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.
On the towpath tonight was doing the covering thing. Was thanked twice for making it dark. No one reciprocated but only had my retina seared once, so maybe I have the brightest light?
Up b Juni green on WoL path - two separate bats and three teenage girls lit up atop their horses. Can horses see in the dark to any good standard? I thought it took the biscuit but obviously stopped and put hand over light for which I was thanked three times. Big horses.
I rode past same horses on my way to the airport, was by the new housing estate down in the valley at Currie and I turned my light to pointing downwards which is my preferred option.
Unfortunately I soon found the deposit of fresh horse manure as well, which I was too late to avoid completely and sprayed myself a fair amount.
I find my right eye is not as good with the dark as my left. Something to investigate with the optician I suspect.
Overall the lights on the canal have not been too blinding, apart from a few rougue flashers who get a "why is it flashing?!?"
I have been looking at buying a new bright light not a crazy one but say 1000 lumen as currently have a 4 year old cateye volt 300 which is a bit dim on unlit roads. I notice can buy a light on amazon for £20 with 1300 lumen where a cateye volt with 1300 lumen costs £100. I wonder what the catch, the downside with the cheap lights on line is, is it because they are cheap they dazzle as don’t direct light properly.
Cheap lights have (generally) poor optics and just fire photons in all directions, fine at a trail centre less than ideal on the canal. The cateye sounds dear but then you'll (probably) have better batteries and a much much better warranty.
I've got a couple of pairs of cheap lights for MTB and a leyzene plus my Busch & Muller dynamo light. The Leyzene is much better made and thought out, the dynamo light is nicely cut off and uses very little power and puts light exactly where you need it but for barrelling down a fireroad in a pitch dark forest I'll take the CREE specials and all the lumens I can get.
NEPN has been okay, had one guy on Tuesday whilst running I was moved to ask to dip his light. Had a couple of flashing turnips too but its not so bad since the path is light.
I haven't been blinded as much as I expected so far on the towpath, but there have been a fair number of flashers. I usually go with the simple request "please don't flash".
There was a chap using the strobe function of his front light on the Meadows last night.
I've had a few issues with the NEPN. I was stuck behind a lady on Tuesday who appeared to be using second hand laser lighting from a Jean Michel Jarre concert rather than a rear light. Couldn't see anything past her making it near impossible to overtake safely.
I also had a turnip mudguarding me for a long way up the Blackhall path last night who was using the kind of lights which are normally used for night-time downhill mountain biking. The trees all around me were lit up and I cast a ginormous shadow.
It's a lit path people!
I haven't yet encountered a rentabike face-on on a path past sundown - what are their flashing-only-and-unadjustable lights for oncoming traffic?
I have a rear rack and I sometimes toy with idea of putting a rear flasher inside a big empty 2L plastic milk container, to create a large gently flashing surface - more attention, less blinding, sort of thing. Would be happy if someone else would do it and add photos of same here to save me the effort.
@gkgk Several years ago there was idle discussion of putting lights inside ex-milk vessels for interesting light-trail photography. Attaching bits of string and rods to them so that they wafted about with pedal strokes would also have been interesting, had we ever got round to it.
zero tolerance for the flasher
crude verbals swiftly dispatched
the only language they understand
Was thanked again for covering my light with my hand by same chap - l know it was same guy as he has studded up already.
So far no one has done the same thing with the hand back to me but has been ok when I cover except when oncoming has flashing mode on. Then harder to work out where they are.
Was told to ring my bell by chap whose dog ran right in front of me at boroughmuir.
Took my hand away to quickly at Bonnie prince Charlie aqueduct and was told Jeez that is bright. I said sorry.
Slateford rat ran in front of the light before the main aqueduct.
Militant joggers with their sheepdogs with light collars at Juni green
Big bunnikins at the new village down from Blinkbonny
All happenng
Well sorry to all you folk with really good eyesight but I need a really bright light even on the cycle path. If someone's coming the other way, I will cover it regardless if it's reciprocated or not :)
majestic SON Edelux II on the crown
B&M toplight line on the flip
one of them Lezyene 450s dipped on the bars for rural flood
the lighting rig of champions
sorry to all you folk with really good eyesight
It’s much less good when I’m blinded
If a light is bright enough to need a hand over it it needs a dip/high setting like a car. Few people cover, and few lights have switches.
LEDs truly were the worst thing to happen to vehicles of all shapes. The brightness war will never be won
German regs here please
Just to reiterate, for the last decade until this year, I used to dip my light down to the left. I used to ask people to dip or remark on the brightness. Peaky blinders etc. But what started off as being irregular is now the norm. Every single person now who has a light has it pointed virtually straight ahead and too bright. If on strobe it becomes even harder. That said, there are still people walking or cycling on the canal path in total darkness without any illumination.
The point has gone way beyond tipping.
The cheapness of lights that are bright enough to do off road night riding with is to blame.
I sometimes think about The Regent's Canal towpath. In London. At one time, the route may have been suitable for dog walkers, commuters on bone shakers et cetera. Now it is all Lycra louts at high speed. You would just not be able to walk on it during commuting hours.
The little landing lights are nice but maybe proper lighting like on the innocent might lead to less bright lights?
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My Cateye Volt 300 does a reasonably good job in the town.
It starts off slightly down, to the left. I've been shouted at for it being "Eye Level" when it was down to the left, and not by a recumbent rider.
Bumpy roads and switching between pulse and on in my thick winter gloves does mean it isn't always in the same position at the end of my commute.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but in many years of very regular commuting I've been dazzled a few times, once or twice irritatingly but too bright bike lights.
I've never been hurt, blinded or had retina damage from them though. I'd rather they were on their bike commuting with their poorly positioned lights feeling safe, than being in their car commuting because of the abuse they get from other cyclists for something which isn't *that* big a deal for the vast majority of us, the vast majority of the time.
@Wingpig - It wasn't straight on but I did see a Takeaway Bike last week after dark with its flashing light & it seemed fine. Interestingly it was immediately recognisable as a hire bike, with my brain registering it as such long before I realised it was one of the New Exciting Edinburgh hire bikes, by which time it had long gone so I didn't get a closer look.
On bright lights, I don't think the Germans will save us. We did an after dark ride on Sunday and one of the riders had back lights which were bright enough to interfere with my night vision (a new one on me) but were apparently one of the few that actually meet German regs.
Last night I had two light fights with cars in West Lothians. I cycle through some rather dark country roads and most of the cars do turn off the high beam when they see me/my lights. However last night two cars didn't, so I angled my lights up for them as well. I don't think I won though.
Tonight three other cyclists put their hands over their lights in response to me doing this to mine.
Perhaps it is catching
@gembo good effort. I was blinded more on Thursday evening than I had been on Monday and Wednesday evening combined. I cycled home before dark on Tuesday and didn't cycle yesterday, although I did walk along the towpath after dark. I switched the LED on my mobile on and held it in my right hand as I walked along the left of the path. Several passing cyclists thanked me for doing so. I noted a number of aggressively flashing rear lights on the bikes of people heading out of town, but only one flashing front light heading into town and a couple of other binders...
Was chatting to Jim the computer guy at work (not his real name) also keen cyclist. He said you came past me on canal towpath the other night. Where did you get that bright light? Actually,mthe guy behind you had a brighter one. how very dare he.
Apart from the eye-hurting rear light in front of me at Roseburn which I slowed down to allow it to disappear ahead, I was not offended again until I was past the red bridge, whereupon seven people in relatively quick succession all passed with a very similar-looking too-bright unshaped-beam front light. This year's favoured anti-personnel device seems to have two rows of emitters arranged in a trapezium, with three on the top and two beneath.
I encountered a triangle arrangement of eye-sear yesterday on the canal. It was the only bad one apart from old Cap'n Strobe of the good ship Flashtastic Blindathon who I came across under a bridge.
I encountered a triangle arrangement of eye-sear yesterday on the canal. It was the only bad one apart from old Cap'n Strobe of the good ship Flashtastic Blindathon who I came across under a bridge.
My new light a cateye volt 800 lumen arrived yesterday, will this be bright enough to annoy people on paths or is it the really bright 2000 lumen lights that annoy? I only had a cateye volt 300 lumen before which is not that bright that had to consider it being annoying.
I forgot to transfer the lights from my MTB to my commuting bike after a pre-work mountainbike ride yesterday, and so used my emergency lights which are more for visibility than any where good enough for actually seeing where you're going. This apparently made some people angry with me. Anyway I was going super slow unless I was following someone with a decent light (no I wasn't tailgating) so can't imagine that they were doing anything more than being morally outraged at my lighting on my behalf.
@Ed1
I can confirm that a cateye volt 300 is indeed capable of annoying some people.
A top tip: don't stare at lights to see what type they are
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