Author Topic: Sunglasses and daylight lights  (Read 4515 times)

FifeingEejit

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Sunglasses and daylight lights
« on: 01 December, 2020, 12:53:24 am »
Riding directly into the sun on Saturday I captured this scene fairly accurately to what I could see.



There were visual cues in the glary mess that let me identify the 2 other vehicles, one thankfully stands out from the hedgerow, the other I could only see a distinctive movement.

This is why I will often be found combining the 2 this time of year. Even with the glasses on that was enough glare to be causing me problems without also worrying about other road users.

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hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #1 on: 01 December, 2020, 01:16:08 am »
I think the peak of a cap is useful to head off the sun...

FifeingEejit

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #2 on: 01 December, 2020, 01:29:10 am »
Tend to further limit view of road when combined with the H word as you can't adjust to suit beyond peak up/down.
I did try peak down but meant car and cyclist in the picture were obscured by peak.
My bilateral coloboma probably makes me more susceptible to glare too.

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Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #3 on: 01 December, 2020, 09:16:01 am »
Low sun can be a problem. I'm not sure where the daytime lights come into it though?

I'd actually been wondering about a similar but almost opposite scenario recently. On a dull, gloomy day, I'd noticed lots of riders with daytime lights, which seems fair enough given the lack of ambient light, but with sunglasses too. There wasn't any direct sun, low or high.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #4 on: 01 December, 2020, 09:33:29 am »
The worst conditions are into a low winter sun with a wet road surface reflecting it, impossible to evade the glare.

Kim

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #5 on: 01 December, 2020, 11:21:46 am »
I'd actually been wondering about a similar but almost opposite scenario recently. On a dull, gloomy day, I'd noticed lots of riders with daytime lights, which seems fair enough given the lack of ambient light, but with sunglasses too. There wasn't any direct sun, low or high.

I find there can be enough UV to darken my glasses on quite overcast days.  I only notice if I take them off for some reason.

FifeingEejit

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #6 on: 01 December, 2020, 11:49:54 am »
Low sun can be a problem. I'm not sure where the daytime lights come into it though?

I'd actually been wondering about a similar but almost opposite scenario recently. On a dull, gloomy day, I'd noticed lots of riders with daytime lights, which seems fair enough given the lack of ambient light, but with sunglasses too. There wasn't any direct sun, low or high.

It would be more obvious if the car in the picture was a more modern one or an old SAAB/Volvo, or the cyclist had a light on

The car that had just passed was much easier to make out from the darkness of the hedge row and glare due to 2 lines of white LEDs marking its presence.

Fair point on the a sunless day.

The worst conditions are into a low winter sun with a wet road surface reflecting it, impossible to evade the glare.

The conditions seen above are normal for winter fife; at least on the days it's not pishing doon or dreich.

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #7 on: 01 December, 2020, 12:10:27 pm »
The sun seems to be well above the horizon. My cycling cap would block the sun completely giving me a full view of the road.

FifeingEejit

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #8 on: 01 December, 2020, 12:55:32 pm »
Mine blocked the sun, and the view ahead with the peak down, as mentioned its coupled with an H.

But also as mentioned my perception of light might be different, even todays lunch walk was borderline sun glasses.
It was sundown by the time I felt I needed to consign the sunnies to the back pocket on Saturday too.

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #9 on: 01 December, 2020, 08:50:12 pm »
In similar conditions a friend was killed by a driver with a dirty windscreen. If I'm planning a route at this time of year make an effort to ride with the sun behind me. (Of course that's not possible if you are commuting and direction is predetermined)

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #10 on: 01 December, 2020, 09:03:45 pm »
I don't like riding with the low winter sun behind me.

Sure, I can see stuff in front of me, but I'm aware that drivers coming towards me can't see me.

Also, there's the weird thing with the long shadows...
A big vehicle like a bus or HGV will cast a long shadow that sweeps over me like I'm about to be run over, even when the vehicle is actually a safe distance behind.
It's really quite disconcerting.
This happened every winter commute home when I worked in Banchory, I was riding directly Eastwards.

ian

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #11 on: 01 December, 2020, 09:23:56 pm »
We had to pull over at the weekend, the low sun glaring off a recently wetted road made it impossible to see. Fortunately, there were sunglasses in the glove compartment (no gloves though).

We were the only car we saw to do this. I can only assume every other driver had sunglasses on already.

FifeingEejit

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #12 on: 01 December, 2020, 10:02:50 pm »
I don't like riding with the low winter sun behind me.

Sure, I can see stuff in front of me, but I'm aware that drivers coming towards me can't see me.

Also, there's the weird thing with the long shadows...
A big vehicle like a bus or HGV will cast a long shadow that sweeps over me like I'm about to be run over, even when the vehicle is actually a safe distance behind.
It's really quite disconcerting.
This happened every winter commute home when I worked in Banchory, I was riding directly Eastwards.

Aye, you can see in that picture that while I can't easily see the oncoming rider, the car behind the rider clearly has.
The risk there is if I had a car behind me wanting to overtake and the driver thought it as clear.
I only knew they were there to take the photo because I saw the pedal motion at the rise from the bottom of the stroke.

I've come across very similar in the height of summer, riding North West along a country road in the earlyish evening (by late june standards) with hedges, MTBer riding in the gutter almost completely hidden by the contrast and dark clothing.
Again it was the pedal motion I spotted, at least I was on the bike.

I want to try and get similar conditions with both to see if a standard set of dynamo LED lights actually help or not.

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #13 on: 01 December, 2020, 11:45:16 pm »
A big vehicle like a bus or HGV will cast a long shadow that sweeps over me like I'm about to be run over, even when the vehicle is actually a safe distance behind.
It's really quite disconcerting.

This.
Often buses have been slowing behind you so you dont hear them until this massive shadow of doom runs right over you and you nearly shit yourself.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #14 on: 01 December, 2020, 11:58:45 pm »
We had to pull over at the weekend, the low sun glaring off a recently wetted road made it impossible to see. Fortunately, there were sunglasses in the glove compartment (no gloves though).

We were the only car we saw to do this. I can only assume every other driver had sunglasses on already.

Even sunglasses didn't help heading east from Durango CO on US-160 on the day the death of Johnny Cash was announced.  I had to park up and wait for half an hour.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #15 on: 02 December, 2020, 09:44:55 am »
We had to pull over at the weekend, the low sun glaring off a recently wetted road made it impossible to see. Fortunately, there were sunglasses in the glove compartment (no gloves though).

We were the only car we saw to do this. I can only assume every other driver had sunglasses on already.

Even sunglasses didn't help heading east from Durango CO on US-160 on the day the death of Johnny Cash was announced.  I had to park up and wait for half an hour.

They were suboptimal but it only a short section of the exciting Dorking one-way system headed onto the A25.

It was in Durango (or up a nearby hill) where I was once marooned in a hotel for the duration of a snowstorm with only the Book of Mormon, some booze, and a pizza for company. Now that was a night.

FifeingEejit

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #16 on: 02 December, 2020, 09:49:49 am »
2 out of 3 ain't bad

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hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #17 on: 02 December, 2020, 09:23:13 pm »
I don't even wash my dishes at 3pm on sunny winter afternoons. The low sun through the kitchen window is blinding.

I have the luxury of going nowhere and sufficient crockery...

ian

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #18 on: 02 December, 2020, 09:51:24 pm »
2 out of 3 ain't bad

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Don't knock the Book of Mormon, it's fucking hilarious and utterly, utterly bonkers. I would so like to have drinks with the Angel Moroni. It's the most fun I've had in a hotel room without cocaine and prostitutes.


FifeingEejit

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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #19 on: 02 December, 2020, 09:59:03 pm »
2 out of 3 ain't bad

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Don't knock the Book of Mormon, it's fucking hilarious and utterly, utterly bonkers. I would so like to have drinks with the Angel Moroni. It's the most fun I've had in a hotel room without cocaine and prostitutes.

It was the Pizza...

ian

Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #20 on: 02 December, 2020, 10:04:11 pm »
It wasn't a memorable pizza, I have to admit. A hotel microwave special. And the local gas station had precisely no books. Not even Dan Brown. It could have been worse, I could have been in Utah proper, and even the booze would have been water.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
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Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #21 on: 03 December, 2020, 12:23:35 am »
To be scrupulously fair to Utah, it's not much harder to buy boozahol there than it is in states like Washington, where the State-run liquor stores close at 7 pm and you arrive at ten past because The Man was rebuilding a bridge across the Columbia River, thus occasioning a sixty-mile detour.  The bastards.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #22 on: 03 December, 2020, 01:07:34 pm »
To be scrupulously fair to Utah, it's not much harder to buy boozahol there than it is in states like Washington, where the State-run liquor stores close at 7 pm and you arrive at ten past because The Man was rebuilding a bridge across the Columbia River, thus occasioning a sixty-mile detour.  The bastards.
That's even stricter than Sweden!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Wycombewheeler

  • PBP-2019 LEL-2022
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #23 on: 04 December, 2020, 05:33:53 pm »
I don't like riding with the low winter sun behind me.

Sure, I can see stuff in front of me, but I'm aware that drivers coming towards me can't see me.

Also, there's the weird thing with the long shadows...
A big vehicle like a bus or HGV will cast a long shadow that sweeps over me like I'm about to be run over, even when the vehicle is actually a safe distance behind.
It's really quite disconcerting.
This happened every winter commute home when I worked in Banchory, I was riding directly Eastwards.
You can see the drivers coming towards you,  and they should be on the other side of the road.  The driver coming from behind you is more of a threat.

Eddington  127miles, 170km

Kim

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    • Fediverse
Re: Sunglasses and daylight lights
« Reply #24 on: 04 December, 2020, 08:07:07 pm »
Depends on whether there's a junction...