Andrew Jennings's Page

"Damnit.  Defeated by logic once again."

"Of course. Lights will help prevent an "accident" whereas a helmet might reduce the effect of an accident.  "

"Well, I'd say having no helmet is significantly less dangerous than having no lights. But that's a discussion for a different thread maybe. Given that you can buy reasonably bright LED lights for under $5 in any of those cheapo variety…"

"Exactly what I do - though I have two flashing on the rear, one big LED up front and a flasher as well.   What really scares the hell out of me is running along the MYT and almost hitting a couple of fixies without lights - just mad - though I…"

"If you're on a budget, or you're just after a cheap backup light, I've found these lights to be really worth the money. They're brighter than some lights I've paid four times as much for in bike shops. For $10 you can't…"

"I'm not sure of the logic behind that. I aim my helmet light away from oncoming riders as they approach, I can't do that with my handlebar mounted lights which just blast them regardless (however I aim it AT the car drivers though,…"

"I ride with 3 lights down the back and one on the front, but on really dark mornings I found a pair of safety glasses with single LED's on each side called Eyelites. Only thing I had to do was put some gaffer tape over the battery compartment…"

"Simon, gumwalls are rubbish, get rid of them asap; the gum part breaks down in the sun fairly quickly as it doesn't seem to be UV stabilised. The Schwalbes are great, particularly the Marathon Plus; I put some on my wifes bike and we…"

"Steve, I can see out minds are working on slightly different wavelengths; wheel reflectors are so light as to make almost no difference & can be a useful safety feature - your top speed will not be affected at all, just the acceleration - in…"

"How clean do the reflective tyres need to be to work effectively? My new commuter came with gumwall style tyres as stock but after a few wet days the sidewalls are close to black from road grime. I need to replace the rear soon, would consider a…"

"A gram off the wheels is worth 5 off the frame. The centripetal acceleration of the wheels uses more energy per gram than the forward acceleration of the bicycle. Removing wheel reflectors (not embedded tyre reflective strips) makes the wheel…"

"I have one on the back of my commuter bike. Nice fast tyre. I think it's a marathon from memory. I wondered if that strip was reflective - then I forgot all about it.  "

"Steve, how do tiny pieces of retro-reflective plastic on your wheels slow you down? "wheel reflectors are useless and slow the bike down" I can't see this at all; just possibly you might lose a fraction of a percentage off your rate…"

"To have t-boned a car like that, side displays would have made no difference, especially at 35km/h. The motorist would only have had a front view, which they either didn't see, disregarded or they misjudged Michael's speed. (The latter…"

"I agree with you on that Cory. I have Schwables on all my bikes. It' quite puncture proof too and the reflectors very effective."

"Tyres with reflective strips on them too. All of our commuters have, upon replacement time, gone to Schwalbes with reflecto.  Light up an absolute treat.    "