I would like to ride in the evenings or at night. What are the must haves for this?

Lights front and rear.

reflectors on your bike and clothes are good as well

I would like to ride in the evenings or at night. What are the must haves for this?

i like those blinking lights you can get that attach to a backpack or shirt. i have one on the back of my backpack and one on the front strap.

attach plenty of blinkies to yourself.

yeah, the more light the better. if you can figure out how to rig up the electrical - i would suggest wrapping christmas lights around you and your bike.

I personally like relying on active lighting vs passive reflectors. Some suggested equipment:

Full light kit (front beam and blinkie or multiple blinkies in back). I use the Jet Lites Starfire Dual-Beam (http://www.jetlites.com/sfdb_ss_fg.html) primarily for MTBing but only run it with a single beam lamp (usually the 12W) on my road rides. I am considering getting a helmet light too... probably one of the Jet Lites models. I prefer at least one of my lights to be halogen as opposed to having all HID because HIDs have a slow startup time. I have a Planet Bike BRT1 taillamp/blinkie (http://www.planetbike.com/pop/3008.html) for the rear. I suppose a helmet mounted blinkie like the Planet Bike BRT3H (http://www.planetbike.com/pop/3010.html) wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Safety Vest (http://www.safehomeproducts.com/SHP/SM/Safety_Vest.asp) or reflective striped clothing. I would also recommend something like the Planet Bike BRT Strap (http://www.planetbike.com/pop/3030.html) for the ankles. They can also be useful to hold your pant cuffs in if you wear pants/rainpants.

I don't like spoke-mounted wheel reflectors so I would rather go with a set of Tireflys (http://www.tireflys.com/products/uv_bike.asp)


The disadvantage to all these lights is that you have to keep up on the batteries (many of them) and you have to remember to turn them all on and off as needed.

Wear some kind of eye protection. I use a rose lens, but yellow or clear will work. I find the rose lens evens out the glare from headlights and streetlights, as lighting is irregular with the lighting restrictions in place in my area.

I find yellow lenses actually make car lights worse. I just use clear.

Depending on where you are, if you have plenty of ambient lighting from street lights, a blinker up front and back will work. If not, the minimum is a 10 watt halogen. My general rule is wattage = your max anticipated speed. So if you're going to hit 15mph, get something at least 15 watts.

reflectors on your bike and clothes are good as well

You don't wear clothes in the day?

Bare minimum (legal minimum) is:

red rear reflector, center mounted on the bike.

white or amber reflectors on the wheels...may be removed if your tires have a reflective sidewall.

white or amber reflectors on pedals, front and back. This one is mostly unenforced...plus how often does anyone see the reflector on a pedal.

Front light visible by drivers no less than 300ft. Note they said light NOT reflector...actually front reflectors are not sked for in most jurisdictions...so I just remove mine.


now..to be lighted reasonably...

Add in a red rear light...preferably flashing and having at 300ft visibility at the least.

consider refletivetape on strategic parts of your bike.

Also mount a red flash
er to the back o your helmet. i have a tiny flashing reflector i zip-tied to mine.


the key is making sure your visible from a distance. It's better to overdo it in this case as far as how much lighting. For example...come this weekend...i'm buying a second headlight...

[QUOTE=catatonic]Bare minimum (legal minimum) is:

Front light visible by drivers no less than 300ft. Note they said light NOT reflector...actually front reflectors are not sked for in most jurisdictions...so I just remove mine.

[QUOTE]

Ahh good I've lost mine.

There are two issues to riding at night. One is being visible to other users of the road way. The other issue is having something to illuminate hazards that may occur in the road way.

Personally, I much prefer active lighting systems like blinkie lights and headlights rather then passive systems like reflectors. Reflectors require the other users of the road way to have powerful lights that will be strong enough to make your reflectors effective. Since blinkies can be purchased at a low price (between $10-$20) and will run quite a long time (100+ hours on 2 "AA" batteries), I prefer them over reflectors. Also a good blinkie is visible from .5 mile which is far better then reflectors. I want those motorists to be given as much warning as possible. Blinkies work great for rear running lights on your bike. I use 2.

For front lights, well what is adequate can vary. If you ride on well lit roads, you can probably get by with a front blinkie or a minimal headlight. However, if you ride on dark roads, you need enough illumination to see hazards. I use a 15 watt halogen system and it is pretty visible but I tend to outrun the beam if I got much above 15 mph. However, even 3 watts of halogen makes you pretty visible to motorists, it just is not anywhere near enough for illumination. I have heard from friends that one can cruise with the new HID systems up to about 25 mph before one outruns the beam.

Also having illumination is good for revealing other users of the road way who might not have lights. Around here, these include armadillos (armor plated guys who really don't pay much attention), joggers (can often be as oblivious as armadillos), and other cyclists (often wrong way and in dark clothing and travelling at a high rate of speed, a definite major YIKES!! factor).

Oddly enough, I view very well illuminated roads as being potentially VERY hazardous for cyclists. I am referring to roads with quite a bit of road side neon lighting. I have noted that when driving some of these roads at night, I can even lose emergency vehicles in the dazzle. If I don't notice an ambulance or police car with lights going right away, who is going to notice a cyclist with a puny lil light or blinkie?

The nice thing about very dark country roads is that any lighting at all that approaches adequacy really stands out. I mean, your light is the only light for miles around. Motorists seem to notice them without a problem.

Depending on where you are, if you have plenty of ambient lighting from street lights, a blinker up front and back will work. If not, the minimum is a 10 watt halogen. My general rule is wattage = your max anticipated speed. So if you're going to hit 15mph, get something at least 15 watts.

Hmmm... I usually try and ride in fairly well lit areas but oftentimes traverse stretches of little lighting. Maybe I should be using my 20W lamp instead of my 12W on my roadbike. 'Course I could just mount both and run one or the other as needed but that's kind of a hassle since I'd also have to mount the switchbox as well as two lamps and my free handlebar real estate is getting a little tight. I probably could get by with just the single 12W if I also supplemented with a 15W helmet mount.

Hmmm... I usually try and ride in fairly well lit areas but oftentimes traverse stretches of little lighting. Maybe I should be using my 20W lamp instead of my 12W on my roadbike. 'Course I could just mount both and run one or the other as needed but that's kind of a hassle since I'd also have to mount the switchbox as well as two lamps and my free handlebar real estate is getting a little tight. I probably could get by with just the single 12W if I also supplemented with a 15W helmet mount.

Well of course a lot of it depends on the ambient light conditions, the color of the road, winding vs. straight, and course things aren't always linear. I have a 5 W that's served me in dark conditions up to about 10mph. My 11 W is good up to about 14-15, the 16 W has a slightly more focused beam and serves me up to about 19-20. Once above 20, I run the 11 + 16.

Performance has this sweet LED light out, it's a selfcontained unit with an external rechargeable 4-AA nimh battery pack that clips onto the light and provides something like 8 hours on the 5W-LED max and over 20 days on the lowest blinker mode. In an emergency you can swap out the rechargeables and put in 4 regular AA's.