annajon wrote:
On lights -
When you have a bicycle with a dynamo on the front wheel, to work the lights, you only have lights on your bike when you are in motion. So, the dangerous thing then with the sudden stop is no lights at all anymore. At least nowadays I have a good light working on a battery on my bicycle, not such a miniature pinlight led that nobody can see, especially in the rain!
It would be a very cool idea to have the entire bicycle light system including the brake lights integrated in a "one system for all types of bike" ones and for all.
Hi annajon. Yes, you're right - once the wheel stops spinning, the light goes out (although there could easily be some sort of capacitor incorporated to keep the light going for a few more seconds), but the point really is to get that initial flash of light when the brakes are first activated, so that the driver behind is subconsciously triggered to react and slow down.
The only way the brake lights wouldn't really do what they are supposed to do is if you pulled the brakes so hard that you skidded to a halt, and, really, that's not a good cycling technique in the first place.
The whole "incorporated into one system" thing you mentioned is an interesting option, and something that's been looked into by others, but it's quite complicated/messy. The idea of this design was that you could just replace your back brake with this - no additional wires, no batteries, no switches, nothing to have to think about, etc.
Oh and by the way, just in case it's not clear, you would still be advised to use a standard rear light in addition to this brake light. This is not a replacement for a rear light, but rather extra protection.
annajon wrote:
Keep up the good work Stu!
Thank you!
