cycle tramp wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 12:07pm
In the case of dynamo powered led lights blinding other people I do wonder if mounting them to the crown of the forks is the best place? Certainly it is the most convenient place, but perhaps not the most effective place.
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On our tourers the main headlamps are placed just below the bar bag, on the crown, and on the fork. It's often hard to find a nice position, and it sometimes needs some interesting bracketry.
The positioning and adjustment has a lot of requirements: illuminating the road etc, being visible to others from as wide an arc as possible, and not dazzling other road users. I can only do that by experiment.
The very best 'dark country lane with oncoming SUV's' set-up I've ever contrived was on my Kettwiesel recumbent trike. I mounted a cheap, wide beam, very bright, Chinese 8.4V battery light on the front forks no more than 8" above the road surface.
The road surface for a considerable distance in front (and starting at the wheel itself) was brightly illuminated and there was enough vertical stray light for approaching cars to see me.
When an offending SUV approached (headlights pretty much at eye level on this trike) I still had a clear view of the road ahead.
Sadly I think if you're on the roads along with other vehicles you need to have some blinking going on to bring more attention to your presence. My near shave a few weeks ago in darkness has shown me even with lamp on full beam lighting up the side of the Jeep the driver still didn't notice me and pulled out causing me to swerve right and almost getting squashed between his Jeep and an oncoming car then after avoiding that I almost got collected by the mudguard of his two axle trailer.
The lamp needs to have a semi blink mode so you can see the road as well as blink.
cycle tramp wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 12:07pm
In the case of dynamo powered led lights blinding other people I do wonder if mounting them to the crown of the forks is the best place? Certainly it is the most convenient place, but perhaps not the most effective place.
When I began cycling in the mid 1990's I mounted my headlamps close to the handlebar stem. Admittedly they were alot less powerful than the lights we had now, but as I had mounted them at a higher position, the lights had to be angled more towards the ground. Whereas with a light mounted to the fork crown the light then had to be adjusted so that it shines more towards the horizon.
Modern lights with a horizontal cut-off are more likely to put an oncomer's eyes above the cut-off if they are placed lower. The cut-off should be parallel to the ground, ideally.
Cowsham wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 1:59pm
Sadly I think if you're on the roads along with other vehicles you need to have some blinking going on to bring more attention to your presence.
Have a think about roads when everyone has blinking lights (you, other cyclists, ambulances, dog-walkers, HGVs ... )
cycle tramp wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 12:07pm
In the case of dynamo powered led lights blinding other people I do wonder if mounting them to the crown of the forks is the best place? Certainly it is the most convenient place, but perhaps not the most effective place.
When I began cycling in the mid 1990's I mounted my headlamps close to the handlebar stem. Admittedly they were alot less powerful than the lights we had now, but as I had mounted them at a higher position, the lights had to be angled more towards the ground. Whereas with a light mounted to the fork crown the light then had to be adjusted so that it shines more towards the horizon.
Modern lights with a horizontal cut-off are more likely to put an oncomer's eyes above the cut-off if they are placed lower. The cut-off should be parallel to the ground, ideally.
It (the top of the bright bit ie top of cutoff)should alway be dipped by a degree or more below horizontal surely, otherwise any slight irregularity in road flatness with scythe the bright bit into oncoming traffic, that is presumably why dipped headlamps are called that...?
Last edited by SA_SA_SA on 23 Mar 2023, 4:09pm, edited 1 time in total.
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It happened up a 10% incline on one of the first nights out trying my lights, on an unlit (tarmac) farm road at night. The woman going past me looked like she was sucking a lemon and I realized, at the angle the bike was at (pointing 10% up) it must have been angling the light right in her face. Thing is it needs to be angled that way on unlit roads. All you can do is angle it down when you see a car coming. It's easy to do that on the one I use because it's attached around with a rubber O ring. Solarstorm x2 that was under £7 from China and has never skipped a beat in over 5 years using it.
Last edited by Manc33 on 15 Mar 2023, 12:31pm, edited 1 time in total.
We'll always be together, together on electric bikes.
cycle tramp wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 12:07pm
In the case of dynamo powered led lights blinding other people I do wonder if mounting them to the crown of the forks is the best place? Certainly it is the most convenient place, but perhaps not the most effective place.
When I began cycling in the mid 1990's I mounted my headlamps close to the handlebar stem. Admittedly they were alot less powerful than the lights we had now, but as I had mounted them at a higher position, the lights had to be angled more towards the ground. Whereas with a light mounted to the fork crown the light then had to be adjusted so that it shines more towards the horizon.
Modern lights with a horizontal cut-off are more likely to put an oncomer's eyes above the cut-off if they are placed lower. The cut-off should be parallel to the ground, ideally.
It should alway be dipped by a degree or more below horizontal surely, otherwise any slight irregularity in road flatness with scythe the bright bit into oncoming traffic, that is presumably why dipped headlamps are called that...?
Yes, dipped slightly down is the compromise approved in the government vehicle regs. I don't see why bikes shouldn't do the same.
The reason some modern bright lights cause problems for other road-users - as in Manc33's post just after yours - is that they have symmetrical beams (conical, generally, if you prefer), so there is considerable spill upwards into the eyes of others. STsVO lights - like most German road lights - will be Asymmetrical to avoid this.
(very useful off-road for branches and owls of course!)
Can't say I have had that problem, I just make sure that the brightest points points below the level of the light on a wall. During the day, also run a daylight running light which points horizontal (on the instructions of the manufacturer) as it's main goal is to be seen.
Got beeped at once, but that was because the light was actually pointing in the driver's face as forgot to adjust it after adjusting the handlebars.
