At 11.30 in the morning!

Lady car driver in a country lane, admittedly there were trees about but isnt that taking things a bit far?

I guess she struggled to see me in a shadow but she had seen me as she slowed down in plenty of time to have a go!

Anyone else take lights with them when daylight riding?

She may have had a point?

yep always have rear light on when commuting and on road, front turned on even if just a bit grey, best give everyone as much chance to see you as possible IMO.

For roads with tree cover and other dark bits, on murky autumn days, yeah I use my lights.

Did she have her lights on?

use your bell
don’t use your bell
your lights aren’t bright enough
your lights are too bright
get out of the gutter
get in the gutter
you shouldn’t be on the road
you should be on the road
blah
don’t blah

use your judgement

Did she have her car lights on?

lights on in daytime:

legal – no

a good idea – very

I hope you told her to **** off and get her eyes tested.

+ 1 for lights in the day mainly rear.

I’ve lost count of the amount of idiots I’ve seen on phones so whatever makes us stand out is worth it.

Did have one old girl shout ” your lights on love ” so I replied ” yeah thanks I know at least you saw me ” 😀

yep always have rear light on when commuting and on road, front turned on even if just a bit grey

As above.

As it happens, I also always have my car lights on as well. Why doesn’t every car have running lights a la Volvo? Seems a perfectly logical thing to do to me.

Was less sure about the bloke on the Twrch at CC this weekend with a rear LED light flashing away as he rode round! 🙂

Anyone else take lights with them when daylight riding?

Yes.
Dappled sunlight in country lanes is a nightmare to judge distances, see cyclists (especially if they’re wearing dark clothing) and you get blinding shafts of sunlight through the trees sometimes too.

Being a cyclist, the law really doesn’t give a shit about you at the best of times but it’s wise not to give motorists too much ammo to use against you.

As it happens, I also always have my car lights on as well. Why doesn’t every car have running lights a la Volvo? Seems a perfectly logical thing to do to me.

All new ones do now. Have done for a while.

xcgb – Member

Anyone else take lights with them when daylight riding?

Yep. Lights stay on the bike all the time and are turned on unless it’s bright sunshine. Helps to improve the contrast and batteries last for hours and hours so seems stupid not to.

A bloke caught me up on a bike a few weeks ago and his first comment was ‘you’ve left your lights on’. It was a pretty dull day, but he seemed very surprised when I told him that I tend to put them on in most conditions.

Find it amusing/ridiculous the amount of roadies around who are on expensive bikes with expensive clothing/garmin etc. but seem to begrudge paying more than £0.49 for a rear light. Perhaps a proper light would ruin the weight distribution or aerodynamics of the bike…
🙄

for me it simply depends on light conditions. this time of year the mornings/afternoons are getting darker and the light through the day can be dull and the weather can be crap. A good guide is if a large proportion of car lights are on, maybe you should have lights on. but you can never win.

oooh yer lights blinded me.
oooh put lights on.

one thing that really really gets my goat is cyclists in the dark of night without lights and on the road. Arrgghh.

Even I say,’ excuse me sir/lady, one might find it a good idea to get some lights’ – or words to that effect.

As it happens, I also always have my car lights on as well. Why doesn’t every car have running lights a la Volvo? Seems a perfectly logical thing to do to me.

The EU have ruled that ALL new cars most have daylight running lights, they make sense some of the time, but they can cause issues of there own.

It is perfectly possible to use light to hide a car if the sun is in the right place in the sky. I believe there were complaints from motorcyclists about cars not seeing them? There is also the issue of drivers, as per this case, not actually bothering to look!!!!!

If you go back far enough, i believe the CTC argued against bike lights because they would remove the onus from car drivers to actually bother looking. Whilst it seems a stupid thing to argue about there is a grain of truth, most things that makes car drivers lives easier actually makes everyone elses lives worse, simply allows the car drivers to drive with less care.

I was coming home from a off road ride and it was a bit grey so yes maybe she had a point but i wont be taking a set of lights every time i go up on the hills!
(maybe a headtorch is an idea)

Find it amusing/ridiculous the amount of roadies around who are on expensive bikes with expensive clothing/garmin etc. but seem to begrudge paying more than £0.49 for a rear light. Perhaps a proper light would ruin the weight distribution or aerodynamics of the bike…

Why? there is no law that says you have to use lights between sunrise and sunset….

You didn’t mention if you were going for the Milk Tray Man approach to styling or were dressed in the usual attire of a litter picker on the M25. It’s not just lights that help people to see you after all.

Shame she didn’t stop to give a properly reasoned argument as there could be all sorts of other stuff you don’t know about, maybe she got knocked off her bike in similar circumstances? or works for that bunch of safety obsessives the HSE. Of course, she could also be the local nutter.

i wont be taking a set of lights every time i go up on the hills!

Why so?

All new ones do now. Have done for a while.

Really? Shows how much attention I’ve been paying! Will have to observe more closely!
Either way, that’s got to be a good thing, IMO.

As mentioned above, lower light conditions at this time of year (and also dappled sunlight in high summer) can be very hard on the eyes in terms of defining distance and/or movement. As such, anything that can help other road users see you as a cyclist has to be a good thing.

There’s a very dark section of the Cholderton Rd between Grately and Cholderton that I ride often, and I can’t imagine ever wanting to ride down that at any time of the year without at least a rear light on! For mixed on/off road rides, I tend to leave a Moon Shield on my helmet, never notice it’s there, but it certainly helps make me stand out more on the road. Just remember to turn it off when you’re back in the woods…!

Find it amusing/ridiculous the amount of roadies around who are on expensive bikes with expensive clothing/garmin etc. but seem to begrudge paying more than £0.49 for a rear light. Perhaps a proper light would ruin the weight distribution or aerodynamics of the bike…

Modern super-bright lights on a club ride would blind the guy behind you…

Modern super-bright lights on a club ride would blind the guy behind you…

I thought roadies only ride abreast…

Modern super-bright lights on a club ride would blind the guy behind you…

However, while astride your crabon fribe Fredwagon, clad in only the finest Assos and Sidi, sporting deep section rims for the commute, you’d think they could at least stump up;
A – Some fresh batteries for the rather piss poor light they’re using
B – A proper light instead of the ropey single LED with all the brightness of a primary school technology project powered by a potato

The amount of asshats I see on my commute clad in black, racing their way along the Etape du Embankment with pathetic (or no) lights is truly depressing.

The amount of asshats I see on my commute clad in black, racing their way along the Etape du Embankment with pathetic (or no) lights is truly depressing.

Simple
Club riding, maybe leave the lights off. As a group you’re pretty visible anyway.
Commuting: do your best impression of an Xmas tree… and keep your eyes out for some ropey driving

Driving to work this morning (8:30, country road, overcast but generally good visibility, areas of tree cover) I passed one cyclist with a flashing rear light, but generally dark clothes. Spotted him from a long way back. Then 30 seconds later passed another who was under the trees. He was wearing a colourful but not flouro top but had no light. I spotted him, but he certainly didn’t ‘jump out’ like the first one did. If I was hungover and on the phone that light could have made all the difference. I agree with the post above that says it’s not a legal requirement but it’s a very good idea.

I always use a rear light when on the road, and a front when commuting.

Modern super-bright lights on a club ride would blind the guy behind you

You mean like the Smart R1 that has one *bright* LED and two not so bright ones. You can just use the not-so-bright ones so you don’t blind riders behind you.

there is no law that says you have to use lights between sunrise and sunset….

It being a legal requirement is very much a secondary (and a very distant second) reason why I use lights.

I’ve started to use my Flash/Flare lights in daylight – just want people to see me in time, and lights are more effective than hiviz imho

Road bike has one attached permanently, SS winter MTB does as well for night rides) fixie commuter has two on the back… Decent rear lights are cheap and easy to fit, so there’s no real excuse not to.

I might not turn it on if I’m riding in glorious sunshine, but more often than not I’ll want some active illumination on the roads just to be sure I’m seen, a couple of basic AAA’s seem to last ages anyway so you might as well…

Different road users seem to have various ideas about what we should or shouldn’t do on the roads and the OP does have a point, he wasn’t technically in the wrong at all, but using a light is a prudent measure to improve your general visibility, even when conditions aren’t too bad… I can see lights becoming a bit like the Helmet / Hi-viz victim blaming thing…

“…He didn’t even have a Helmet/Hi-Viz vest/Lights on…”

Thus helping to absolve any drivers who might mow you down on straight roads in broad daylight…

Why? there is no law that says you have to use lights between sunrise and sunset….

But if the conditions are poor lights should be used…

Just like this morning and really heavy rain !!

I use my lights all the time on the road as I want to be seen.

But yes Clubrun or group riding is different

i wont be taking a set of lights every time i go up on the hills!
Why so?

Cos I use very old ones with a heavy battery!

So really?
All you guys when riding off road in daylight take a set of lights with you if you are going to touch a road at some point?

Cant say i’ve ever seen that around my local trails

xcgb – Member

All you guys when riding off road in daylight take a set of lights with you if you are going to touch a road at some point?

Nope. But, I can totally see the point to it, and if visibility is bad it’d be a good idea even if I don’t do it.

I always had the motorbike lights on, it’s probably kind of idiotic that I don’t on the far more vulnerable pushbike tbh.

“a set of lights” as if it’s something cumbersome.

A little Knog flasher, or a Smart R2 is pretty small and unobtrustive, either attached to the bike, my camelbak or my helmet. You may well not notice it on the trails as there aren’t many people who use rear lights on the trails!

All you guys when riding off road in daylight take a set of lights with you if you are going to touch a road at some point

No, but I do have a very small, very light, very bright helmet light on the back of my helmet for the sort of ride that may see me linking up bridleways/trails with the odd road section, especially if it’s one of those dark, shaded roads as mentioned above. (Not for big days in the wide open spaces or trail centre stuff, though.)

All you guys when riding off road in daylight take a set of lights with you if you are going to touch a road at some point?

I thought we established that STWers all drive to the trail in their Audi?

But if the conditions are poor lights should be used…

Just like this morning and really heavy rain !!

read the law.

There is no need to use lights, even if the conditions are crap between sunrise and sunset.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/cyclists-library/regulations/lighting-regulations

Personnally i will use lights if it is murky, but the onus is always on drivers to look wtf they are going!!! My having lights or not having lights isn’t an excuse, in the same way as the Kiwi judge recently came out and said all cyclists should wear hi-viz, failing to notice that the deceased was wearing hi-viz!

http://road.cc/content/news/77369-coroner-cyclists-have-duty-other-road-users-wear-high-viz

Thei Highway Code recommends bright clothing reflective strips and even lights when riding in poor light or visibility for cyclists and horse riders.

However, the speed at which some people drive down country lanes does mean that if around a bend there is a horse on your side and a cyclist and a car coming at you on the other you are ffffffff’d

However, the speed at which some people drive down country lanes does mean that if around a bend there is a horse on your side and a cyclist and a car coming at you on the other you are ffffffff’d

Yes but that’s down to the long forgotten principle of ‘you should be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear’.

I was cycling home once, around a long left hand bend, when a car decided to overtake me despite the double continuous white lines. As he got next to me a cyclist appeared the other way.

Being overtaken by a car.

Being overtaken by a motorbike. 😯