CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Same dude as last time, I was hoping he'd be on here so I could discuss it without having to stop, but I guess not.
I'm not sure if he's just a sensitive soul but none of the hundreds of people I've passed in the last two weeks have taken umbrage and just to make sure I checked with my phones spirit level, it is about 7 degrees from horizontal. So yeah not perfectly adjusted but if this dude is a newbie he's going to have a real problem cycling with one hand over his face come November.
When cycling near Doune last monday on the B8032 a single lane road with very few a cars a car stopped telling me to dip my lights. I have a Cateye 800 volt. Does this really required dipping? It lights verge well but in respect of beam wondered if should have gone for the 1300 after buying it.
I would say yes, dip light down to left. Can be blinding. 800 used to be very blinding. Now just blinding.
I would say yes also. On the grounds that a: 800 lumens is more than enough to blind someone, and b: If a driver is going to stop his car to speak to you in that fashion I would give them the benefit of the doubt and accept taht they do have a problem with your light*
* Not guaranteed to be a 100% reliable guide. (but folks really do seem to be unable to accept quite how bright modern bike lights actually are.)
Two ultrabright unshaped beams on the WoL this morning going east. First was a person I've seen about before... lots of long curly reddish-brown hair springing out from their hat and a gruffly negative reaction to a request to point their light downwards.
Ever since Xmas the canal path has been full of folk with crazy lights. Guess loads got them as presents or in the sales. Even had a pedestrian with a super bright torch shining it directly into on coming cyclists eyes. I presume they had got sick of the situation and decided to 'give some back'. Could end badly for him when someone can't see where they are going and ends up ploughing into him.
I've given up and returned to the roads until my commute can be completed in daylight.
Nearly came a cropper twice this morning, once a bright strobing light totally messed up my distance perception - between the pedestrian and the less irritatingly light cyclist I just had to come to near hault till the strobing moron passed.
Other one I was about to pull out round a ped when I realised the super bright light a safe distance away was completely obscuring the oncoming cyclist with a more modest light much much closer.
Five out of six cyclists stopped in front of me on Leith Street this morning had blinking lights, one of them uncomfortably obnoxious. These people must surely look around them and realise what kind of people they are?
I think there is an arguement for using some degree of blinking lights when on the road where there are lots of other bright lights from cars, shops, etc.
I was cycling down Blackford Ave last night behind a cyclist with a fairly standard non-flashing rear light, and I was taken by just how invisible they were as they followed behind a line of braking cars.
I tend to stick on some brighter flashing lights on the road when I feel it is required. I sometimes also put on the helmet lights if I feel that oncoming traffic wouldn't be able to see me over parked vehicles or at junctions.
One of my front lights annoys me when it is on flash mode... so I don't run it on flash if I can help it. But sometimes I want to because I like to have a light on flash and the other light I pair it with is even more offensive... I only use that one on flash in daylight...
The trouble is, you buy a light in a shop or over the internet, you have no real idea what it looks like in real life. I don't suppose my annoying light is that bright really but I don't know.
And then you mount your light on a cylindrical handlebar and expect it to stay pointing exactly where you put it.
And then you get drivers ranting about invisble cyclists so you want to make sure you are not one of them.
I encounter very bright lights occasionally.
They have never been more than a very temporary annoyance though. I've never been blinded, not had any damage to my eyes. Perhaps its the lenses on the £10 Bolle Screwfix safety specs I tend to wear? Highly recommended cheap cycling eyewear!
Whether cycling or driving, I can pick out cyclists much easier when they have blinking lights. Fixed lights are easily lost in urban traffic.
Flashers on a dark path are again only mildly annoying. Like me, I assume most I come across change between paths and traffic on their journey. I don't think its reasonable of me to insist they switch their lights every time. I'd rather they forgot to switch to fixed on a path than forgot to switch back to blink on a road, and stayed safer in traffic
I get much more annoyed by cyclists who don't know how to share space, who pass close without warning, or who buzz pedestrians. Still, i'd rather they were behaving like that on a bike than behind the wheel of a car.
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