Do you cycle? PUT LIGHTS ON YOUR BIKE!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter reddeathdrinker
  • Start date Start date
R

reddeathdrinker

Guest
I was on my way home from the supermarket yesterday evening, and was just a hairs breadth from wiping out 3 cyclists in the space of a mile.

Now the evenings are drawing in, these muppets were gaily waltzing up the road without a care in the world, till the sound of my brakes locking up right behind them as I finally realised they were there.

I'm a cyclist - I cycle to work daily. I don't want to be the one scraping you off the road. Take £15 to Halfords, and put a set of damn lights on please...
 
THat is a very good point. When I am in the car with my dad, we always have a near miss with a cyclist at night!!

Listen to the man and do it!! It is eithe £15 or your life. Which would you rather lose?
 
Had some fitted to the chair mind you it has a Mercedes star on the back :lol:


Regards Mark
 
Is the same, year after year,day after day. Unfortunately, it's a year round problem, but exacerbated due to the more common foggy mornings/evenings at this time of year and beyond...

I'm a law abiding cyclist and have lights front and rear, wear a helmet etc. etc. and feel that it should be compulsory for cyclists to have insurance as well as motorists..

My view is that if cyclists want to play russian roulette with their lives and not have the common sense to get cycle lights, then if they do collide with a car, my sympathy goes to the motorists, whose cars are possibly damaged in the collision with cycles. Who pays for the damage to their vehicles?

BTW, I do hold a full UK driving licence but do not have a car, so cycle everywhere...
 
Last edited:
good post :thumbs:

I sold my lights last year and clean forgot about getting a new set ready for the winter.

Decent lights for off road riding a small fortune though :(
 
digitalfailure said:
good post :thumbs:

I sold my lights last year and clean forgot about getting a new set ready for the winter.

Decent lights for off road riding a small fortune though :(
Click to expand...

DF, my front light is a Light and Motion Vega, more than bright enough for off-roading.

If you Google, I seem to remember that they're being sold for a stupidly cheap price. Mine cost £125 3 years ago but IIRC, reduced to £70 or £75
 
cheers I'll have a look at those, I was hovering around the hope system.
 
I fear that the request is in vain.

As an aside, how come that on a bright, sunny Sunday afternoon they dress in Dayglo Lycra but at dusk, dress all in black? :cuckoo:
 
Last edited:
I always have lights on when I'm riding at night time (I use a dynamo, saves on batteries) and a 2nd one in the form of a flashing LED.
However, would it be nice if us cyclists doesn't get constantly dazzled by an increasing phenomenon called "4 lights drivers"? I'm talking about drivers who insists on having 2 lots of headlights switched on (main lights and those blinding fog lights) even at dusk or dawn. I'm even starting to see 6 lights being used on cars.
My friend who rides a bike through the countryside to get to work often said of drivers not bothering to dip high beams around him (and he takes his cycling seriously, he's got 2 sets of lights on his bike and one on his ruck sack).
Would make a change for me to finally get home without having several afterburns streaks still in my line of vision.

And yes, I do own a car, but it's just a bog-standrad Skoda Felica.
 
Last edited:
The Reflexite panels on my panniers cause a quick dip from following drivers, which can be annoying on a downhill without a line painted along the roadside to follow. I've toyed with the idea of a low powered bar-mounted flash to "inform" the oncoming traffic of my annoyance over their non-dipping.

As for croc's comment, club riders will be out on a Sunday. It's generally teenage oiks in dark clothing at dusk. But from a historical point of view, early morning time triallists used to have to dress in black, and during WWII it was argued that it was the road user's responsibility to spot vehicles and hazards ahead. Just count yourselves lucky that you're not sharing the roads with haycarts and traction engines etc. Actually, I wish we were, so peeps wouldn't expect to be able to hare around at 60+mph on minor roads. It would also be a refreshing change from all those tin boxes . . .
 
i went out mountainbiking on wednesday night and i was amazed how many of the (more intelegent) members of our group didnt bring lights, infact only three of us did, and considering we were finished our ride in the dark both on the trails and then a road section in the pitch black....
 
Country roads are the best - round a bend you go to be faced with three-abreast eejits on racers with their arses sticking up in the air :lol:
 
Ian D J said:
However, would it be nice if us cyclists doesn't get constantly dazzled by an increasing phenomenon called "4 lights drivers"? I'm talking about drivers who insists on having 2 lots of headlights switched on (main lights and those blinding fog lights) even at dusk or dawn. I'm even starting to see 6 lights being used on cars.
Click to expand...


i dont doi much road cycling but as another motorist i find the number of people who drive around with their fog lights on to be rediculous, it blinds the driver coming the other way (i even nearly got taken out by someone who had just fogs and sidelights on and one of his foglights wasnt working so he was damn near invisible) and doesnt increase your vision at all (foglights are designed to cut UNDER the fog right infront of you rather that provide distance vision (as dipped and main beam are) so they actually do jack **** in clear conditions!
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Country roads are the best - round a bend you go to be faced with three-abreast eejits on racers with their arses sticking up in the air :lol:
Click to expand...

And if the road is wide enough to let you pass they'll generally drop to single file. Tractor drivers hereabouts are great about pulling off the road, but someone towing a horse trailer or caravan would be unlikely to . . and why should they? Where I live we invite rabid gangs of Morris Men to come and dance and hold up the traffic. Quite often after dusk, but that's OK cos they wear lots of white.
 
Last edited:
Of course, this is a very wide subject if you include drivers and the things they do....

As a cyclist, I'm sick and tired of some numpty motorists giving me a matter of inches when overtaking, all for the sake of 5 or 10 seconds....

I will be getting an Elmo helmet cam with hard drive shortly (once a diamond ring sells that I have for sale on here) and presenting incidences on Norfolk roads to the Police and my MP. Hopefully it will reduce the number of these near misses happening in future and make our roads a little safer for cyclists, so the quicker I sell the ring the quicker I can get this equipment :thumbs:

So come on guys, for those who are thinking of popping the question, you know you want to :woot:
 
Need to buy some more lights after serpent seed chavs broke my front light for telling them to mind their own business because they were weirdly asking where I live and asking about my bike. They did It while I was In the shop and got off when I got out.

I just stay extra careful at night and cars can notice anyway. I still should have lights though so I won't disagree If say I should.
 
Off road cyclists and bikers should be forced to clean up the mess they make..........IMO.

Whilst i`m upsetting cyclists, get some insurance and pay some tax, then I may start to consider your presence on the road, same for horse riders............:)
 
fracster said:
Off road cyclists and bikers should be forced to clean up the mess they make..........IMO.

Whilst i`m upsetting cyclists, get some insurance and pay some tax, then I may start to consider your presence on the road, same for horse riders............:)
Click to expand...

:suspect: :agree::shrug:
 
fracster said:
Off road cyclists and bikers should be forced to clean up the mess they make..........IMO.

Whilst i`m upsetting cyclists, get some insurance and pay some tax, then I may start to consider your presence on the road, same for horse riders............:)
Click to expand...

You pay tax because of congestion and polluting, cycles don't do that. The tax rate depends on what kind of car you have too.

By law you have to consider a cyclists presence, have you forgotten what you learned when you learned to drive?
 
Tsukiyomi said:
You pay tax because of congestion and polluting, cycles don't do that. The tax rate depends on what kind of car you have too.

By law you have to consider a cyclists presence, have you forgotten what you learned when you learned to drive?
Click to expand...

What about insurance - it's about time cyclists were made responsible for their actions on the road
 
Nah Flash, cyclists should be heavily subsidised as valuable contributors to the nation's production of methane.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
What about insurance - it's about time cyclists were made responsible for their actions on the road
Click to expand...

Perhaps it might be something to do with the fact that a car weighs anything up to 2 tons, can do 120 mph and above? A bike is only a bit of metal frame and does 40 mph if you're extremely fit.
I no longer ride on the road ever since recently a Vauxhall Ashra driver thought it was fun to go belting past me at 60 mph leaving a 4 mm gap between his car mirror and my handlebar. It scared the heck out of me.
I could see the d**k on that driver's forehead flapping about as he carried on into the distance.
 
Last edited:
As some of you know I used to ride a bike for many years, so I remember very well the fights and slanging matches I used to have with D***head car-drivers not giving me enough room to manouevre safely...
Now I drive (fast) almost exclusively, but I try to give bikes at least as much room as I would a car when overtaking - if there's not enough room, I found a really useful pedal situated down by my feet that slows the car down, as if by magic!
It amazes me that some car drivers then attempt to overtake me and the cyclist...lol
Someone's life is obviously less important than 30 seconds of their time...
 
i cycle to and from work and out into the peaks etc. I have tram tracks to deal with and where the tram paltforms meet the road there is enough space for me to get the bike between the tram line and platform. this means there is enough space for a car to get round me if they need to. but when the wind picks up i tend to go in between the tram tracks so i have a change to recover if a gust gets me.

I havent needed lights over summer but always have relflective strips on the bag i cycle with. I will be have a light under the seat and on bag/helmet. and probably some waterproofs with strips.

my gripes are:

-motorists too close when over taking.
-motorists getting funny when i move to the middle of the road to turn right (yes i do signal)
-people on cycle paths!
-when cycling in the peaks and there are countless signs for dogs to be on leashes and the amount of times i have brake hard as a dog leaps out of nowhere.
- people stepping into the road even when the know i am there!
- motorists that dont signal!
 
Ian D J said:
Perhaps it might be something to do with the fact that a car weighs anything up to 2 tons, can do 120 mph and above? A bike is only a bit of metal frame and does 40 mph if you're extremely fit.
I no longer ride on the road ever since recently a Vauxhall Ashra driver thought it was fun to go belting past me at 60 mph leaving a 4 mm gap between his car mirror and my handlebar. It scared the heck out of me.
I could see the d**k on that driver's forehead flapping about as he carried on into the distance.
Click to expand...

See alot of drivers going past the speed limit leaving little gap, evil like these are the reason why the tests and learning to drives standards go up. Makes me a little jumpy too, sometimes I hear a loud engine and feel jumpy too, hoping there not speeding too fast.
 
As a cyclist, there are loads of inconsiderate drivers out there. I do have insurance, and pay 2 lots of road tax.

And one thing is for sure you'll not miss my bike lights. In fact motorists usually slow right down fearing an alien invasion.
 
I don't see how lights on my bike would improve things..

I still get hit by drivers in the day light, when it's light, dark, inbetween, and when i'm wearing very bright clothing.

Still get the idiots hitting me.
 
I've never been hit by a driver - but if lighting even in the day on the roads is not a bad idea. all it does is gets the drivers attention. It doesnt mean they will give you any more room, but at least they now they are there!
 
Ant said:
I don't see how lights on my bike would improve things..

I still get hit by drivers in the day light, when it's light, dark, inbetween, and when i'm wearing very bright clothing.

Still get the idiots hitting me.
Click to expand...

That's daft, if they want you dead all that's needed is

rentokil-ant-killer-gel.jpg


:lol:
 
Flash has got .303 Brownings for the rest of us . . .

Tally-ho!
 
some cyclists need to be shot.
One sped past me whilst i was slowing for a red light - can you guess what happeneded next . - he rode straight through the red light at speed almost got claimed by the bus turning out into the road - thet evil side of me was hoping there would be contact.

He give cyclist bad names. the funny thing is he had all the lights, hi vis vest and riding like a complete plonker.
 
fracster said:
Whilst i`m upsetting cyclists, get some insurance and pay some tax, then I may start to consider your presence on the road, same for horse riders............:)
Click to expand...

Here, here !!

I had a numpty cause an accident and I dropped my GSXR600 when it just over a week old. Not my fault, this ******* on a push bike decided to come out at 90 degrees to the traffic between 2 cars, causing me to brake hard, hit his front wheel, and the pair of us ended up on the deck.

It all came out of my insurance. If you're going to be on the public highway get some bloody cover !

[I feel better now]

Steve
 
I think the matter of insurance is a fair one.

They can cause damage so they should be covered.

One rode straight into the side of my wife's car about 4 years ago. He just got up, dusted off and cycled away, leaving us with a bill for £1800!
 
as a cyclist i agree that there should be insurance. how will they inforce it though. cant take plates of a bike and report for no insurance.
 
Try driving an atic, I have followed cyclist's for nearly a mile (pedaling and coasting) would they pull over or at least get on to the pavement to allow other traffic to pass, NO! If you ride on the road you obey the rules of the road, common courtesy included. Don't hold up traffic if it safe for you to pull over. 44 tonnes hurts alot more than a car!
 
I tell you what doesn't help us cyclists much. Council road traffic calming schemes.
I'm talking about kerbsides at junction that juts out a few feet, something like this:

side1.jpg


They're supposed to prevent cars on the main road overtaking where junctions are, but all they do is to force us cyclists further out into the middle of the road - right into direct paths of passing traffic! So we have to hop onto the pathway if we want to avoid experiencing a close encounter with a lorry.

Here's another such thing. http://gettingworse.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/corkerhill_busstop2.jpg I mean, what were they thinking when they build these things???
 
Last edited:
the trouble on sheffield is that where the trams are on the road there isn't enough space for the tram to overtake cyclists and at every stop you have central reservations so to stop overtaking.

However on some stretches of road the tram is faster due to hills etc. but on flats and down hills the tram has stop so close together you get stuck behind it all the time!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top