Flashing LED Light on Front - taken from the cyclists safety book. | GTAMotorcycle.com

Flashing LED Light on Front - taken from the cyclists safety book.

LBV

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So 2 more riders killed recently (1 a pickup turning left in front of the rider and the other a Jeep backing out of a driveway).

In the un-ending journey to not also be a statistic I've decided to take a page out of the cyclists safety book and mount a flashing LED on the front of my bike.

I bought this one which is fantastic and small actually: https://www.amazon.ca/Cycle-Torch-N...F8&qid=1493318353&sr=8-1&keywords=cycle+torch

Every little bit helps and with high beams on during the day and this I hope to stay alive out there.

I don't think it looks dorkey and I hope it catches on with more riders .... stay safe!
 
You can spend less from Winners/Marshalls or even dollarama (idk about quality of dollarama ones)

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Battery lasts very long on the Amazon one and the quality is there but I hear ya.
 
Anyone looked into the legalities for this? Sounds like a decent idea but I wouldn't want to get a ticket, mind you I'd take the ticket over the accident any day.

Battery lasts very long on the Amazon one and the quality is there but I hear ya.
 
"Headlamp modulators" have to meet specific criteria, which these don't. You can probably argue that it isn't a headlight. "Alternating" beams of white light are a no-no, but that implies left one on while right one is off then left one off while right one is on. Try not to make yourself look like an emergency vehicle.

Auxiliary lighting facing forward that is amber (not white), shouldn't raise alarm bells.
 
I knew I had seen something interesting a while back ... and I found it.

The best conspicuity lighting doesn't actually visibly "flash" in the turn-signal-flash-rate range, but rather flashes at a higher frequency that is just near the threshold of visibility. If you look straight at the light it looks like it is "on", but if it is moving across your field of vision, you can see that it is flashing at a high rate. (think early GM LED taillights ...)

http://www.skenedesign.com/lights/index.shtml
 
None of this stuff is gonna help you much; IMO. Today's distracted drivers will turn left and pull out of driveways or parking lots at will. You can mount the sun itself on your handlebars and they will not see you because they are staring at their phones. Assume every vehicle you see ahead will turn into you and have an avoidance plan. That's your best hope :( Even then; it's 50/50.
 
None of this stuff is gonna help you much; IMO. Today's distracted drivers will turn left and pull out of driveways or parking lots at will. You can mount the sun itself on your handlebars and they will not see you because they are staring at their phones. Assume every vehicle you see ahead will turn into you and have an avoidance plan. That's your best hope :( Even then; it's 50/50.

A little hyperbolic, no? Using myself as an example I notice attention grabbing stimuli a lot more than the camouflaged. I don't think I'm that unique.
 
None of this stuff is gonna help you much; IMO. Today's distracted drivers will turn left and pull out of driveways or parking lots at will. You can mount the sun itself on your handlebars and they will not see you because they are staring at their phones. Assume every vehicle you see ahead will turn into you and have an avoidance plan. That's your best hope :( Even then; it's 50/50.

It's all about mitigating as much possible risk as you can and this helps in that regard. But yeah, there's nothing you can do when someone's just plain looking at their lap while driving ... but then again, I always look at the driver as I approach (regardless of side I'm approaching) and will happily beep the horn if I have to (hoping not to get someone looking at their lap and also blaring music through their headphones too <- now that s/b illegal).
 
There.

https://www.bikevis.com/product/bikevis-bullets-v2-motorcycle-running-lights/

I've got them. Non modulated. Haven't installed them. Might do it this year though. Still non modulated.

It will simply look like the lights are vibrating like when you hit a bump. Or cheap neon ahahah

Non modulated will still catch the attention though

As basically ill be forming a triangle with my headlight
 
Those are good too LePhillou ... Every little bit to make yourself visible helps!
 
When you approach a peloton of annoying cyclists from the front you can easily distinguish the ones wielding forward lumens from the also rans. Why is that even contentious?
 
also blaring music through their headphones too <- now that s/b illegal).

You might upset a bunch of motorcyclists with that comment

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It would be a great idea if . . .
1) you were riding a bicycle.
2)you aimed it down rather than into people's eyes.
 
I was thinking about this and you need to be very careful. When people aren't paying attention, they may associate your flashing light with a bicycle and kill you anyway. They won't expect you to be moving so quickly.

I would go with modulated headlights or something similar. When people are confused by what they see, hopefully they leave some time to try to process.
 
....... I would go with modulated headlights or something similar. When people are confused by what they see, hopefully they leave some time to try to process.

NO!!! It causes target fixation. Every time I see a bike coming towards me with modulators I find myself drawn to the headlight. As a rider I know I'm fixating on it and stop looking. I am sure most wont.

I HATE modulating headlights !!
 
i've seen those lights the OP posted on bicycles all the time. They seem silly to put on a motorcycle but i'm all for the safety. Maybe there is a better alternative?
 
None of this stuff is gonna help you much; IMO. Today's distracted drivers will turn left and pull out of driveways or parking lots at will. You can mount the sun itself on your handlebars and they will not see you because they are staring at their phones. Assume every vehicle you see ahead will turn into you and have an avoidance plan. That's your best hope :( Even then; it's 50/50.

I do agree. Look up inattentive blindness and the subject of "Sorry Mate, I didn't see you" SMIDSY is a deep one, and of interest to me. Emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks as well as buses get hit all the time. If they have their lights on and get hit, there's more to it than just adding lighting.

Motorcycles are smaller than cars, usually with little physical risk to the car driver. The car driver's brain filters us out as no threat, the car driver does not see us. It is like how we filter out elevator music. If we can, our brains will go on autopilot for habitual tasks, leaving us to day dream and multitask more important tasks. Familiarity breeds filtering and autopilot. Unfortunately this may result in a life threatening crash when the "mundane" is a motorcycle that seems to "appear out of nowhere", or "going really fast so I did not see him".

If it makes you feel better, get a modulator, or add an arduino unit that will randomly flash your lighting. You can also deck yourself out in hiviz gear and helmet. All these strategies are good, but it may not break the driver out of his/her autopilot filtering mechanism. You need something that is so unique that the diver wakes up and says "What is that"? Once this uniqueness is common to the driver you will, again, be filtered out.

The best thing to do, after you upgrade lighting and gear, is to develop your motorcycle traffic 6th sense. Plan an escape route, try to predict what cars will do that are around you, stay far away from cars that you have just seen that make driving errors (distracted drivers often drive more slowly), when going through intersections use cars and trucks as blockers, that sort of thing. Don't be in he wrong place at the wrong time.

There's really nothing we can do about distracted driving and texting drivers. Though we suffer higher injury rates than in a car, cars also get hit, innocent car drivers and passengers get killed. This significant societal issue needs education in order to break the psychological addiction of smartphones. Your lighting and gear choices have no positive impact on distracted driving.
 
Your lighting and gear choices have no positive impact on distracted driving.

Well, isn't that a knee to the nuts. I take it that the use of daytime running lights have had no effect on accident stats. People used to argue that cell phone use had no effect on driving ability or if it did you shouldn't be on the road in the first place. Strange goings on.
 

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