Date: 12-11-25  Time: 21:03 pm

Author Topic: Dazzling bicycle lights  (Read 7937 times)

YamFazFan

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Dazzling bicycle lights
« on: 20 November 2014, 07:13:16 pm »
Has anyone else noticed the current trend for mega-bright bicycle lights?.I'm seeing them more and more now with the darker mornings and evenings.Dazzling is probably an understatement,especially when they are mounted on the riders head (which also seems to be the current trend) and operating in flashing mode :eek.

red98

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #1 on: 20 November 2014, 07:24:24 pm »
Yep...see I few on the way to work....very bright and  pointing straight ahead.. :wall.....about time cycles were regulated.faulty or incorrect headlamp aim on a car or bike would be a mot fail.....did see one guy the other week who had one but he pointed it straight down so he lit the road around him...saw him a long way off, very effective....anothe one that bugs me is the flashing lights.very diffacult to judge their speed and distance........

darrsi

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #2 on: 20 November 2014, 07:32:05 pm »
Fog lights on cars.......when there's no fog.......what's all that about?  :rolleyes

fazersharp

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #3 on: 20 November 2014, 07:45:55 pm »
Yes very bright, yes very flashing, BUT you do see them and that's the whole point isn't it. out there you have fog light twats-- HID boys, ever brighter ever bluer, stupid rangerovers with patens of lights, gits retro fitting strips of leds - on the piss and with the odd one blown already, its an arms race out there fought in light.

YamFazFan

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #4 on: 20 November 2014, 07:51:31 pm »
I regularly ride a bicycle with standard type lights and I guess the superbright front lights wouldn't be such an issue if they were dipped,but it's when the beam is heading straight into your eyes! :rolleyes

red98

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #5 on: 20 November 2014, 08:02:47 pm »
Fog lights on cars.......when there's no fog.......what's all that about?  :rolleyes






yep....thats another thing that winds me up.......Iam an old foccer , passed my car test at 17 and been driving ever since, including big miles for work.so,32 years driving , on average possibly 10,000 miles a year...thats a lot of miles....only use rear fog lights once, in a heavy downpour just outside southampton......why , oh why do I see muppets using them around town ,30 mph limit with street lights.......... :wall

Hedgetrimmer

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #6 on: 20 November 2014, 08:08:07 pm »
Tune in to another episode of Grumpy Old Gits next week, when we'll be discussing drivers on mobile phones, and why can't they make a packet for biscuits that you can get them out of without crushing them all to crumbs.... :lol

YamFazFan

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #7 on: 20 November 2014, 08:11:54 pm »
Tune in to another episode of Grumpy Old Gits next week, when we'll be discussing drivers on mobile phones, and why can't they make a packet for biscuits that you can get them out of without crushing them all to crumbs.... :lol


 :lol :lol :lol

red98

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #8 on: 20 November 2014, 08:13:59 pm »
Grumpy, old ......ive only just started......taxi drivers, bus drivers, skip lorry drivers why should they be able to drive without a licence .........and why dose the milkman who gets in my way every morning think he can stop anywhere without warning....... :grumble :grumble :grumble :grumble :grumble

dazza

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #9 on: 20 November 2014, 08:19:11 pm »
Middle lane hoggers and anyone who has ever put on their fog lights in a heavy downpour sending lines of red streaks across my line of vision. :D
 
 
Hang on a minute, is that why they call you red ? :)

Hedgetrimmer

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #10 on: 20 November 2014, 08:19:23 pm »
and why dose the milkman who gets in my way every morning think he can stop anywhere without warning....... :grumble :grumble :grumble :grumble :grumble


Well, he......no nick, best stop there  :b

NorthWestern

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #11 on: 20 November 2014, 08:25:33 pm »
I was behind a "mod" last night filtering through rush hour traffic.  He was just hogging the "filter lane" not wanting to go down it because he had about 50 mirrors arranged on the side of the bike...  I assume he saw me in one of them but he wouldn't yield and move inline with traffic to let me past!

fazersharp

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #12 on: 20 November 2014, 08:31:15 pm »
+1 on the skip lorry drivers I think that they just hate life, taxi drivers have different speed limits to everyone else.
AND another thing -- gits that sit at the lights with their foot on the brake also blinding me.
Sat navs -- hate em it was once illegal to have a tv/ vid in the front cabin space of a car so how on earth have these crept in and HOW focing come if you have a chip in your screen within a certain area then its an mot fail yet I see some little cars with a massive sat nav  smack in the middle.

red98

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #13 on: 20 November 2014, 08:55:19 pm »
Smokers in cages flicking ash out of the window when iam following on the bike......same can be said for cagers washing there screens........ :grumble :grumble :grumble :grumble :grumble

darrsi

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #14 on: 20 November 2014, 09:02:20 pm »
I was behind a "mod" last night filtering through rush hour traffic.  He was just hogging the "filter lane" not wanting to go down it because he had about 50 mirrors arranged on the side of the bike...  I assume he saw me in one of them but he wouldn't yield and move inline with traffic to let me past!


Maybe he saw 50 of you in his mirrors and was bricking it?  :lol

Dead Eye

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #15 on: 20 November 2014, 09:07:14 pm »
Fog lights are definitely my gripe... we've had a fair bit of it recently, but only today has it warranted there use imo. It was pretty bad, very reduced visibility such that at a usual safe (2 second) distance from the car infront (50-60mph A roads), they were already beginning to disappear. A few miles up the road in the town, where because it isn't surrounded by open fields, the fog limits visibility by about as much as some light drizzle yet all the stupid town bastards have their fog lights on for no reason other than to blind everyone behind them.

Those I followed from the rural roads turned their fog lights off once it cleared... (well, most of them) its all these god damn idiots who have never driven out in to the countryside a day in their lives because its too scary or intimidating... arrrgghgh... rant.


I actually had someone on the M4 a few months back around J15 (Swindon) with their fog lights on... because it was dark. I mean there was literally no fog, no rain, it had been a nice clear day so road conditions were fine and visibility was perfect. Not only this but they were also a middle lane hogger - surprise surprise. So, being in my car, I over took them, sat in front of them and continuously flashed my own rear fog lights at them until they got the point...

darrsi

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #16 on: 20 November 2014, 09:39:25 pm »
Had a lorry driver empty a whole flask of tea/coffee at me out of his window once, then started gobbing for good measure!


Had kids gobbing on me twice before too, and had apples and fireworks launched at me.....bit rude!


It's taken me a long time, but i now realise that people do genuinely wash their windows and the water can only go backwards so i really don't think it's intentional when you get a soaking. But it has literally taken me many years to come to that conclusion, and now i don't growl so much.
There was an old boy in a stationary car at traffic lights last week and he kept on and on pressing the washer button but no water was going anywhere near his car, the jets were totally misaligned.
Unfortunately one was aimed at my visor, and after about 40 seconds of him spraying water straight at my face i just started laughing, i actually found it quite amusing, as did the driver to my right.  :lol

dazza

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #17 on: 20 November 2014, 10:18:31 pm »
My rear washer on my car has been broken for year's and I've had so much fun with it squirting tail gaters, traffic wardens,  cyclists,  miserable,aggressive women drivers who I happen to be in front of and any one else who deserves it really.

His Dudeness

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #18 on: 21 November 2014, 02:55:33 am »
Have had the windscreen washer in the face a few times. hmmm fairy liquid taste :lol Flashing rear lights on bicycles are really distracting. I think they make it harder to judge how far away the bicycle is. Anytime I'm on a bicycle I leave the light on solid red.

Dave48

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #19 on: 21 November 2014, 05:53:07 am »
At least these cyclists are displaying lights! So many I see(or nearly dont see) have no lights,dark clothing,complete absence of anything reflective and thats justthe pavement/footpath riders.
Pet hates?? All those previously mentioned especially private hire taxi drivers who operate outside any known rules of the road, school run Mums in Range Rovers,BMW X3s/5s,Qashkais (however you spell that stupid word!)
Particularly detest middle lane hoggers & lane 3 tailgaters,mobile phone users, sat-nav dependent morons who look at anything except the f****n road, drivers/passengers throwing fag ends,banana skins you name it out their windows.
Drivers with badly adjusted lights or driving with blown bulbs,tossers with illegally spaced letters/numbers on their licence plates pathetically trying to spell their name.
F*****rs who stop at lights and while fiddling with phones etc allow their vehicles to roll backwards then creep forwards.
Idiots who block entrance to side roads/junctions when stuck in queues of traffic.
in fact virtually every category of road user from jay-walking pedestrians with suicidal tendencies(-smart phone glued to ear-oblivious to traffic etc from young kids to Mums with kids in buggies-even hells granny types! to foreign truck drivers who think theyre still driving in some East European country.
Im  a grumpy old foccer too but while I dont trust any of the aforementioned at least Im still alive to tell the tale! :eek

Hedgetrimmer

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #20 on: 21 November 2014, 07:17:35 am »
Think you got everyone there Dave.

/thread.

 :lol

Lez72

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #21 on: 21 November 2014, 08:11:45 am »
Think you got everyone there Dave.

/thread.

 :lol

Not quite everyone. I find the coach drivers that dump piss from the overflowing lavatory built up from a 10 hour mystery tour with the blue rinse brigade particularly offensive when I'm travelling behind it at 60mph  :wall

Dave48

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #22 on: 21 November 2014, 08:17:26 am »
Think you got everyone there Dave.

/thread.

 :lol

Not quite everyone. I find the coach drivers that dump piss from the overflowing lavatory built up from a 10 hour mystery tour with the blue rinse brigade


particularly offensive when I'm travelling behind it at 60mph  :wall


Havent (fortunately!) experienced that particular treat yet,Lez  :eek

fazersharp

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #23 on: 21 November 2014, 08:33:37 am »
Farm vehercals that dump loads of mud on the road from their deep tyre treds.

Twats that speed past you on a dual carriageway that has just been re surfaced and shower your paintwork with their stone chipping spray.

Teenage drivers who always seem to sit/ lean to one side while driving

Drivers who before turning left violently swing out right first

maddog04

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Re: Dazzling bicycle lights
« Reply #24 on: 21 November 2014, 10:48:40 am »
ah...........the old cyclist thread raises its ugly head again :lol
those who've been around the site for yonks will remember many arguments about the lycra clad bastards who do this that and the other and generally piss everyone off :lol
I'm one who uses these newer bright cycling lights and I appreciate they can dazzle and the trick is to angle them so they don't ( other than pointing at the floor then its a hard call) but the alternative from the moaning brigade has always been that yer lights are crap or yer have no lights and either way we can't see you
you must have a fixed light (constant) by law on a bike but the flashing ones do catch the eye and in a day and age where everyone is cutting each other up then I'd deffo advocate having both types on a bicycle
Its like the old argument of a motorcyclist being in the right on the road but getting wiped out.........Judge....the motorcyclist had right of way and done nothing wrong but is unfortunately dead because he held his line instead of moving over.......
I try to be as courteous to everyone on the road no matter who they are but my pet gripes are tailgaters, cars with one blown headlight with the other on highbeam (come on Police, get a grip please) and middle lane hoggers