Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

kickstarter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 50 posts

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#21

Post by hahainternet »

jdietrich wrote: post #8

This is stupid. The £50 that this light costs will buy you an extremely bright set of conventional lights, giving out several hundred lumens rather than 80. These lights will illuminate a large area of the ground ahead of you, allowing you to see, and provide dazzlingly bright points of light several feet off the ground, allowing you to be seen. These lights focus their beam where it is needed, projecting light direc…

Not only is it stupid. It's completely illegal. They claim it will be a Class II laser, but no laser at 1mW can sufficiently light up a road like this. They're obviously hoping that with the lens in place their power density will be decreased to allow them to become Class II.

It will probably not, these devices are dangerous and almost certainly prohibited.

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#22

Post by jawr »

dabeeeenster wrote: post #19
jawr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much agree with your last statement; if you are undertaking a bus or other large vehicle you probably shouldn't be cycling at all. Of course there are exceptions to this. Although lighting is a very important factor of being safe when cycling on the road, being aware of traffic and the law of the road is far more beneficial. I have cycled around London for years, usually with no lights at all and perhaps it is…

If you are cycling without lights, I would say you shouldn't be cycling at all.

This is true especially in the autumn/winter. Unfortunately my self confidence on the road usually get's the best of me.

As much as I hate to say it, maybe there should be some sort of guidelines/laws to cycling on the road; I know there are plenty of drivers that would want this and I have seen some awful cyclists on the road who are not only a danger to themselves, but also to others.

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#23

Post by mootothemax »

jawr wrote: post #15
jdietrich wrote: post #8

This is stupid. The £50 that this light costs will buy you an extremely bright set of conventional lights, giving out several hundred lumens rather than 80. These lights will illuminate a large area of the ground ahead of you, allowing you to see, and provide dazzlingly bright points of light several feet off the ground, allowing you to be seen. These lights focus their beam where it is needed, projecting light direc…

I very much agree with your last statement; if you are undertaking a bus or other large vehicle you probably shouldn't be cycling at all. Of course there are exceptions to this. Although lighting is a very important factor of being safe when cycling on the road, being aware of traffic and the law of the road is far more beneficial. I have cycled around London for years, usually with no lights at all and perhaps it is…

Although lighting is a very important factor of being safe when cycling on the road, being aware of traffic and the law of the road is far more beneficial.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of going around without lights on, if you do get involved in an accident, you won't have a leg to stand on. So no bike replacement, and no payout for missing teeth.

When you think about the impact hand injuries can have on your career - let alone anything more serious - frankly I'd recommend lighting up for that reason alone.

But please, do wear lights - you'll only be making life easier for everyone else around you.

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#24

Post by mootothemax »

jawr wrote: post #22
dabeeeenster wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are cycling without lights, I would say you shouldn't be cycling at all.

This is true especially in the autumn/winter. Unfortunately my self confidence on the road usually get's the best of me. As much as I hate to say it, maybe there should be some sort of guidelines/laws to cycling on the road; I know there are plenty of drivers that would want this and I have seen some awful cyclists on the road who are not only a danger to themselves, but also to others.

maybe there should be some sort of guidelines/laws to cycling on the road

Such as the highway code?

https://www.gov.uk/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82/overview-59-t...

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#25

Post by DanBC »

alexkus wrote: post #16
dlib wrote: post #2

I live in Holland and the dedicated bike paths here make cycling really safe. So safe that I don't see the use for this bike light here in the Netherlands although it will probably have a marginal benefit. However, last summer I rented a bike in London and it was truly terrifying. Never before have I felt so unsafe in traffic before, anything to improve this situation would be great. Nonetheless, proper training of d…

In London we simply don't have space to put in dedicated cycle paths everywhere. IMHO, they're treating the symptom anyway, the problem is that a large number of road users in the UK (including quite a few cyclists) are aggressive, discourteous or just plain bad drivers/riders. Cycle facilities (cycle lanes - dedicated or not, off road cycle paths, advanced stop line boxes, etc) all help encourage people to cycle; th…

Sometimes traffic lights break, and people still manage to get through that junction safely.

Some areas in the UK are removing all road markings. This is scary. The scariness is good - everyone slows down and looks around and is more courteous.

"Naked Roads" are pretty good. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4213221.stm)

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#26

Post by ygra »

thomseddon wrote: post #18
jawr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much agree with your last statement; if you are undertaking a bus or other large vehicle you probably shouldn't be cycling at all. Of course there are exceptions to this. Although lighting is a very important factor of being safe when cycling on the road, being aware of traffic and the law of the road is far more beneficial. I have cycled around London for years, usually with no lights at all and perhaps it is…

"just act as if you were a car" This.

Sometimes complicated by laws that require you to cycle on cycleways that are almost always more dangerous than cycling on the street (since drivers rarely look for cyclists if they are a few meters away from the road). At least in Germany.

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#27

Post by Nursie »

thisone wrote: post #10
Nursie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK we are constantly berated by government, medical boards etc etc for not keeping fit and healthy, also for costing the national health service a lot of money in terms of illness due to lack of exercise. No money is ever spent on cycle infrastructure and the roads are treacherous, many motorists are very antagonistic towards cyclists and as a result of this most people are scared away from it. I'm not sure wh…

unless the light is very bright and focused correctly, it isn't useful. I learned my lesson about getting a good light the first time it got dark early and I found myself hoping for cars to go by so I could see where I was on the road (and I had a front light at the time as well) The sustrans folks seem to do what they are able to. But, for instance, there are four local hybrid/casual routes in my area that the counc…

Yeah, I got a front light with my bike that was pretty crappy and very soon realised that it was no use at all for the dark shared pedestrian-cycle paths I was taking on my commute home. Very quickly learned that a decent headlight is essential.

I'd vote for a candidate (at local council or parliamentary level) that promised to give more consideration to a poper network of cycle paths in Britain.

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#28

Post by antiterra »

jdietrich wrote: post #8

This is stupid. The £50 that this light costs will buy you an extremely bright set of conventional lights, giving out several hundred lumens rather than 80. These lights will illuminate a large area of the ground ahead of you, allowing you to see, and provide dazzlingly bright points of light several feet off the ground, allowing you to be seen. These lights focus their beam where it is needed, projecting light direc…

I would argue that drivers are looking at the ground, at what their headlamps illuminate. Illuminating the ground ahead of you means that drivers can see you before you're actually in front of them. A light that simply dazzles head on doesn't do anything more than a reflector. You can call the idea "stupid" all you want, but unless you have a study, then your argument is no more compelling than that of Effective Cycling's John Forester[1].

That said, I don't think a weird green symbol on the ground is a particularly great solution either. A headlamp with a decent spread aimed slightly at the ground ahead should function just fine as both ground and elevated illumination.

[1] Forester's book argues for headlamps aimed slightly at the road ahead as well as bicycle-as-car riding.

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#29

Post by RobAley »

Its a shame, for a UK product, they didn't consider that it will be illegal to use in the UK[1] as your main bike light.

It has a steady mode, and such needs to conform to BS 6102/3, which it won't, so it means it can't be used as the main light. As an additional light it doesn't need to be BS 6102/3 stamped, but does need to be white (not green) and the flashing mode needs to be between 60 and 240 flashes per minute (which it may do, but doesn't say).

When I'm driving, a green picture of a bike going down a road might distract me from the actual bike, especially when its projected 4-6m ahead of it as they plan. In inner-city cycling as a cyclist, you rarely need the light to see where you're going, more to allow other traffic to see you.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_lighting#Legal_requirem...

Re: Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

#30

Post by Nursie »

jawr wrote: post #20
Nursie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK we are constantly berated by government, medical boards etc etc for not keeping fit and healthy, also for costing the national health service a lot of money in terms of illness due to lack of exercise. No money is ever spent on cycle infrastructure and the roads are treacherous, many motorists are very antagonistic towards cyclists and as a result of this most people are scared away from it. I'm not sure wh…

It is a lot safer to cycle in London now than it was say 5 years ago; we don't have the same cycle infrastructure as say Holland, but we have made some good steps in that direction.

I moved out of London about 3 years ago, and never cycled there. Currently based in Southampton and finding the cycle provisions ok but less than awesome.

Now Perth (the one in Australia, not Scotland) has a great network, most of the paths are separate to the roads and follow train tracks or even motorways. I guess they do have a lot more space over there though.

Post reply on HN