Super Bright Bike Lights: Annoying? Arms race?

Is it just me or are some of these front bike lights getting more and more annoyingly bright and blinding, to the point where it's rude to other bikers?

First we had 500 lumens.  Then 750. Then 1000.  Now 3000 lumens. I get that you want to illuminate the road and alert others to your presence, but I feel like it's getting out of control.

It's like when you're driving a car, and someone in oncoming traffic is driving with their brights on -- it's widely considered rude, it blinds oncoming drivers, it's dangerous, etc.  A lot of times drivers will blink their lights at someone who's driving w/ their brights on, as in, "Hey dude, turn off your gdf'n brights!"

I commute on the Lake Front bike path, and when someone comes up with one of these blindingly bright lights, you can't look directly forward and you have to look away, which is a bit dangerous.  Also, b/c the light is so bright, you can't see anything behind that biker.

Again, I do get that you want to have some light, and certainly something so that other bikers and cars and pedestrians can clearly tell you're there, but these lights are getting TOO bright.

So what do you think, are these ultra-bright lights obnoxious, or are they just fine?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on January 7, 2012 at 6:26am

+1

Plus I can run my headlights FOREVER -as well as have strong modulatable brakes right up to lockup on the front wheel.

Safety is paramount.  I often run my lights all the time -being seen is staying alive.

Duppie said:

My own safety is paramount. I have an 800 lumen headlight, and I will use it if I need to. Get used to it. I keep it pointed downward.
There is another advantage to high powered lights: they have increasingly longer run-times on lower power settings. I can run mine at 200 lumens for 5-6 hours. And mine is a 4 year old led. The latest batch can run at the same brightness for 10 hours. That means I have bright light that I only need to charge once a week
Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on January 7, 2012 at 6:29am

No problems here. You keep it pointed down and do not blind others. The morons who point their bright lights in others eyes are the problem.

Duppie said:

My own safety is paramount. I have an 800 lumen headlight, and I will use it if I need to. Get used to it. I keep it pointed downward.
There is another advantage to high powered lights: they have increasingly longer run-times on lower power settings. I can run mine at 200 lumens for 5-6 hours. And mine is a 4 year old led. The latest batch can run at the same brightness for 10 hours. That means I have bright light that I only need to charge once a week
Permalink Reply by S on January 7, 2012 at 7:01am

I think it's a combination of people thinking more is better and using lights intended for those riding MTB trails in the dark.  I don't think people realize that using lights that intended to let you go down a twisty trail at 20+ mph aren't the best thing for riding around in the city.  

It's a shame that the LBS or store that they get the lights from doesn't tell them that the lights will seriously annoy or are potentially dangerous in urban environments.  

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on January 7, 2012 at 7:06am

I don't think anyone is complaining about people using bright lights as much as they are complaining about the people with really bright lights that are aimed poorly.  Having a wicked bright light that is aimed up instead of down at the surface of the road is similar to having your brights on in a car; it is not only annoying to others but it blinds them and makes things less safe for everyone.

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on January 7, 2012 at 7:07am

Righto.

notoriousDUG said:

I don't think anyone is complaining about people using bright lights as much as they are complaining about the people with really bright lights that are aimed poorly.  Having a wicked bright light that is aimed up instead of down at the surface of the road is similar to having your brights on in a car; it is not only annoying to others but it blinds them and makes things less safe for everyone.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on January 7, 2012 at 7:29am

Most of the high powered lights sold in the US (Lupine, Serfas, L&M, Magicshine, etc) have symmetrical beam shapes, which even when pointed at the ground, will still leak a great deal of light above eye level. These arn't really fit for LFP trail use, more like a one-way offroad trail. Here's a shot of a symmetrical beam, you can see that even though the hot spot of the beam is about 15ft ahead of the bike, there's still a shitload of light going up in the trees (or other trail users eyes).

There's only a couple battery powered lights with a beam pattern with that keep most of the light on the road. The only ones i can think of are the Phillips Saferide, and a few others by Busch & Muller. The choices are much better  if you're using a dynamo powered light. Here's a picture of the beam pattern of the Saferide, you can see the sharp horizontal cutoff. When aimed properly, this light will be a lot more friendly to other trail users.

Permalink Reply by Kevin K on January 7, 2012 at 9:48am

Thanks for posting these screen shots.  Yep, you can tell that top light is really for one-way mountain biking, riding out in the middle of the country, situations like that. It's not for riding on a path with lots of oncoming bikers.  That light also isn't something that can just be tilted down slightly to fix the problem.

And, obviously, if you're an oncoming biker, that light would be obnoxious as hell.


Kelvin Mulcky said:

Most of the high powered lights sold in the US (Lupine, Serfas, L&M, Magicshine, etc) have symmetrical beam shapes, which even when pointed at the ground, will still leak a great deal of light above eye level. These arn't really fit for LFP trail use, more like a one-way offroad trail. Here's a shot of a symmetrical beam, you can see that even though the hot spot of the beam is about 15ft ahead of the bike, there's still a shitload of light going up in the trees (or other trail users eyes).

There's only a couple battery powered lights with a beam pattern with that keep most of the light on the road. The only ones i can think of are the Phillips Saferide, and a few others by Busch & Muller. The choices are much better  if you're using a dynamo powered light. Here's a picture of the beam pattern of the Saferide, you can see the sharp horizontal cutoff. When aimed properly, this light will be a lot more friendly to other trail users.

Permalink Reply by Minh on January 7, 2012 at 10:57am

Obviously we got a bunch of communists in this thread that want to control what lights people use even if they are blinding everyone around them. Pffft...

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on January 7, 2012 at 11:03am

Like former-dictator Kim Jong Il -ever see a photo of North Korea from space?

Communists HATE lights!

Permalink Reply by S on January 7, 2012 at 11:28am

The problem is a lot of the bright MTB lights will shine into oncoming rider's faces when they are properly aimed.  The lights are designed in part to shine upwards and illuminate stuff that's head height so that you don't get whacked in the face by a low branch of something similar on the trails.    

Cameron Puetz said:

Agreed, it's not the bightness, it's the aim. A properly aimed light will do a great jump of lighting up the road ahead without blinding oncoming people. A light that is aimed to high will blind oncoming people and not do as good of job of lighting up the road. Peter White has some articles about aim.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/plight.asp



Kelvin Mulcky said:

ultra bright light are fine, as long as they are aimed properly. there is a common belief that annoyance = safety

see: Philips Saferide, IQ CYO, Edelux, etc.

(Hope i don't get flamed for this like on the blinky lights/bike myths thread)

Permalink Reply by Michael J Blane on January 7, 2012 at 11:41am

1+

James BlackHeron said:

I guess some people don't want to carry a decent light on their bike and would rather ride around in the dark as a ninja.

Some of us want to SEE where we are going and don't want to depend on cars seeing us without decent lights  It's a safety issue.  If you are depending on your night vision to see as you go and when someone passes you who is utilizing an effective light source it ruins your night vision  you are probably being unsafe.

Either that or you need to see the eye doctor. 

Permalink Reply by Michael J Blane on January 7, 2012 at 11:52am

I always ride with my rechargeable LED light turn on, don't know the lumens.

Center of beam hits the road about 2 car-lengths in front of me and about 3' to the right of center. It's full-on bright for my 5:00am ride to work (westward on streets, not LFP) during daylight hours it's on flash.

I like the idea of motorists seeing me.

--

I remember from my drivers' ed classes (in the '60s) that if oncoming lights were to bright, you were to watch the right side of the roadway; not looking at the lights. It helps some, and keeps your irises from constricting as much.

--

"Communists hate lights" hahahaha

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