Hello commuters,
I work graveyard shift, so my bike commute is in the dark both ways and being the Pacific Northwest it's often raining as well. I ride busy urban streets so I'm always looking to increase my night visability. For the rear I've been using a combo of a red Trek Disco Inferno and a Blackburn Mars 3.0. They're both pretty good lights. A couple weeks ago though a guy on a road bike passed me who had a super bright red strobe light on his bike. It had an odd pattern too - a quick double flash and then a brief pause before the next double flash. Very attention grabbing and I could see him easily from a half mile away. I wanted to add that strobe to my light set up so I searched online and eventually found the Lightman Xenon Strobe which I thought was probably what he was using. WRONG!! I just got an amber Lightman Strobe bike commuter model a couple days ago and frankly it's pretty much worthless in my opinion. It does cover a wide angle, but it's not nearly as bright as the Disco Inferno or the Mars 3.0. In fact with those two lights going you can't even tell the Lightman is turned on, it just gets lost. Plus even by itself it's slow blink rate of about one flash per second is not very attention grabbing. It's like being followed by a construction baracade. I read so many positive things about the Lightman online I was sure I was going to be impressed with it but I'm severely underwhelmed. I will probably return it if I can.
So has anyone else been disappointed with this thing or am I the only disgruntled one? And does anyone have ideas on what the mystery double flashing strobe might be that I saw?
Thanks for the help!
Gordon,
Portland, Oregon
I work graveyard shift, so my bike commute is in the dark both ways and being the Pacific Northwest it's often raining as well. I ride busy urban streets so I'm always looking to increase my night visability. For the rear I've been using a combo of a red Trek Disco Inferno and a Blackburn Mars 3.0. They're both pretty good lights. A couple weeks ago though a guy on a road bike passed me who had a super bright red strobe light on his bike. It had an odd pattern too - a quick double flash and then a brief pause before the next double flash. Very attention grabbing and I could see him easily from a half mile away. I wanted to add that strobe to my light set up so I searched online and eventually found the Lightman Xenon Strobe which I thought was probably what he was using. WRONG!! I just got an amber Lightman Strobe bike commuter model a couple days ago and frankly it's pretty much worthless in my opinion. It does cover a wide angle, but it's not nearly as bright as the Disco Inferno or the Mars 3.0. In fact with those two lights going you can't even tell the Lightman is turned on, it just gets lost. Plus even by itself it's slow blink rate of about one flash per second is not very attention grabbing. It's like being followed by a construction baracade. I read so many positive things about the Lightman online I was sure I was going to be impressed with it but I'm severely underwhelmed. I will probably return it if I can.
So has anyone else been disappointed with this thing or am I the only disgruntled one? And does anyone have ideas on what the mystery double flashing strobe might be that I saw?
Thanks for the help!
Gordon,
Portland, Oregon