BICYCLE CENTRAL WEATHER REPORT

On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 7:35:44 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 5:42:40 PM UTC-5, jbeattie wrote:

My light was useless. In many places, I just gripped harder and relied on my superior, ninja-like bike handling skills and recollection of where the pot holes were located. I still got home in less than half the time it would have taken me in a car.

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights.

It's raining here tonight, and I was out shopping, using the car. 2014 model
car, excellent headlights.

At 9 PM I was leaving a large parking lot. I noticed that it was impossible
to tell whether my headlights were on. It's not that the lights aren't bright.
It's that the laws of optics guarantee that the light rays reflect away from
us when they hit a horizontal film of water. They don't hit the more-or-less
vertical sides of asphalt grains in the road, i.e. those surfaces that reflect
light back to our eyes.

BTW, the rain here wasn't really hard. It doesn't take a lot of water to
make that happen.

It's not as big a disaster as it sounds. A pothole would still be visible.
The light of other vehicle headlights were still visible to me, because
they don't need to bounce off the ground; and likewise, my headlights were
still visible to others. That's why the road on the way home was not littered
with crashed vehicles.

The pot holes were invisible because they were under water. Tonight, I rode home on a route that included a trail/gravel access road. I came upon a downed tree -- a big one that went from one side of the trail to the other. The trail has a river bank on one side and a hill on the other, so there was no walking around. The bummer was the stand light on my dyno was not nearly bright enough to find a way to climb through all the limbs. There really are times when you need a bright when the bike is not moving. I think SMS goes over-board with his criticism of dyno lights, but all of those criticisms were valid on a 500 meter stretch of my commute tonight -- steep downhill onto a trail with beam cut-off leaving the trail in the dark and no bright stand light to evaluate obstacles. And yes, rain soaks up light, but with a 1400 lumen light, you can still see more. As I've mentioned before, I never used the full output on my Seca 1400 except in rainstorms. My dyno light was pretty flaccid on the wet pavement tonight but much better than yesterday, particularly when there were no headlights. In other words, it was acceptable -- except for the trail transition and tree thing.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says, they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that on
MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're riding at
slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when you most need
it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

The future of dynos, at least in regular countries, is going to be as
chargers for more powerful lights. You have your hub dyno charging your
headlight during the day when you only have it on flash mode, you charge
the headlight from a USB port when you're at the office, and worst case
you run your headlight at reduced power if the battery is discharged and
only dyno power is available.

The "Ding" light that is about to launch from Australia looks, at least
on paper, as if it's going to be pretty good. It has the optics that
most other lights lack, and you can charge it, while it's running from a
5VDC power source.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...0#.Vk2CyJ_n_qA

ROLL ON !

exciting weather event ...good tune up for the river tsunami

water pooling ? light color type n position increase reflection ?

try blue LED fogs pointed down...Yawl Ohioans see any ?

Fox renameed Frog

On Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:35:42 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 5:42:40 PM UTC-5, jbeattie wrote:

My light was useless. In many places, I just gripped harder and relied on my superior, ninja-like bike handling skills and recollection of where the pot holes were located. I still got home in less than half the time it would have taken me in a car.

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights.

It's raining here tonight, and I was out shopping, using the car. 2014 model
car, excellent headlights.

At 9 PM I was leaving a large parking lot. I noticed that it was impossible
to tell whether my headlights were on. It's not that the lights aren't bright.
It's that the laws of optics guarantee that the light rays reflect away from
us when they hit a horizontal film of water. They don't hit the more-or-less
vertical sides of asphalt grains in the road, i.e. those surfaces that reflect
light back to our eyes.

BTW, the rain here wasn't really hard. It doesn't take a lot of water to
make that happen.

It's not as big a disaster as it sounds. A pothole would still be visible.
The light of other vehicle headlights were still visible to me, because
they don't need to bounce off the ground; and likewise, my headlights were
still visible to others. That's why the road on the way home was not littered
with crashed vehicles.

- Frank Krygowski

Ah Frank, that is the beauty of those Chinese flashlights. You can
carry them around in your pocket and since they are blindly bright you
just point then out the window and the rain just seems to evaporate
and you can see.
--

Cheers,

John B.

On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 8:49:31 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says, they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that on
MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're riding at
slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when you most need
it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

To be fair, my dyno light is pretty bright at a walking pace. I have no problem with the amount of light it produces when riding MUPs, it's the beam cut-off on undulating path, which also makes it hard to see walkers. If I were riding the Springwater Corridor -- which is flat and straight -- a dyno would be just fine.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 11/19/2015 6:38 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 8:49:31 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says, they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that on
MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're riding at
slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when you most need
it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

To be fair, my dyno light is pretty bright at a walking pace. I have no problem with the amount of light it produces when riding MUPs, it's the beam cut-off on undulating path, which also makes it hard to see walkers. If I were riding the Springwater Corridor -- which is flat and straight -- a dyno would be just fine.

Agreed. On a flat, straight, MUP, free of any debris, I'm sure a dyno
light would be fine.

You should ride the Stevens Creek Trail from Sunnyvale out to the San
Francisco Bay some time. It was squeezed in between the creek and
various freeways. It twists and turns as it goes over and under arterial
roads, freeways, and railroad tracks. They have put in some mirrors at
one of the more dangerous spiral sections. And it's very busy with both
cyclists and pedestrians, though fortunately during evening commute
times the pedestrians tend to avoid it.

Oh, and after a windy day, the surface is littered with branches and
debris that you really want to see far enough in advance to avoid. Not a
lot of overhead obstacles, but often some sticking out from the side.

On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 7:57:52 AM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 11/19/2015 6:38 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 8:49:31 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says, they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that on
MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're riding at
slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when you most need
it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

To be fair, my dyno light is pretty bright at a walking pace. I have no problem with the amount of light it produces when riding MUPs, it's the beam cut-off on undulating path, which also makes it hard to see walkers. If I were riding the Springwater Corridor -- which is flat and straight -- a dyno would be just fine.

Agreed. On a flat, straight, MUP, free of any debris, I'm sure a dyno
light would be fine.

You should ride the Stevens Creek Trail from Sunnyvale out to the San
Francisco Bay some time. It was squeezed in between the creek and
various freeways. It twists and turns as it goes over and under arterial
roads, freeways, and railroad tracks. They have put in some mirrors at
one of the more dangerous spiral sections. And it's very busy with both
cyclists and pedestrians, though fortunately during evening commute
times the pedestrians tend to avoid it.

Oh, and after a windy day, the surface is littered with branches and
debris that you really want to see far enough in advance to avoid. Not a
lot of overhead obstacles, but often some sticking out from the side.

mirrors ? SF uses mirrors ? an IPO ? 2 yesterday ...

On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 7:38:36 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 8:49:31 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says, they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that on
MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're riding at
slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when you most need
it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

To be fair, my dyno light is pretty bright at a walking pace. I have no problem with the amount of light it produces when riding MUPs, it's the beam cut-off on undulating path, which also makes it hard to see walkers. If I were riding the Springwater Corridor -- which is flat and straight -- a dyno would be just fine.

-- Jay Beattie.

well, JB is flexible...he's modulating his disappointment with the Dino after blowing a wad on it.

while the rig may have serious output shortages at low and variable...that is to say critical moments in TSD/direction/braking...surly the designeers tested for adequate distance throw at 3 mph giving an adequate speed distance throw relationship on up to 35mph.

needs a battery. adding a battery counters the marketing ploy. An MB Euro autobahn image function

On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 9:10:53 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 7:38:36 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 8:49:31 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says, they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that on
MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're riding at
slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when you most need
it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

To be fair, my dyno light is pretty bright at a walking pace. I have no problem with the amount of light it produces when riding MUPs, it's the beam cut-off on undulating path, which also makes it hard to see walkers. If I were riding the Springwater Corridor -- which is flat and straight -- a dyno would be just fine.

-- Jay Beattie.

well, JB is flexible...he's modulating his disappointment with the Dino after blowing a wad on it.

while the rig may have serious output shortages at low and variable...that is to say critical moments in TSD/direction/braking...surly the designeers tested for adequate distance throw at 3 mph giving an adequate speed distance throw relationship on up to 35mph.

needs a battery. adding a battery counters the marketing ploy. An MB Euro autobahn image function

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn


https://goo.gl/KRHH5C

On 20/11/15 00:38, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 8:49:31 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/18/2015 2:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Dynos are fine for nice dry nights. Contrary to what SMS says,
they are perfect for MUPs except for the beam cut-off, because my
MUPs go up and down.

LOL, yeah except for the beam shape, and except for the fact that
on MUPs you often have twisty and hilly sections where you're
riding at slow speeds and you have the least amount of light when
you most need it, dynos are perfect for MUPs.

To be fair, my dyno light is pretty bright at a walking pace. I have
no problem with the amount of light it produces when riding MUPs,
it's the beam cut-off on undulating path, which also makes it hard to
see walkers. If I were riding the Springwater Corridor -- which is
flat and straight -- a dyno would be just fine.


The same "problem" exists for motor vehicles travelling on steep
undulating and winding roads.

I regularly travel a road that has successive short hills where you go
up and down at about 17% gradient. High beams, low beams, fog light
beams and I suspect Barry beams if you had them on a car, do not show
the road ahead for any appreciable distance as they do when the road is
mostly flat.

I deal with it by driving slower.

(I'd add a google maps link, but the street view car hasn't been along
the road I mention yet.)

--
JS