It's a pretty notorious junction, and it seems that the main cause of incidents is drivers being confused by the layout of the road, so I suspect they do have some benefit in this particular location although there was still always a regular sprinkling of bodywork and glass.
Si wrote:The new version do seem to deviate your steering much more than the old version. Although a bike wasn't normally heavy enough to make the old version disappear into the road, the 'casing' around it had a more forgiving profile when hit with a cycle wheel IME.
The old ones went down as you ran over them, and while still not great for grip the were sprung so you didn't bounce too high. Newer ones around home seem to be solid, and are much worse for two wheel vehicles.
"I thought of that while riding my bike." -Albert Einstein, on the Theory of Relativity
byegad wrote:Dipped headlights ore for towns or oncoming road users. In the countryside you default to main beam.
Except when oncoming traffic or approaching bends prevent this! Which might be a lot of the time: most vehicles just drive blindly when this happens: they don't slow down, just blindly follow the cats eyes.
On busy / bendy unlit roads that might mean dipped beam is used a lot and oncoming headlamps will make it seeing with dipped beam even harder.
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Adam S wrote:What's wrong with using the main beam on a bendy road?
You can't see round the corners, so should assume other vehicles / cyclists / pedestrians etc are coming who won;t want main beam in their eyes, You need to dip early for left corners to avoid blinding oncomers as they arrive. Anyway, if the roads bendy you will spend a lot of time on dip.
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byegad wrote:Dipped headlights ore for towns or oncoming road users. In the countryside you default to main beam.
Except when oncoming traffic or approaching bends prevent this! Which might be a lot of the time: most vehicles just drive blindly when this happens: they don't slow down, just blindly follow the cats eyes.
On busy / bendy unlit roads that might mean dipped beam is used a lot and oncoming headlamps will make it seeing with dipped beam even harder.
Couldn't disagree more!
You use main beam to light up as much road as you would see in the day AND to give prior warning to oncoming traffic that you are there. When I see oncoming drivers on main beam on such a road I'm ready to dip as they come around the last corner. Oncoming drivers on dipped beam are seen much later and so my 'dip' is so much later as they don't light up the last corner from as far away as a main beam.
Also driving on dipped beam, you can't see as far down the road, this is noticeable as I routinely catch drivers pootling along on dipped beam on a quiet road where on main beam you can safely see to drive much faster on main beam.
"I thought of that while riding my bike." -Albert Einstein, on the Theory of Relativity
And main beam will help pick out the reflectors of cyclists who choose not to have any lights. I use main beam in quiet late night urban situations sometimes, just for that reason. Also helps pick out pedestrians with reflective clothing.
You should only use main beam where it won't blind/dazzle oncoming traffic. This means on a bendy or busy road you will often have to use dipped beam for a time. A cars main beam in the eye isn't pleasant .
On a left bend* your main beam will intersect an oncoming drivers eyes earlier than a right hand one: so your car has to dip early to avoid blinding/dazzling them
*assuming driving on left as in the UK.
I am not suggesting always driving on dipped, just stating that use of main beam may be prevented by road /oncoming traffic conditions for a large percentage of time.
Last edited by SA_SA_SA on 4 Aug 2013, 8:18pm, edited 1 time in total.
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But TBH I frequently found that dipping lights as I approached a rural blind bend tended to get my clutch foot double-committed when a gear change was also required !
Tourer : 2010 Giant CRS City 4.0 Other : 1963 Denton retro (now back in the loft!)
chrisc wrote:Ex-Morris Minor driver by any chance Mr Rootes ?
But TBH I frequently found that dipping lights as I approached a rural blind bend tended to get my clutch foot double-committed when a gear change was also required !
+1 in a Land Rover Series IIA! Especially if you need to double declutch into second gear!
Nowadays it would be easy enough to have dual controls...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way.No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse. There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
My first car was an old Austin A55 similar to this - it had a floor dipswitch and column-mounted gear-change - most peculiar!
I can also remember the original Mini (not the re-vamped rubbish!) which had its starter button recessed into the floor.
Trouble with modern cars, they've become a bit too much 'same-old, same-old'. A bit like bikes...
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity. Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments... --- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
