Sweep wrote:crazydave789 wrote:t, just flicking my light on and off when I saw something coming,
I'm sorry, I think you need to get out more, in the sun. This is not clever. Extremely inconsiderate to vehicle drivers. Dangerous for you. And maybe them. Attention can wander during daylight, even more at night, particularly on a hard ride, for a whole host of reasons I shouldn't need to list. How would you feel if vehicle drivers did this?
you obviously don't ride in the middle of nowhere late at night by which I mean 1-5AM, you can see cars coming a good mile away 99% of the time and a pathetic front light being switched on will hardly dazzle them or indeed warn them of your approach from behind they let you know in plenty of time. when batteries only lasted a couple of hours in halogen lights while the rear LED lasted forever you did what worked best. unlike the city the country goes to bed and I lived there. once your eyes accustom riding at night with a decent moon and the breaking dawn is a joy, modern lights make matters worse by being too bright so you are blind to everything but the road.
as an aside - I was one of the first in a country with a vistalite due to knowing the rep and got stopped the once by the police - an hour after I fitted it to my blackburn rack as a reflector/hidden light, not for anything wrong but because he had never seen a flashing rear light before (the first lights only had the one mode) (technically I was breaking the law because it was neither constant nor a filament bulb) explained it to him and he said he had no idea if it was illegal but if it was the law should be changed. I have no idea if they did change the law but if they didn't millions are breaking it day after day.
as to being courteous to oncoming drivers 90% OF THEM DON'T DIP THEIR LIGHTS FOR CYCLISTS, those that do get a wave, the rest get foul language.