Distant Early Warning

I must confess, I used to see people running blinky lights in the day time and think they were overcautious nerds. Why would they want to just waste their batteries that way? They were just plain smart, actually. Still nerds, but smart nerds. Hang on, this raises a question for me; are all nerds, by definition, smart? Is there any such thing as a dumb nerd? Help me out if you can.

Here's the thing: the more warning a motorist has about your presence, the better they can plan how to get around you. The less time they have to think, the worse their decisions become. If you could reach backward with some sort of signal to let them know you were there, wouldn't you?

Simple, right? I can't speak to other brands of tail lights, but the very popular Planet Bike Superflash Turbo really is visible in daylight when using the blinky setting.

Click image to see it on Amazon.com

I read that claim sometime before I bought it and thought, yeah, right... but after running it in the daytime and feeling like passing behaviours may have improved a little, I did an experiment in a parking lot at work and I learned two things:

1) The human eye is amazing (I already knew that... I've been thinking about it a lot lately as I review all my bike video and wish cameras worked like eyes). Anyway, I could see my Superflash blinking away in strong direct morning sunlight with my eyeballs, but video taken both from my phone and helmet cam could not. That sucked, because this post was originally supposed to be about showing the video "test".

2) The distance I used was roughly 100 yards. I could see that thing. I don't know how far away I would have had to go to lose it. Had I been driving, it would have caught my eye.

Short version: It might feel kinda stupid, but check and see if your rear light is visible in sunlight and if so, run the sucker. Early warning for motorists = better treatment and less craziness. Usually.

How Do You Use Rear Bike Lights?

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

TARATS is a SMACKDOWN

I feel like there wasn't nearly enough fanfare about TARATS (the Third Annual Rantwick Autumn Tree Smackdown) in my initial post. I mean, this isn't about a bunch of tree huggers taking pictures and being all nice, you know. This is a SMACKDOWN. With Autumn trees. And the people are usually kind of nice and some may actually hug trees on a regular basis. But make no mistake, people, it IS a SMACKDOWN.

I have decided that the prize will be something else entirely this year. The winning tree will be crowned 2012's King (or Queen, if you want) of Autumn, a title formerly reserved for my perennial favourite (pun intended) alone! A used Trophy from some thrift shop, hand-modified by yours truly, will be sent to the lucky soul who captures for posterity the image of the most majestic juggernaut of Autumn leafy joy witnessed this year! It's gonna be AWESOME! Click HERE for rules and stuff.

Since this is a SMACKDOWN, I strongly encourage all entrants to talk as much over-the-top trash as possible (all in good fun, of course) and demoralize their opponents if they can. Let me get things started:

I stopped by to visit the King of Autumn this morning and let me tell you, he looked good. Green, but obviously gearing up for this year's competition:

Can you see that? He's flexing his foliage! What? What? You don't see it? Look again, and be very afraid of my tree, baby. He's gonna chew you all up and keep the title of King of Autumn all for his majestic unbeatable self:

That, for those of you that don't recognize it, is proper SMACKDOWN talk. I hope it puts you in the mood to bring some badass fall foliage action this way...

Share this image with yer friends and let's get ready to leaf it up, hard!

R A N T W I C K

PS - I know I am ridiculous. It's fun. I also think that "poster" qualifies as a WTF attack... cool.