CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Polite(ish) request - Head torches

(13 posts)

  1. Smudge
    Member

    Was reminded of a pet hate this morning... to those who wear head torches to see where they are going in the mornings;

    Please remember that to be safe, not only do you need to see where you are going, the oncoming cyclist does as well (or they may well collide with you)
    Please therefore direct your head torch downwards, ideally switch to lower power and (rant on) DON'T F*****g look straight AT me with your 20 gazillion lumen headtorch full on because if we collide you are going to need a proctologist to recharge your batteries you selfish bubbleheaded oaf!(rant off)

    These lights are very impressive, very useful when doing 20-30mph down a singletrack, or whilst dicing with the traffic on a winters morning, but tbh, unless used with a bit of care they are extraordinarily selfish and rude on a nice clear wide track in the half light of dawn (old railway since you ask).

    Just a thought.... ;-)
    S

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I was looking at basic headtorches in B&Q the other day, but I did wonder what effect they would have on people coming the other way. Anyway, for alerting cars my new beanie has reflective bits that shine most effectively in headlights.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. Smudge
    Member

    I like them, they can be very useful and I have a couple, (normal use ones not the off road specials) but most people put the centre spot of the beam a little higher than a position to match where they are looking in their normal standing/riding postion. Generally for cyclists, angled up so when they are leaning forwards it illuminates the track far ahead with the brightest part of the beam. What they forget is that most are not "pencil" beams so the spread of light can be quite dazzling and worse, when they "just glance for a moment" at another road user they blind the poor unfortunate for the length of time it takes their eyes to adjust. (If you are using a marker type light rather than an illuminating front light, up to 30 minutes!)

    imho (and only an opinion!), they should be adjusted as low as possible for routes where you will encounter oncoming traffic, using the outer front edge of the light pool for seeing the road in front of you and then, if you need to, you can glance up as desired to illuminate potential hazards ahead (hopefully without pointing it up into everyones faces. Where you don't expect oncoming traffic then adjust to your natural line of sight.

    Working (non-cycling) with a lot of people wearing head torches I quickly learned that 90% of people adjust them to point much higher than they need and spend the first night blinding everyone until they are impolitely informed what is likely to happen if they keep doing it ;-)

    All that said, I was astonished and appalled this morning (approx 0730) by the 6 or 7 cyclists heading along Slateford Road into town with either no lights at all or one feeble rear light :-(

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I've been amused and concerned by a number of these cyclists who fit the headlamp off a freight train atop their lid only to put nothing on the rest of their ride. Chap on a sexy (his bike, not him) white carbon Cannondale Six coming out of Canning St Lane was the most recent.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. druidh
    Member

    Bright light on bars / low power (flashing) torch on helmet. I like being able to direct the headtorch straight at (possibly) errant drivers, especially on side streets, to make sure they don't pull out in front of me.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. SRD
    Moderator

    "Bright light on bars / low power (flashing) torch on helmet."

    My strategy as well - especially good when you're going straight through an intersection and cars coming in opposite direction are tempted to turn across your lane (or at least it _feels_ safer).

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    This thread featured in today's Edinbuzzers Daily http://paper.li/Edinbuzz/edinbuzzers - stories picked up via mentions on Twitter.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. chdot
    Admin

    Not forgetting an earlier thread -

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=118

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. Kim
    Member

    Try think about where drivers are looking, think about the height at which most drivers are sitting and where they are looking. They are not looking at cyclist head height, so head torches has little effect on safety if you are wanting to be seen. There is no substitute for bright lights on the bike...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. spitfire
    Member

    "Bright light on bars / low power (flashing) torch on helmet."
    "My strategy as well"

    Ditto

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. Dave
    Member

    I'd have thought that a blinkie on the bars, main light on the head would be the way forwards - that way you can get good use from a dimmer light (because you can dynamically point it at things you want to see you, like cars in side roads).

    Then, when entering a "dark zone" (cycle facility) you could just switch off the headtorch altogether, and have your £1.99 "now you see me, now you don't" light to entertain oncoming riders.

    I happened to ride up the Innocent on Friday at dusk, and just decided to go unlit. However, perhaps a head-mounted light cannon would have been good, to flash oncoming traffic with! ;-)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  12. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I have a head torch for home use - never tried using it on the bike.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  13. Anonymous

    when it gets properly dark I use a Petzl TIKKA XP² head torch in addition to a reasonable Cateye bar light; for road sections I'll have the Cateye blinking and the head torch on low, but on the unlit parts of the towpath I'll put both on full beam, providing a decent combination of illumination in front of the bike and where I'm looking. the head torch has a flip up diffuser to spread the beam and/or I will try to angle my head to the side a little when someone is approaching from the opposite direction.

    Posted 14 years ago #

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