The 'rest of the crowd' have told you. So please stop being anti-social and aim the light down. All you are doing is giving another reason for car drivers to have a go at cyclists.
Why do motorists get annoyed when...
- Thread starter Harold Kumar
- Start date
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The 'rest of the crowd' have told you. So please stop being anti-social and aim the light down. All you are doing is giving another reason for car drivers to have a go at cyclists.
Harold Kumar
New Member
- Location
- Mile End, London
The reason I posted was I didn't know that pointing the light at the road ahead could cause such offence to motorists. And I didn't know the thing about pointing the lights down was the way forward and effective. Maybe I will just use it at constant as somebody else suggested.
RiflemanSmith
Senior Member
- Location
- London UK
Nope it has a battery pack but I have numerous pen lights that do and are LED like other people have said due to low power consumption they are still very bright.
I just bought an LED upgrade bulb for my minimaglite and that only uses two AAA but you wouldn't like it shone in your eyes.
MrJamie
Oaf on a Bike
Rest the bike or the lights up somewhere and have a walk around, see how they are. I've got one of those cheapo 'be seen' AAA lights in a kinda diffuser lens and it's not at all offensive, but the T6 lights on flashing/strobe mode should probably be illegal. Definitely worth checking if you can dazzle yourself with it, so you know to be careful 
RiflemanSmith
Senior Member
- Location
- London UK
I have two one on blinky for being seen and another on steady if I need it on an unlit Road which is seldom in London.
Harold Kumar
New Member
- Location
- Mile End, London
I live in London too but see every other cyclist with blinky's. Perhaps these lights can be doubled as steady as and when needed?
Harold Kumar
New Member
- Location
- Mile End, London
Rest the bike or the lights up somewhere and have a walk around, see how they are. I've got one of those cheapo 'be seen' AAA lights in a kinda diffuser lens and it's not at all offensive, but the T6 lights on flashing/strobe mode should probably be illegal. Definitely worth checking if you can dazzle yourself with it, so you know to be careful
Just checked it now and it seems hardly "blinding" like others have suggested. Like I said if it was blinding how come on constant nobody is bothered? It's the flashing bit that's causing such outrage, perhaps?
RiflemanSmith
Senior Member
- Location
- London UK
Yeah the ones I have 3 modes blink, steady bright and steady dimmed, I only really use one light on blink.
coffeejo
Ælfrēd
- Location
- West Somerset
What time of day are we talking about, btw? Night/dusk, day? Gloomy / rainy?
And what's the light?
Harold Kumar
New Member
- Location
- Mile End, London
Hi, it's a light I got off Dx.com for $3 - hardly blinding by any stretch but will put it facing down as others suggested to see if there's a difference. During the day I don't use the blinkys it's only in the evening I do when it's not raining as i don't take the bike out in the rain. Thanks.
Harold Kumar
New Member
- Location
- Mile End, London
In Mile End, mate.
OK...Know it well. What part?
shouldbeinbed
Rollin' along
- Location
- Manchester way
HK There is a difference between a flashing light and a constant one, just ask an epileptic. Flashing lights don't allow your eye to become used to it the same way a solid light does so appears more intensely blinding & annoying.
Pointing down doesn't mean facing it at the ground, it means angling it in such a way that the full focussed beam is not pointing directly into the drivers eyeline, it can be an almost imperceptible change to its angled position on the bike to make quite it quite significantly more comfortable to oncoming motorists. When you look at these things, you need to be sat at driver level and a w**ker sign distance away so you are seeing it in the same context as those who are (supposedly) making gestures at you are.
It may help to get someone with a car to drive towards you out on the road whilst you have your light on flashing mode and tweak the angle with their input, then repeat this driving towards one another until they tell you that you are visible without being annoying.
Pointing down doesn't mean facing it at the ground, it means angling it in such a way that the full focussed beam is not pointing directly into the drivers eyeline, it can be an almost imperceptible change to its angled position on the bike to make quite it quite significantly more comfortable to oncoming motorists. When you look at these things, you need to be sat at driver level and a w**ker sign distance away so you are seeing it in the same context as those who are (supposedly) making gestures at you are.
It may help to get someone with a car to drive towards you out on the road whilst you have your light on flashing mode and tweak the angle with their input, then repeat this driving towards one another until they tell you that you are visible without being annoying.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Worst are the cyclists who have one of those *loody lights that throw out about a million lumens strapped to their helmets. Usually MTB'rs up here coming off the Fells late.
Dangerous they are.
Dangerous they are.
