Driving is always a very stressful experience for me and lately it has gotten so much worse
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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chapotraphouse
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LED lights revolutionised cycling here in the UK. Back when I started you'd go through 4 D cells a week. And the incandescent bulb was shit. Utter, utter shit.
Then about 20 years ago LEDs came on the scene and suddenly drivers could see you. And I know they saw me because they'd lose their marbles over the light (I always checked my angle/brightness with my brother sat over the bike - if Icouldnt see his body/arms I knew I'd be in trouble). Hilarious that drivers here moan about unlit riders (still many) yet they crawl over the line into the bike box to shout at the lit riders..
USB recharging as made bike lights even better. The LEDs made the light last 10-20 hours. The lithium gave you 2-3 weeks of riding in some cases with no loss of light.
If you're on an unlit bike path (most around heredont have street lights) then yeah, you do need those lumens. But the issue isnt the lumens, its those with helmet lights shining them into others eyes. Or badly positioned lights. Or buying Magic Shine off-road lights from ebay/amazon etc and expecting those to be suitable.
I'm not against LED lights on unlit roads out in the sticks, I'm against using them in the middle of a big city. It's be like taking those big outdoor lights that some trucks have and mounting them on a Volkswagen Beetle that the owner uses to go to the shops a few times a week. It's not what they're meant for and using them like this actively endangers you and everyone around. My issue is with people buying these off-road/country road lights for their inner city bike.
But thats down the regulation/enforcement. Without that you're never going to fix the problem.
Okay? I'm not talking about fixing the problem, I'm just complaining about something that frustrates me.