How to Make Bicycle Lighting System
With winter, the days get shorter and visibility deteriorates. The lighting then becomes important.
If we understand that the presence of a light on a bike is as necessary as that of brakes or tires.
This seems obvious, yet over a third of accidents involving cyclists is due to a lack or total absence of safety equipment.
The question is which one to choose …
How to choose a bicycle lights, what power, what technology, battery or dynamo, halogen or LED? Is it that the lights cycle to be better to see? The choice is bloated, and we’ll try to answer them, especially to help you choose from our bike lighting range.
To give you a first indication in your choice, you should know that the very good lighting easily cost between 50 euros and 100 euros, but already between 15 and 20 euros you can find basic lighting, even a very effective lighting for lighting multi-LED wheel on that start at € 39.90 for those of good quality and with a good seal (essential).
- How to know the light power is needed?
The lux is a unit of measurement of illuminance (symbol: lx), which characterizes the luminous flux per unit area.
The highway code provides no details on the lighting power or the power supply. The cycle industry industry standards provide that the supply voltage is 6 volts and electric power to less than 3 Watts, but the yield is not specified, lighting may well be approved … and insufficient.
For example German standards, generally more serious and pragmatic, impose on them an illumination at least 10 lux at 10m.
In practice, approximately 1 lux is the illumination of a full moon night. To see your way, if you borrow poorly lit roads, you will have the headlights at least 20 Lux. For occasional use of night in the city center well lit, removable headlight Lux 4 can be enough to you to be discerning.
To help you visualize the differences, here testing in a tunnel at night, and a video showing the differences of perception for a driver:
- The batteries are a good solution if you drive slightly (2 to 3 times per week). For everyday cyclists, rechargeable batteries are needed. Know that 20 to 40 hours of use are sufficient to cushion rechargeable batteries. Some new insights recharge today on USB ports. Another recentnovelty lights that switch on automatically, by clipping or unclipping, or through a magnet fixation system ( Reelight GB ). Battery or dynamo?
The dynamo lighting is the best choice for bike city and touring, the dynamo is permanently mounted on the bike, we can count on an integrated lighting cycling, independent and always available, which is consistent with the regular use of a bicycle.The two most common types are: The dynamo on the sidewall of the tire, the more conventional system and the oldest, but also often the cheapest and most universal as fits almost any bike.The hub dynamo (original in Dutch bikes, classic or electric). This latest offering qualities such as: unchanged performance even if the wheel is bent or the wet tire, more reliable electrical connections, a total operating silence, and a yield of 65 to 85%.
- The steady function or light:
One of the shortcomings of the dynamo is that it stops supplying electric power when the bike is stopped, causing the extinction of the front and rear lights. To correct this increasingly lighting has a built-in capacitor which stores energy from the first laps. As long as the bike rolled dynamo powers the lighthouse but when it stops is the capacitor takes over.
Thus the position light function to keep the lights on at a standstill, increasing bike visibility and therefore safety, since at traffic lights for example, you are arrested but your lights will remain on. It is compatible with all types of dynamos.
- LED technology or halogen lamps
The days of the small pale white light to illuminate our path. If the halogen bulb headlights exist yet it is undeniable that the future is the LED (Light Emitting Diode, or LED).
Their advantages are considerable: they are very energy-intensive, insensitive to shock and design life is almost infinite. The design of the electronics and the optical part of the reflectors are crucial for the light output power on the road and reliability in time.
The best products have outstanding performance visibility and passive safety (reflective etc …) as well as power, justifying their sometimes high price.
- The reflective elements
They are essential for your safety. These are usually reflectors. They do not light but reflect much light.
The legislation requires to dispose of at the rear (red), sides (set on shelves or glued on original tires for night cycling), the pedals (orange), and also in front (white). So that you are visible in the headlights of a car.
Finish with a consulting practice easier and more useful: nothing prevents you from having more than the legal minimum to be clearly visible at night cycling.
Cyclists, shine!