See the Lights
The other day I was biking home after work when out of nowhere…
It gets dark early these days. That means lights are something to plan on having. But even some folks that technically have lights don’t make it easy to see them.
So make sure to remember your lights, but also make sure they are visible.
Ok so I got these new frog light or something to that effect, for my 10th anniversary. They are awesome and perfectly complement my set of planet bike lights. My plan is to have enough lights to make the people of Evanston think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
It does make removing all of my accessories sort of tedious though…light…like…bike computer…light…
You know? Now I need a detachable bike…man purse…to put in my damn back pack…
I’m starting to feel like a rolling hoarder.
I call those riders the ninjas and they make me crazy. Especially when they use their super stealth powers so I don’t know they’re there at all until they’ve brushed me in passing.
In addition to front and rear lights on my bike I have them on my helmet. If a battery gives out on the ride on one of them I still have another.
I also have spoke lights in my wheels and have had compliments on the extra visibility. Besides the cool “wheels o’ flame!” effect when riding, they provide side visibility going through an intersection.
I moved to Seattle about a year ago and discovered a deep love for blinking lights here, despite the fact that state law says the front headlight should be steady, not blinking. People have the mistaken notion that the flashing increases visibility for others when in fact it makes it more challenging to triangulate actual distance.
They’re not supposed to flash because, among other things, warning lights on many types of vehicles and devices, such as barriers around construction zones, flash. Good luck being seen and avoided if they think you’re a stationary barrier.
Cars don’t flash their headlights constantly on/off to be seen–why should bike headlights?
I had the ultimate bike insider compliment paid to me the other day–showed up for a ride with some other women in my Bern helmet with the built-in brim and someone said, “You look like Bikeyfacd!”
Couldn’t agree with you more about using bike lights, and using them properly. I recently upgraded my lighting system for the dark days of fall & winter riding. In the summer, I had just a small front light and rear light. Those lights just weren’t enough when fall came around and it gets dark around here by 4:30 (and I typically leave work after 6 PM). So I bought an 800-lumen Cygolite Expillion front light and mounted it to the handlebar. Now I use the Cygolite in medium mode (say, 550 lumens ish) for most night riding and crank it up to full brightness for the off-road shortcut through the woods that I use on the way home. The old light is still there, still solar-powered, but relegated to blinking light duty, or backup light in case the Cygolite is MIA . As for rear lights, I dug another old light from my bag of bike stuff and clip it to my belt. I have it on in steady mode, while a second light, clipped to the back of the bag on my luggage rack, blinks. In fact, when I bought the luggage rack and bag, I quickly noticed that the old seatpost-mounted light was obscured, and moved it to the bag. For good measure, I also wear reflective straps around my ankles and wrists, and have some reflective material on my gloves, too. I had a headlight too that I wrapped around my hand as a signaling aid, but I haven’t found it for a few weeks (hope I didn’t lose it…)