Commuters – using offroad lights for the road?

Noticed recently the number of commuters on my route using off road lights at night to commute with has increased.

Well I assume they are off road lights, such as helmet lights and ‘mother, those are bright’ main lights.

Just wondering if anyone here has ever been stopped by the police for having too bright lights to commute with?

Anyone here prepared to put their hand up on here & say they do & have you had any hassel for using them?

I’ve never commuted woth anything more than a total of 350-ish lumens on my handlebar, but most of my commute features streetlamps: my lights are more about being seen than seeing where I am going.

I don’t think its the brightness of the lights (compare them lumen-wise to dipped beams on a large modern car), but the angles of them. Car headlights are dipped for the safety of other road users, I do wonder about the wisdom of a badly directed big light, or 500-odd lumens on your helmet and flashing all over the place. When I ride on the road to/from/during mountain bike night rides, I turn my helmet light off and just use the bar one.

Dip your light angle slightly if it’s a powerful one, common sense really.

I don’t have any off-road specifc lights or any road-specific lights. I just have bike lightsthat I move from bike to bike as required.

I also find a helmet light a good ‘attention getter’ on the road, aquick glance at the car about to pull out in front of you reminds them that you’re there.

And until I can afford (or even want) a setup that is as bright as that of most cars I won’t worry too much about the lumens that I push out.

If it’s a cheapo DX one you can change the lens to a more road freindly one.

This is something I have noticed as well, the worst offenders in my opinion are the ones that have the off road lights on flashing when on the road. I have even seen some on strobe which I think is particularly dangerous as it could affect someone else with epilepsy and cause an accident.

+1 paceman
I pass a couple on my commute and tehy are full frontal. Cannot see a thing.
I use a Diablo which has a handy mount that you can tilt on the move and it’s helmet mounted as well. I assume it’s still bright as cars still slow down.
I know Exposure do a tube thing to stick on the end but it’s diffuses the light to much,rather a clip-on lens.

I’ve said it before and, Christ knows 🙄 , I’ll say it again – really bright, “unlensed” lights on the road are definitely irritating and borderline dangerous IMO.

I drive on my commute and you can watch drivers’ behaviour change when a really bright bike comes the other way (they do slow down a bit but they also move further towards the middle of the road, presumably to avoid hitting the kerb, and often don’t (seem to) dip their lights.

If you want to be safe on your commute, shine a light on yourself. V small bright lights honestly look like a distant car/mbike if you glance at them (and you can’t look properly as they’re blinding) – why wouldn’t a driver pull out ?

The other issue with the offroad type lights is they have no side on visibility. a proper road light has . Its not just the brightness that counts – its the area that the light is emmited from and the angle the light can be seen from

a ping pong ball cut so it fits over the lamp would diffuse the light and probably make it safer

I was coming back in my van from doing some beamshots of a very bright light and had to pull over when coming the other way were a group of bikers with everything on I couldnt see owt cepting lights

so lit up my light and shone it at them funnily they all dimmed theirs straight away 😈

My light is only 250 lumens, but I tend to angle it down a bit and turn it down on the road. One the rare occasion I’ve come out to a road section and forgotten to dip it, drivers have flashed their lights at me.

When off road, as it is helmet mounted, I tilt my head to the side slightly if there are cyclists coming towards me along dark canal paths etc.

The downside of these lights is that side visiblity is poor so I tend to make sure I have something on the bars too which is visible from the side.

I do the opposite. Road lights off road. Exposure Strada has a lens that floods the trail and a spot for detail. It’s about 600 lumens on full, but not dazzling.

surely the flashing mode is for when an offroad light is going to be used on road? why would you want your offroad night ride light in flashing mode offroad? 😯

i personaly think a flashing light has more chance of getting you seen. i use my Strada in flashing mode on my commute plus two Knog frogs mounted on the top tube facing out to each side.

I use a light it goes on bike handlebars. It’s a bike light. The fact it’s a little bit bright on full is no different to a cars high beam IMHO. In fact I use it to get revenge on the arses who don’t dip their high beam. I have never had a drama with other road users as I don’t point it at their eyes.

Even my (by current standards puny) Hope 1 is too bright for on road use really, and as TJ says, you get almost no visibility side-on.

Haven’t seen anyone make a diffuser except Lumicycle and their ‘glow ring’ – have tried DIY but stuff either melts or gets dislodged 😕

Currently use the Hope for me to see, a couple of those squidgy Cateye leds on the bars for lateral visibility and shedloads of reflective bands.

If you want to be safe on your commute, shine a light on yourself. V small bright lights honestly look like a distant car/mbike if you glance at them

I have seen commuters do this too & its very effective, it certainly makes you stand out.

I think a lot of mtbers don’t realise just how distracting their off-road lights are. I commute on a cycle path, and if someone is coming the other way with an off-road light, I am completely blinded until they’ve gone past. It’s worse if the light is helmet mounted because of the angle.

I use standard commuting lights for road use, and only use my bright lights on unlit country lanes when no cars are approaching.

So I shouldnt be using my new Maxx-D on flash for commuting then?

if not why does it even have a flash function?

Hilldodger – what about a ping pong ball as a diffuser? cut a hole big enough to slide over the lamp? i keep meaning to try it infact I think I will go and get one today and report back

I’ve used “off-road” lights on the road for years and never had the police moan at me. But you do need to be sensible about it to avoid annoying people.

I always use two lights – one dynamo one (3W LED) that stays on all the time and I can JUST see by and another bright one with an easily-reachable switch. The bright one used to be a 15W halogen, now I’m using a Diablo. The dynamo light is a “proper” road light so provides the side visibility and doesn’t annoy people, the other one is for faster bits where there’s nobody coming the other way.

My commute is nearly all on unlit roads on the open moor, so the bright light is nice to be able to ride at normal speed without risking hitting animals. If somebody comes the other way I used to turn the halogen light off – with the Diablo I switch it to minimum power, which doesn’t annoy people (it’s pointed down a bit anyway).

A Strada would be better on the road really (obviously), but I use it as a helmet light as well and can’t justify having two expensive lights.

If I had my Diablo pointing straight ahead or on anything other than low power when people are coming the other way I’d certainly deserve any abuse I got, TBH! It’s very capable of being very annoying.

I use a Maxx-D on the road, on full, angled downwards. Never had any bother from anyone. Got stopped by the police recently for running a red light – they just told me off then one of them was asking me all about my light, said he thought it was great.

My commute is mostly streetlamp-lit (maybe a mile or so is unlit on a NSL road) but the quality of street lighting varies quite a bit throughout. When you add this to the sorry state of some of the road surfaces in Glasgow you do need a half-decent light ahead of you to ride at any kind of speed if you want to avoid smashing your front wheel into a square pothole.

I also wonder why Exposure built in a flash function – can’t see the point on such a powerful light.

I think a lot of mtbers don’t realise just how distracting their off-road lights are. I commute on a cycle path, and if someone is coming the other way with an off-road light, I am completely blinded until they’ve gone past.

This. If the path is along side a busy road and you are riding along it in the direction opposite to the traffic flow, it’s difficult to work out what is a car/a bike/where the edge of the path is/etc. This combined with the occasional DIY or ‘over-clocked’ electric bike steaming along at warp speed and there are a few sections on my regular route that I am considering avoiding until the sun comes up.

TandemJeremy – Member
Hilldodger – what about a ping pong ball as a diffuser?

would probably work on a skinny light but the Hope Vision 1 is bigger in diameter than a ping-pong ball – I’m trialling DIY glow rings to try and get forward throw as well as sideways vision, strips of milk carton ziptied around the circumference of the lamp work surprisingly well 🙂

I use the magicshine ‘mickey mouse’ light on low beam – only the ‘ears’ lit, which have diffusers on them, as well as a couple of road lights that are visible from the side on, doesn’t prevent car drivers from not look though…

I commute 15 miles each way mostly on narrow country lanes, I use a L&M Seca 1400 on my bars (angled down to light the road ahead best), on my way home there’s a fast descent (45+mph). 1400 lumens isn’t enough.

I use a Magicshine and a 20W Lumi halogen (as I still haven’t got around to convertig it to LED), lumi for leaving town, Magicshine when I’m out on the dark as hell lanes home.

I think people may over estimate how much the police know or care about bike lighting power. Just point it down a bit more if it bothers you.

I use a joystick mounted on bars, tilted slightly down to the ground on full as well as a road light on flash. The reasons for this are 3 fold.

1/ I commute along a two way cycle path for some of the commute which is on the pavement by the side of a busy road. The fact its by the road means that i also have cars coming towards me with headlights on which can make it difficult/impossible to see cyclists coming towards me with these “be seen” lights. Working on that basis anyone riding towards me would struggle to see me coming if i didn’t have a descent light on as well.

2/ Some of the cycle path is unlit so a good light is needed to light the way & see the dog walkers who don’t feel they need to be lit on a shared cycle path and quite often stand on one side of the path with the dog extension lead across the path while their mutts sniff along the otherside 😯

3/ I’d rather have a light brighter than i need than one where the “sorry mate i didn’t see you” arguement could be used. If they can see you they are less likely to hit you IMO.

I use my Joystick with a beacon diffuser on my helmet on my commute. Mostly on lit roads where I use the lowest setting and angle the beam at the road but I do use full power on the unlit sections. Looks a bit like a bedroom toy but gives good sideways visibility and with a fairly useable beam to see with.

I have a couple of Knog Frogs on my my bars set to flash to augment the solid Joystick beam.

I’m not sure there are any laws about the brightness of bike lights for the road, or where they are pointing. We probably don’t need a law anyway, as long as people are fairly sensible. I’ve struggled with the occasional cyclist with a monster off-road light coming the other way, but it’s not a regular thing for me, luckily.

My commute has a stretch on an unlit road followed by a small off-road section. I use a B&M Ixon IQ road light, mounted low down on the fork crown (it’s a CX bike), where its beam spread (and cut-off) works really well. However, on the off-road bit it’s not great as there’s less side and up lighting, plus the light isn’t quite enough when the roads are wet and you’re being blinded with cars coming the other way.

So I’m thinking about getting a DX light or similar which I can switch on and off (or high and low) when needed.

Maxx D on the road here. Flashing mostly but high beam is also useful for encouraging drivers to drop their beam. Both flash and high are also useful for shining through their back window when someone has pulled yet another ridiculous overtake 5 yards before a set of lights.

I also have a cheapo flashing LED on the bars because the maxx can;t be seen very well from the side.

Never had any bother with police and the only people who seem to have an issue with it are the ones I target.

If they can see you they are less likely to hit you IMO

If they can’t look at you, how are they going to miss you ?

they (I, on my commute) can’t see you at all – just a point source of light that’s so bright it’s hard to look at so they (not me, I’m a biker and so I know what it probably is) don’t know how far away it is or how fast it’s moving

I commute along a two way cycle path for some of the commute which is on the pavement by the side of a busy road. The fact its by the road means that i also have cars coming towards me with headlights on which can make it difficult/impossible to see cyclists coming towards me with these “be seen” lights

Me too. The car lights are far less distracting than off-road bike lights.

my commute is 16.5miles and apart from some of the first few miles at the beginning it is unlit.

Currently using a pair of ayups, one on the head and one on the bars, having both is useful in that i can look around look directly at drivers, look out for the inevitable pot holes and light up the front of the bike.

This is suplimented with some tacx bar end things, so at least i know i always have a backwards pointing light because i can see these. I have been caught out with rear lights going flat mid ride. Just point the lights down slightly and that solves most issues,

As an aside drove in this morning and thought of this, i have noticed it a few times.

What i am finding anoying is 4x4s which by design have the lights at a higher level almost having a main beam on all the time!

one on the head and one on the bars

Just point the lights down slightly and that solves most issues,

which by design have the lights at a higher level almost having a main beam on all the time!

❓ 😐

I commute on a cycle path, and if someone is coming the other way with an off-road light, I am completely blinded until they’ve gone past.

According to guidance by the DFT shared-use or off-road cyclepaths should have street lighting for exactly this reason. Without a powerful light you can’t see where you are going or have any chance of seeing pedestrians, but use one and you dazzle other people.

Has anyone got any reccomendations for a good non-dazzling light. Already know of the Strada.

Someone needs to make a ‘hood’ to go over the light and stop the light from being projected up, which happens even when they are angled downwards.

I use Hope Vision 2. Doesn’t have the brightness of some of the ridiculous things people have now.

Works well, never been abused for it. About 50% of my commute is on unlit roads. If any car has flashed me I don’t notice (cos I couldn’t give a monkey’s)

I use a Troutie 2000lumen job on flash. Just point is down a little bit so its not too dazzling.

Never been pulled over, but have had plenty of comments from pedestrians. I dont care though, better to be moaned at then mown down.

Someone needs to make a ‘hood’ to go over the light and stop the light from being projected up, which happens even when they are angled downwards

I’ve experimented with making a little “peak” out of thin plastic and holding it on with an elastic band. Mostly for when it’s misty (most of the time here) so you can have the light on without the stray upward spread reflecting back so much. Would probably help with reducing dazzling as well, but I still wouldn’t run the Diablo on anything more than minimum with oncoming traffic even then.

Never been pulled over, but have had plenty of comments from pedestrians. I dont care though, better to be moaned at then mown down.

I can’t imagine why pedestrians don’t think too highly of cyclists…

I use both bar and helmet mounted ay ups for commuting in town. For roundabounts, I find the helmet mount is useful for making drivers aware of me and hopefully not pulling out in front of me. The same goes for traffic coming from side roads who I always assume aren’t bike aware.

The other reason I have the helmet mount is for pedestrians who whenever I am signalling then turning right on green into West Nile Street in Glasgow invariably go for the red man dash right in front of me. I got fed up with them expecting only cars to be turning into the street. As I don’t have orange indicators like a car, flashing my head mount into their faces is the only solution I’ve come up with that works.

I suspect the police will be more interested in folk who ride without any lights at night. There is nothing quite so baffling as the lack of common sense of someone on a bike in dark clothes without lights on a rainy night with headphones on. 😯