The day's are shorter and I'm commuting to work most days so it was time to look at my safety items. I've been very happy with the excellent NiteRider Solas tail light (later iterations solved the loose mount issue that plagued the earlier versions). It was a solid light with decent brightness and battery longevity (I usually could commute for a week on one charge).
When the NiteRider Sentinel popped up as a sales item on Biketiresdirect.com, I clicked "Add to Cart."
The unit came mostly charged, so I tested it in the garage -- Wow! this thing is BRIGHT! At full blinky mode I think it might be too much for early morning rural roads (no need to blind already distracted, tired, inattentive drivers).
The second blink mode is more a pulse, from very bright to moderately bright and back. It's not as distracting but is still visible a long way.
What really sets the Sentinel apart is the laser lane designator, which is a small class 2 laser that projects a 6' line parallel to the centerline of the bicycle (when mounted upright to the seat tube). The line is about 3' from centerline. When pedaling the light appears on the back of my reflective shoe covers.
I rolled out at 6:15 this morning in the dark. I turned the NiteRider Lumina 500 Headlight (still a very good unit) and Sentinel tail light with blinking laser lights and pulse blinker mode.
My route follows quiet back streets until Main Street in Mount Joy turns into state highway 230 east of town. 230 is a secondary highway with pedestrian traffic and a nice wide shoulder and is frequently used by cyclists and a few Amish buggies.
The posted speed limit is 45 but people still fly on this road (making the actual speed more in the high 50 range). This morning I had no close calls, and several cars slowed and passed with a bit more caution.
Of course there's no way to credit this device with the improvement in driver behavior. But I'm convinced that noticeable lights help attract attention, and in this case enough attention that driver's have to process and adjust.
A phenomenon many pilots encounter when flying at night over large metropolitan areas is losing (or not seeing) the airport. While airports have unique lighting features, they are often overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of lights in the area. Early in my Private Pilot training we flew to Baltimore Washington Airport at night. I couldn't see it! My instructor suggested I look for an absence of lights -- and then I saw it -- a dark rectangle ringed with blue lights. Only after that could I make out the approach lights and runway edge lights. We landed and a lesson was learned.
Years later I flew from Pittsburgh to Georgia. It was late and very dark (no moon). The GPS was indicating the runway 1.5 miles out and the sky was severe clear, I looked intently but simply could not find the runway (runway lights are white, yellow, and red -- very common light colors in a populated area).
Finally I noticed a different color (in this case, the blue lights of the parallel taxiways) that caught my attention. We landed without incident.
It's the same for drivers -- we "see" many lights (especially early in the morning before sunrise), but our minds are trained to react to certain hues of red, green, and yellow. We've trained ourselves to ignore other lights.
The NiteRider Sentinel draws attention by being different enough to be noticed in a sea of lights. The red laser lane designators help drivers notice that there is something there. They notice a difference, slow or move away as they process, and then pass.
And that's all I want -- see me and avoid me!
Once the sun peaked out the lasers were simply too faint to be noticed. I turned them off and let the blinky catch some attention. The light is bright enough to be visible in morning and late afternoons. It's visible in bright sunshine but obviously less effective.
The NiteRider Sentinel is a great tail light and I can wholly recommend it as gear in the commuting cyclists' safety tool box.
When the NiteRider Sentinel popped up as a sales item on Biketiresdirect.com, I clicked "Add to Cart."
The unit came mostly charged, so I tested it in the garage -- Wow! this thing is BRIGHT! At full blinky mode I think it might be too much for early morning rural roads (no need to blind already distracted, tired, inattentive drivers).
The second blink mode is more a pulse, from very bright to moderately bright and back. It's not as distracting but is still visible a long way.
What really sets the Sentinel apart is the laser lane designator, which is a small class 2 laser that projects a 6' line parallel to the centerline of the bicycle (when mounted upright to the seat tube). The line is about 3' from centerline. When pedaling the light appears on the back of my reflective shoe covers.
I rolled out at 6:15 this morning in the dark. I turned the NiteRider Lumina 500 Headlight (still a very good unit) and Sentinel tail light with blinking laser lights and pulse blinker mode.
My route follows quiet back streets until Main Street in Mount Joy turns into state highway 230 east of town. 230 is a secondary highway with pedestrian traffic and a nice wide shoulder and is frequently used by cyclists and a few Amish buggies.
The posted speed limit is 45 but people still fly on this road (making the actual speed more in the high 50 range). This morning I had no close calls, and several cars slowed and passed with a bit more caution.
Of course there's no way to credit this device with the improvement in driver behavior. But I'm convinced that noticeable lights help attract attention, and in this case enough attention that driver's have to process and adjust.
A phenomenon many pilots encounter when flying at night over large metropolitan areas is losing (or not seeing) the airport. While airports have unique lighting features, they are often overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of lights in the area. Early in my Private Pilot training we flew to Baltimore Washington Airport at night. I couldn't see it! My instructor suggested I look for an absence of lights -- and then I saw it -- a dark rectangle ringed with blue lights. Only after that could I make out the approach lights and runway edge lights. We landed and a lesson was learned.
Years later I flew from Pittsburgh to Georgia. It was late and very dark (no moon). The GPS was indicating the runway 1.5 miles out and the sky was severe clear, I looked intently but simply could not find the runway (runway lights are white, yellow, and red -- very common light colors in a populated area).
Finally I noticed a different color (in this case, the blue lights of the parallel taxiways) that caught my attention. We landed without incident.
It's the same for drivers -- we "see" many lights (especially early in the morning before sunrise), but our minds are trained to react to certain hues of red, green, and yellow. We've trained ourselves to ignore other lights.
The NiteRider Sentinel draws attention by being different enough to be noticed in a sea of lights. The red laser lane designators help drivers notice that there is something there. They notice a difference, slow or move away as they process, and then pass.
And that's all I want -- see me and avoid me!
Once the sun peaked out the lasers were simply too faint to be noticed. I turned them off and let the blinky catch some attention. The light is bright enough to be visible in morning and late afternoons. It's visible in bright sunshine but obviously less effective.
The NiteRider Sentinel is a great tail light and I can wholly recommend it as gear in the commuting cyclists' safety tool box.
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