Cycling UK Forum

From Stu Owers writing on Stuff.co.nz-- (New Zealand)

A coroner has called for the compulsory use of high-visibility clothing for all cyclists after a high-ranking police officer was knocked off his bike and killed by an overtaking truck. According to the coroner, the victim was wearing a jacket which had reflective stripes only. In a related incident, Wellington's mayor was knocked off her bike and injured by a following car. She was wearing a high-vis vest at the time.
I'm keen on riding for fitness, and I am sometimes accompanied by my wife and daughter on weekend rides. Because of the dangers of sharing the open road with Kiwi motorists, some of whom seem to have little tolerance for cyclists, we try to stick to off-road areas or trails, but occasionally we have to cross a public road. I recently went down to the local Two Dollar Shop and splashed out on a fluoro safety vest to wear. I thought I was doing the right thing but there was a downside to wearing a high-vis vest that I didn't anticipate. We got a severe mocking from two of our friends who saw us out and about, one praising our fashionable colour-coordinated apparel. Yeah, safety is hilarious, Marcus.
Recently, I've stopped wearing my bright orange vest. And no, it's not because I'm worried about further ribbing if I'm spotted getting exercise by my "friends" again. I started thinking about why I was wearing it in the first place. My original thinking was that it's easy to be overlooked by motorists and a fluoro piece of clothing would help grab their attention. This would certainly be the case in twilight or poor weather.
But then I started thinking about the driver training I've been doing over the years which is based on some excellent hi-tech research. All the training is based on getting the driver to look to where they want to place their vehicle. The theory we follow is that your hands will guide you to where you are looking, so you must look where you want to go, and not fixate on that piece of road directly in front of you.
Hmmm, so if a motorist is travelling along and is about to overtake me, will their eyes be attracted to my fluoro vest and will they subconsciously steer closer toward me? Wouldn't it be better for that motorist to focus on the road ahead and use their peripheral vision to judge their passing distance as they normally would?
It's a dilemma for me. I'm now not sure if the benefits of those bright vests are as obvious as they appear (no pun intended). Is it all as simple as the coroner thinks?

Tell me what you think. Excluding low light or poor weather conditions, should I wear the vest or not?

Stu Owers is a New Zealand Autocar contributor

CW wrote:

Warekiwi wrote:and here is the light as seen from the side- (There doesn't seem to be a way of putting two photos in the same posting?)

Now that is a neat attachment. Ummm, may have to consider this myself.

Yes- I don't think even Lezyne themselves have thought of this way of attaching the rear light! It certainly works well- I was out around the lanes today in varying visibility and I noticed that cars and trucks tended to stay further back from me-- that Day mode is really bright!

and here is the light as seen from the side- (There doesn't seem to be a way of putting two photos in the same posting?)

After reading all the posts here and on other sites I eventually bought a Lezyne Micro Rear LED light- an amazingly small unit with an internal rechargable battery- charged via a USB plug under the screw in rear cap. Like most bike lights it came with the necessary hardware for attachment to a rear stay-- not much use on a velomobile! I then did a little more research and found the Lezyne make a helmet mount for the matching front light which uses the same aluminium body. I ordered one of these and after removing the attachment strap I velcroed this to the rear shell of the Quest. This morning I did a 30 mile ride around some very bumpy local lanes with a few high speed down-hill bits and it was still there when I arrived home!
Total cost £35 for the light and another £7 for the helmet attachment. The "Day" setting of the light claims to output 70 lumens with a claimed battery life of 2.5 hrs-- this is so bright that they say it should NOT be used at night. There are a number of other light and flasher settings for use at night with a claimed 16 hrs battery life for the "economy" setting.

CW wrote:Once I get a nudge I can`t help myself. Just been in the workshop and knocked this mount up

It`s not perfect as it wobbles. So will look to changing it with a wider but shorter mount

I'll watch out for Mk2! I don't mind drilling a single hole in the CF shell if it's for the right light- just hoping that someone will recommend a light as effective as the US one but available in Europe.

Good to see another VM in this part of the UK- certainly haven't seen any in the "home-counties" apart from BHPC visitors! I guess you have the same experience-- every person with a camera phone busy snapping pictures of meand the Quest wherever I go.

[XAP]Bob wrote:I'd you have a 12V system then don't muck about, get a car rear fog light or high level brake light.

Not much good unfortunately as most car stuff is less efficient as a result of virtually unlimited power-- velomobile (and cycle) stuff needs to be super-efficient to last as long as possible on a finite battery capacity (3800mAH in my case) I agree lots of people - particularly in the USA - use automobile lights but then they don't do very long rides in darkness. (Only two weeks ago I did over 500 miles in 6 days of which at least half was in the dark!)

I am looking for recommendations for a very bright LED light set-up suitable for mounting high on the shell ( behind the head-rest) on my new Quest XS. I have the standard (12V option) lighting installation but need an additional rear light- particularly for day use on busy roads. If possible I would like one with it's own internal LiPo battery to keep it independent of the Quest electrical system. A friend has recommended the Denotte 300R from the USA . (http://store.dinottelighting.com/300r-r ... -p111.aspx) but it is very expensive and likely to incur additional customs fees on import. Surely there must be a European product of equivalent effectiveness?
Any suggestions?

BeeKeeper wrote:Fascinating thread this. --------------
The Dutch make a high tech peddle car.

Not sure it would be ideal for around here (lots of hills, high hedges and single track roads) but if you lived on the flat, like its country of origin or the flatter parts of the UK it would be great I think. I wonder if you can you get a Spitfire like canopy to cover them in completely? Add a couple of roundels and fake nose-mounted machine guns and the ride to work could be most entertaining...

a bit off-thread, but my machine doesn't have a covered "cockpit (although this is available) but here is a picture of one of the fastest road worthy "velomobiles" in the UK . It's nut Dutch but German and owned/ridden by a guy up in Hull.

axel_knutt wrote:Just been for a shuftie, the A120 is marked westbound. There are two signs at the exit of the roundabout, one either side of the carriageway. Now I've looked I recall, but I had no reason to remember them, firstly because I use the old road to go west, but also because I'd have to detour out of the way to join the A120 west at that point.
I'm not surprised Warekiwi didn't notice them, if he's got any sense he'd have been watching the traffic, it's a bit of a hairy roundabout. I've probably had almost as many near misses there as everywhere else put together, partly because it's a bit dodgy, but also because most of my rides cross it at least once.

Thanks for the update- maybe I'll stay out of Essex for a while!

squeaker wrote:

Warekiwi wrote:an 11-32 cassette (SRAMX0 derailleur) and the front has a triple 30/42/57

Giving about 23" bottom gear 'Fraid that wouldn't work for me around here - too many steep hills
I admire your legs

Velomobiel said I "might" have got away with an 11-34 cassette but as it is, the chain becomes very loose if one accidentally ends up in small-small combinations. I now have a range from 23" to 129" which is nearly the range I had with the Rohloff on the Grasshopper. Whilst pedalling in Holland I mostly stay on the 57t front and use all 9 rear sprockets. At least I have slightly lower bottom gears than the original setup and IF I'm careful the chain should stay on ! I think the only way to get a practical wider range would be to use a Schlumph but as you know Ymte does not recommend it with the single sided rear design. (Perhaps I should fit a front winch before I try it out on West Coast Hills? )

mrjemm wrote:
I've family in Puckeridge, I'll ask them if they've seen a UYO (UYellowO) zipping by. They'll probably think I am bonkers... If not already.

I think Puckeridge town has got used to me "flying" through on a regular basis as I head in from the east to pick up the A10 for a fast ride back to Ware!

steady eddy wrote:You can of course put your bike on the train at Acle to get to Yarmouth - trains every half hour - the guards are very accommodating and mostly seem to turn a blind eye to the "no more than 4 bikes at a time" rule - we have managed 10 on the train to Lowestoft just once.

Not an option for me unfortunately! http://www.velomobiel.nl/questxs/img/questXS_maatschets.png

I bought my first recumbent about 4 years ago- a Velotechnik Grasshopper fx with Rohloff gears. Initially I thought that I had made a very expensive mistake as hills just about killed me and all my cycling friends got used to waiting at the hilltops. However after about 10,000 miles my leg muscles developed differently and I regained competiveness AND had no more of the back/bum pain that plagued me with conventional bikes. I then became interested in fully faired recumbents and after some research ordered a Quest XS in Carbon Fibre from velomobiel.nl in Dronten. Since then I haven't looked back and have since sold the Grasshopper as I never saw any need to ride it. Strangely enough the Quest is better on the hills although it is heavier (about 28 kg c.w. 20 kg for the GH) The aerodynamics are so good that I rarely notice headwinds at all--only by the effect it has on my more conventional riding companions. As far as speed is concerned I tend to average 17-18 mph when cycling solo around Hertfordshire lanes for rides of 30-60 miles. If I stick to A roads (see my thread elsewhere here) my average can be up around 24 mph for similar distances. Apart from a short test ride I've never ridden an unfaired trike altough I do have friends who own them. In this weather I know which machine I prefer-- both for safety and comfort! Gearing is important- I've changed the standard gearing on my machine (setup for Dutch roads) to give a much wider range- an 11-32 cassette (SRAMX0 derailleur) and the front has a triple 30/42/57 using a modified Shimano Sora. Amazingly it all works!

johnmac wrote:

On good roads AVERAGE speeds can be in the high 20s with maximums of 50+.

How would that compare to your average speed on a conventional bike?

Considerably faster- in fact as an averagely fit 60+ yr old I can beat younger fitter riders on conventional road bikes over significant distances. FYI- A Quest at 30mph uses about 33% of the energy input of a road bike with rider in full crouch.
It is heavier (around 28 kg in my case) but provided one starts climbing at a good speed it still gets up hills faster than one would expect.

Wow! What a great response!
I should add that the police were quite polite and insisted that it was for my safety but couldn't themselves tell me where the signs were actually placed!
As I said earlier-- although A roads can be a bit scary (I often ride down the new A10 from Puckeridge.) my greatest danger is at intersections which is why I prefer dual carriageway roads when I have miles to cover. I generally find that if I ride (drive?) in the left lane (not the little hard shoulder) then MOST vehicles pass me in the outer lane (except when descending when I'm sometimes at the same speed as the motorised traffic!)
I'll be interested to hear from axel_nut who is going to visually check the road signs!

Thanks everyone-- I keep looking out for more machines like mine but they are still a rarity!