Blaze bicycle lane laser

I still believe that if a driver is genuinely looking out for a cyclist, they'll see them no matter what. I would say that the most often cause of a SMIDSY is precisely because the driver wasn't looking in the first place, so if they're that unobservant, they won't notice green laserbeams on the floor.

You're basically buying underfloor neon light that make you look like a pollock drag racing your Corsa.

Pollock:

Pillock:

Pollock:

Pillock:

Yeah but the laser pic has fins and everything. I think it was totally right.

Featured on tonight's gadget show on Ch5. Still not convinced it would make much difference.

Just had an email from the LCC with a promotion on these.

Reminded me that I'd actually seen one a couple of weeks ago, it was pretty much as shit as I'd imagined. Projecting a not particularly bright image onto a bit of road a driver possibly can't even see isn't gonna do much for anyone's safety. Even worse, giving naive people the impression that they're more visible than they think could be very detrimental.

The LCC are implicitly endorsing them. Wonder if they've actually been properly tested?

Have seen one in action in London's trendy Shoreditch. They're as crap as they look; still imagery gives the impression of a brighter and almost static projection, whereas the reality is just some faint green line wobbling all over the place. Agree with @Brun, many people are going to think this is going to give even more protection than their Hi-Vis already affords them.

@tricitybendix could share all kinds of wonderful insight in to what's going on with the suitability of products being endorsed, I'm sure.

Likewsie, they actually ask one of the mechanics from LMNH to get some direct feedback on his opinion about the product and how it cope on London roads.

Bumped into him on his first day of testing at the traffic lights and my initial reaction was 'WTF is that!' beaming on the floor. Initially thoughts was some kids shining laser pens to annoy cyclist/motorist but when he pulled up I realised what it was and thought 'you actually brought that?'

His feedback on the product was mixed. Although it was a good idea in theory to suppose to let vehicles and pedestrians to know your filtering through. However in reality car's will rarely notice you when your in traffic. Pedestrians actually find the green light on the floor more amusing and more focus on that there is a light there than the cyclist. But the worst part he said whilst cycling to epping forest was that it actually made cyclist more jumpy when they saw the green light approaching and usually made them serve more closer to the pavement and one time almost caused a cyclist to crash. So he decided to turn the green light off and just use the normal LED instead.

In conclusion he felt that although the idea isn't a bad, it is not as effective as the adverts shows. But his biggest issue was the price, it wouldn't be bad if it £50 (max) but paying over £100 for a light you are going to have some stiff competition in that price range and the normal LED light brightness is nowhere near the competitive enough to make people consider this product.

The production model is 300 lumen, Surely thats enough for city riding (for which this device is designed)? A cateye 300 lumen rechargeable light (Volt 300) has an RRP of £50, so there's no chance of them going below that. I do think the safety features they've included are quite clever, like the fact that the laser can only turn on when the light is mounted in the bracket.

But the worst part he said whilst cycling to epping forest was that it actually made cyclist more jumpy when they saw the green light approaching and usually made them serve more closer to the pavement and one time almost caused a cyclist to crash.

As in, when he approached a cyclist from behind (oo'er) travelling in the same direction, the sudden appearance of a blurry green image under their tyres had them startled and nearly made them crash?

Not saying this didn't happen, but I'd like to think that most cyclists would not immediately lose control from seeing an inexplicable image projected onto the road.

They keep coming up on my Facebook feed, think I pissed them off when I said I have seen the product at shows.

I'm not keen on how hard they are pushing it with adverts/marketing to make something out of nothing.

I don't know: if that happened to me, I would be pretty distracted wondering WTF is was and WTF it was coming from.

That's pretty poor: do LCC disclose on what basis they're endorsing them?

It's difficult to imagine that's it's on account of the outstanding contribution to cycling safety it makes.

So...

@charlie_lcc

In conclusion he felt that although the idea isn't bad.

No, it's shit, it's too complicated for a congested city such as London (parked vehicles blocking view for peds for example).

If people really want to be seen, get a decent light that's dipped slightly, if people can see cars coming, then can see bicycles with decent lights.

LCC would probably claim they're not actually endorsing them and it's just a commercial deal. That's fair enough and I understand the reasons. Presumably something along the lines of 'Blaze give LLC £££s, LCC try to flog product to members'.

I just take exception to the unqualified guff such as "...lets you be seen when you're otherwise invisible" which is probably a very long way from the truth and possibly dangerously misleading.

saw one the other day on whitechapel road. It was pretty small and about 6ft ahead of the rider, so perfectly placed to warn a car's left front tyre, or a lorry driver who happens to be leaning across his cab and looking directly down onto a small 6 inch patch of floor in line with his door.

First reaction was not "oh there's another cyclist behind me, better watch out" but more "what the fuck is this nonsense"

Yep, from behind.

I think most cyclist would be alright with any bright lights behind them, but I can imagine with an image projected on the floor most would probably think what it was and where and what it was coming from. This I believe could have distract the cyclist and take his attention off the road/ road conditions.

Zactly.

Everyone is used to seeing lights on the road. No-one is used to seeing glowing, green bikes projected around them.

My first thought would be that someone is highlighting me as a cyclist, rather than being warned of another cyclist.

LCC and Blaze know full well that if LCC are emailing people saying "look at this", it's a tacit endorsement of the product.

Let's see what Charlie has to say about it.

I don't think we are saying blaze is the best thing out there. Or even the best bike light. As people suggested, this is advertising, it helps us keep going. There are a few products which LCC would not accept advertising from, Blaze is not one of them.
We are also interested in members' feedback on this type of advert.

Personally I am not a fan of Blaze but some people think they are wonderful and have bought them for all the family. I think 300 lumens is far to bright for urban cycling, users should be told to keep them on the low power setting all the time - the batteries last 2-3 times longer.

@charlie_lcc can you email me a link for a half vis jacket, I'm not a fan of high vis jackets as they could be too bright for urban cycling and so a half vis jacket would be awesome but nobody seems to sell them.

thought the Blaze product might be best suited to urban areas / towns where cycling is a little less common, and perhaps unexpected.. but perhaps still useful for Lundun-town too (?), for urbanistas with spare £;

as an LCC member, happy to see such ads in my inbox, as long as the product has been judged as potentially beneficial (by the committee)!

@charlie_lcc can you email me a link for a half vis jacket, I'm not a fan of high vis jackets as they could be too bright for urban cycling and so a half vis jacket would be awesome but nobody seems to sell them.

Half price if you order one with your ticket to the CycleNation Campaigners Conference on 22nd November

Personally I am not a fan of Blaze but some people think they are wonderful and have bought them for all the family.>

Under what criteria can anyone consider the Blaze 'wonderful'? Seriously.