Took me 4 months to realize my bike lights were angled wrong

I kept getting honked at during my morning commute through downtown. Thought drivers were just grumpy. Then a friend pointed out my front light was aimed at the ground 3 feet ahead instead of out into traffic. Rear light was pointing at my tire too. Fixed both in 2 minutes. Has anyone else had a "doh" moment with something simple like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

davis.mia27d ago

Ngl, I used to roll my eyes at people obsessing over light angles. Figured as long as the lights were on, that was good enough. Then I got hit by a car making a right turn. Not seriously, but scary enough. After that I actually tested mine against a wall and yeah, my front light was basically lighting up the pavement 2 feet in front of me. Useless. Now I angle it so the beam hits about 30 feet ahead. Makes a massive difference at night, drivers actually see me coming now instead of just seeing a blurry blob. So yeah, this is one of those things where I was dead wrong before.

the_hannah28d ago

I read somewhere that like 60 percent of bike lights are installed wrong straight from the box. My buddy is a bike mechanic and he says people come in ALL the time complaining about being invisible and it's almost always the light angle. I did the SAME thing with my first set, pointed them way too low so I could see the ground instead of being seen from a distance. It's such a tiny fix that makes a HUGE difference in how cars actually notice you.