[Closed] Is my light "too bright"?

None of you seen these new white LED lights cars have then? I get dazzled by them nearly every day. I had to put my bloody sunglasses on the other day sat behind a Range Rover with its bright red LEDs in my face.
But yeah, car drivers own the road. So lets all put cyclists in the wrong as usual.

I have a flashing Cateye 3lED thing on my helmet. I took it off a year or so ago on the basis it may be overkill as well as the Joystick on my bars.
Nearly got hit by 3 cars pulling out from the left in one journey so it went straight back on...
You can't really blame cyclists from putting on powerful lights when a) that's almost all that's available and b) there's so many lousy drivers out there...

I doubt it's a case of [i]cyclists in the wrong as usual.[/i] however using very bright 1000+ lumen broad spread LED off road lights on the bars or on your helmet and having them crisscross the road surface from side to side as you push/pull on the bars can only be distracting to other road users….. and yeah i have been been distracted by some car headlights or tail lights on vehicles but the difference is i am not piloting a 1.5 ton vehicle whilst travelling 100ft per second (60mph).

Just because i ride a bike (and may feel smug or self satisfied inside) that does not give me the god given right to be a dick to other road users. 😉

Stick it on your bars and point it at the ground. My Joystick is a "pothole spotter". I have a strada for general road duties. I also have a very small flashing Topeak helmet LED that I use occasionally when I can be bothered.

Can't see the need for a powerful helmet light on the road.

You're not getting my point. Someone said it earlier in the thread, whatever cyclists do will give some motorists cause for complaint because we're [i]on "their[/i]" roads.
My light isn't too bright, but still caused some dick to think it was ok to dazzle me.
but noone would go up to a Range Rover driver and say "Excuse me, your back lights are too bright old chap" would they?

Yeah, point it a bit further down. It'll still be visible ahead but not shine directly into people's eyes.

Getting dazzled used to happen all the time with oncoming cyclists when my commute went through a few dark areas between Derby and Nottingham. Very occasionally as they got close I had to stop until they'd passed because they had such nuclear lights stuck on their handlebars.

Likewise, on country lanes I've been flashed by a car a few hundred metres away because I had an XM-L2 torch on the bars and forgot to put it on a lower setting. It's really easy to dazzle people with modern LEDs.

...Seriously powerful off road lights pointed up for off road use are too bright for the road.

^ This.

When I first got my super-duper off road lights a couple of months ago, I went for a local ride to get them set up. On the way home, there was about 1/2 mile of road, and I was really quite surprised that the few cars I met swerved towards the hedge and braked to a halt as I approached. I was revelling in the sense of power they gave me, so when I got home, I wanted to experience teh awesomez power for myself. I propped the bike against the fence and walked out in front of it with the lights still on (two solar-storm X2s on low or medium power): It was just ridiculous. I couldn't see anything in the direction of the bike - I couldn't even look in that direction. The bright pin-points of light made it impossible to look past the bike, even from 50+ yards away. If I were driving, I would have no option but to stop. (There's nothing special about the lights - it's just the way it is.)

What surprised me more was how much I had to point the lights down to avoid this effect. As set up for off-road riding, the lights were pointing down a bit, anyway, but to avoid being dazzled, I had to aim the lights at the ground about 8 feet in front of the front wheel. There was still enough light spilling forwards to ride perfectly safely, but you could also stand in front of the bike and actually make sense of what you were seeing.

FWIW: I'd really recommend going out on a dark night and trying the same thing, just to make sure that your light is noticeable without dazzling oncoming traffic.

Light on your helmet is brilliant off-road but down-right inconsiderate and stupid on the road as it will just dazzle anyone in the direction you are looking at. Get it on your bars and point it in a way it illuminates your path not into the windscreen of approaching cars or faces of pedestrians.

Bright flashing lights at night are also silly IMO.

Flashing light in day fine.

Dimmer flashing lights as markers along with a brighter fixed light to see where you are going - fine.

As someone else mentioned shining a light on yourself while wearing reflective gear is brilliant. Also one of the best examples of lighting I have seen was a cyclist with lights on his bike, legs, arms and rucksack.

I have my light on the right side of my bars next to my shifter angled down and to the left so it puts its main spot from 0 to 10-15 foot in front of me. So not only is it not pointed at windscreen height but not pointed in the direction of the oncoming lane.

If I am on unlit country roads I will increase the power setting when no oncoming vehicles if I feel I need to but will turn down again when oncoming vehicles approach, it being nay bother as it's close to hand.

An intereting topic for me. In the gran scheme of things here, I am on the bottom of the road hierarchy here.

I have my solarstorm set on flash and angled so I can see it reflecting off signs. I know it dazzles drivers, motorcyclists, buffalo riders, street dogs, but I also know they don't have an excuse not to see me.

So far, touching my morning woody, people have stopped when pulling out onto the road, and others can see me. I haven't tried riding without it flashing yet, to see whether or not they do ignore me.

The only person who has ever complained in person was another expat cyclist when I was on holiday, who told me I had dazzled him. He got all red faced when I said I didn't really care as long as he and everybody else on the road had seen me. He tried the 'it gives people the wrong impression bollocks' but this is Thailand, nobody gives a shit about cyclists,

Problem with the not caring so long as the other road user can see you approach, is they may be dazzled enough to end up crashing into something, if not you, then someone else, who may in turn crash into you or someone else gets injured or killed.

One of the guys who passes me on my commute has lights angled up, and others flashing like Blackpool illuminations. It's all so bright, I actually find it quite disorientating, so if I find it disorientating, then so does the guy coming toward you in a ton of metal quirrel.

Best of luck with that.

Flashing light on helmet ? Seriously ? Are you trying to cause an accident ?

I use a MaxxD when commuting, mix of unlit rural towpath and urban roads into city centre.

I angle it down and keep it on low (600 lumens apparently) on the road, unless the traffic is heavy when I'll use the flash to stand out from the vehicle headlights. Having it pointed down isn't the best angle when I'm miles from lights on the towpath but 1200 lumens deals with that. Then I just dip it down and/or shade it with my hand when she someone comes towards me. Seems to not cause any offence.

I know it dazzles drivers, motorcyclists...

You forget that other people use the road. Other cyclists, pedestrians crossing... anyone could be put at risk because your lights are dazzling/distracting the driver of a vehicle. Why can you not just wear hi-viz clothing to make you stand out? Do you really have to make life difficult for other people?

I don't understand why lights flash for visibility on the road. As a driver i find it harder to "read" where the cyclist is when the lights flash.

Combine that with the OTT power of off road lights and i'm not surprised the op is getting complaints.

I ride with a guy that uses his 6 pack exposure on em road angled up, he thinks "great, everyone will see me" problem is, they can't see him as the light is too bloody bright! I think I'd rather not have drivers coming towards me with their eyes shut as they've been dazzled.

Also flashing lights alone, WTF. It's so hard to pinpoint a moving flashing object, the drivers may have seen that there's something there but they can't tell where it is. Useless.

I have a Hope District rear light pointing downwards slightly and an R4 pointing down and to the left, as per a car or motorbike. Drivers generally give me lots of room, especially over taking as I suspect they think it's a motorbike they're passing.

All these people saying that helmet lights are stupid on the road, you clearly dont commmute in built up areas. Having a light high up on your head is a massive benefit to allow you to be seen over the top of parked/stationary cars when your handle bar lights are blocked. Of course high powered or flashing lights are inconsiderate but saying all helmet lights are pointless is far from the truth.

I have a joystick set to lowest lowest power and tilted down with a micro red eye on the back, i am sure it has stopped many cars from pulling out of side roads in front of me as i pass parked cars.

Bright Strobe lights should be banned imo, they give no indication of how fast a cyclist is going to a car. Its very difficult for drivers to track a moving object when it is strobing/flashing. A flashing light should always be paired up with a constant imo.

Bike lights ARE NOT AS BRIGHT AS CAR HEADLIGHTS. These stupid drivers don't realise this

Someone needs to comprehend the difference between lumens and lux. It's the lux that dazzles. Unfortunately the lux varies infinitely throughout the beam pattern and the total lumen is a nice easy figure to print on a box so we almost exclusively use that. Car headlights have much lower maximum lux in their beam pattern (when dipped) than dense high powered modern bike lights.

On road there is no place for a bright helmet light imo - guaranteed to dazzle. And who wants the operator of a ton or 3 of metal travelling at speed towards you unsighted? Put light on your bonce to make yourself seen (I've got some awesome little red lights that are all wired together and sit in my rear vents on my helmet that are really effective - not sure if they make them any more) is great, but not something powerful enough to see by. Flashing mode on a modern joystick is too bright sighted on your head imo & I'm not sold on flashing lights in general.

I have always found the angle of the beam on bar mounted lights is a really critical setup - angled too far down and you struggle to see far enough up the road, too far up and you just blind all the cars. I'm not a fan of my bar mounted mtb specific lights when riding on road, even on their lowest settings, as they are just too floody without enough centre punch. Set them up with they angle far enough up to light the road ahead and you just can't help but blind oncoming cars. Curiously however the joystick makes an excellent [b]bar mounted[/b] road light with a centre specific beam pattern which can quite easily be tuned to light the road but not blind the driver.

My vote = Don't use an excessively bright light unless off-road, ie when it's the only light source by which to see the trail, and point this toward the ground ahead of you / flashing lights are warning signals for emergencies, in every other situation use a constant beam, even if this means you have to change batteries a little more regularly.

It's not a car vs bike issue, bright lights in the face endanger other cyclists and pedestrians. And enough RTAs occur in daylight to make clear that no matter how visible you are on a bike this doesn't guarantee somebody seeing you.

Two nights ago a cyclist coming toward me on a cyclepath dipped his stupidly bright light so it didn't blind me, and I said Thanks, and he said No worries. And for a little while everything was good in the world.

[/won't make any difference]

Two nights ago some lunatic of a cyclist tried to run me off the cycle path because my light (Solar Storm on medium) was allegedly too bright.

This was on an unlit cycle path, and he was using a crappy low-power flashing job that was barely functional.

From this I deduce that the world is full of idiots and you're never going to make them all happy, so just use whatever light works best for you and don't worry about it.

Oh, and I'd want to see actual accident stats before I was going to worry about dazzled car drivers rather than just wild surmise.

Oh, and I'd want to see actual accident stats before I was going to worry about dazzled car drivers rather than just wild surmise.

I think that if people are politely asking cyclists not to dazzle them with excessively bright lights, that's a pretty good indication. But yeah, we are living through the age of over-reaction.

From this I deduce that the world is full of idiots and you're never going to make them all happy, so just use whatever light works best for you and don't worry about it.

I thought it might help your deductive reasoning if you read that back to yourself.

i never have my light on flashing mode, it irritates the hell out of me, so i know it does drivers.

Two nights ago some lunatic of a cyclist tried to run me off the cycle path because my light (Solar Storm on medium) was allegedly too bright

Have a word with yourself. Or maybe as suggested above, set your bike up, walk down the path a bit and then look at how bright your lights are. There is absolutely no need for that sort of lighting power if people are coming the other way. My solarstorm is switched off on cyclepaths. Riding at night on my local paths and it is amazing the number of numpties who fail to realize (or maybe care) how anti-social they are being.

 

Five people have said it's too bright.
Not one old whinging bloke.
OP, change the light (or at least stick it on the bars pointing a bit down) before you cause an accident.

Offroad lights when used on road should be at lowest setting and not flashing and pointed down with main beam(light pool) about 10 feet in front of bike .Anything else is just stupid/selfish.

Just point ya light down abit that's what I do so I don't blind drivers ..
I do use the lezne pro on my helmet flashing my mate moan that it's a bit bright as well .. 😯
Plus a cheap as chips ebay one on the bike be seen stay alive ..
I use Mtb battries 2200 lumen on my bar and just use it on low .. Don't get flashed or moaned at by drivers

Exposure should do a double ended version of their flash/flare for road use I reckon - pulsing rather than flashing and not as bright as a joystick.

How are we supposed to assess 'too bright' exactly? It's totally subjective.
And taking feedback from drivers isn't really that reliable given how many give feedback along the lines of 'you shouldn't even be on the road'...

How are we supposed to assess 'too bright' exactly? It's totally subjective.
And taking feedback from drivers

Oldnpastit, of road lights on a cycle path really are a pain in the arse for riders in the opposite direction. In addition to all the points about focus and pin-point sources above, there is generally less ambient light so your eyes are adjusted to the very dark, and because the path is narrow you are effectively riding dirctly at them, not at an angle.

I genuinely can't decide what annoys me more on my commute, unlit or massively over-lit. Both increase the chance of a bad accident IMHE.

Still going ...!!! Argh... Angle and dip your lights on the road, that will do it. Plus as a cyclist & a driver there is nothing more irritating than flashing front lights. Keep the flashing stuff on the back where it is more effective and just be aware of all other road users in terms of how you set up the front lights.

modified saferide ? Is that to stop stray upward light ? What have you done ?

b2flex driver so that it can run off an external Li-Ion battery, driving the LEDs at 1A rather than the standard 0.7A, so a little bit brighter too.

The stray upward light is a little annoying, but because they're narrow slits of light I figure that they'll only be in peoples' eyes momentarily, and they're not that bright anyway.

I saw a few commuters before Christmas who seemed to be setting their light horizontal on the bars, dazzled me on my bike and in the car coming the opposite way on several occasions, seems to have given up on cycling for the new year though so my retina might yet recover.

flashing or steady the deciding factor seems to be the angle you set it up at more than simply the brightness of it...

For reference I keep mine on constant aimed at a point about 1m past the front wheel, not had any complaints yet and can still see where I'm going.

Does anyone know which lights in the uk are or are close to being German regs compliant?

I used my bright off roaders for a bit and had quite a few cars pull out in front of me, in every case just as I got close to them? I thought it odd as I had no problems with my old bar mounted joystick. Repaired the joystick and problem free ever since?
On the bars just pointed down. My off roaders on low 350 lm are silly and light up too much.

I've always thought it strange we can do whatever we like with powerful lights.
Cars fail their MOT if they're not correctly adjusted.

Oh and solid rear light at night, converted after audaxing.

All these people saying that helmet lights are stupid on the road, you clearly dont commmute in built up areas. Having a light high up on your head is a massive benefit to allow you to be seen over the top of parked/stationary cars when your handle bar lights are blocked. Of course high powered or flashing lights are inconsiderate but saying all helmet lights are pointless is far from the truth.

I agree with that Buzz. A light on your helment that allows you to be seen = brilliant. A light on your helmet that you are using to see stuff = bad for other people, especially directly in your line of sight.

A light with a front white and rear red light would be a great addition to most cyclists lighting.

I remember a cyclist in Long Ashton last winter. I was following a bus and he was coming the other way but his light was so powerful the bus driver had to stop and I could see why when he got past the bus and shone it straight into my windscreen.

It seems that we look at the windscreen area and blind drivers?

A light with a front white and rear red light would be a great addition to most cyclists lighting.

Just having a front white light and rear red, in one light or two, is the basic legal requirement and few satisfy that.

Though a single helmet light in that fashion used on its own is unsuitable as if you turn your head you suddenly become invisible. If it's not illegal, it's downright dangerous.

Static red rear light in my opinion. Optional flashing or pulsing in addition. Static bright front white light, never flashing, and deflected down and towards the kerb. Helmet light off or tilted to the left with oncoming traffic. If it's actually a road ride I might consider an additional but low power flashing light on the helmet. Enough to be a noticeable flash but not enough to light your way, and then a decent one on the bars to light the way.

Wouldn't have thought a Mk7 joystick was in 'too bright' land in terms of output, but in terms of location/aim it could well be. Try angling it down a tad.

On another note, one of the bus companies in Sheffield has outfitted it's fleet with boy racer/Range Rover style HID's, which are truly night vision destroying if you're in a car and the bus is right behind you thanks to the wonders of mirrors. I look forward to them sorting that out.

Seems to me cyclists can't get anything right,

Of course they can. Put the lights on you bars, on low, aim them down slightly and don't put them on mega strobe. Easy.

Slow strobes don't do anyone any favours. They're not on long enough for people to track your movement, and the blind the shit out of everyone else (drivers, cyclists, peds etc). The last thing I Want to do to the driver of a 2 ton killing machine is remove their ability to see.

Some people might not be affected by it, but I definitely am, so bear that in mind!

I use one main light on steady and smaller flashers for visibility. On the back I used to do the same but I've been using my cateye on very rapid flash cos I think it's fast enough to allow movement tracking.

POINT. IT. DOWN!

According to my audax mate we should have reflectors fitted. If that is the case and we don't use them, I don't then bleating about not being seen is a bit off, also something about light height?

I have been dazzled by a cyclist to the point I struggled to see where I was going.

When I'm cycling on the road I have my light on low and angle it down. I don't want to blind a driver to the point he can't drive safely.