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December 17, 2008

First ride with the Down Low Glow ()

by fluffy at 5:56 PM
So, tonight I had my first Down Low Glow-assisted ride, and holy crap the difference it made.

I knew something would be different when I was on the bike lane on Townsend and the UPS truck stayed behind me.

When I got on Division, a pedestrian told me, "I can see you!" in a sarcastic tone of voice.

The only car which ever split a lane was very briefly on Division, where they were trying to turn right on Harrison (which is one of the danger spots), and they did the lane-splitting in a very cautious way and never came all that close to me. They ended up staying behind me for the whole half a block (and it's a long block), which was a bit curious.

When I got into my neighborhood and there were more pedestrians around, I started hearing comments like, "Whoa, cool bike!" Some of them were probably sarcastic, some weren't. I answered all of them with "Thanks!" I figure that the main point to it is to get noticed, and I was, in fact, getting noticed.

Then the most amazing thing of all: on Mission, nobody ever split a lane. Every car stayed entirely in the left lane and passed me correctly and legally. That has never happened to me, ever. And as a result I felt like I was moving faster since I wasn't constantly having to slow down to mind the traffic suddenly in front of me.

It was amazing.

So, yeah, I highly highly recommend these things.

Comments

#11570 12/18/2008 06:07 am Yeah but...
Where's the pictures?
#11571 12/18/2008 08:13 am
It is hard to take pictures of oneself while riding.

I do have pictures of my bike with the DLG turned on but they're rather underwhelming.
#11577 12/20/2008 08:18 am
fluffy:
It is hard to take pictures of oneself while riding.

I do have pictures of my bike with the DLG turned on but they're rather underwhelming.


You can always try running a photo-enforced red light Smile

I wouldn't mind seeing a stationary picture, I'm just curious what they look like on the folding bike.
#11578 12/20/2008 08:28 am
Oh, in that case...



Light 1 is mounted on the underside of the front part of the main tube, and light 2 is on the underside of the cargo rack. The wiring and junction box are through the rear fork, and the battery is tied to the cargo rack.
#11579 12/20/2008 01:32 pm
I'm not underwhelmed, that's pretty sweet looking.
#11580 12/20/2008 09:38 pm
That is really sweet looking. Also good for making robbers covet the bike. "Down Low Glow" sounds like something dirty.
#11581 12/20/2008 10:16 pm
Yeah, definitely not going to ride it near the 16th St BART station.
#11582 12/22/2008 08:09 am
That looks awesome. I want some.

How fragile are the tubes?
#11583 12/22/2008 08:14 am
They seem pretty robust. The tubes themselves are suspended in the middle of a pretty thick and flexible plastic. I wouldn't use them as drum sticks or anything but I also don't worry about going over potholes.