Pepper

Early morning dark + strobing white light + motion sickness?

All my life i have ridden a bike without any lights. than i got married and had three kids... actually i watched my wife have them. Anyhoo I decided to be a grown up and geek out with some strobing tail lights and a strobing front light. So my first ride with the light on and no sun was early this morning to work. Forty minutes into the ride I was dizzy and sick, I had to stop and dry heave. i figured out that I had been staring/fixating like a little kid at the strobing light moving back and forth. I ended up having to turn it off.

To remedy it tomorrow morning im thinking i will just choose the normal "On" mode and work on my "line".. im weaving to much.

Anyone else ever deal with this?

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jeffpoulin

I'm confused about this. The blinking light goes behind you. You shouldn't even see it when you're riding. As for headlights, I only use flash mode in low light conditions such as rain or twilight. When it's dark, I always run the headlight in steady mode.

cyclefreaksix

Strobe on the front is for light or low light riding only. It makes me sick and disoriented as well.

mikewille

Strobe on the front is for disorienting your buddy on a dark trail
when he stops to take a leak.

Eclectus

No problem strobing, if the sky is light enough. One thing is if you want a strobe to be seen is to have a constant light aimed at the road, and the strobe aimed more upward, not on the pavement. Strobes get more attention from drivers.

CliftonGK1

I've seen plenty of people using a strobing light in full dark, and always wondered how they don't have a seizure. My setup is a steady light at the ground, and (when needed*) a strobing light on my helmet.

*Riding in traffic during dark/low-light/rain

ItsJustMe

If it's dark enough that you can see the strobe, it's too dark to have it on strobe. Put it on steady. Or at worst have two lights, only one on strobe.

CCrew

Fixed it for ya

no motor?

Try it in the fog if you really want to get disoriented.

rnorris

I use two lights- a strobe light mounted on my helmet and a much brighter, fixed light mounted on the handlebars. I like the strobing helmet light as it really gets the attention of drivers when I look in their direction. I'll often ride with just the helmet light in well lit areas, then kick on the fixed headlight for the darker sections. The strobing light usually isn't bothersome; first, I have it aimed at a fairly high angle off the ground to be in the sightlines of drivers; second, the fixed headlight tends to fill in the dark intervals between strobe flashes so it's not so disorienting.

nahh

...try having it on strobe in the fog. I nearly barfed...several times.

mikewille

Strobe looks cool in heavy blizzard-type snow.

Pepper

lol thanks for the witty comments. I kind of came to the same conclusion on using the strobe to aim at the on coming traffic, your buddy or heavy snow. I'll use the constant on for the road.

AdamDZ

Can you mount the front light so it's out of your direct line of sight, like under the handlebar or use an extension and put it further up front so you can't see the lens? Just make sure it doesn't illuminate anything like cables. Or make a little hood for it?

Also, you may try a slower flashing light too.

And this:


Adam

mikewille

My disorienting strobe experiences have been not so much from direct light-to-eye
illumination, but from when it's so dark that all you can see is the lit-up area flashing,
much like being in a dark room with a strobe light on. Usually I just use steady mode
in the dark and save strobe mode for daylight eyegrabbingness.

AdamDZ

Yes, using strobe when it's dark will definitely mess most people up. BTW, this is not the same as motion sickness, it's something different I just don't remember the explanation. It's like people sitting in front of a TV or monitor in a dark room. That's why it's recommended to have some steady background lights on when watching TV or using a computer in dark rooms. I know some people like that too.

Adam

Pepper

ya the light isnt shining in my eyes, its was the light strobing on the pavement in front of me that was the issue. I rode this morning with the light just on with no issues.

daven1986

don't aim the strobe at the ground. My strobe is aimed a bit higher for attention grabbing, I have a steady light aimed at the ground so I can see.

genec

Yes, your eyes are fixating on the objects you see during the bright flashes... and your eyesight doesn't have time to recover between flashes... so you get form of motion sickness.

I'd go to the steady light mode if it is still dark enough for you to be fixating like this. Save the flash mode for twilight hours.

chrisb71

They've done experiments for astronauts where strobe lights actually helped combat motion sickness of certain types. I think this is not the same but the kind of sickness when your body is not moving the same way as your eyes are telling it that it is, like seasickness.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16422446

atcfoody

As I progressed through some different lighting combinations on my bike, I experimented with this. Using a "cat eye" style light (AA or AAA powered) on strobe will only attract the attention of drivers if it is the only thing on. If you have two of them, of the same power, with one on constant and one strobe, the strobe will only be noticed at ranges of about 50 yards. If you have one of these light on strobe, and a second light that is much brighter (nite rider, cygolight, etc), the strobe won't be noticed until you are almost on top of whoever you are hoping sees you.

So now, I ride with my minewt dual on low (about 325 lumens), and call it a day. The "cat eye" lights were able to be seen by folks 1/4 mile away, but they didn't attract attention. Now, my nite rider light actually "attracts attention" at well over a 1/4 mile (the length of street I live on).

So, I dumped the whole idea of a strobe up front on my bike. On the back, that's a different story. My MARS 4.0 is painful to look at on strobe.

Good luck, and happy riding.
D

neil

I can't use blink mode on my headlight either. It has both a steady and a blink setting, but blink makes me ill. A higher lumninence light would be good, but I just can't justify the cost, so I've been wearing a reflective vest instead. I can see just fine, so I'm mostly worried about the cars seeing me.

andrelam

I would never ride with just a stobe in the front. Just the idea of trying to see the road with a strob light practically makes me want to have a convulsion. For the Front I have a B&M Cyo-R (generator hub driven). I use a Planet Bike 1 Watt Blaze as my strobe in the front. The Cyo is excellent for seeing the road, but I'd still at times have people pull out in front of me. Most of the times the cars would remain stopped till I was nice and close. Then they would see I was a bike and assumed that they could easily cut in front. The drivers have no clue that cyclists might be traveling at 15 to 20 MPG and closing in fast. With the Blaze in strobe mode in the front I have found that people tend to stay put. I don't know if I look like a cop car or not (in total darkness), but it WORKS! The Cyo is bright enough that I don't notice the strobe on the road. I can see the strobe reflect off of road signs at least .1 miles out. In the back I have to PB Super Flashes and a cheaper 5 LED light. The cheapy light and one of the Super Flashes are in solid lit mode, and one is in flash mode. I can see in my rear view mirror that I light up the road in red behind me, and again I can see the tail light refelect off of road signs quite some distance behind me. Therefore I can see AND be seen, and I don't get sick from the strobes either this way.

Happy riding,
André

CFXMarauder

The stobe on the MajicShine is so fast I dont notice...Love it !!!!! My old Planet bike Blaze was annoying though..After seeing video of me riding in traffic and how good the lights blended I'll never run a solid light unless im on a rode alone and then when A car comes into view it's flashflashflashflashflashflashflashflashflashflash !!!!!!!!

dynodonn 

I'll set my one of my headlights to strobe mode only during daylight hours and only then on certain sections of my commute where I traveling downhill at high speed with intersections. At night, my dual Magic Shine setup on the steady high setting is more than enough in getting motorists' attention.