The ninja cycle epidemic *mod warning - see OP*

greenspurs

READ MOD WARNING

Roadhawk

The two factors allowing cyclists to cycle at night without lights are cyclist behavior and law enforcement. It is almost acceptable by some who knowingly choose to cycle without lights. If they had any regard for their own safety they would have the sense to install and use a light. Negligence will get you nowhere when it come to safety.

There is very little enforcement from the Gardai on this issue. I have seen a flurry of ninja cyclists cycle by Gards in town and they dont respond at all. Until there is a crack down on this there wont be any change.

seamus

Ultimately this boils down to the perception among many that being on a bike is no different to walking except that you can go a bit faster.

Nobody gives a second thought to making themselves more visible while walking in the city, so they apply the same logic to jumping on the bike.

The majority of cyclists I see at night will have some form of light on the bike, though in my experience a lack of lights correlates heavily with urban areas. That is, the further towards the city you go, the more likely you are to encounter someone without lights.

Education and enforcement is really all you can do. Realistically it's not that big of a problem (that is, it doesn't seem to cause many accidents), so it's going to fall way down any list of priorities.

odyssey06

If a car is taking a right turn in the dark, and there's a cyclist travelling on the other side of the road in a hi-vis vest and no lights, remember that the car's headlights will not reflect off the hi-vis as they are directed to the left and straight ahead.
They'll only reflect off the hi-vis when the car has started its turn, which might well be too late.

Wishbone Ash

seamus wrote: »

.... the further towards the city you go, the more likely you are to encounter someone without lights....

I'd imagine that most cyclists who don't use lights are not motorists and therefore don't appreciate the danger they are putting themselves in. Cyclists who frequent the city centre at night are much less likely to be motorists.

Arcade_Tryer

seamus wrote: »

The majority of cyclists I see at night will have some form of light on the bike, though in my experience a lack of lights correlates heavily with urban areas. That is, the further towards the city you go, the more likely you are to encounter someone without lights.

Would that not be a case of there being more cyclists in urban areas?

An RSA campaign highlighting the importance of cyclist/pedestrian visibility is probably needed.

Wishbone Ash

Arcade_Tryer wrote: »

Would that not be a case of there being more cyclists in urban areas?....

I'd say he means pro-rata.

ED E

Arcade_Tryer wrote: »

Would that not be a case of there being more cyclists in urban areas?

There are more in the city yeah, but also a bigger proportion without lights.


A big part is the "need to see" vs "need to be seen". If you go further out the street lighting thins and to see pot holes you get a headlight. Once you're mounting that you're likely to mount a rear one too.

Rokta

A big part is the "need to see" vs "need to be seen". If you go further out the street lighting thins and to see pot holes you get a headlight. Once you're mounting that you're likely to mount a rear one too.

This!

What I do not understand is that I see people who are regularly commuting with no lights (always the same people everyday). Out of my own experience with daily commuting of around 10k one way is that for your own good you should be lit up like a bloody Christmas tree to avoid getting run over by anybody because nobody can bloody see you with the little lighting in an industrial estate in winter time.

They should know better.

It goes to a point where I get highly annoyed about this. <snip>

magicbastarder

on glasnevin avenue earlier (about half eight this evening) i passed a cyclist, the most visible part of whom was her right leg; from what i could see, she'd rolled her trouser leg up to above her knee. who said hi-vis was no more visible than any other clothing.

Wishbone Ash

Of course we also have a very weird species who fit a perfectly adequate rear light but choose to hide it behind a pannier, mudguard or long coat.

John_Rambo

I'm a bit light obsessed.

I think it's my age and the woefull lights I had when I was a kid cycling to and from Scouts, sports, training etc.
Massive grey/beige yolks with giant batteries mounted on you front and back forks wrapped up in sellotape cause the fell off their mounting all the time. My parents assured me they were expensive, as were the batteries that lasted two hours.

Now they're beautiful, sleek, small, powerful, rechargeable. And affordable.

tomasrojo

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Of course we also have a very weird species who fit a perfectly adequate rear light but choose to hide it behind a pannier, mudguard or long coat.

And people with helmet lights that disappear behind their backpack as soon as they start cycling. And short people whose seatpost-mounted rear light is hidden by the rear mudguard/filth prophylactic.

magicbastarder

John_Rambo wrote: »

I think it's my age and the woefull lights I had when I was a kid cycling to and from Scouts, sports, training etc.

we used to have big, weak, ever ready jobbies that i suppose technically counted as lights.

John_Rambo

magicbastarder wrote: »

we used to have big, weak, ever ready jobbies that i suppose technically counted as lights.

They came along then! I remember the click as they slotted in to the bracket!

Kaisr Sose

There was pretty good light of them for the time - heavy with big batteries and did not last long. I may have on in my mums garage!

AndrewJRenko

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

There was pretty good light of them for the time - heavy with big batteries and did not last long. I may have on in my mums garage!

And there were no rechargeable batteries in those days - cost a fortune to keep them going.

Wishbone Ash

These were the type I had (with the big EverReady batteries). I used two up front - one on each fork. It was difficult to stop them from rattling/vibrating. We didn't really realise it at the time but the light they provided was shíte.

triggermortis

I had similar ones too. One bike I had even had a boss welded onto the fork for fitting the light

John_Rambo

They're the ones Wishbone!

"They have it easy these days, I remember when this was all fields, kids these days, I remember when we could go to the cinema and have a bag of chips on the way home for 8p, there was no such thing as...." etc, etc, etc.

Kaisr Sose

Thise everready were endorsed by our own Stephen Roche in the day (pro gear!!) but were heavy. Some of the lights used by people these days are uber lite but not giving off a lot of light!! One LED giving off S much light as one tea light just about to go out :-), visible only from a few meters. Probably the equivalent of one candle in old light measurement

Macy0161

Had those lights too. I upgraded to a rim dynamo (which meant I could also pretend I was on a motorbike!)

Macy0161

Macy0161 wrote: »

Had those lights too. I upgraded to a rim dynamo (which meant I could also pretend I was on a motorbike!)

Flicking them on was like turning the resistance up on the turbo trainer.

tomasrojo

John_Rambo wrote: »

"They have it easy these days, I remember when this was all fields, kids these days, I remember when we could go to the cinema and have a bag of chips on the way home for 8p, there was no such thing as...." etc, etc, etc.

Carbide lamps, they were the business.

lissard

Couldn't agree more with most of the posts in this thread. I have come very close to rear-ending a couple of ninja cyclists on the N11 cycle lane over the last few months. For me lights are the single most important piece of safety equipment on a bike. I have mine switched on every time I go out on a bike from October through to March. If I cycle behind someone with a dim rear light or indeed no light, I make a point of telling them. Often they are completely unaware just how vulnerable they are.

It mystifies me how the guards are not widely enforcing this, after all it's a decades old law and one that used to be strictly enforced. I remember seeing a guy being stopped years ago on Kevin Street outside the Garda station. The guard told him he had no lights and to get off the road, after his lecture he walked 20 yards down the road and tried to start cycling again. The guard ran up and confiscated the bike, told the nonce if he wanted the bike back to come back to the station in the morning and pay a fine. Seemed like the sort of enforcement that would definitely stamp this sort of thing out.

tomasrojo

lissard wrote: »

The guard told him he had no lights and to get off the road, after his lecture he walked 20 yards down the road and tried to start cycling again. The guard ran up and confiscated the bike, told the nonce if he wanted the bike back to come back to the station in the morning and pay a fine. Seemed like the sort of enforcement that would definitely stamp this sort of thing out.

I know they got Al Capone on tax evasion, but the Garda's emphasis on a failure to comply with lighting regulations seems misplaced.

mrcheez

tomasrojo wrote: »

And people with helmet lights that disappear behind their backpack as soon as they start cycling. And short people whose seatpost-mounted rear light is hidden by the rear mudguard/filth prophylactic.

Spotted quite a few girls with baskets at the front blocking a perfectly decent light that was switched on but pointing upward to the sky!!!

If you're going to have a light, at least have it somewhere it can be seen

Maybe they were contacting our alien overlords

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

Some of the lights used by people these days are uber lite but not giving off a lot of light!! One LED giving off S much light as one tea light just about to go out :-), visible only from a few meters. Probably the equivalent of one candle in old light measurement

Agree with this, particularly on road bikes ridden by guys in full racing regalia where it seems to be the light was chosen for it's minimalist style rather than function.

Single LED lights can be seen when you are 3m away max, unless it's a perfectly dark night, but I doubt it can be seen from a car that's approaching at 40 kph.

tomasrojo

I guess the old roadster design, still common in many countries, had a few advantages: front light mounted on the headset or fork, so below any basket, and rear light mounted on the rear mudguard or back of a rear carrier, far from coats and bags.

EDIT:
That sort of thing:


Not that you can't put lights on a road bike, hybrid and mountain bike and have them unobscured, but a lot of people put them on any old way, given that there's no dedicated place to put them.

mrcheez

tomasrojo wrote: »

but a lot of people put them on any old way, given that there's no dedicated place to put them.

The rear frame has lots of space for attaching the wrap-around lights though.

I have two of these, and they are damned bright, plus simple to attach... and cheap!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycle-Helmet-Three-Safety-Colors/dp/B00PVM015G/

Simple to take off if parking in a public area too (which was the reason one guy gave me for not having lights when I asked him: "ah they'll get stolen")

tomasrojo

mrcheez wrote: »

The rear frame has lots of space for attaching the wrap-around lights though.

Ah yeah, if you're at all conscientious, it's not hard to mount the lights in a suitable place. The dedicated location model just means you have to really try if you're going to get it wrong.

Plenty of people in the Netherlands without lights too though, mostly from not fixing them when they break, I think.