Cycling in Sydney Australia
Dazzling from super bright and high frequency headlights
A bike rider crashed and was seriously injured on the Harbour Bridge Cycleway recently, after he was dazzled by the high intensity strobe headlight of an oncoming rider.
A good set of lights is important to see and be seen, but to avoid dazzling your fellow riders and other road users, high intensity headlights should be attached to bikes not helmets, and their beams aimed at the ground 10m in front. If using flashing mode, the frequency should be no more than 4Hz.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mark Heydon on -
Hear hear.
And while we're on lights, how many people are now riding around without lights? The frequency of riders without lights seems very high at present.
They fully deserve what is coming their way, if you ask me. Nearly hit a lightless rider the other night as on a dark, rainy night they were invisible until the very last moment.
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Permalink Reply by robflyte on -
do they deserve it? what of pedestrians with black umbrellas in dark areas just around corners or walking near bushes, do they deserve what is coming their way?
on a bike, in a car, maybe just slow down.
On dipping lights, please do. I guess we need some German type regulations so we don't get lights dumped onto our market that shine in all directions, there is more to designing a light than just whacking an LED into a parabola.
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Permalink Reply by PeterT on -
I guess we need some German type regulations
Sounds like an opportunity for AS/NZ standards!
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Permalink Reply by Neil Alexander on -
For a moment I thought that said "an opportunity for NAZI standards".
But then I realised no-one would mention the war.
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Permalink Reply by Trevor on -
Thats wot ticks me the most about the MHL, you cant cant get a legal WW2 German helmet for a bicycle :)
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Permalink Reply by Jason B on -
If the government of NSW would like to provide a completely pervasive cycleway system that allows me to travel to any destination without having to ride with holden commodores, taxi drivers, couriers, tradies in utes and sundry other halfwits, then I'll happily adopt a piss poor half assed german legal light. Until that time they can go **** themselves.
As far as the harbor bridge cycleway is concerned, its underwidth, and has been made further underwidth by an insane fencing project, and said fencing is of the handlebar grabbing type. ie if you make a 10cm diversion because you are dazzled, you are about to have a big one. Just as people occasionally have big ones in the middle of the day on the exact same cycleway without being dazzled.
note my mount easily allows me to aim my light both down and to the left for crossing the bridge.
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Permalink Reply by PeteFine on
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>> a piss poor half assed german legal light
Have a look at this article.
http://blog.dutchbikebits.com/2011/12/top-quality-bicycle-lights-fo...
It seems you can have the best of both worlds.
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Permalink Reply by Jason B on
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60 lumens is hopeless.
The ability to detect a light is proportional to the distance away from a brighter light source, and the relative brightness. 60 lumens will have a significant number of degrees gap between it and a car headlight where it will be invisible, which is a great way to get yourself right crossed at an intersection.
For onroad in australia, 400 lumens is more appropriate.
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Permalink Reply by back street boy on -
Where you point it is really the problem, not the output. A correctly aimed 400 Lumen light is not going to cause anyone any problems. Car headleads are in the 700- 3000 lumen range.
My main objection with the German lights is the cost. You can get a18650 torch from china for about $10 these days. They are nice and bright for commuting, rechargeable and if it gets flogged (or you crash) it is only a minor inconvenience. I've not priced B&M recently but expect it would cost significantly more.
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Permalink Reply by robflyte on
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A lot of time and money is spent in designing vehicle lights and testing them before they are allowed onto our roads. A 10 dollar light? Well ok if you point it out of others eyes and know they don't have a lot spread that blinds even when pointed down low.
In a test by Bicycle Quarterly the lumotec iq cyo at 60 lux had good enough spread for Jan to ride down a winding road at 80 kph without feeling he was riding blind. The light spread is wide but not high so you can see around corners but not blind oncoming drivers. That is what you pay for. -
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Permalink Reply by back street boy on
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Martin, the B&M's are not that expensive then and might be worth a crack next time in need a set of lights. The dynamo is a bit of an investment though, especially when you have more than one bike.Crown mount sounds like the goods too.
Optically the 18650 torches seem to perform much light an AYUP or any other LED bike light with a cone shaped beam.
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Permalink Reply by Si on -
Well as much as anyone deserves to be injured.
The law says that when riding a bike at night on a public road or road related area you must have lights that are visible from 200M away. There is no such law wrt to perambulating at night.
As we live in a democracy the law can be seen as what society as a whole defines as proper and reasonable behaviour.
No more regulations please, though. The regs as they stand (as my synopsis above) is fine.
One has to ask though, why didn't the dazzled rider just stop? Not blaming them completely, but still.
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