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I suspect it’s because of the development cost/tooling cost of a bespoke lens/reflector design. A conical reflector is massively simple by comparison & are probably just nicked from other light products like torches etc.
That may be the case for the bazilion lumen explodey chinese lights, less of an excuse for the likes of cateye making 1700 lumen road lights. Stvzo dynamo lights go right down to <£10.
After all theyre a legal requirement in germany, so why aldi sell non stvzo lights is confusing, they must sell the good stuff in Germany surely?
Yet no one (appart from now exposure for £300) makes an all in one light with dipped and main beams which is what id actually like.
Any one had any experience with these?
I like the idea of the 'windmill' mode- a light that is moving and drawing attention to itself, but is not flashing or strobing.
Looking for owls and bats.
You jest but I was out last night and I saw an owl flying about 4 feet above and in front of me (and about a million bats). Stray light going upwards made my night!
There should be a standard
I'm still thinking about amber reflectors for pedals. Does anyone know of any decent reflective amber sticky tape? I reckon I could stick some of that onto my pedals. It wouldn't work very well, but would make my bike legal.
Planet X have something similar: https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/LIJO3WROF/jobsworth-3w-ring-of-fire
I've had mine for about a month and I'm happy with it.
**** em! I want to be seen and not crushed. I go out like a Blackpool tram day or night, but......my off road lights are for the MTB, and never used on the road. Yes there are cyclists out there with no lights or inappropriate lights, but there are far more motorists with the same problems, and in a tonne and a half of metal,far more dangerous to us all.
I have amber reflective tape on cranks and pedals of my bikes. Just bought off eBay
If you're fork has canti-bosses, you could easily attach one of these.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163867033791
They've got a hole at the front to (with some bodging), mount a front light, angled right down on the road.
You could then mount some lower power flashing lights on your bars.
And if you really want to be clever, one of these will mount onto that front rack (take note of the size). Somewhere to store your battery pack or tools?
Roswheel Road Mountain Bike Bag... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074P1B62G
Yet no one (appart from now exposure for £300) makes an all in one light with dipped and main beams which is what id actually like.
Totally agree, at the moment I have an old 300 lumen cateye pointed at the floor and a joystick as my main beam. The joystick long press to turn off is annoying and I'd much prefer an all in one solution. The only review I could find of the exposure solution is on road.cc and wasn't very complimentary, it didn't even mention the dipped/main idea so maybe they didn't get it?
Cougar – the only reference I can find to the BS states ” under reveiw” Cycling UK agree with me.
The BS standards only apply to steady lights. Flashing lights were approved for use a few years ago and don't require a BS standard because there isn't one. Somewhat perversely, so long as you have a blinkenflashen light fixed to your bike (front and back) that flashes more than once per second, you can stick up any old headlight you want and you're legal because of the presence of the flasher. It's something of a loophole.
THC #60:
“At night your cycle MUST have white front and red rear lights lit. It MUST also be fitted with a red rear reflector (and amber pedal reflectors, if manufactured after 1/10/85). White front reflectors and spoke reflectors will also help you to be seen. Flashing lights are permitted but it is recommended that cyclists who are riding in areas without street lighting use a steady front lamp.”
TL;DR - the law is out of date with modern lamp technology.
Nearly every bike I see is technically not legal as they don’t have amber reflectors on the pedals. Does anybody know of a way of putting reflectors on modern flats?
A little while back I was knocking up a pseudo-hybrid from a Decathlon Special MTB, I wanted something that was as close to road-legal as I could get it but wouldn't toss me in the canal if I took it down something uber-gnarly like a canal towpath.
My MTB has DMR pedals which I love, so I asked on STW whether anyone knew of anything similar to the DMR V6 but which had reflectors on. Why yes, I was told:
https://www.bikester.co.uk/dmr-v6-pedals-incl-reflector-black-494256.html
A quick google would suggest that you can also get clip-in reflectors for their existing pedals too.
https://www.bikester.co.uk/dmr-v6-grey-741263.html
(I have no affiliation to or knowledge of this retailer, it was just what popped up in searches.)
BadlyWiredDog
Exposure actually now produces several STZVO spec lights:
True, but the cheapest one is £245 which is a bit too fruity for me.
I could get 2 IXON IQ Premiums with decent rechargeable batteries & still have £130 to spare.
Yeah, that's the nature of Exposure. To be fair, my experience is that their lights work and last - I still had a 2009 Joystick running strong last year before I gave it to a mate - and they fix them when they break.
I run Lumicycle off-road for the same reasons and again they've been unbelievably reliable and durable even with heavy use. The whole 'disposable' Chinese cheapie lights thing does my head in - how sustainable is it to run lights for a year then bin them and buy another one and repeat ad nauseum.
I think sometimes you have to define value as meaning a lot more than just purchase price. I also see good lights as an investment in being able to ride my bike over winter. And an investment in safety too.
If I was buying from scratch and had the budget, I'd definitely - as someone who rides on and off road - be looking at that dual beam pattern exposure monster. One of them with a remote switch would be pretty damn effective I reckon.
I use a load of rear lights some on solid some flashing. I use a flashing front light on my helmet and a solid bar mounted front light. Never had any problems. Cars see the helmet light's first from the front and they move when I look at a car.
just came this close to being wiped out by a car turning right across me, who fortunately saw me at the last minute and pulled an emergency stop, parked halfway across the road. At midday. Glad the road was dry.
Made me wish I'd had my flashing bloody light switched on!
Three pages and no one has pointed out the title's grammatical error. Standards are slipping.....
not my fault - it was a verbatim, letter-for-letter quote of the words bellowed from my Focus ST driving friend.
I would have included the furious response after I said 'no they're not' to him, but I couldn't transcribe the spittle flecks accurately enough. So it goes.
not my fault – it was a verbatim, letter-for-letter quote of the words bellowed from my Focus ST driving friend.
I would have included the furious response after I said ‘no they’re not’ to him, but I couldn’t transcribe the spittle flecks accurately enough. So it goes.
Fair enough!
BadlyWiredDog
Yeah, that’s the nature of Exposure. To be fair, my experience is that their lights work and last – I still had a 2009 Joystick running strong last year before I gave it to a mate – and they fix them when they break.
Well, the light I am replacing cost me about £80 in 2008 and is a cheap-ish Chinese light that was sold by Spokeshirts. So while Exposure lights are very good as is their customer service from what I understand, you don't need to spend Exposure money to get a light that lasts for a long time.
It's this one:
https://muddymoles.org.uk/reviews/onethelite-p7-led-bike-light-review
I also had Lumicycles for off-road, which I must have bought in around 2006, then converted to LED in around 2010. They still work, but the battery is massive (to be fair it lasts for over 12hrs on max power) but the LED conversion I did (3x XPG LEDs per lamp) is now outgunned by most decent LED lights out there.
thisisnotaspoon
Yet no one (appart from now exposure for £300) makes an all in one light with dipped and main beams which is what id actually like.
Apart from the Ravemen light that I have mentioned several times on this thread.
Here's a review to the 1200 version.
https://road.cc/content/review/221409-ravemen-pr1200-usb-rechargeable-dualens-front-light
The 1600 is erm, brighter & comes with a wireless remote.
As I mentioned before, I don't believe it meets the STVZO standard, but it looks like it does a damn sight better job of controlling the beam, than equivalent lights & you can easily flip between having just the dipped beam on, or just the main beam on, or both....
Th B&M IXON Space cost me just under £130 delivered from H&S Bike Discount in Germany. The output is quoted in Lux (150 Lux) rather than mega lumens so doesn't sound as impressive but is probably a better measure of useful light on the road. From tests so far the output is going to be more than adequate for fast commute on unlit roads. My old Philips version was 60 or 70 Lux I think and that was good for up to 15-18 mph on road. Only gone for a new light as the Philips is struggling to hold charge (know I could have put new batteries in but was looking for an excuse).
I hadnt spotted the Ravemen option when I was looking but think I would still have spent the extra £15 for something approved and known to have a beam cut off. (and the look reminds me of the creature from Alien)
Details of the light here: https://www.bumm.de/en/products/akku-scheinwerfer/parent/196/produkt/196l.html
Three pages and no one has pointed out the title’s grammatical error.
Pretty sure the very first reply did.
Apart from the Ravemen light that I have mentioned several times on this thread.
Doesn't look like the STVZO style beam in the comparison shots, if I point mine at the garage wall the light is almost a letterbox, with a bright center and a sharp edge at the top. It's only when you shine it at the road at a very acute angle that it forms a rectangle projecting down the road (not across it, what use is lighting the hedge by your shoulder?). Hard to describe but if you ride along a straight road the beam fades in a few meters ahead of your wheel, and sharply cuts off either verge and horizontal, i.e. the beam is actually tapered in at the top and also the brightest part so in the distance it spreads out to be the same width as the foreground and an even brightness. It's not just a flattened cone which still projects 50% of the light too dim to be of any use above the hot spot.
The downside is the beam does all sorts of weird stuff as you lean into a corner.
Here's an example. Note how the light down the road looks exactly the same as the light in front of the 'bike' (it's on a test rig, image from Peter White cycles).
Speaking of owls saw one too thanks to my unshaped beam. It caught something and then fluttered up to a tree.
[img] https://i.imgur.com/U3lmhXK.mp4 [/img]
[url= https://imgur.com/U3lmhXK ][img] http://i.imgur.com/U3lmhXK.mp4 [/img][/url]
If flashing lights are illegal, where are we on the daft scrolling / moving lamps of some cars now?
Sideway and down towards your wheel, absolutely. Well up onto the trees, nah, I’m not having that.
Surprisingly useful for seeing overhanging branches too.
Well, the light I am replacing cost me about £80 in 2008 and is a cheap-ish Chinese light that was sold by Spokeshirts.
Yeah, it's a bit of a lottery though. Arguably you struck lucky with that one. The thing with the likes of Exposure is that you know what you're buying. I'm not suggesting people must spend lots of money on s****y lights, but there are plus points to them if you can afford the price. And to be fair, I had a set of the MTB Batteries lights and they were great till I passed them on to a mate.
IMO if you want to be "safe" (other than from bastards or morons, that is), you need to look like a person, not a distant sun (because that can also look like a distant motorbike on full beam - "so it's fine to pull out"). I've seen this happen twice when I was a car commuter, once was the car right in front of me and he collected the cyclist across his bonnet, despite probably having burns on the side of his face from the power of the light.
If it's really bright and flashing, you've no chance of "placing" it properly as a driver and if you look at it, you'll be part blinded for quite a while after, when you'll probably collect any following cyclist.
I wear reflective clothing as far as I can and I use pretty weak flashing lights (but 3 to 5 of them on the back, depending how dark & filthy the weather). Nice German road-standard dynamo light up front has replace the cateye strada that regularly got me flashed at on my semi-rural commute, even when angled quite far down and it was only 800 lumen or something.
Was out with my daughter on a driving lesson the other night when the local chaingang came past the other way. There was nothing else for it, we literally stopped in the road & waited for them to pass - fairly shit on their part I'd suggest; I imagine they'd have been bloody cross if we'd put on the full beam and kept going towards them
My preference is to have at least two rear lights, one steady (B&M dynamo) and one flashing (LED). It's always good to have some redundancy in case one fails. I think British Standard compliance is a bit irrelevant, and I'm only interested in whether they get me seen, although I guess non standard lights could be used against you in the event of an incidental claim. I think the German standard lights are generally pretty good, particularly the front beam patterns. Some of their rear LEDs can be a bit weedy, and they don't do flashers.
I really dislike front flashers, and find them quite disorientating when I encounter then on a path.
Flashing lights are not illegal to use - but by a strict interpretation of the law they may only be used as a secondary light - you still need a BS standard light as well. ( or an equivalent)
Cycling UK have a pretty comprehensive article here:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/lighting-regulations
In summary, the police are unlikely to care what sort of lights you use as long as there is a white one at the front and a red one at the back, any technical "irregularity" in lighting could be used against you in court, but it's difficult to find any rear lights that are properly BS approved in the UK.
I've just got a Ravemen CR900 for commuting - it's basically an single cell (guess 18650) torch with a decent XM-L2 emitter, but it has a beam-cut-off which seems to work pretty well - I'll know for sure when the lights change and it's proper dark on my way home.
I went for a'road-only' light rather than the dual beam PR* models - I'll keep my MTB lights separate as the whole point is to have something that won't accidentally blind the oncoming traffic (on the road).
As far as pedal reflectors go, the law needs updating... I have WOWOW ankle reflector bands which perform the same function, are very cheap, and won't get smashed by pedal strikes.
matt_outandabout
Subscriber
If flashing lights are illegal, where are we on the daft scrolling / moving lamps of some cars now?
Indicators have always been a bit flashy, unless you want to start using wee flag things again
No amount of lights/reflectives/bright clothes etc will save you from a driver that doesn't look properly. The driver that got me didn't see two Hope Vision 1's and a light on 'pulse' in daylight, me dressed in bright red. Bit hard to stop when they just sweep a right in front of you.