Ryan: The problem, I believe, is more from the design of modern lights than the brightness. By and large, the lights you can buy in US—and this includes pretty much every LED light on the market—throw out a cone of light that shines up and much as it shines down. It might be “focused,” but it’s still a cone.
German-made lights like the Edelux, on the other hand, focus their light to shine mostly down on the road, where it needs to be. Light shining up and toward other riders is minimized. Modern cars work the same way—point your car at a garage door or a wall and you’ll usually see pretty sharp cutoff line with light below and dark above. There’s no reason why a light can’t be bright *and* non-blinding. But it’s much easier to build a reflector that creates cone-shaped light, which is probably why most lights do this. German regulations, in particular, don’t allow this, which is why Edelux and other German-approved lights are better focused. This state of affairs probably won’t change until US regulators get around to adopting regulations like those in Europe, and I haven’t heard of any movement in this direction. --Eric N campyonly...@me.com www.CampyOnly.com Campyonlyguy.blogspot.com @Campyonlyguy > On Feb 11, 2016, at 6:33 AM, Ryan Thompson <ryan.f.thomp...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I'm all for the advances in light technology and how relatively low the cost > is to obtain a good light but like Andrew said, during my commute at night > I'm constantly blinded by the 400-1000 lumen lights everyone has mounted on > their handlebars. I have a Cygolite from Riv on a Paul Gino mounted at the > mid fork braze on which I hope minimizes blinding oncoming riders. > > Ryan > > On Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 12:11:34 AM UTC-5, BSWP wrote: > EFZ. I use lights to show up the potholes and dead skunks, not so much to > help the cagers see me. > > Just back from Portland, where every other rig seems to be a HID hub-powered > coastal lighthouse beacon. > > - Andrew, Berkeley > > On Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 7:18:06 PM UTC-8, Clayton.sf wrote: > If they can't see me they can't hit me. There is a reason the army wears camo > and ninjas dress in black. > Clayton Scott > SF, CA > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > <mailto:rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com > <mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch > <https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
