Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

how things used to be....

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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by CitroJim »

white exec wrote: 03 Dec 2018, 20:51 Always liked the Mk1 C5 Estate rearlights - like a giant pair of parentheses ( ) !

One (two?) for Jim...
Heart-Tail-Light.jpg

Image


Silly but hilarious... My saddle bag would preclude their use on my bike - sadly...

Never seem them in the wild - I guess not many cyclists have the 'balls' to use them!

I have one of these...
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moizeau wrote: 03 Dec 2018, 22:28
white exec wrote: 03 Dec 2018, 20:51
Image
No that's just every saddle after a stage at Le Tour
:lol:

Boils are the bigger problem... Many amusing anecdotes exist around this topic - most not suitable for this forum :lol:
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by van ordinaire »

I rather like those Mini lights (unlike the rest of the car, even worse than the original - which I didn't think possible) - well they make me grin AND, no, they don't show any white light. Following on from the jerrycan inspired ones on the Jeep Fiat 500, can only wonder what'll be next.

If by "Comedy Lights" you mean the sequential indicators on Audis, how are they legal, when the originals ('67 Cougar) were not?

I thought the 850 came 1st but no matter, what I always liked about those was that the high level brakelight (as they were termed then) was the same hight as the brake lights.

It is inevitable that as those vehicles with 1/2-days work in the garage to replace headlamp bulbs get older & worth less that we will see more with only one light lit, 'til they fail their MoT - & are scrapped.
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by Michel »

Followed a Prius with those lights this evening on the motorbike. Found them quite pleasing. Makes the car out well, not too bright, even when braking.

I followed a 16 plate Audi TT slightly later on some unlit roads. It was ok when not braking, but the brake light is the entire edge of the boot lid right across the car, and it's blindingly bright, so much so I couldn't see ahead of the Audi at all.
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by Michel »

van ordinaire wrote: 04 Dec 2018, 22:16
If by "Comedy Lights" you mean the sequential indicators on Audis, how are they legal, when the originals ('67 Cougar) were not?
Love them. Fitted a set to my motorbike. Far brighter than the useless standard ones.
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Headlights have moved well into the "solving a problem that didn't really need solving" technology. Can't imagine anyone will be able to stand the full 10 minutes of this. If this technology works you should never be blinded by a BMW with its headlights on full beam, and its "dumb" driver will not even have to flick a switch because the lights are "intelligent" and not just a "pretty face" (sarcasm emoticon)



Saying that electric windows were always in that category for me, but I spent a good few seconds today looking for the electric windows switch in a newish VW van, only to find it still had manual window winders. :-D Primitive or what :!:

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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by Stickyfinger »

I do not believe that from BMW, light cannot be controlled like that in a moving car on a bumpy road.

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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by CitroJim »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 04 Dec 2018, 23:14 Headlights have moved well into the "solving a problem that didn't really need solving" technology.


Precisely my thoughts on the subject! Applies to indicators and rearlights too...
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by MikeT »

I thought I was seeing individually dipped high beams on the road but guess it must be those tunnelling lights.
Sorry to say, they don't work exactly as demonstrated.
Yes, get one coming toward you with a clear view and they don't glare but they're not so quick to react when it comes to undulations and bends and junctions etc. Also, they "resume" too soon, momentarily dazzling me before I've passed though that's probably also to do with me fixating on them out of curiousity.
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by CitroJim »

MikeT wrote: 05 Dec 2018, 06:02 I thought I was seeing individually dipped high beams on the road but guess it must be those tunnelling lights.
Sorry to say, they don't work exactly as demonstrated.



I've noted that Mike and the other day I saw something infinitely worse.. One car, can't remember which, appeared to have headlights that looked to be bright blue at certain angles of view oncoming on a undulating road...

It looked almost like an emergency vehicle and could, in poor visibility such as during rain when i saw it, be easily mistaken for one...

Dangerous in my opinion...
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by MikeT »

Snap Jim! At certain angles, some lights emit blue as you say, making me double-take in case of emergency vehicle.
Also had a van follow me who's lights turned indicator orange/yellow at certain angles, again giving the impression of indicating or hazards.
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by CitroJim »

MikeT wrote: 05 Dec 2018, 06:47 Also had a van follow me who's lights turned indicator orange/yellow at certain angles, again giving the impression of indicating or hazards.


Seen that too Mike... Quite unacceptable...

Speaking of indicators, how do some cars get away with very tiny rear indicators? So tiny they're little more than thin slits in the rear-light clusters and almost useless... I've seen cars with bigger side repeaters :twisted:

Some front indicators are very near invisible too...
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by white exec »

The appearance of orange/red and blue from headlights is down to the use of small, sharply curved one-piece lenses, which end up working like prisms at their edges (which should have been blanked off), splitting 'white' light up into a rainbow. Poor design, driven more by fashion than decent optics. No self-respecting torch, lighthouse or theatre spotlight would suffer from this. Scruffy design, only just about complying with international regulations, now weakly enforced.
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by CitroJim »

Chris, thanks for the explanation :D Makes perfect sense...

I particularly agree with your points regarding fashion, scruffy design and weakly enforced regulations :evil:
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Re: Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

Post by Michel »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 04 Dec 2018, 23:14 Headlights have moved well into the "solving a problem that didn't really need solving" technology.


No, that's simply untrue. Driving a 80s or 90s car at night, is a world away from driving a modern with modern lights, there's simply no comparison in many cases. There will be those that say "oh, my 90s Volvo/Lada/Escort/whatever had brilliant lights" It may well have done... for it's time. They're pretty much incomparable to modern ones. The vision and light colour from manufacturer standard ones is simply outstanding. I'd never go back to them.

I've got a set of "illegal" LED headlights in the motorbike. They're absolutely wonderful. I can actually see where I'm going, which makes a great difference. I've also had them checked on the rig by my friendly MOT tester to check they are aligned and have a proper beam pattern, before anyone starts..
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