Hopefully this is the right section for this question, this one or off topic, I’m Sorry if not!
I’ve only recently gotten into really bright lights but It’s already happened to me a couple times! I love taking our dogs out on the bike trails in our city, Portland OR, and I love going out at night as well, especially in summer and especially now that I’ve gotten in these new flashlights, in particular a Convoy M1 in XML2 t6 2.8 amp and my new XinTD C8 in XP-G2 @ 3 amp.
Anyways, I admit I do sometimes sweep dark areas, partly because I love lighting things up, but also because other dog walkers occasionally have their dogs off leash, or on a long one, and the hobos almost always do, and I want to be aware of that before these situations are right on top of me. I also go off trail quite a bit, and I’ve quite literally stumbled over incoherant drunks and even tweakers sleeping on or off the trail. Basically I’m always on the lookout. I don’t aim for faces, and I often use a lower mode, but even that and a splash is plenty bright.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mostly gotten the anger from bums and the homeless, but some are just astonished at the light output, and I remember the thank you’s from bikes because I often light up the trail as one goes past me.
Am I being completely inconsiderate of the night folk sleeping in the bushes or what? I know these lights can be a little blinding if you get hit with an accidental face shot, I’ve hit myself to see what it’s like on the other end, and I also realize it can hurt the night vision with even just the splash, but I’m just trying to be safe. Well pissing the bums off might not be making me safer.
indoors with family yes
my sister hates it when I’m testing my lights
more when it comes to blinky modes (she got annoyed with the reflection)
outdoors nope
not even once
at most I only gotten a comment from some thug looking guy drinking beer asking me if I’m afraid of the dark
I just replied “with this? (enables turbo) don’t think so”
only once… (because i usually do not fire when people are around)
when i did my beamshots across the river Danube (~500m) i hitted a Fisher on the other bank.
he was not amused and told me names (like thepart where the sun never shines)
When I went to Mexico… I took a swimming cave exploration trip with a group of people. I had the zebralight H600 with me.
Because the cave had artificial lighting and we had to swim in many parts, we were told that flashlight was not necessary since the instructors had theirs (crappy headlamps). There was a part of the cave which was almost completely dark, we could hear there were bats hanging on the ceiling making lots of noise but there was no vision at all (The whole cave had bats but this part was dark).
So as a true flashaholic I proceeded to turn on my H600 and it went straight to turbo, 900 MASSIVELY BRIGHT IN-YOUR-FACE LUMENS lighted up the entire cave, leaving everyone around me in shock and awe, and I got yelled in at least in 3 languages. As for the bats, they just kept doing their stuff, they didn’t get scared, didn’t fly all over the place, nothing. The reaction was from the people.
Solution: get a much brighter light. When they complain, ask them if they would like to see high. :evil: If you want to be friendly then point it away when you kick it into turbo.
Yeah we do. It’s kinda crazy. Portland, OR is bum central. I hear other cities put their homeless offenders on greyhound buses with Portland (as well as other cities) as their destination.
We have a couple wooded areas in our area, and apparently area’s like that are easy to hide in and a favorite spot to camp. They caught a home on fire recently and just last year a homeless dude was killed by police after threatening people with a crowbar. He was shot just a block up the street from us, Walk past it everyday. Here’s a local news video about the homeless problem on the springwater corridor.
Like just 2 or 3 days ago I got my XinTD c8 in the mail, so I took it out that night to light some trees and fields up. I get to to a particularly long section of the trail, half a mile or so long, It’s really dark, there aren’t any trail lights on this section so I light the trail up on high for maybe 2 seconds. I don’t see anyone, so I go back to lighting up trees and bushes as I’m walking. Couple minutes later I walk past 3-4 people huddled over a shopping cart on the side of the trail. A lady starts yelling at me saying I shined it in her eyes and it’s way too bright, I can’t do that I need to pay more attention, and I say I didn’t point the flashlight anywhere near her. She says it was a couple minutes ago, must’ve been when I lit up the trail several hundred meters back.
She’s still lecturing me, so I get a little frustated and say flashlights are supposed to be bright, that’s what they’re made for. Maybe I should of apologized instead. I walked off with her voice still going at my back.
A couple weeks ago I accidentally lit up some other chick walking on the trail, looked homeless too, and she went off as well. “that’s how you get your ass beat!” I told her to try it, she told me to fuck off. Maybe I should have just apologized there too.
I’ve removed strobe from both my new flashlights, one with solder, the other with the UI. I don’t like having to cycle through it.
But Damn! if I didn’t wish I had one with the hidden strobe feature I keep hearing about. It’s so disorienting, especially at night when your eyes are adjusted to the dark. But then again, strobing every asshole on the bike trail can’t be good for my life expectancy lol… They’d have to find me first through the stars in their vision though.
I’m still learning new things everyday, but I read here that it’s only temporary spots or disorientation? My little lights can’t cause any permanent harm can they? Keep in mind any exposure to the eyes is accidental, and i’m very quick to avert.
Maybe if the light is only a foot or two from someone’s face, and they continue to stare at it. But not if you shine it at someone’s face who is 40-50 feet away. Plus, even at closer range, they will probably turn their head away or close their eyes before it can do real damage.
Number of high power flashlight/bikelamp users has increased by at least 10 fold over the last 2 years in my country. It is common for people to spend $50-100 to accessorize their MTB and road bikes. I used to own the brightest light in the park during my ride but now I have dropped to an average class user True budget user.
I have yelled at several times in the past. Nothing this year as I always stay in low-med mode with my beam dipped. Be considerate when using your lights. Apologize if it is your mistake. Stay out of trouble and do not let their words dampen your mood for ride or walk.