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Went for a trundle this evening and naturally being the 20's plenty type I popped my light on the bike.
Riding along the canal and some total bell end decided to move into 'my lane' and ride at me.
About 10m away (I'm preparing for a top gun game of chicken by this point) he swerves back to the correct side shouting about how bright the light was... It was still light out being about 9pm and frankly it was in the lowest light mode and pointed down. He had a shitter of a bike and nae helmet so I figure he is one of the crazy ones you get from time to time .
Reckon he's about 60, greyish hair, light coloured bike. Just in case you bump into him.
Surely you'll not bump into him if your light is bright enough to see him?
mtb lights dazzle really badly. I get this all the time on the north edinburgh cycleway - idoits with mtb lights blinding me. I have taken to just pointing my light straight at them on full power and telling them why
Wisnae me tho on the canal
shouting about how bright the light was
Perhaps your light is too bright or is pointing in people's face rather than at the ground.
Isn't the canal where you go to find the weird people, I think I spotted magnet fishing this afternoon
It ain't too bright.
TJ I know it wasn't you as you are still in possession of a full head of luxurious dark hair I'd bet.
🙂
^^^ and protected from wind damage by a helmet at all times... 😎
A weirdo in edinburgh? Imagine that.....
<>ojom
It ain’t too bright.
the other person in your story appears to disgagree.
most mountainbike lights are not actually road legal.
if as you said it was still light I wonder why you felt the need for a light on a canal tow path?
pause to look at it from the other chaps perspective. He’s out for a gentle ride on the canal (perhaps using it for transport rather than sport) - the lack of helmet is a clue for this. He meets someone coming the other way with a light that is much brighter than those he normally sees (little flashy road lights) and it distracts him - as we all know when you look at a hazard on a bike it almost sucks you in. The person coming the other way is a serious cyclist, the sort who scoffs at those without a helmet on a canal tow path, he’s making good progress with his gazillion candela glow bobbing around at the front. Despite obviously seeing the casual rider, mr sporty cyclist doesn’t seem to slow down, he’s looking at him like he’s driving on the wrong side of the road despite this being a canal tow path where there are no lanes and the path is only 4 ft wide at the most. At about 5 bike lengths he moves to the side and lets the sporty guy pass clearly. As he passes the casual cyclist wants to tell sporty guy to slow down and enjoy life but instead shouts something about the irritating search light on the front of the bike that dazzled him as he approached. He rides on waiting for the next Lycra clad rider who thinks he’s on a racetrack to head towards him shouting something about Strava. Eventually he makes it to his destination where, not even sweaty, he hangs up his bike and continues with his life. In 2018 the weirdest thing about this guy, is that he doesn’t share this tiny episode in his life on the internet.
You get plenty of weirdos in Edinburgh.
And other places
Weird angry self obsessed guy in Edinburgh - who could it be?
My first though was MUSHETT!!! but he might just have been a Bruntsfield/EBC phenomenon. Have seen him pedal shouting at women pushing prams who have slightly infringed upon the cycle path through the meadows.
Would call him an ass but aware he might have 'issues'...
frankly it was in the lowest light mode and pointed down
Bears repeating in this thread for those that missed it.
That can still be enough to dazzle - MYB lights have a fairly wide spread. I get this all the time in winter on the north edinburgh cycleway
The issue with the canal is that there are lots of people walking on it, often with dark clothes and no lights.
So, you're trying not blind people, but you also need to see 'hazards'.
Obviously, not a problem if you stick to the 5mph speed limit. But you might as well walk then....
there is no 5mph speed limit. those speed limit signs you see are for the canal boats.
No idea about your light (I'm not 60, don't have grey hair and my bikes are dark colours) but there are plenty of nobbers on the towpath with stupidly bright lights. Plenty of times I've been down and unable to see where I'm going because of an oncoming light dazling me. I'm sure the owner can see really well, but nobody else can.
there is no 5mph speed limit. those speed limit signs you see are for the canal boats.
There aren't a limit, but were meant to be a guideline. Those signs wereintended for all towpath users (no we aren't targetting cyclists honest) because Scottish Canals thought it would be a good idea after someone complained. This was at the time of some twit hiding in a hedge and jumping out at people he thought were cycling inappropriately. They reversed their decision when it was pointed out how effing stupid it was, but left the damn signs. There were posters and leaflets that accompanied the signs very briefly.
This is the same Scottish Canals who stopped weed cutting to preserve the natural environment, again after compaints. It's a bloody concrete ditch, natural my ****. Once again, common sense prevailed because they do have some sensible people working there, they just all seem to be protected by a wall of pillocks.
Bet it was the Sighthill area,they are all nutters on that section.
Lucky though,If you had stopped to have a word he would have set you and your bike on fire. 😉
Target fixation?
Sorry, didn't realise it was you.
The canal does seem to attract some nutters!
I posted about my experience here:
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/crazy-person-on-union-canal-edinburgh/
Obviously you can't see my op anymore as the forum update has eaten it.
I don't usually have a problem with steady lights, but find some of the high intensity flashing headlights I have encountered around Edinburgh quite disorientating. Not keen on those at all.
I remember getting objections from a walker on a shared path when using my old Chinese LED.My main light is now a B&M dynamo headlight, with the mandatory German hard beam cut-off, which helps keep the light on the road. If you buy from the German online shops, you can get lots of battery lights with a similar beam pattern that are not available elsewhere. I recently purchased a wee Cateye GVolt50 as a backup, which appears to be a German specific variant not sold in other countries.
Re Edinburgh Canal craziness, someone I worked with ended up in a court case after a woman shoved him into the water following an altercation. She was convicted of assault, I believe.
Edinburgh, no helmet and ‘mtb lights dazzle really badly. ’
Hmmm!
B&M Lights
I'm using a battery powered IXON IQ Premium; fantastic light beam though it wasn't quite enough light to descend off Redstate Rigg into Gifford at any decent speed at half midnight at the weekend; but then neither was the magicshine job on full power that I use as a "full beam" option.
SJS sell various German lights, and should meet EU Standard Equivalence for traffic regs, or at least for another year; don't understand why more shops don't sell them TBH.
How much pointed down? Most reflectors throw as much light up as they do to the side. In order to point it down enough not to dazzle oncoming cyclists, you have to have it about 1 or 2 meters in front of you wheel.
How much pointed down?
How about, for the sake of the thread and the sanity of everyone in it, we say that it was enough% pointed down!
...though it wasn’t quite enough light to descend off Redstate Rigg into Gifford at any decent speed at half midnight at the weekend...
Half midnight? Cutting it a wee bit fine to make sure you got a pie...
Now I may be a slightly odd chap who lives in edinburgh and rides the canal towpath but this wasnae me OK? I was at home talking to the geraniums at the time
Hugo - but it clearly wasn't 😉 or else it wouldn'y have dazzled the chap
At least he wasn't naked....
I was
Barf!
A lot of mtb lights dazzle even when pointed down. My take on this is: If he wasn’t being dazzled then why complain about it? He may be a nutter, but just perhaps he has a point. I don’t use my off-road lights on shared use stuff. They are just too bright & the beam has too much spread.
Re Edinburgh Canal craziness, someone I worked with ended up in a court case after a woman shoved him into the water following an altercation. She was convicted of assault, I believe
As I understand it ‘she’ genuinely has a few mental health issues.
Hugo – but it clearly wasn’t or else it wouldn’y have dazzled the chap
Haha, quite.
My guess (without photographic evidence of the OPs beam pattern alongside a Magicshine control comparison it's hard to say more than this) is that the annoyed chap probably has been dazzled with bright lights on occasion before and so has a bee in his bonnet about it.
Along comes OP with a nice bright light, pointed down, up, who knows, and annoyed chap decides that all owners of such lights are the devil and does what he does.
As to someone who moves into your "lane". A thing about body language is that losing eye contact can sometimes be more powerful than the eyeball to eyeball game of chicken. The next time someone is intentionally riding at you just look down at your front wheel and this puts them in the position of having someone ride toward them who isn't even looking - they will be compelled to move over quickly. They have lost the ability to try and influence you to move with the intimidating tactics and therefore lost control. It's an assumptive sales closing technique used by direct sales people.
That, or just just accelerate, set your light to mega-dazzle, and charge him with your best war scream.
I've met one of these in Edinburgh. I think they will stare at whatever light you have trying to be dazzled.
Reminds me of the time I was cycling round Arthur’s seat at night with lights on. Runner came towards me and told me angrily I “you’re ruining my ****ing night vision”. I was a little taken aback and with only a short window to retort something witty, I told him to mind his language! Funnily enough, he apologised straight away.
anyway ojom, sure it wasn’t TJ?
I think a lot of you underestimate how badly your lights dazzle.
Have you been dazzled recently tj? Down by the canal perhaps?😂😂
I reckon more people should step up and shout at these idiots who insist on riding around the place with ridiculously bright bike lights dazzling everyone ahead. Surely it's not that difficult to fit your front light angled slightly downwards?
On the flipside I was driving down a busy city centre road a few months ago in the dark and some cool looking dude was riding a longboard in dark clothing weaving about, cutting through and undertaking traffic. I ended up driving alongside him and we both stopped at lights together so I wound down the window and politely told him he could do with getting some sort of light as he was really difficult to see. he then did that arms in the air 'kevin the teenager' thing at me. Only he was far from young and as it turns out not really all that cool at all. 🙁
I reckon more people should step up and shout at these idiots who insist on riding around the place with ridiculously bright bike lights dazzling everyone ahead. Surely it’s not that difficult to fit your front light angled slightly downwards?
How about shouting at people who put their lights on a lower setting and angle them down as the OP did?
I guess I know it's not too bright as he is the first person to comment. Ever.
Considering I use it on this setting for all commuting and road riding and ride all through the year in all conditions it was weird that this guy felt it was too much. Perhaps when he moved to be right in front of it when he could have stayed on his side of the path he was on he must have fixated on it choosing to stare directly into it .
Thinking more about it, he simply could have said, politely that it was too bright for him. He chose to rant and scream and make a scene. That's the bell end bit of the behaviour.
Poly, nothing sporty about an evening trundle through town on a gravel tyre MTB...
Lights seem to get a lot of people over excited TBH.
Unless your running some 1970 dim yellowish every readys it’s too much for them.
I run a fancy garmin light angled correctly and designed with correct beam cut off and it’s not some 1000 lumen monster and still used to get the ocassional moan, can’t please some people.