Ride home for Friday, 04 November
Went over to MEC at lunchtime and picked up a new headband (which is plain black, instead of the rather odious purple colour on the image) as my original one seems to have been lost somewhere along the line.
While I was there I saw some "Tire Sparx" - little motion sensitive flashing devices that replace the dust cap on the tyre. These ones are red green and blue, and being the sucker for anything bright and flashy that I am I had to buy them - at $7.50 for two it was cheap enough to buy and chuck if they were rubbish. I had some Tireflys last year and they were OK, but not particularly bright, and the salt dissolved the plastic after about 4 or 5 months. These Tiresparx are insanely bright, and the red/green/blue combo means that at speed, I get a stripe of red, then green, then blue, as the LEDs fire in turn - which you can only see when the wheel's in motion, since they flash so close together. I popped them on my bike before I left work and there was much oohing and aaahing - the receptionist wants to get a set for her bike at home too now.
Once I got out onto the street, I was really quite impressed at how drivers took note of the lights. It was dark enough that they were really bright, and I had drivers overtaking me and driving parallel to me about 10 feet away so they could take a closer look. I didn't have a problem with this as it stopped drivers from getting too close, apart from when I wanted to get into the other lane and the driver took a few seconds before she saw me signalling, and then sped off looking rather embarrassed.
I also had a stoner dude leaning over the side of his balcony call out "whoah, cool bike, dude!", which makes me wonder what else it's possible (a sister company to the one that makes the Tiresparx makes an LED fan that displays messages when the blades spin so in theory quite a bit, although I'm not sure how small such a module could be). The same company also makes stick-on LEDs for pedals and stick-on LED strips for the top tube and down tube which are rather tempting - I might drop them an email asking where I can get their products in Canada.
It's rather ironic that after spending an awful lot of money on halogen lights, high-end LED lights, flashing lights, reflective tape and reflective clothing, $7.50-worth of flashing LEDs on the valve stem is all it takes for drivers to pay attention. Perhaps when Christmas approaches I'll pick up some battery powered Christmas lights for added gimcrackery!
Distance logged: 14.315km
Time: 40:04
Average speed: 21.2km/hr
Max speed: 48.7 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, windy
Cumulative distance: 6113.736km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.22
Monthly distance: 120.627km
Monthly cost per km: $0.21
While I was there I saw some "Tire Sparx" - little motion sensitive flashing devices that replace the dust cap on the tyre. These ones are red green and blue, and being the sucker for anything bright and flashy that I am I had to buy them - at $7.50 for two it was cheap enough to buy and chuck if they were rubbish. I had some Tireflys last year and they were OK, but not particularly bright, and the salt dissolved the plastic after about 4 or 5 months. These Tiresparx are insanely bright, and the red/green/blue combo means that at speed, I get a stripe of red, then green, then blue, as the LEDs fire in turn - which you can only see when the wheel's in motion, since they flash so close together. I popped them on my bike before I left work and there was much oohing and aaahing - the receptionist wants to get a set for her bike at home too now.
Once I got out onto the street, I was really quite impressed at how drivers took note of the lights. It was dark enough that they were really bright, and I had drivers overtaking me and driving parallel to me about 10 feet away so they could take a closer look. I didn't have a problem with this as it stopped drivers from getting too close, apart from when I wanted to get into the other lane and the driver took a few seconds before she saw me signalling, and then sped off looking rather embarrassed.
I also had a stoner dude leaning over the side of his balcony call out "whoah, cool bike, dude!", which makes me wonder what else it's possible (a sister company to the one that makes the Tiresparx makes an LED fan that displays messages when the blades spin so in theory quite a bit, although I'm not sure how small such a module could be). The same company also makes stick-on LEDs for pedals and stick-on LED strips for the top tube and down tube which are rather tempting - I might drop them an email asking where I can get their products in Canada.
It's rather ironic that after spending an awful lot of money on halogen lights, high-end LED lights, flashing lights, reflective tape and reflective clothing, $7.50-worth of flashing LEDs on the valve stem is all it takes for drivers to pay attention. Perhaps when Christmas approaches I'll pick up some battery powered Christmas lights for added gimcrackery!
Distance logged: 14.315km
Time: 40:04
Average speed: 21.2km/hr
Max speed: 48.7 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, windy
Cumulative distance: 6113.736km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.22
Monthly distance: 120.627km
Monthly cost per km: $0.21
posted by steve at 11/05/2005 06:29:00 pm
4 Comments:
How about some Hokey Spokes?
Tempting, but unfortunately not available in Nova Scotia (I like to be able to look at stuff to see how bright it is before buying).
There's also a guy doing neon stuff (as seen on the undersides of ricer cars) for bikes, but I can't find the URL for it right now.
You know until you posted this I would never have thought Tireflys would be useful. Pretty sure, but if they only increase visibility from the side, cars will only see you from a cross street at a point where you can safely pass them, or its too late - I don't think they can give an advance cue like a headlight that casts a beam could. BUT I never contemplated that cars would give you more space because they want to check out the bike. That's cool!
The Tireflies increase visibility from the rear as well - they're viewable as soon as the viewer is not directly behind the tyre, so car drivers can see them quite well as they're offset enough. Obviously they're going to be obscured here and there but (especially at night) they're bright enough to be seen. Rotate your rear wheel so the dustcap is at 7-8 o'clock as you look at it from the left, then step back and off to the left a bit to see what I mean - I don't think my explanation here really does it justice!
That said, they're definitely a bit gimmicky, and I'm not sure if they'll last out the winter. Still, for $7 (or a couple of beers) I'm willing to give it a go...
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