ride around the local trails and roads that "sir" describes in his posting, to show my lights alongside any others you're currently using.
Helmet side up,
Barry
www.BarryBeams.com



On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 6:40:02 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 9:24:08 AM UTC-5, sms wrote:
Last night I took a different route home. A little out of the way but
more pleasant.

In Mountain View, the Stevens Creek Trail is a very heavily used
commuter route from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Symantec
Google has several campuses near the path. There are spurs that lead to
these campuses from the main path. Google has put in their own "path"
between two arterial roads that lack a public path, but their route is
open to the public with "right to pass..." signs.

See http://oi66.tinypic.com/15n0l1s.jpg

Except for the section in the Google campus, the path is unlit and very
dark. But there are so many bicycles, and most of them have very good
lights, so it might be possible to draft someone with good lights if you
were stuck with something like dynamo lights.

My 1300 Chilumen light was probably about in the 30th percentile of
brightness of the lights I saw. I definitely would have liked something
a brighter. The average was probably in the 3000 Chilumen range. I only
saw one bicycle without lights. The traffic is mostly southbound at
night, but none of the few northbound cyclists had blinding lights. None
had flashing front lights. Cyclists wait at the end of the spurs for an
opening to enter the main path. Since I'm a geezer, and most of the
cyclists are young tech workers, I was passed a lot. The younger riders,
with the brighter lights also almost certainly have better night vision
than me. I was glad to have a mirror so I could see when there were
cyclists about to pass me, though most either had bells or said "on your
left."

There was a lot of debris on the path because it had been very windy
earlier in the day so a wide beam was useful to be able to see branches
in the path. Joerg would probably have had several broken parts of his
mountain bike fall off or disintegrate during this ride. A wide beam was
also good because there are several very tight turns where the path
climbs up to overpasses and you need to be able to see around the
corner. I think the new Trustfire 12,000 Chilumen, seven head, light
might be the optimal choice, see
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12000mAh-8-4v-Battery-Trustfire-12000-Lumen-7x-CREE-XM-L-XM-L2-LED-Front-Bicycle/711140_1732743967.html.

I did encounter two bicycles with blinding lights, neither on the path.
One was riding an electric bicycle the wrong way on a sidewalk on Mary
Avenue in Sunnyvale with a blinding light. There was one bicycle with a
blinding light on the Mary Avenue Bicycle Bridge over 280.

A good ride that demonstrated the necessity of having adequate lighting
for unlit paths and roads.

My CygoLite Rover II light has 250 (two-hundred and fifty) real lumens ans is bright enough to light a two lane road at night when it's dark.

See around corners with a bicycle light? You'd need a massive black hole or something to bend that light beam. Light travels in a straight line and thus won't allow you to see around corners especially if the light is mounted on your bicycle.

You DON'T need thousands of lumens you just need a good beam shape. Flashlights or flashlight-like beame just don't have that good of a beam pattern.

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 5:01:16 PM UTC-5, sms wrote:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 6:40:02 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

My CygoLite Rover II light has 250 (two-hundred and fifty) real lumens ans is bright enough to light a two lane road at night when it's dark.

See around corners with a bicycle light? You'd need a massive black hole or something to bend that light beam. Light travels in a straight line and thus won't allow you to see around corners especially if the light is mounted on your bicycle.

Snipped
It's not about "seeing around corners" which is of course not
possible.Snipped

In your first post in this thread you stated: "A wide beam was
also good because there are several very tight turns where the path
climbs up to overpasses and you need to be able to see around the
corner. "

Cheers

"The problem with"?

What claimed problem?

You all would benefit from trying my lights out before you put your feet in your mouths further.

My beam is not "wide". Nor is it round, so it gives the rider unique advantages in how it behaves and the eye and brain process what it lights up. It give even illumination and greatly reduced glare within a target area that approximates a riders central + near range and downward peripheral vision..

If you have a suggestion with my light then please make it. Maybe I'll address it if doable either with improved user documentation, in firmware, or the next production runs of the relevant parts.

Most recent improvement was adding a dongle to the charging hole plug so it stays attached to the light when charging, and also won't break off or get lost while riding.

User and distributor feedback all stated that it was a great perceived benefit and selling point to include a spare battery, because every other light on the market gives the ride "battery phobia". So I know include a spare battery in every standard retail package. Raised the retail price $10, raised store wholesale enough to cover, and am eating a buck on the distributor price in order to add this selling point that distributors and stores want.

On 18/11/15 10:54, Barry Beams wrote:
snipped

Barry, please do not post your reply at the top. When you reply, add
your words *underneath* a quoted section of what the person said to
which you are replying.

You've been asked to do this a couple of times already.

--
Js

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 6:52:04 PM UTC-7, James wrote:
On 18/11/15 10:54, Barry Beams wrote:
snipped

Barry, please do not post your reply at the top. When you reply, add
your words *underneath* a quoted section of what the person said to
which you are replying.

You've been asked to do this a couple of times already.

--
Js

James....comment on Aus heat wave ?

look.....if a headlamp is worn then the beam pattern question diminishes in effective importance

You've been asked to do this a couple of times already.

If you will not show us the grail, we will take your castle by force!