• About Me

Cycle Seattle

~ Posts on bikes

Cycle Seattle

Monthly Archives: November 2013

Blinkie Lights are Obnoxious

24 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

B&M, bicycle commuting, blinkies, blinky, commute, cycling, flashlight, FUD, night cycling, safety, Schmidt, visibility


Lights at Night are Nice

For a few years on my commute from North Seattle into Downtown, I was often annoyed when an oncoming cyclist held up his hand to block my light from his eyes.  I noticed that it was the same guy, and my reaction was initially anger.  I was like how dare you act like my lights are annoying you when they are necessary for my safety in the darker times of my commute.  I am just now starting to understand this fella’s angst…

I bought into the common wisdom that more must be better, and so was on the path of MORE wattage, MORE blinks, MORE patterns, etc.  These lights are bright, so they must be MORE safe since drivers have to notice a blinking light in a sea of steady night lighting.  FUD.  It seems that in search of constant upgrades for new sales, “excessive” products are often pushed here in America – the land of fake safety.  When does this really end?  When cyclists are relegated to wearing bright lime-green reflective strobe encrusted LED sumo safety suits?  I can just see the headlines.

“Cyclist killed.  Was not wearing the ACME strobe suit.  No charges for the motorist who explained – I never saw him…”

Nice Focused Beam Headlight

After using blinking lights front and rear for a few years, I’ve now switched to steady dynamo lights powered by my front hub.  Besides the amazingly better light coverage and visibility I get from my Schmidt and B&M lights, I’ve formed into the opinion that blinking lights are, at best, less effective than steady beams, and most of the time just pointlessly dangerous for both the rider, and the people they are approaching.  Most of the popular “blinky” lights are toys for the uninitiated fearful commuter to waste money on and throw away after a season or two.  It has also been argued that blinking lights can actually draw drivers (drunk?) into collisions with cyclists, much like moths to a flame.  Update – another link on the “moth effect“.

If you are using a blinking front light, I would question that you have any ability to see what you’re riding toward.  Judging distance is greatly impaired under strobe light.  Just try playing baseball, football, soccer, or basketball under a strobe.  Tennis would be hilarious.  So would car racing.  Hmmm – or bicycle commuting.  I’m actually surprised people manage to keep it together as much as they do, though I would bet that most folks turn off the forward strobe after doing this for a few months, and the people I see using them are just the endless stream of the newly initiated to the glory of the new commute method where they also get exercise.

Saw it a mile away...

OK – for those that graduate from using blinking lights, what’s with the flashlight beams?  Why do manufacturers continue to just repackage flashlights into a bike mount?  This type of light has no cutoff to keep light from being directed directly into the eyes of oncoming traffic (or cyclists).  This is completely idiotic – it’s relatively simple and cheap to use mirrored reflectors to put all that nice light below head-level and on the road in front of you where you need it.  Cars haven’t had these kinds of lights for 40 years.  If normal traffic (which even on a bike path, we are a part of) used circular beam flashlights, everyone would have to have tinted front windows, and we would likely have many accidents caused by oncoming blinding lights.  When someone with a 600 lumen flashlight beam is coming at me on the Burke-Gilman path, I have to look away from them, and not track their progress as I approach.  That’s just not safe.  I always worry that I’ll miss the unlit pedestrian that is between us, or worse, veer into the approaching cyclist or their buddy pedaling next to them.  Wow – how annoying are these devices!  Wake up folks – you are just pissing off your fellow bikers and making things less safe.

Courtesy and common sense can make cycling a lot safer and more enjoyable:

  • If you are on a bike/pedestrian path, use a steady beam and point your flashlight at the road to keep the beam beneath oncoming cyclist’s eyes.
  • Better yet – get a good European focused, purpose-made bicycle light.
  • If you have folks riding behind you, turn off the blinking red lights.  My steady red twilight is visible a mile away too.  It doesn’t need to blink.  Get some real fenders, too.

Some questions to ponder:

  1. Is your priority seeing the road in front of you, or merely being as visible as possible from the front?
  2. If you are worried that cars won’t see you and turn or pull out in front of you, can you take other action to minimize the accident potential here?  Maybe not just bomb the hill with a big light to protect you?
  3. Don’t you want to see the road obstruction that may take you down?  Steady light in front of you is pretty useful.
  4. Do you feel that your need to be seen should be at the cost of your fellow riders safety?  It’s not.
Don't do this

Don’t do this

Give steady lights a chance.  If you are really concerned with your safety, read the stats.  You are 33x more likely to be killed in a passenger car, and 7x more likely to be killed as a pedestrian or on a motorcycle.  Bikes are a safe and healthy method for commuting.  Your visibility and view of the road ahead is made better with good, safe, focused European standard dynamo or battery lights like those made by Busch & Muller or Schmidt.  These are not too different from the modern lights on automobiles that keep the light focused and bright where you need it.  Think about your fellow cyclists, too.  It’s a growing community, and we need to be kind and safe around each other.

Use this!

Use this!

Low Trail Rides

21 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

650b, bicycles, bikes, Boulder Bicycles, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, FreeRange Cycles, Grand Randonneur, Grant Petersen, low-trail, Mike Kone, randonneur, rivendell, Seattle, Soma, Velo Routier


Having the good fortune to live and ride in Seattle near good local bike shops has its blessings.  I stopped in FreeRange Cycles on Tuesday and tried out a couple of new rides that sport a low trail geometry with a bent towards the randonneuring crowd (me).  Both are a bit of a departure for me in that they are TIG welded steel frames.

Soma Grand Randonneur

The Soma Grand Randonneur was recently shipped, and is a very compelling deal.  It is a $500 frame/fork combo that was designed by Mike Kone of Boulder Bicycle and Rene Herse fame.  Note: Soma is doing some great combo design deals lately.  First Grant Petersen‘s design on the San Marcos, and now a low-trail guru’s take on a commodity frame.  You’d be hard pressed to not want both!

The bike I rode is a 55cm (small for me) with a large porteur rack on the front.  Good to add some weight and see how it feels with a bit of front load.  In my short ride, I felt immediately at home on the bike, and really felt some of the benefits of the different front-end geometry.  It was quick handling, but forgiving – not twitchy.  As I slowed to a stop, I noticed there was none of the flopping I have on my higher trail bikes if I let go of the handlebars.  OK – that’s kind of nice.  But the thing I liked more is that on a slow climb, I didn’t have the bars slightly twisting back and forth with my pedal strokes.  It tracked well at low speeds.  Hmmm – I may like this sort of thing.

On turns, at medium and higher speeds, there was no uncertainty of where I was going.  Perhaps it didn’t feel like it was “on rails” like my Rivendells, but there was no bad effects I could ascertain.  As for riding no-handed, it was about like my Miyata.  Not great, but doable, and I wonder if it’s not due to the high saddle, low bars on this slightly too small frame for me.

Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier

On to the other bike – a new effort out of Canada. Cycles Toussaint is a Calgary company recently formed (2012) with two bike models.  The version I rode was a demo Velo Routier sent to Kathleen at FreeRange to see if there is interest in the area.  It’s a smart-looking white frame that was nicely built up in a traditional rando effort.  It was slightly bigger at 57cm, so more in line with my size (I would probably go with a 59-60cm frame).

The only real difference in ride character this bike had in comparison with the Soma GR is that it tracked better for me no-handed.  I won’t guess why other than perhaps the lack of a rack, the size being more in line with what I normally ride, or some build difference (tires?).  Other than that, the bike handled much like the Soma.  Deliberate, comfortable, and non-eventful.  At $500, this bike is at the same price point, and it may come down to looks for you if you are in the market.  To my eye, the Toussaint is prettier, and I liked the additional seat-stay peg so you can choose to mount a top-tube frame pump, or a smaller seat-stay pump.  Overkill?  Maybe, but I like pump-pegs – call me nuts…

Similarities:

  1. Steel
  2. 650b
  3. Low 30mm trail
  4. Integrated fender mounts
  5. $500!
  6. Threaded 1″ steerer tube for threaded headset (yeah!)
  7. Room for fenders and 42mm tires
  8. Tubing – both are double-butted with .8/.5/.8 on small sizes, and .9/.6/.9 on larger frames

Differences:

  1. Color
  2. Tube diameters – thinner seat-stays on the Toussaint
  3. Fork bend – prettier curve on the Toussaint
  4. Bottle bosses – 2 on Toussaint, 3 on Soma
  5. Front rack mounts – Soma has rack and low-rider mounts, Toussaint has rack mounts
  6. Sizes – Toussaint comes in 4 sizes – 51-60cm, Soma fits more riders with 6 sizes from 49.5-65cm
  7. Rear hub spacing – 130mm for Toussaint, and 132.5 for Soma

Flickr Photos

BH-19.jpgBH-18.jpgBH-17.jpgBH-16.jpgBH-15.jpgBH-14.jpgBH-13.jpgBH-12.jpgBH-11.jpgBH-10.jpg
More Photos

Archive

  • August 2020 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (6)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (2)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (2)
  • October 2014 (2)
  • September 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • July 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • May 2014 (2)
  • April 2014 (5)
  • March 2014 (4)
  • February 2014 (4)
  • January 2014 (6)
  • December 2013 (1)
  • November 2013 (2)
  • October 2013 (2)
  • September 2013 (1)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • May 2013 (6)
  • April 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (6)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (7)
  • December 2012 (5)
  • November 2012 (2)
  • October 2012 (2)
  • September 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (3)
  • July 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (4)
  • May 2012 (7)
  • April 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (1)
  • February 2012 (4)
  • January 2012 (5)
  • December 2011 (6)
  • November 2011 (4)
  • June 2011 (2)
  • May 2011 (4)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • February 2011 (4)

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 95 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Cycle Seattle
    • Join 95 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Cycle Seattle
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...