Lights – flashing or constant

exposure maxxd on front,
exposure maxxd on front, dinotte 300r on rear. NEVER EVER use flash. I’d rather be mistaken for a slow motorcycle than a fast cyclist due to most motorist’s neuroses around cyclists, which frequently endanger me. Ive never understood why cyclists feel the need to be positively identified as such???duhhh??

You can’t have enough lights
You can’t have enough lights (mix of flashing and constant). So far Kirky and Giff77 both have a total of 6.

For the record I use 2 on the front (one flashing, one constant); 2 on my helmet; and 2 on the rear (one flashing, one constant). Come to think of it, I use the Aldi hi viz ankle straps with red LEDS in, so if I was particularly conscientious I would have 8.

Anyone use more?

There’s a reason emergency
There’s a reason emergency vehicles have flashing lights – I always have rear on flash. I don’t care about the British Standard as it was written by a committee whose primary interests are the sale of batteries and lights, not whether it is the most visible or not.

3 on back (one flashing) 3 on
3 on back (one flashing) 3 on front all constant. Personally I hate cycling towards a very bright flashing white light. But must agree, a flashing red draws your attention to the cyclist in front. The Highway Code is quite specific regards lights on a bike regards intensity etc. And plod if he was going totally by the book would be quite happy to slap a fp on you if there wasn’t a constant light. Though, most don’t give a rip, just as long as you are lit 🙂 Mind you, they don’t give a rip if you have no lights, at least up where I stay this seems to be the case.

The emergency services use
The emergency services use flashing lights to attract the attention of motorists. If it works for them, it’s good enough for me.

I use a single constant at
I use a single constant at the front and a single flashing at the rear – maybe I should have more. Good thing LED lights is you can dress your bike up like a Christmas tree and they still weigh less than the old skool things I grew up with as a nipper and had on my much missed Falcon Black Diamond – nostalgia, who needs it?

I mostly use a hub-dynamos
I mostly use a hub-dynamos (because I like to switch both lights on whenever, e.g. for dark underpasses or when low sun dazzles following drivers) so my rearlight is steady, since that’s the only game in dynamotown.

But when I have to ride a toy-bike in the dark, I set the rear battery lamp to flash.

My thinking is that the main point of a rearlamp on a bike is to grab attention, and it’s plain obvious that flashing does that better, otherwise turn indicators, emergency vehicles, road works, etc. wouldn’t do that.

And a bike is the only vehicle allowed a flashing red light, so it immediately says “bike in front”. That identification is crucial, since the driver is going to have to brake or overtake pretty soon whatever.

Gauging the distance to that bike comes last of all and there are lots of other visual clues to do that better than binocular vision on a little red spot.

Contrary to popular belief, people do not become invisible the moment they straddle a bike. And cars have headlights that even on dip are perfectly adequate for a driver to see how big and hence how far away a cyclist is – once his attention has been grabbed to actually look in that direction.

I do also drive by the way, at least once a week, and have never had any difficulty seeing a cyclist or a pedestrian that I’m actually looking at. The trouble on our roads is that so few drivers are really looking out for people. I think I’ve talked myself into adding a battery flasher to my dyno bikes!