Q5. Do you also ride when it's dark? And if so, what precautions do you take to be seen? Just what's legally required or much more? Battery vs dynamo lights? Multiple lights? Additional reflective clothes or stickers?
#BikeNite A5. On #eBikes, the danger of riding in the dark isn't so much about whether drivers see you as it is about correctly judging your speed. Two non-flashing headlights with distance between them, like on the fork and handlebar, seems to register more effectively than one. Similarly with spacing between tail lights, I get fewer sketchy passing attempts by drivers. Blinking lights make drivers perceive you as a stationary obstacle, besides blinding people on bikes. @ascentale@xtaran
@InkySchwartz@ascentale@xtaran a single point of light gives no depth cues as it approaches, even less if it goes out and reappears. Drivers might notice you, classify you as a pedestrian, and in my experience, cut you off because they could not judge your speed.
@InkySchwartz@enobacon@ascentale@xtaran A5 Personally, I won't use lights that spend any time in an "off" state. Consider what happens if a light were to be on/off for 0.1 sec/1 sec. at 10 mph, you would disappear for 15 feet (4.5m). Some of the "help you be seen" lights use this pattern. Instead, I only buy lights that are always on but "warble": lo for 1 sec, hi for 0.1 sec. Examples: Light & Motion vis 360 taillight and CatEye (unknown version?) headlight. lmk if you want a video #BikeNite
@trouble@InkySchwartz@ascentale@xtaran the advantage of two steady lights in my experience, is that they activate the driver's car-detected responses, which are much better at yielding to vehicles moving at the speed of traffic than their bike-detected ones. Many crashes with bikes or motorcycles are of the type "driver looked for cars and didn't see any".
@InkySchwartz@trouble@ascentale@xtaran the article I linked earlier goes into some studies target fixation, and it's just geometry that a single point of light approaching in a straight line gives no depth or speed cues. Blinking off just makes it vanish. That flashing bike lights are banned in some parts of Europe might just be because they're annoying to other riders.
@enobacon@InkySchwartz@ascentale@xtaran A5- I am also concerned with "bare LED" fixtures getting hidden behind a 2" sign post. If you buy one of these cheaper lights, prefer a horizontal one. A cheap hack: I bought two cheap chinese headlights, and just put one in steady and one in constant. I want to build some of those "halo" lights, and how to integrate that into a bike light setup i.e. 2" tall, 12" wide strip across the front of a basket, ~6-8" across the back of a rack #BikeNite
@trouble@InkySchwartz@ascentale@xtaran some COB (chip on board) LED strips do a good job of spreading a low (~3W) wattage over the surface, though I would rather have it half as bright (maybe just needs a better regulator, it seems to vary a lot given 10.7 vs 12.8V.) #BikeNite A5
@ascentale@xtaran#BikeNite A5. Not normally, but I am now prepared to ride in dark conditions (since you never know when you get caught out later than expected, etc.). That said, I'd only be comfortable doing it in local neighborhood without regular traffic here; NO ONE is on bicycle on the major roads at night here and the number of drivers who end up in bushes/trees/walls/ditches is very high here all by themselves... and they tend to speed. The local bicycle teams ARE out in the dark, but again -- no the major roads and in a big group with lights.
@ascentale@xtaran A5: I got spoke reflectors, I got wheel lights, I got battery headlights (connected to the drive system but works all the time), I got back end lights. I want something good for the pedals but I haven't figured that out yet.
(And also I'm using super-cheap junk pedals right now anyway because my others broke and I don't have the money to replace them.)
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