Night and fog

Last night I had a very difficult trip back home. I usually night ride
in town along well lit streets. Occasionally I do a longer night ride
when the weather is good enough. This time I had to come back in pitch
dark, through thick fog, on a small countryside road.

My powerful and proudly-owned Schmidt generator light was beaming
straight into the fog, and it was incredibly difficult to see where the
roadside was. Impossible to ride faster than, say, 15 km/h (or less ?).
And if I stopped... no more light, totally lost. The last stretch is a
fast descent I usually ride around 50 km/h; this time, with about 5 m
visibility, I had my hands sore from braking the whole way down, and I
was happy I knew the place almost by heart.

I wonder if someone here has experience on how to better deal with such
situations.

Turtle

cyclingturtle wrote in news:418d3ae7$1_1
@news.bluewin.ch:

Last night I had a very difficult trip back home. I usually night ride
in town along well lit streets. Occasionally I do a longer night ride
when the weather is good enough. This time I had to come back in pitch
dark, through thick fog, on a small countryside road.

My powerful and proudly-owned Schmidt generator light was beaming
straight into the fog, and it was incredibly difficult to see where the
roadside was. Impossible to ride faster than, say, 15 km/h (or less ?).
And if I stopped... no more light, totally lost. The last stretch is a
fast descent I usually ride around 50 km/h; this time, with about 5 m
visibility, I had my hands sore from braking the whole way down, and I
was happy I knew the place almost by heart.

I wonder if someone here has experience on how to better deal with such
situations.

Try angling the light downwards a bit (assuming it's on an adjustable
bracket). The big problem with lights in fog is tbe reflection back into
your face from the water droplets. So keep the beam angle as low as you
can, while still seeing the road and being visible to other traffic.

If you ride frequently in fog at night, it might be a good idea to make a
shield or hood across the top of the light, blocking out a portion of the
upper beam. A small sheet of aluminum or plastic would do the trick. Make
the top curved, so you're cutting out more of the upper beam than the sides
of the beam. You're still going to have to slow down, obviously, but this
should help a little.

--
Mike Barrs

"cyclingturtle" wrote: (clip) And if I stopped... no more light, totally
lost. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In all the discussions about lighting systems, I have not seen this problem
mentioned, and I have been wondering why. If you depend on your light to
see and be seen, what is supposed to happen when you stop?

Sat, 06 Nov 2004 23:59:51 GMT,
,
"Leo Lichtman" wrote:

In all the discussions about lighting systems, I have not seen this problem
mentioned, and I have been wondering why. If you depend on your light to
see and be seen, what is supposed to happen when you stop?

I use a 3 LED white light and 7 LED red tail light in addition to
front and rear lamps powered by the generator. Both in blink mode, the
batteries last a long time between charging
--
zk

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 23:59:51 GMT, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:


"cyclingturtle" wrote: (clip) And if I stopped... no more light, totally
lost. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In all the discussions about lighting systems, I have not seen this problem
mentioned, and I have been wondering why. If you depend on your light to
see and be seen, what is supposed to happen when you stop?

I've seen it mentioned a few times somewhere. Some systems have
battery backups that come on automatically when you slow down. They
don't seem to come cheap.

In article ,
cyclingturtle writes:
Last night I had a very difficult trip back home. I usually night ride
in town along well lit streets. Occasionally I do a longer night ride
when the weather is good enough. This time I had to come back in pitch
dark, through thick fog, on a small countryside road.

My powerful and proudly-owned Schmidt generator light was beaming
straight into the fog, and it was incredibly difficult to see where the
roadside was. Impossible to ride faster than, say, 15 km/h (or less ?).
And if I stopped... no more light, totally lost. The last stretch is a
fast descent I usually ride around 50 km/h; this time, with about 5 m
visibility, I had my hands sore from braking the whole way down, and I
was happy I knew the place almost by heart.

I wonder if someone here has experience on how to better deal with such
situations.

I hate fog so much, I'd just as soon stay home and sit it out.
I've gone out on foot on foggy nights just to see how well
other people's bike lights work in the fog. They don't.
Where car taillights are still visible in 3 distances between
streetlights, rear blinkies can be completely obscured in half
the distance between 2 streetlights. Many other weather conditions
can be worked-around, but fog is a particularly tough one to deal
with. I don't like the way it can directionally distort sound,
either. And I'm especially not comfortable being /really/ invisible
because other road users are effectively blinded. Even if you've got
the brightest bike headlight in the world, drivers might not be able to
see enough other stuff around to get a good sense of depth perception.
If you use two headlights, chances are they'll think you're a distant
car. Fog sux. Better to stay home and nurse a Tia Maria-spiked mug
of chocolate-flavoured Ovaltine, or whatever else is your pleasure.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Leo Lichtman wrote:

"cyclingturtle" wrote: (clip) And if I stopped... no more light, totally
lost. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In all the discussions about lighting systems, I have not seen this problem
mentioned, and I have been wondering why. If you depend on your light to
see and be seen, what is supposed to happen when you stop?

Under normal conditions, it's not a problem.

First, the most common reason for a cyclist to stop is a stop sign or
traffic light. The motorists are going to stop for that, too. As they
come to a stop, you'll be visible in their headlights. And you'll be
more visible than a pedestrian crossing the intersection, due to your
reflectors.

Second, many (in the US, perhaps most) cyclists with generator sets use
rear blinkies. These are still running and visible.

Third, if a cyclist is stopped for any other reason, it's sensible and
legal to stop off the road! This is true day or night. It's rare
indeed that a cyclist can't do that.


--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Leo Lichtman wrote:
"cyclingturtle" wrote: (clip) And if I stopped... no more light, totally
lost. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In all the discussions about lighting systems, I have not seen this problem
mentioned, and I have been wondering why. If you depend on your light to
see and be seen, what is supposed to happen when you stop?


I didn't mention that both my front and rear lights have capacitors and
stay on during 2-3 minutes even if I stop. This is enough to be seen in
the vast majority of situations; however, the front light in this case
switches from halogen to a diode, and this diode is not strong enough to
really illuminate the road, let alone in foggy conditions.

Tom Keats wrote:
other people's bike lights work in the fog. They don't.
Where car taillights are still visible in 3 distances between
streetlights, rear blinkies can be completely obscured in half
the distance between 2 streetlights. Many other weather conditions
can be worked-around, but fog is a particularly tough one to deal
with.

I have yet to try it in fog, but I use two taillights: a 7-LED in
blink mode, plus a NightSun 3" triangular xenon strobe. And since I share
the road with a lot of sleepy drivers, I also wear a reflectorized
lime-green construction worker's vest.
What I'm not looking forward to about fog is the simple fact that at
low temperatures, it can precipitate out and leave the road slicker than a
gorilla's fingers. I can take a certain amount of cold and wet, but slick
is another story.

Bill

-------------------------------------------------
| All wealth is power, so power must infallibly |
| draw wealth to it by some means or another. |
| --Edmund Burke, 1780 |
-------------------------------------------------

wrote:

... slicker than a gorilla's fingers.

???

Um... I'm afraid to ask.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]