new bicycle light
 

Liked this idea:

http://www.revolights.com/

Great as position lights, but I would question the frontal spotlight's brightness over greater distance, since there are no lenses or reflectors to focus the light beams. You get seen very well, but whether you can see yourself the road 12 meters ahead of you , I doubt.

Unfortunately, I give this no chance to ever get a running license in Germany, since the German laws are extremely backwardly and tight on what is allowed for bicycles and what not. Many of the lights you have no problem to buy and operate in Britain or the US, you cannot get here or legally operate, though it might be possible that the local police would silently tolerate them, glad to see a biycycle with any kind of lights at night at all. But you cannot count on it. Formally , everything not fitting the most conservative description imaginable of what a dynamo-based bicycle light is, is verboten. Our rules on what brightness for bicycle lights is allowed and must not be exceeded, are basing on the technology of batteries and light bulbs from before the war. We speak a single candlelights brightness here. Modern LED front lights usually are allowed if they do not exceed 40 lux, but everything beyond 60 lux would get sacked if they do night controls (which here in Münster they do during autumn and winter, 1-3 times per season). The blinking or ultra-bright red flashlights you can get in the US easily, it seems, are totally forbidden over here. Also everything with LED connected to the wheels' spokes. It'S a shame, and shows a very backwardly mindset. There are some realyl great bicycle lights avalable, and also some beautiful light concepts.

If you ever do holiday in Germany and travel the tour by bicycle, your exotic light concepts propably get tolerated, just make sure that no blinking lights are involved. There are occasionaly bicycle controls done by the police, and while they let you away with "too bright" lights or lights that are attached to your cloathes (not allowed to replace a non-existent dynamo-based light directly mounted on the bike's frame), the one thing they totally hate and do not tolerate are any lights that are blinking. If it blinks, switch it to steady. Formally, lights are even forbidden that while being switched to steady mode still offer just the option to be switched to blinking mode.

:doh:

plem-plem, you know.

You have to understand that it's not to see where you go, but to be seen by others, such as drivers.

I remember a program were a officer said just that, in a danish program. The meaning of having a light on your bikecycle is not to see where you go, but that the drivers can see you.

Markus

Nice and cool bicycle light...bit UFO-ish.


:yep:

Rgr that http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...es/wolfcop.gif

Of course, getting seen - but also to see yourself! In cities, it is no problem with all the ambient light, but doing night rides myself outside the city, with zero ambient light I depend on having a good frontal spotlight as well - else I would damage the wheel quite easily when hitting a hole or a peak stone. When driving fast in darkness, on small paths between meadows and not on the streets, you need light, and over a sufficient distance so that you can react to holes, stone, etc.

I therefore use these, which I would always recommend again, they are a very solid allround-solution. The backlight is no tiny but bright dot but a 12 cm-wide bright bar with 2 LEDs and a prism, the front light is a 60 lux spotlight combined with an ambient light-sensor and a 4 LED position-daylight that also serves as a stoplight when sitting still. Sometimes it gives the impression of a flying lightcloud approaching you, that bright the daylight can be.

http://picture.yatego.com/images/42c...senso-plus.jpg


http://www.os-bikes2.de/WebRoot/Stor...-new03-600.jpg


When pulling an trailer, I additionally use this very bright eye-killer for it:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mQEHYVqUL.jpg
That thing is bright, really. Too bright in fact, it is a good idea to mount it such that the beam is directed to the ground, slightly. In Germany, I do not dare to run it in flash mode, it got me once into a longer conversation with a cop.

I remember when flashing LED lights first came out in the UK, late '80s IIRC, a couple of people got pulled for having them flashing and road safety campaigners were up in arms - our local Chief Constable went on the record as saying that he thought they were a great idea and advised his officers to be very lenient regarding them. I think, although I could be making this up, that he offered to pay any outstanding fines out of his own pocket - but like I say, not 100% sure on that.

The Revolights look good, but my concern is one that stems from my own current set of lights - they have a disc set back from the front lens to aid side visibility, but this shines right in my face - I've had to mask over the top side! All I could see was the light and not the road, not great for the country roads on my route home.

Further to the other lights, also being a car driver, I've been faced with a ultra bright bike light blinding my vision. Whilst being a cyclist I'd like them. :hmmm::-?:D

:agree:I've seen this video before, cool idea indeed.

The problem with bike illumination is the purpose: see yourself or be seen? While very high output designs are great for seeing they are a pain in the *** when you look at them. I remember that i had to drive a few kilometers down the kanal to get to work. In october this was quite difficult, since early in the morning it was nearly complete darkness. Those LED lights were cool to have, but never the less useless if someone is coming from ahead and has some of them too: we were both nearly blinded by each others light and nearly crashed.

Now i use up to three different types of lights: the standard lightbulb, doing nothing for me but since it's required :shifty:, a medium output battery powered device and for some rare occasions i even use LED headlamps.
I would really like to see the system from the video in use here, i think a lot of accidents involving bikes and cars could be avoided if these were used. And they don't interfere with other peoples vision.

Then you both had either bad lights with badly designed reflectors, or you did not have your lights correctly adjusted. A good reflector is part of the light, and it should give you a good separation between the light and the dark field of the brightness cone. I know the blinding effect you described, I happen to run into such idiots occassionally myself here, since in Münster we have extremely many bicycle riders. But it was every time a light cone adjusted too high when I ran into such a cowboy. The upper top of the light cone should never reach higher than a standing persons knee at lets say 10 meters away. That way it illuminates car's ID plates and "cat eyes" on poles or fences, but does not blind the driver sitting in a car. At best the ceiling of the light cone should run parallel to the surface of the tarmac, but it is even better if the height is slowly declining with distance. Bikes that blinded me I saw from the side and then could see in autumn fog that their lights reached 20° or even 30° upwards, instead of pointing downwards. Good reflectors like on those produced by Busch+Müller offer protection from such blinding effects when correctly adjusted. a light cone on a bike should NEVER point upwards.

That'S why they have separated the position lights and the searchlight on that light I have posted above. The reflector is offering the brightest and far reaching light, meant to illuminate the path ahead of you - and heck, it does, and focusses it as well. But if correctly adjusted, it does not blind you if you look at it from some meters away. The four LEDs below are unfocussed, they give the impression of a very bright "light-cloud" that illuminates the immediate 1-2 meters in front of you like with an old bulb light, but you do not get a focussed hotspot anywhwere. They do not reach far, but catch attention at dusk and dawn and on rainy or foggy days. The four LEDs attached underneath appear much brighter than the reflector's single LED, but the reflector in fact produces much m ore lux at a much greater distance.

However, these LED ologhts are not as bright as a car'S single front light, and since we pass cars all night long when driving in darkness without complaining about "getting blinded", we should not exaggerate the complaints. I would prefer to have a solution for my glasses when driving in rain, against car traffic. The water drops on the glass, the reflections from the car'S lights - now THAT is a serious viewing problem under certain conditions, especially when the bicycle trail is on the left side of the main traffic street.
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I wonder whether the revolights work properly on bikes with mudguards?

Yeah, that's the problem. Sadly, most of the time people don't care about this and just want to see what's ahead of them. In the incident described, i had the headlamp, which is always a little to high if you look far (naturally, it's on your head :doh: ).

greatest city in the world, not only for bikers :up:

this would be great for motorcycles

Electric Tron Lightcycle is Street Legal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuT4P70jNNk