Strobe as bicycle light

[bykfixer]

Far as strobing someone for strobing me?
Eh, live and let live. Life's too short to stay mad at stupid people.
Too many stupid people, man...you'd stay mad all the time. That's no fun.

For bicycle safety:
Reflectors and bright clothing works day or night.

You can buy reflector tape and put it on moving parts like crank arms for side view, several spokes as well.

White strips on your forks, head tube and handlebars, red on the rear of the frame parts and wear reflectors.

Vests with reflective stripes, strips of reflector stripes around arms and legs show movement, and if you wear a helmet, reflective tape on that.

Construction workers for night work wear vests and pants Stevie Wonder could see 100 yards away....day or night.

Me? I'd never rely on a battery powered object facing away from me as a safety tool. Not when reflective tape and strips are available in nearly any big box store.

Trouble is...those cyclists wanna look all trendy and cool in their logo covered spandex gear with the absolutely useless turtle shell helmets while riding carbon fiber death machines.

I have a neighbor like that. I asked why he isn't covered with safety yellow and reflectors...he says "reflectors, why?"...I retorted "I'll have your wife put that on your tombstone"...he now where's yellow spandex with reflectorized bands...

 

[5S8Zh5]

I have dedicated red blinking rear lights; hotshot and a thunderbolt. I only ride during daylight hours. If it annoys drivers, then I know they see me and have served their purpose. I know they see me, because many will move over to the left hand side of their lane when approaching, and a few times they change over to the outer / center lane. I see these behaviors with my take a look mirror on my glasses and watch them like a hawk.

 

[jmwking]

Most of the bike-store lights are not very bright. One of those blinking lights is about the same as a blinking light on a traffic sign: enough to get your attention/distraction, but nowhere near incapacitating.

My 12 yo rides to and from school near dawn several days a week. His back light is blinky while his front is steady. Neither are super bright. I figure he can avoid oncoming traffic, but needs overtaking traffic to notice him. Both groups may or may not have their own headlights on, alas. My wife borrows my zebra headlamp on the occasions she rides after dark, but she doesn't know how to find the strobe mode. And she aims it down to see the road. (Neither of them are as annoying as a car with HID going uphill towards me; I hate those things...)

I hope anyone who knows about - and spends for - really bright lights would be considerate enough to use them wisely and safely.

-jk

 

[more_vampires]

What? You need a permit to carry lights???

No, he used my "excessively bright light" as an excuse for stop and search after blinding me with his high beams while I was walking.

 

[Teobaldo]

Thank you very much for this thread. I really hate when cyclists use a strong STROBE while cycling on a bike. And I tend to see this more and more (in the Czech Republic.) These people are completely stupid, and don't understand what is the strobe mode for. I am cyclist by myself, but I don't ever use strobe mode while cycling. Especially not at night. Actually I have seen one cyclist recently riding in the oposite direction to me, and he was using strobe mode of some new Fenix flashlight... I had to scream at him, SWITCH OFF THE STROBE MODE IDIOT, BUY A REAL BIKE LIGHT!! Why I don't like it so much, is because it is really annoying not to mention dangerous to car drivers and other people. Strobe mode is a tactical mode of tactical flashlights and should be used only if necesarry in certain type of situations (emergency situations, tactical usage of LEO etc.) Not a bike light for godsake.

In my city is the same. Two cyclists told in a forum that a policeman scolded them for using the strobe. The law is unclear in that respect, however, once I came across a couple who wore very powerful strobes that bothered vision. Not to sputter in stupid arguments did not tell them anything. At night the strobe seems more annoying than anything else. When I am traveling at night, besides my flashlights, I use reflective in the body and the backpack (if I have). And, perhaps most important, it is to drive with care and caution.

 

[blah9]

I don't think I'd like to use a strobe light on my bike, but I do have a slower calm flashing mode on my bike-specific light that I think wouldn't be a problem. Sometimes I'll use that mode during the day to help with visibility, but if it's dark I just use a solid mode.