![]() What do lumens, candlepower, and lux mean? How are they measured? More details on taillight placement are available on the recommended taillights page. Good helmet lights should have a narrow beam and not be too bright - you want to be able to light up a specific area where you're looking without blinding everyone around you.įor taillights, a rack or seatpost mounted light in addition to a helmet light provides good coverage. For headlights a good setup is to have a primary handlebar mounted headlight, and a secondary light on the helmet. Separating lights vertically also ensures that you will be seen by people in low and tall vehicles alike. The further two points of light are away from each other, the further away the eye can distinguish them. ![]() Generally speaking, lights should be positioned as far apart as possible. If you're upgrading to a new light, consider one with a rechargeable battery to use in steady mode, and use your old light in flashing mode. Using two taillights is strongly suggested though, using one in flashing mode and the second in steady burn. If riding with just a single light, using it in a medium-speed pulse mode (like those available on the Cygolite Hotshot and the PDW Danger Zone) is a good compromise. Rear lights tend to be less bright, and are therefore more appropriate for flashing at night however, the same principle of distance and speed estimates applies. Avoid extreme strobe patterns though, and opt for a pulsing light (like on the Light and Motion Urban 700) or a subtler flash like Cygolite's Metro and Expilion series. Having one flashing light and one steady light is a good compromise - you can grab drivers' attention but the steady light helps improve distance estimates. You run the risk of disorienting oncoming traffic (be it on 4 or 2 wheels), and make it difficult to estimate your position and speed. Riding at night: High-intensity forward-facing lights should not be flashed alone at night, especially if they put out over 200 lumens. During daytime riding, it's a good idea to use your lights on the brightest, most attention-grabbing pattern they have, because it's easy for drivers to judge your position when your whole bike is visible, and you want to grab attention quickly. Flashing lights grab attention faster, but it's also much harder to estimate the distance and speed of a flashing light than a steady one.Īlthough you will find many differing opinions, and we've yet to see a bicycling-specific study on this (although I'm told one is in the works at an undisclosed university in the midwestern US), these are our recommended best practices for when to flash:ĭaytime riding: In broad daylight there is a lot of ambient light, so a steady burn light is unlikely to stand out. A study on snowplow safety found by Byron Ross on the Bicycles Stack Exchange site explains that flashing lights appear brighter to the human eye than a steady light at the same output level. This is a popular question in the bicycling community, and the right answer depends on many factors. Should I use my bike lights in flashing mode?
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