Do you know meee?

[danthered]

I am so famous!

(…says Daniel Stern, a Vancouver-based automotive lighting expert who sits on several technical standards development boards in North America and worldwide…)

Comments

[bluebear2]

Interesting article. I was thinking of something like this for sirens. They seem to be the same loudness regardless of environment. I was thinking that maybe they could have microphones to sense the surrounding ambient sound level and then set the siren level above it. That would change with environment.
On another note, I've been annoyed with the poor choice in this continent in bicycle lights. Now that LEDs are super bright it seems the designers just go for more intensity. Back in the '90s when a dim LED bike light was blinking it was useful but now it's blinding and a problem. In Germany they have laws about bike lights and even disallow the sale of lights that don't meet them. One of the laws states that they have to be designed so that the person installing them makes them point low. Also blinking is not allowed.
Since the '80s the idea of governments interfering in business has been out of fashion in this part of the world so it would be hard to have such laws here but I wish that when you went to the bike shop you at least had the choice of bike lights that were to the German standards.

Rant over...

[danthered]

Yep, Germany's bike lighting regs are enviable in their existence. That said, good bike lights aren't prohibited in North America, they're just not mandatory. If I had the spare funds to buy one of these, I'd go riding at night just to use it.

[bluebear2]

What's nice about the B&M (and a few others) is that their reflectors shine the beam down on the road and not in the eyes of opposing drivers/riders/walkers. Very nice.
You can get Busch und Müller lights in Vancouver at both Dream Cycles and Kissing Crows Cyclery.
http://dream-cycle.com
http://www.kissingcrowscyclery.com

But most bike stores only carry Knog and all the usual ones that are essentially just a super bright LED. There might be a huge array of them but they're pretty well the same light.
I like some of the bike lights that Philips make but they only distribute them to a few countries in Europe.

Here's a neat website from a guy in the Netherlands who tests bicycle components. Lotsa info and very OCD nerdy. (Which is what you want in a reviewer.)
http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/index_en.html

What is the problem in North America is that while something might not be disallowed, most stores tend to only carry the stuff with the biggest turnover and not the stuff that sells less. I understand where they're coming from but it's kind of a drag that you can't get something because it's considered a minority interest thing.

[danthered]

Shee-yoot! You're right, that guy is really exhaustive in his tests! Thanks for the link.