Dunwich Dynamo XXV - 8th July 2017

[Jurek]

1:08 to 1:14

[Kim]

I don't think that's been done before - but it does capture very well, the flavour of being on the ride.

Absolutely.

Flashing front lights and all. 

Love the bird's-eye view of everyone collapsed on the beach at the end.   

[TimO]

...
Flashing front lights and all. 
...

I never understand how people can tolerate their bright lights flashing, in the darkness.  I very occasionally use flashing lights, but it's generally in partial daylight, or extremely occasionally at night on a short stretch of dangerous road, which is normally lit by street lights.  At night, even having someone else's flashing front light in my peripheral vision is irritating, and when I had the LED on my Garmin Virb action camera flashing (the default setting) it was annoying as buggery.  The thought of cycling along dark lanes, with my entire forward view being illuminated, between periods of complete darkness, would drive me rapidly nuts.  It utterly destroys your ability to see things, with the alternating bright and dark view, essentially making the reason for a bright light entirely redundant.

Bright rear lights can be hard work for others, but at least the owner can't see them easily.  That clearly is not the case with front lights.  Flashing front lights, with dark conditions, completely baffles me.

[Redlight]

I agree. Some of the flashing rear lights were bad enough but the more powerful flashing front lights were a pain in the a--e.  I had some guy sitting on my wheel for a while with one going like a strobe  and intermittently lighting up the road just in front of me so that I found it hard to see the quality of the surface or to judge distances. In the end, I had to slow down and force him to go past, then let him go up the road where he could annoy someone else.  I can see how they might be useful in urban environments as a "be seen" light, but on a rural road they are just dumb.

[Jurek]

I agree. Some of the flashing rear lights were bad enough but the more powerful flashing front lights were a pain in the a--e.  I had some guy sitting on my wheel for a while with one going like a strobe  and intermittently lighting up the road just in front of me so that I found it hard to see the quality of the surface or to judge distances. In the end, I had to slow down and force him to go past, then let him go up the road where he could annoy someone else.  I can see how they might be useful in urban environments as a "be seen" light, but on a rural road they are just dumb.

My bold.
+1

[BFC]

Perceived flashing front light may be a timing factor of lights running in switched mode (flashing at high frequency) to give extended battery life for the overnight ride, clashing with the frame rate of the camera.

Agree that running in flashing mode for main front "See where you're going" lights are stupid and really affect the brains ability to "see". They have a place in street lit and traffic situations to wake up the twats in tin boxes, but not out in the sticks where the priority is seeing the road surface in front of you.

[Kim]

While that might be true of the video, anyone who's ridden the Dun Run (or any other night ride where lighting isn't policed or subject to audax culture) knows that there will be no shortage of people who think strobe-o-vision is a good idea.

Comes down to inexperience, I reckon.

[Andrij]

While that might be true of the video, anyone who's ridden the Dun Run (or any other night ride where lighting isn't policed or subject to audax culture) knows that there will be no shortage of people who think strobe-o-vision is a good idea.

Hence the following on the one night ride I organise:

* If you employ flashing front/rear lights on the ride you will end up in the Thames - you're bike will be spared if I happen to like it.

[Adam]

While that might be true of the video, anyone who's ridden the Dun Run (or any other night ride where lighting isn't policed or subject to audax culture) knows that there will be no shortage of people who think strobe-o-vision is a good idea.

Comes down to inexperience, I reckon.

Definitely.  As part of our procedure now for anyone who signs up for the FNRttC, if they haven't done the ride before, they get a specifically worded newbie email with blurb about how the ride operates, and I've got a whole paragraph on lights and the fact that strobes are a bad thing.