Anyone used See.Sense lights?

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edocaster
Posts: 475
Joined: 10 Apr 2013, 10:43pm

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by edocaster »

Before the 2005 amendments, was there ever an example of anyone's flashing bike light being a source of contributory negligence?
Ivorcadaver
Posts: 116
Joined: 26 Oct 2013, 9:36pm
Location: Bolton

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by Ivorcadaver »

I bought one of these rear lights in October 2017 for £10 as part of a deal under the Manchester 'City Verve' 'smart cities' project. In exchange for a £70 discount my cycling journeys are tracked via app that link my phone to the light via Bluetooth. The light is very good, has a robust construction, handy rubber laddder attachment strap to seat-post (easy to swap between bikes), allegedly made in the U.K. and interesting features such as theft detection and automatic text messages if you have an accident. All great in theory but the light has to be switched on by the paired smart phone which is an abosulute faff if I'm late for work, the app has now decided it doesn't want connect phone to light so I probably need to reinstall the app. Oh and I just had a message that the original app I installed is not actually transmitting the location data. A great example of a product giving solutions to problems that don't exist... now where is that old Cateye that I just push a button to switch on?
Username
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Joined: 21 Dec 2016, 12:46am

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by Username »

somebody wrote:I bought a Cateye TL 560 because I wanted an automatic so that I didn't have to stop mid-ride to switch on, .


you cant be bothered to stop to press a button?

There's also the reliability issues of auto lights too. Really, just buy a normal light that turns on and off manually. It's not a particularly difficult or inconvenient concept.
niggle
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Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by niggle »

Auto on, variable flashing, etc., etc. all seem like unnecessary gimmicks to me, simply Unique Selling Points driven by marketing strategy. E.g. I don't use the auto on feature on my Axa dynamo headlight, I would rather decide for myself when to switch my lights on, made easier by front and rear light being controlled by the switch on the front light, accessible whilst riding.

However I would like to commend the manufacturer on the large visible area and wide visible angle of the lamp, very good in those respects IMO. If they produced a bolt down rack mountable dynamo driven version with one LED flashing at a steady legal rate and one constantly lit, got rid of all the extra 'features' and dropped the price to around £25 I could be interested.

EDIT: for city riders a front dynamo version that bolts to the fork crown would also be good, but I need a full German approved road illuminating dynamo headlight to see with, not just to be seen.
Ivorcadaver
Posts: 116
Joined: 26 Oct 2013, 9:36pm
Location: Bolton

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by Ivorcadaver »

Ivorcadaver wrote:I bought one of these rear lights in October 2017 for £10 as part of a deal under the Manchester 'City Verve' 'smart cities' project. In exchange for a £70 discount my cycling journeys are tracked via app that link my phone to the light via Bluetooth. The light is very good, has a robust construction, handy rubber laddder attachment strap to seat-post (easy to swap between bikes), allegedly made in the U.K. and interesting features such as theft detection and automatic text messages if you have an accident. All great in theory but the light has to be switched on by the paired smart phone which is an abosulute faff if I'm late for work, the app has now decided it doesn't want connect phone to light so I probably need to reinstall the app. Oh and I just had a message that the original app I installed is not actually transmitting the location data. A great example of a product giving solutions to problems that don't exist... now where is that old Cateye that I just push a button to switch on?


New app installed. Several e mails exchanged with see.sense, still not working. Which recycling bin should I use for this useless piece of junk? I'd be very upset if I'd paid £80 list price.
mark a.
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Joined: 8 Jan 2007, 2:47pm
Location: Surrey

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by mark a. »

Ivorcadaver wrote:New app installed. Several e mails exchanged with see.sense, still not working. Which recycling bin should I use for this useless piece of junk? I'd be very upset if I'd paid £80 list price.


Oh that's a shame. As the OP I'm still sort of interested in how they work (and it sounds like yours is even fancier than the ones I was looking at originally). If you really are thinking of binning it, I'd happily take it off your hands to see what it's like.
David9694
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Joined: 10 Feb 2018, 8:42am

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by David9694 »

As a general rule, I’d say four mid range lights are better than one expensive one. Especially at the back.

I’ve got a See .Sense rear on the back of one of my bikes and I’m worried about the longevity of the USB socket as plugging in to it seems a bit fiddly - you might expect better at this price? I do wonder if it’s bit too bright - might draw the wrong sort of attention.

I’ve got a GUee front light on that bike and that has a light-sensitive mode, which seems to work well.
Spa Audax Ti Ultegra; Genesis Equilibrium 853; Raleigh Record Ace 1983; “Raleigh Competition”, “Raleigh Gran Sport 1982”; “Allegro Special”, Bob Jackson tourer, Ridley alu step-through with Swytch front wheel; gravel bike from an MB Dronfield 531 frame.
John_S
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Joined: 16 Sep 2014, 10:34pm

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by John_S »

Hi mark.a,

Following your post I just thought I'd offer some thoughts because I have these lights both front and rear.

As some background I've been cycling since the 80's and so I've used a fair few lights over the years and going back I had some pretty huge lights due to the number & size of the batteries used for some fairly small return on the light performance. However technology changes & moves on and their have been significant leaps with both led bulbs for example as well as with batteries over the last few years.

I don't wish for this to get completely bogged down in exactly what is & isn't recommended from the regulation side because plenty of people have already provided you with the details on that so you'll have the information to hand to make you're mind up on that front. I'll hold my hands up and apologise for that fact that I didn't get myself completely informed and well read on the subject before buying these lights and since buying them I have read posts on forums such as this one and would now consider myself better informed on the subject but having bought them I'm not about to throw them in the bin.

I bought these as a be seen light for my commuting which is done all year around in all weathers. Firstly you need to take into account whether or not the mounting method will or won't work for you. For me the front light on the handlebar works absolutely fine as intended but I was a bit sceptical about the rear. However the rubber band supplied holds my ear light tightly in place through a loop which is on the back of my rack top bag.

On my light you could set which level of output you want and certainly with the front one I've set that to a lower setting because I don't want to dazzle other people. The possible dazzling effect is more noticeable on unlit roads and I have to say that I deliberately point my front light downwards so as not to avoid dazzling people. With the light pointing at a downwards angle I don't seem to have an issue with dazzle but you could argue that it's not ideal if you can't point it ahead. However as a be seen light it still seems to do a very effective job even though facing down. The rear is where I think that this light does perform very well and after staring to use it I do think that cars started slowing down more before getting to me and so they seemed to have a greater awareness of my presence.

Now since buying these lights I have subsequently invested in a Shimano Dynamo hub as well as a B&M dynamo headlight and rear light and I absolutely love my dynamo lighting set up. If I could only recommend one lighting set up to anyone it would be having a dynamo hub with dynamo lights which meet the German regulations so that they have a been pattern that is considerate of other road users by way of for example having a cut off on the front headlight.

However that's not to say that my See Sense lights do not have a use for me as a be seen light because they do and I bought the first generation light and so various aspects may have improved since I bought it. Having had these lights for what I think is probably over three winters now I have not had a problem with them and I've dropped both of them several times by accident. There have been no issues with the charging port or anything like that.

John
mark a.
Posts: 1375
Joined: 8 Jan 2007, 2:47pm
Location: Surrey

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by mark a. »

Thanks John. That's useful information.

I didn't get the See.Sense lights in the end. I bought some dynamo lighting for my bike for the "always on" nature of them, plus some cheap Lezyne and Knog (basically what was on sale on Wiggle at the time) flashing rear lights as extra safety to go on the bike, bike seat and trailer. That system has worked well.

What with the good performance of very cheap lights (either in the sales or Chinese) it's harder to justify the expense and complexity of the See.Sense lights, I think.
mark a.
Posts: 1375
Joined: 8 Jan 2007, 2:47pm
Location: Surrey

Re: See.Sense bike lights

Post by mark a. »

I see that the data from the scheme that Ivorcadaver's cheap light was part of is being reported in the BBC here.

It seems like a nice use of data. There must be a reason for Manchester to pay for subsidised lights as opposed to asking Strava (who also do heat maps). Perhaps the Strava crowd are too racey instead and wouldn't have enough commuters and utility cyclists?
PT1029
Posts: 1744
Joined: 16 Apr 2012, 9:20pm

Anyone used See.Sense lights?

Post by PT1029 »

Has anyone used these lights?

https://seesense.cc/

They seem to know where you are, connect to your phone, know where you are and so give a brighter at junctions/roundabouts and all sorts of other modern wizardry.
I'll need to double check, but I think I saw a refence locally about using them to help get heat map data for our local highway authority.

Cheers
David9694
Posts: 908
Joined: 10 Feb 2018, 8:42am

Re: Anyone used See.Sense lights?

Post by David9694 »

I’ve got an early model rear light.
Spa Audax Ti Ultegra; Genesis Equilibrium 853; Raleigh Record Ace 1983; “Raleigh Competition”, “Raleigh Gran Sport 1982”; “Allegro Special”, Bob Jackson tourer, Ridley alu step-through with Swytch front wheel; gravel bike from an MB Dronfield 531 frame.
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CyclingGuy
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Re: Anyone used See.Sense lights?

Post by CyclingGuy »

PT1029 wrote:Has anyone used these lights?

https://seesense.cc/

They seem to know where you are, connect to your phone, know where you are and so give a brighter at junctions/roundabouts and all sorts of other modern wizardry.
I'll need to double check, but I think I saw a refence locally about using them to help get heat map data for our local highway authority.

Cheers


Yep - I've got a couple of sets and love them. Good visibility and great battery life. I don't really use the connected features that much to be honest but having the ability to change flash patterns is quite useful. Only downside is that one of my rear ones didn't survive a trip through the washing machine but that's just down to my stupidity I suppose. Reviewed them on my channel here - [youtube]PKC-OwP4XMA[/youtube]
Read about my adventures on the British Cycle Quest at: http://www.quest.nwarwick.co.uk
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