A question for roadies

[RobynE]

I’m talking about daytime lights, yes.
 

They make a massive difference to me as a driver, and because I know this, we always ride with lights. They aren’t even big lights.

 

When we ride at night, we use our proper night lights (such as Extreme Lights) so that we can see where we’re going. Riding in the dark with a flashing light isn’t going to serve much purpose in terms of lighting the riders way. 

 

But during the day even a low lumen flash improves visibility massively whether the bike is heading towards you from the front or you glimpse the flash in one of your mirrors or even the reflection in your window. 
 

You can get a small light and mount it anywhere - even on your fork, or the front of your helmet (most of them come with rubber straps). One of my best lights is half the size of a matchbox and weighs just about nothing. It lasts like 10 hours on flash mode and charges in 1 hour. You can even get cheap (but ugly) solar lights that you never have to worry about charging. 

I’ll see a group of 10-15 roadies, maybe half will have rear lights and not one will have front lights. I don’t see it much differently to riding without a helmet. It’s just a cheap way to mitigate risk. 
 

[RobynE]

People on their phones is a massive problem, true, but I definitely know that if I’m headed towards you with flashing lights, you’d have had more opportunities to have noticed “something” than if I was just a shape. 

[DieselnDust]

Never leave home without it. I have 2 so it’s an easy swap out.

garmin variants the back. It’s an older unit but works flawlessly for 6hrs before the battery needs to be charged.

 

[karma]

...funny how this is addressed to roadies...did you mean, cyclists who ride on the road, with all types of bikes, or specifically road bicycle riders? 🙄

[NC_lurker]

I don't leave home without lights front and back. As it gets darker again in the mornings I'll have two front lights, one small flasher on my fork (to be seen) and a more serious (to see) light on or beneath my bars. I also try ensure I never wear dark tops unless I'm starting mid-morning.

However having said that, the times I've been hit by motorists have generally seen them coming from behind and turning through me.

I feel better with loads of lights & definitely feel it's the right thing to do, but like others have said I'm not convinced how effective it is again the inattentive, couldn't give a toss attitude of the common SA motorist.

When I commuted daily by motorbike I had an orange lens cover & low mounted spots, again whether it made a difference is debatable but at least it made me feel I was doing everything I could to mitigate some risk.

 

[Titleist]

49 minutes ago, sirmoun10goat said:

To everyone saying front lights make a difference, how was this conclusion reached? Everytime you made it through an intersection unscathed, did you stop and ask the approaching drivers if the lights made the difference?

 

It doesn’t matter if you are visible if drivers have a no care about cyclists attitude 

I see when they see the light. I’m a motorbiker as well so I’m tuned into “reading” drivers

[The Ouzo]

I've definitely seen the difference when I commuted. The days that the read light was dead, I had more close passes than with the rear light flashing.

Also from the front, those drivers that are not distracted by cellphones definitely give more space.

 

Having said that though, there is a short section of road where I need to turn right at the traffic light, it is dual carriage both directions with a painted island separating the oncoming from the other side. Because this road is sometimes busy, its not easy to cross from the far left to the middle in order to turn right, so I generally ride on the painted island in the middle.

There have been enough occasions where an oncoming car has started moving over onto the painted island heading directly for me, only moving back when I raise a hand.

So front light is no guarantee, but I feel is certainly does help

[cadenceblur]

The bontrager flare front light is small but powerful and can fit nicely under an out front mount.

[ChrisF]

2 hours ago, sirmoun10goat said:

To everyone saying front lights make a difference, how was this conclusion reached? Everytime you made it through an intersection unscathed, did you stop and ask the approaching drivers if the lights made the difference?

 

It doesn’t matter if you are visible if drivers have a no care about cyclists attitude 

 

For me when DRIVING, it makes a difference as it is easier to spot cyclists.  Especially flashing lights.

 

 

 

As a cyclist .... I have had distracted drivers pull out right in front of me, while I had two flashing front lights.

 

Lights help, but it is up to the driver to pay attention .... yea I know .... 

[Murrob]

I absolutely believe that flashing lights during the day make a huge difference. So both mtb and road have Garmin varia  lights front and rear. I ride fairly set routes in the week and I can see the difference on the odd occasion where I did not have lights. I do note that the rear varia does seem to have a moth to the flame effect with some motorists who for no reason that I can fathom actually pass closer on sections of road where I am on the shoulder and head back to the center of that road after having past.

I don’t agree that the colour of the kit makes much of a difference, but keeping in mind there are reflective pieces on shoes, zips, bibs etc which reflect light quite sharply which is good, otherwise we need to ban all dark coloured cars also no? 

[ChrisF]

31 minutes ago, Murrob said:

.... I do note that the rear varia does seem to have a moth to the flame effect with some motorists who for no reason that I can fathom actually pass closer on sections of road where I am on the shoulder and head back to the center of that road after having past.

.....

 

Yes ....

 

 

I experience this regularly.  Both with the Varia and the Bontrager.  

[RobynE]

The clothing colour is also a daytime observation, as the reflective bits aren’t seen. The colour doesn’t matter but it’s really not easy to make out a daytime rider wearing black, with no lights, on an overcast day, on tar, with a dark or shadowy backdrop. Easier on a bright and sunny day or against a lighter backdrop, of course. I definitely see a rider in red or yellow or orange before I see one in black. 
 

If I look at publicised occurrences of riders down, they mostly seem to happen during daylight hours. I’m sure things happen after dark as well, but I’m specifically speaking about “us” who ride bikes for sport and entertainment and not as our sole method of transport, and who make a choice whether to use lights or not, not because of financial reasons but because we don’t want to 🤷‍♀️ 

 

Again, just my observations and own curiosity and it’s great to hear other people’s views and experiences. 
 

I myself have lights, and backup lights, and backup lights for the backup lights 😂 So we always have enough lights charged to head out for a few hours without worrying about going dark. 

[RobynE]

I have also noticed people passing impossibly close with a rear flashing light. Some people are just muppets I guess and get an obscene sense of satisfaction from being dooslik. 

[gerriemtb]

Strange enough I also noticed this "moth to a light" effect when my flashing rear light is set on maximum brightness during the day. When I tone the brightness down it is as if the cars stay wider. This is purely anecdotal and perceived  - would be interesting to see of there are scientific studies done.

[SwissVan]

2 hours ago, gerriemtb said:

Strange enough I also noticed this "moth to a light" effect when my flashing rear light is set on maximum brightness during the day. When I tone the brightness down it is as if the cars stay wider. This is purely anecdotal and perceived  - would be interesting to see of there are scientific studies done.

On a similar vein….There once was a discussion  on this here bikehub forum….with a link to a scientific study backing it up, about motorists riding closer to cyclists who wore helmets and further from those who wore no helmet. The theory was that cyclists with helmets were more experienced and likely to keep their line compared to wobbly inexperienced cyclists without helmets.

Or maybe it was the other way around 😂

[SwissVan]

6 hours ago, SoloCyclist said:

VERY poor excuse....... these front lights are not that big

Ja nee swaar, but it happens.

I use a knog front light on my handlebars, not to see where I’m going (I try not to cycle at night) but incase I plow into some idjit pedestrian / motorist who couldn’t be bothered to follow the rules of the road. For what it’s worth at least I can show the polizei that I made an effort to increase my visibility.