Now that is stupid (IMHO) NLC

[tonyg]

Just seen a young female cycling down Holburn Street staring intently at the mobile phone in her hand

[Ferg]

While it's a near miss for a darwin award, she's going to do less damage than those who do it whilst driving.

[Corranga]

Slightly off topic but..
I pass a cyclist almost every night on a black bike, wearing black gear, with no lights or helmet. He's like the invisible man until you're about 5 metres from him, and is on a busy road with cars parked down either side.

When I cycle - good weather cyclist I? take the same road but have 2 lights up front, 2 behind, a high vis on me, and another on my rucksack, a bright green long sleeve top on and a McLaren rocket red t-shirt on top of that.

Any other road cyclists have opinions on these new LED street lights?

A few pretty well lit streets in Dundee last year / the year before and now pretty dark streets. I guess the only plus side is that it's probably easier to see my array of lights!

[robin]

Before I destroyed my bike I used to cycle to/from work in all weathers day and night. Never once fitted a light, wore a helmet, etc. Just too lazy as common sense would dictate at least a rear light. The bike did have a reflector on one pedal (the other one fell off) and a reflector on the saddle (though my arse probably hung over that ).

I used to pay some attention to the traffic, though, and figured that cars would mow me down given half a chance, so stealth mode was probably no better/worse.

I am outraged by the array of high brightness white flashing LEDs people put on the front of their bicycles - they are blinding for pedestrians and some of the blink patterns are surely candidates for inducing epileptic episodes in those prone to the condition. I've no problem with people that use them off road for night time cycling (though presumably they don't set them to blink pattern then). Red blinking lights on the back of the bike/helmet where the blink rate is indicator speed are fine. I am tempted to buy a high brightness torch (the sort of 1,000,000 watt thing you see in DIY stores from time to time) and blink it back at the unthinking blinkers ...

OF course I don't actually care ...

Cheers,
Robin

[Dominic]

Like many things, there is a sensible level of illumination for cyclists. On several occasions I have almost run down tw4ts in dark clothing with no lights because I simply could not see them until almost too late. I guess Darwin will catch up with them at some point. Similarly agree, the very bright head lights on bikes can be a bit too much. My bike headlight has a main beam and dipped beam! Main beam is pretty decent, but does blind on coming cars, so only use it as I would when using the car main beam. Would I be right to think that it is a legal requirement to have a light on your bike when its dark?

I have been hit by cars twice in the past 18 months - both occasions in daylight, wearing high viz (helmet & jacket). As Robin says, some drivers will hit you no matter what you wear, but IMHO at least if you have high viz on, you give yourself a chance to be seen. I can confirm that cars hurt when they hit you, would prefer to be a high viz clown than a bruised / broken fashion accessory.

[BiggestNizzy]

Robin, what DIY store sells 1MW torches and what batteries do they take

Anyway was the girl on the bike tidy?

[tonyg]

Anyway was the girl on the bike tidy?

Yep - lots of girlies pass the shop every day heading for college