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Communting\Training lights
I stepped over to the dark side recently and purchased my first roadie with the intention of getting some mid week training in to make those mtn bike days all the more enjoyable.
On my first evening out I almost got wiped out by a car. I was coming into a poorly light roundabout and the guy obviously didnt look and just pulled out in front of me. I roared, he braked and his bumper stopped inches from my back wheel. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say I wasn't lit up enough. I had a pretty standard job on the front along with one of those LED flashers.
I suppose I'm looking for some recommendations on light setups. Don't want to go the whole hog and get lights that will light up the bush as I've never done proper night mtn biking or racing. Looking for a good balance between price, visibility and versatility.
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Lights are good and I use them but a great supplement is this Exelite stuff - really cheap at the moment too. The problem with lights particularly a white front light is they can disappear into the background, whereas the Exelite stuff shows you up as a human shape (if that makes sense). I noticed a dramatic improvement in people seeing me (particularly pedestrians stepping off the curb) when I started using it. They see you with their peripheral vision - not just if they look straight at you. The strips are visible for miles and the reflective backing is extremely high quality.
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/shop/bike/bike-gear/h...
Besides missing a whole lot of fun riding mtb at night, the helmet + bar lights adds a highly entertaining "WTF?!
" effect on drivers to your early morning or night time commutes. They will stop and give you plenty of room, as if you are a 40-tonne B-double about to crush them into road pizza.
If you want to be safe and be seen, there is nothing better.
The decider for me was two incidents in the space of a week: narrowly missing being T-boned by a right-turning driver one night along Spit Rd. Even the pedestrians howled abuse at this particular driver on my behalf. He just didn't clock me - the bright flashing blinky just disappeared into the background I'm guessing. Second was nearly having a head-on with an unlit ninja cyclist veering onto the wrong side on an unlit (as most of them are) bike path in Manly Vale. No normal blinky was ever going to prevent that one, and I pretty much had to spear off the path to miss him.
Since getting the trail lights, I actually feel safer commuting after dark than during the day. ESPECIALLY important when it's wet. With all the reflections that drivers have to deal with in the wet, standard blinkies really don't cut it. At all.
Being able to ride trails at night was a pleasant bonus, but not the main reason for getting them.
Hawkeye's touched on it, but it's worth repeating that it's not just a case of whether the light is visible, it's whether it's visible against all the lights around you. A mediocre light will be totally overwhelmed by car headlights shining from behind it.
Basically then ... useless.
So - really - the brighter the lights, the safer you are. It's worth spending more to get a long term solution. You'll quickly learn that a cheap option is actually more expensive, when you start buying better specced replacements.
Cell (great prices) have a 2Watt (that's ... ummm .,.,. BRIGHT) tail light, and a front 900 lumen (yup; BRIGHT) light very similar to oneI bought from an online store (geomangear). The 900L job seriously does the trick up front.
Maybe have a look at these;
- tail light - http://www.cellbikes.com.au/Cygolite-Hotshot-2W-...
- front ($149) http://www.cellbikes.com.au/BRC-Ultrastar-1400-L...
- front ($89) - http://www.cellbikes.com.au/BRC-NiteStar-2-0-900...
- geomangear ; http://www.geomangear.com/index.php?main_page=in...
Hope this helps, Adrian.
I will do not ride at night without both bar and head set-up for exactly Hawkeye’s reasoning.
I use Aye-ups (as per a large number of others) but key for me was having both lights. While it is the best outcome for night riding off road (get into it you will love it). I find having a tool to shine straight into the drivers eyes while they turn onto a road with only a casual glance tends to pull them up fast; they give me a lot more room at night than they do during the day because the surprise of the brightness makes they assume you are much closer than you are!
On road too much light is not enough – this is your life you are talking about! I like it when cars flash me to ‘turn the beam down’ as you would a car, because then I know they have seen me.
Off road I think you can have too much light when there is lots of dust kicked up, but that is for memories long long ago!
Just really adding support to what others have said, get a good set of lights. I bought my Ay-ups with the intention of night mtb rides/24 hours with the added benefit of commuting. The reality is that they have earned their worth 10x from commuting. They are bright enough that I'm pretty sure that cars often think you're a scooter so tend to expect you'll be on them more quickly and don't pull out in front of you which sooo many drivers do during the day when they can see that you're a bike.
It doesn't have to be Ay-Ups but get something as bright and make sure that you have rechargeable batteries that have a decent battery life. If you need to recharge them every night (and you will have to for anything that takes internal batteries that is bright enough) you'll inevitably forget one day and get up in the morning and have no light. This pretty much means something with an external battery. Oh, and you're going to get caught in the rain
+1 hawkeye, the light on the head certainly seems to make cards stop and wonder and it gives you the added benefit that you can afford to have a back-up if one light fails (do Ay-ups fail??) or you really do push the battery limits by not charging it often enough!
Advice: assume every car in front of you is not going to stop.
Except the one you're travelling behind. They will inevitably stop unexpectedly. Leave lots of braking room and position yourself to allow yourself an escape route.
Cheers for the advice lads, ye make some very valid points backed up with sound reasoning, now why can't politicians do the same.
I've come across people discuss Ay Up's before so I might price them and then work from there. It does seem to state the obvious 'the brighter the better'
I know I said in my original post that I haven't done any night mtn biking and to be honest I never really considered it. Is there much of it going on here in Sydney. Since its been brought up i'm keen to give it a blast
There's a semi-regular midweek night ride at Terrey Hills, usually posted by Hans. Dependant on weather, of course. Keep an eye out on nobmob.
Unfortunately it finishes a bit late for me, I'm normally up at 5am midweek, and when you get to put a face to my name you'll understand why I need lots of beauty sleep.
I've been a couple of times when on holidays - lots of fun. It's like riding the glow-worm train.
Broc,
I was going to buy Ayups about 3 years ago, did a quick web search and found a test on MTBR where they were just beaten by dinotte lighting.
After checking their website, I pluncked down my bucks for their lights...600 Lumen front, and, one of the main reasons I went with them was a high power tailight. I've got a 140 Lumen tailight, but it's been superseded with more powerful versions.
I then pluncked down my bucks for these lights...they're US based-and that was back in the day when we were worth US70c!
http://www.dinottelighting.com/