Back in the days, when I could rant and rave about dangerous drivers without knowing what it's really like to get mowed down by a car, I wrote this little rant about bicycle lights. The next day I went out to buy a battery operated front light which served its purpose for almost 2 years.
Last Christmas I noticed that the plastic casing was broken and those rechargeable batteries are not that reliable when it's freezing. I can't really trust them to last a back and forth ride to work.
But worst of all, drivers don't notice the light. Either that or they just think, small light equals bike... f**k it I ride a steel cage I win.
So I went to my trusty LBS to check for something a little more powerful. Turns out that more powerful, means also more expensive but when you're spending money on safety then you don't want to cut corners; brake pads and lights must not fail.
A couple hundreds of Euro lighter (no pun intended) and Mr. exhaustbreather can burn 720 lumen of respect in the drivers retinae.
Guess what! It worked like a charm for at least a couple of days, then drivers got used to it and now they ignore me again, just like in the old days. Soccer mums making right turns without indicators, grandpas dooring me, ...
Lumen seem to devaluate even quicker than bank shares. So what should I do? Go out and buy me a couple of 950 lumen light? And what with the cycle bell? No driver hears that, so you go get an air horn, which you swap again for a battery operated model...
Next thing you know you have so much light and sound pollution (on top of your regular funes) that the city truly never sleeps.
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