Sunday, July 26

Night Disadvantage

Visibility to overtaking road users just isn't as good. The 2.5 foot width, and height as much as the tallest SUV shrinks to just that rear "superflash" light. Ironically, Glade seems a bit nicer - somehow the single lane with the median isn't as intimidating at night as during the day, though the headlight seems irrelevant. If anything, motorists are even more polite, which is a LOT better than if they were drunk...
Posted by Steve A at 10:03 PM
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3 comments:

Lyle said...

If you really want to be visible from the rear, get a couple of 3" (or 4"!) round red SAE reflectors and mount one on each side of the bike. If you want even more brightness, use yellow instead of red, bearing in mind that it might not be "technically" legal.

July 27, 2009 at 8:01 PM
ChipSeal said...

Say Lyle, reflectors are really only effective to be seen by overtaking and oncoming traffic. They are particularly ineffective for crossing traffic. for details see: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/reflectors.html

July 28, 2009 at 5:13 AM
Steve A said...

You won't get any of those SAE reflectors from a bike store because they just carry the lousy CPSC ones. RV places are the best - auto parts places don't seem to have a lot of reflectors that work well on bikes. The yellow SAE IS legal as long as you also have a rear facing red light or reflector. As Lyle says, yellow is brightest.

ChipSeal is completely correct that reflectors don't do much for crossing traffic other than illuminate the cyclist in the last quarter second before impact. Don't be IN that spot...

For even better stuff, see:
http://cycledallas.blogspot.com/2009/05/lets-cut-cr-and-get-real-data.html

July 28, 2009 at 6:44 AM

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