Old 05-15-19, 09:33 AM
  #81  
Tourist in MSN
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Location: Madison, WI
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Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.

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Regarding the usefulness of summer and daytime light, I drove a motorcycle for decades for commuting. After several years it became quite evident that the sunny days were days when very few drivers treated me as if I was invisible. My motorcycles were older Brit bikes that had a light switch, on sunny days I often rode with the lights off to help keep the battery charged even though the law said lights had to be on.

But the days when there was overcast or lots of clouds, those were the days when drivers acted like I was invisible, even with my lights on I had a lot of close calls by people that appeared to not see me.

Based on that experience, on bright sunny days my lights are often off during daytime. But overcast and cloudy days I am wearing bright high vis colored clothing and have a taillight or two on in blink mode as those are the most dangerous days.

In the photo, the bicyclists with bright high vis clothing are approaching so you can't tell if they have tail lights on or not. But the point of my photo here is even though it is daytime, in overcast or cloudy conditions it is pretty easy for a bicyclist to be almost invisible to a bored driver until they get quite close.

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