Blinkers???

[Joecrow]

Recently Germany and maybe other EU countries, have approved "blinkers" (flashing light turn indicators) for use on bicycles. There is already a number of offerings on the market, often with integral batteries and with both wired or wireless control available. One specifically for E-bikes takes its power either, directly connected to an auxilary power port (makes sense if you have one), or via the lighting circuit (not so good if you turn your lights off) and is controlled by wire.
I would be interested to know if anyone has experience using blinkers on bicycles as it seems like a very good safety feature particularly for city and busy road cyclists. Also any thoughts about installing them on a E-bike, I can imagine getting the wires laid in the frame for a neat install may not be that simple.

 

[Tim1023]

When you said "blinkers", I immediately thought of how the Germans ride (and drive, and walk) as if they're wearing blinkers.

 

[Eliadn]

For decades it was enough to stick out your left or right arm when signaling a turn. Here we usually use bike lanes, so signaling to cars is not that needed.

 

[Astro66]

I have 4 way blinkers for my EMTB. Left, Right, Up and Down ......... You can never be too safe when smashing the Knarl .......

 

[cozzy]

Good idea for a road bike.
Get the hell out on an emtb though, sounds like something scott would fit.

 

[Anders]

For decades it was enough to stick out your left or right arm when signaling a turn. Here we usually use bike lanes, so signaling to cars is not that needed.

I still do so on both my bike and motorbikes. Where I ride on the roads (eBike), the cars are few and far between. On my motorbikes, I of course ride among the cars, but still use arm signals if needed.

 

[Paulquattro]

Good idea for a road bike.
Get the hell out on an emtb though, sounds like something scott would fit.

Could not agree More

 

[Joecrow]

For decades it was enough to stick out your left or right arm when signaling a turn.

I do wonder how many car drivers said much the same thing when turn idicators first started being fitted to 4 wheel vehicles.

 

[irie]

Recently Germany and maybe other EU countries, have approved "blinkers" (flashing light turn indicators) for use on bicycles.

Judging by how infrequently "blinkers" get used, seems they are now an optional extra on many cars.

 

[Joecrow]

Thinking back to my motorcycling days I know I was not a good user of "blinkers", bear in mind I learnt to ride before they were commonly fited to motorbikes and I usually had one or two old timers in the stable so using hand signals was automatic. None of the motorbikes I rode with turn indicators had self cancelling ones (no idea if they are even now available) and forgetting to turn them off could be real dangerous, for example when approaching a side road with a car waiting to pull out! So pleased to see the E-bike ones I looked at turned off automatically after 15 seconds.
There are times when I don't want to take my hands off the bars and particularly in the grey days of winter and for night riding in the city I think they could be a real safety improvement so I am going to invest in a set after Christmas and get back here to let you know how it goes.

 

[Eliadn]

I do wonder how many car drivers said much the same thing when turn idicators first started being fitted to 4 wheel vehicles.

Some car brands don't have them fitted even to this day, Audi or BMW for example!

 

[jackamo]

If I'm right it's still illegal to have indicators on any type of bicycle in the UK .
Unless your a just eat delivery rider on an illegal ebike .

 

[Mikerb]

On a mountain bike? No way. Even for bike or car users some folk need to understand how and when to use them....the clue is in the name...indicator......there are a number of circumstances where road position is more important than a " blinking" indicator where that indication can be misread by other road users. There are also circumstances when both the use of indicators and an arm signal are required. ....something you rarely see these days.