`Orum

As fall is upon us, I find myself riding more and more at night. What surprises me is how unbelievably common it is for cyclists (and runners/walkers, you too, but this is a cycling form!) to ride on the local bike path--only small portions of which are lit--with absolutely no lights.

Law aside, what does it take to convince you that this is not a good idea? I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, as most here are safety advocates. But if you know someone who doesn't ride with lights, please show them this.


This is the same bike, taken with the exact same exposure settings, one with all lights off, and the other with all of my lights on.

Invisible cyclists can't see obstacles, can't avoid other invisible people in the path, and can't be seen by other cyclists/pedestrians. Lights are not that terribly expensive, and I can guarantee you, far cheaper than just one trip to the hospital or personal injury suit.

Reflectors are good. Lights are better. Lights and reflectors are best.

Seattle Forrest

The people you're urging to change their behavior don't read this forum.

If you live in an urban area, you can avoid most "bike ninja" problems by sticking to the roadway and avoiding multi-use or bike paths.

randya

the cyclists with poorly aimed too-bright lights are just as bad as the ones with no lights at all

squirtdad

in my observation, this not true for San Jose.....most bike ninjas are on the streets and rarely on paths. I see two basic ninja types, what appear to be homeless and the cool fixie crowd. The cool fixie crowd do not feel their mortality and are prone to to cut across lanes with no notice. It is interesting to note that many of what appear to be working immigrants have lights...perhaps to avoid any discussion with law enforcement.

MitchL

what is that light on the downtube? i like it.

RWBlue01

Yep.

I don't understand why people have a problem aiming their headlights.

`Orum

The lights on the downtube are one half of a strip of LEDs I ordered. The exact product is here. The other half is on the left chainstay. You can cut them every 3 LEDs, but the .5m strip only comes with two leads, so cutting one into 3 or more parts would require some soldering directly on to the contacts on the flexible PCB. Any cutting of it though will require additional waterproofing in order to stay waterproof, and for this I just dipped the cut end of each in some epoxy.

I would rather see a cyclist with a poorly aimed light than not see one with no light at all. Still, I agree, one should take the time to properly adjust and secure a light for night riding.

Seattle Forrest

Even still, the streets tend to be lit much better than paths. That's not always the case, but in a lot of cities you can at least reduce your chances of being taken out by a ninja this way.

rnorris

As a courtesy I normally tilt my light down while riding on a MUP. But closing speed with an oncoming ninja cyclist can be pretty fast, so I'll only limit my light beam so far. Car headlights don't bother me, and I take those from oncoming cyclists in stride as well.

vol

A serious accident at night.

billdsd

How far down does it really have to be though? I don't usually ride on MUP's but I do typically like to ride at speeds in the upper teens to low twenties. I like to point my lights a bit forward so I can see the road ahead.

noisebeam

I only ride on roads and point light toward horizon, that is very slightly angled downward.
The only other cyclists it may bother are those riding the wrong way.

`Orum

My rule of thumb? Far enough forward that I can avoid obstacles at my highest speeds, but as low as possible otherwise. I also am in the process of making a hood to reflect some of the light shining up back down to the road (not shown in the photo), but I still want some to go out horizontally, to keep me visible to approaching cars/cyclists/pedestrians.

To get an idea of how much the beam spreads now, you can take a look at another image of my bike from a different angle.

coldfeet

The bike ninjas feel they can see well enough with dark adapted eyes that they don't need lights. This works up to a point, on the pathways, until they meet another ninja at the bottom of a dip on a blind curve. Last year, such an incident sent 2 of them to hospital with serious injuries. It appears that other ninjas did not hear of this....

degnaw

If I was a ninja, there's no way I would ever make it to my destinations and back. At 11pm on a wooded, deserted country road with no streetlights in sight, i wouldn't want anything less than what I use now: a P7 'flood' flashlight, a Q5 'throw' flashlight, and two taillights.

randya

unless and until you turn off your lights, you won't ever develop the night vision necessary to be a ninja

true ninjas prolly use night vision goggles they smuggled back from Iraq

CritEastwood

There's a time and a place for everything. I keep the mount of my headlight loose enough to adjust it on the fly. If I'm on a dark MUP, it'll be aimed correctly for the speed I'm traveling. On a busy and well lit street with the possibility of left-crosses and right-hooks, it'll be aimed higher.

Kevin666

I'm just thinking that the term "bike ninja" sounds kind of cool, and might give people the wrong idea, even though there's nothing cool about riding without lights. Remember, kids: better to be a live geek with lights than a dead bike ninja.

no motor?

Exactly. It makes it easier to change the intensity that way when needed too.

Seattle Forrest

About 700 cyclists a year die in the USA. You can see that many ninjas in a week, this time of year. Bike ninjas are annoying and obnoxious, but they aren't especially deadly.

degnaw

You could use this glasses-TV-monitor thingy: https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.42437
Connected to this camera: https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15756 (you might need a 12V battery pack to go along)
and Voila, you can now see IR light!

All that's left is to drop a couple of IR LEDs: https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14061 in your existing flashlights, and now you're safe to turn your flashlights off. Of course, I'm not quite ready for the $200 investment to become a ninja.

RWBlue01

Why smuggle when you can buy the good stuff here in the USA?
As far as riding with NV. I can not do it. The NV throws off my balance.

Pscyclepath

It's usually the ninja who winds up dead or maimed, usually as the result of a collision with a motor vehicle. Bike-on-bike crashes you can usually walk or crawl away from, not so when it's a car.

`Orum

Yet, 60% of bike collisions in Florida are caused by cyclists riding at night without lights. In Austin, Texas, while only 22% of all injuries occurred at dusk or at night, 46% of fatal and incapacitating injuries did. Most importantly, in Canada, over 90% of bicycles involved in night time fatalities have inadequate lighting.

Nighttime riding is disproportionately dangerous, probably largely due to people without lights, who are just asking to be hit.

kludgefudge

once I did a 25 km ride home on the local bike corridor, while using only a pitiful PB blaze 1/2 watt for my headlight on a very dark in places but familiar and straight trail. The only time I went off the trail was when I encountered a cyclist on an electric bike with an extremely bright headlight. That said, I still think no lights at all is worse than poorly aimed ones.