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I mostly agree, on group rides all our tail lights are on steady generally.
I ride with comparatively weak lights, especially on the front, so it’s always flashing unless we’re on a dark trail, in which case I have to ride slower anyway. And when we ride together we ride sloooow.Bottom line for me, and IMO city riding generally, you need lights and reflective gear to be seen, not to see, so it’s not necessary to have space lasers on your bike - I haven’t ridden rurally in years.
withered_preacher
How good/bad flashing lights are can be context-specific and also dependent on just how bright the light is and what kind of flash cycle it has. I used to do regular long-distance night rides (as opposed to the TNRC/WNKR evening rides) and we'd always ask people to put their rear lights in steady mode, not flash. There were always a few people who ignored that request and those people were cunts.
Flashing lights are subjectively brighter even when they're not objectively brighter (and they're often objectively brighter at the peak of the flash cycle). The eye/brain of the riders behind don't adapt the same way they do to steady light, so the vision of those riders is impaired.
Us: "Please put those on steady."
Them: "But we want to be more visible!"
Us: "You're making everything less visible for us."
Them: "We don't care."
Cunts.
People who ride around this city with bright flashing front lights also cunts. Very bright but not flashing? Marginally less of a cunt. Bright/distracting enough to make oncoming drivers/riders squint isn't smart. There are combinations of brightness and flash cycle that don't do this.