Advocacy & Safety - Riding at Night?? - what does everyone use

Hi all,

I was wondering to what extent people took when riding at night. I have a rear flashing light, and a front 'halogen' light. I have also been doing a bit on BNi (bike neon installers), and have a blue neon on my bike, which also looks cool, and helps with safety. But what does everybody else have on their bike or wear to be safe riding at night??

Half of my commute is at night, between 7-10 miles.

On my tourer/commuter I have a Schmidt generator hub w/a Busch&Muller Lumotec light (it is an excellent setup!), I also use a white blinking LED(?cateye 300). For the rear I have steady(not blinking) red LEDs on my fender as well as on my pannier.

On my foul weather/winter/mt bike I have an older halogen dual lamp rechargeable system+the white cateye. Rear same as above.

On my fast/roadie I just bought the new Cateye HL500(its not bad, but the beam is a bit narrow)+the white blinking cateye. Rear is a seatpost mount steady LED, and a steady LED on my backpack.

-I also have 3m tape on my rims, as well as reflective ankle bands, and a large reflective joggers "sash" on my book bag, or pannier. I use reflective gloves (GLO GLOVES) on and off-these are SUPERB for signaling!

Stealth, I am not...

I plan to install a HID for the front (great deal on Topeak Moonbeam at Performance) and I will run a red LED light, with an amber xenon strobe along side it.

I plan to install a HID for the front (great deal on Topeak Moonbeam at Performance) and I will run a red LED light, with an amber xenon strobe along side it.

Could you pleae update us on that Topeak Moonbeam whenever you start using it? There isn't much discussion on those and I was wondering how they performed. Thanks :)

I am building a rear lighting system comprising a lightweight flexible aluminum bar and three red blinkies, or perhaps two reds and an orange. The horizontally mounted aluminum bar will be about as wide as I am, and one blinkie will be mounted at each end. The third blinkie will mount at its center and hold it to my rear rack.

In front, I plan to put one bright beam on each handlebar, perhaps a spot on the left and a flood on the right.

In both instances, I am trying for an illusion of width, on the theory that this will make me more visible to motorists, who are accustomed to ignoring vertical objects.

Dual-lamp night rider headlight, blinkies on the saddlebag and backpack, reflective anklebands, reflective gloves, 3M tape on the frame, rims, and helmet.

Lights & Motion ARC Lithium-Ion headlight
http://www.beyondbikes.com/bb/ba/asp/ic.AC-LIG-arcligh/ab/Itemdesc.htm

Cateye TL-LD600 Tail Light

neon?

Hi all,

I was wondering to what extent people took when riding at night. I have a rear flashing light, and a front 'halogen' light. I have also been doing a bit on BNi (bike neon installers), and have a blue neon on my bike, which also looks cool, and helps with safety. But what does everybody else have on their bike or wear to be safe riding at night??
My strategy at night, darkness or poor light is simple. I use a homebuilt system made up of the following: one narrow spot 20W halogen headlight and one yellow xenon flasher. Including the 3.4 AH battery and charger, the entire system would cost me about $65, if I had to build it again.

Not only can I be seen in trumps at night, but I'm noticed in the daytime, as well. Simple, but elegant.

Now that mornings are dark, motorists are extrememly cautious about passing me.

Yeah I have a "halogen" headlight (I REALLY want to get this replaced, runs on 2 C batteries and chews through them veryfast), and a rear blinkie LED.

Yeah I have a "halogen" headlight (I REALLY want to get this replaced, runs on 2 C batteries and chews through them veryfast), and a rear blinkie LED.
I hear ya. If you like your headlight, get four rechargeable NiCd batteries w/charger. You won't have to buy batteries for years.

neon?

A neon is a light. It can be in differnet colors and mine is about a 12" tube.

Single beam halogen (niterider trailrat 2.0)
cat-eye 5-led super bright tail light

I also have a helmet that is very light in color and easy to see in lights.

I wont use colors other than red, white, and amber for visiblity purposes ever, just due to my views on using reserved colors. Sme colors such as blue are reserved for emergency vehicles, so I just wont use em.

A neon is a light. It can be in differnet colors and mine is about a 12" tube.

The same type uber-geeks have in their computer cases?

The same type uber-geeks have in their computer cases?

edit: Yes neons are the ones found in Computer Cases. They are also found in the form of writing, and in many many different shops, places and enterainment venu's....theyare everywhere. They are also on my bike.

Also I take back saying they're just for fun, i've done more 'experiments' with them, and they are an extreemly affective when it comes to 'night time saftey'.

haha, no! hell no! neons are everywhere, in shops, under cars, in cars, and on my bike, i just use it and put it on at night, if i just wanna show em off. If i was going on a proper long ride i would stick on my Halogen front and rear. There just fun thats all:D

Er so are you going to lower your ride and put skirts on the wheels and neons under it? :D

what about the 100-spoke rims and the bass blaster stereo....oh, and hydraulics ;)

Hi all,

I was wondering to what extent people took when riding at night. I have a rear flashing light, and a front 'halogen' light. I have also been doing a bit on BNi (bike neon installers), and have a blue neon on my bike, which also looks cool, and helps with safety. But what does everybody else have on their bike or wear to be safe riding at night??
I just bought a super bright flourescent yellow Pearl Izumi shell that has reflectors on the arms and a small one on the back. Hoping my co-workers will stop with the "You're riding home at night???" :eek:

what about the 100-spoke rims and the bass blaster stereo....oh, and hydraulics ;)

I'll have some pics up soon. I wouldn't bag the neons untill you see them. They are an extreemly affective way of standing out while riding at night, and they make it fun aswell. You can have a pull along blaster stereo if you want.....

Er so are you going to lower your ride and put skirts on the wheels and neons under it? :D

In answer to your questions...

-Lower Ride = no
- Skirts on Wheels =.....problaby not
- Neons under a bike? = Yes.

Hey my friend and I had this crazy idea, and I managed to wire up a neon to a bike. Me myself had never heard of bike neons before so its an accomplishment for me :D.

But I found this site up in the US afterwards, www.fossilfool.com. If you have any doubts, check it out.

Neons eh? Haven't you ever heard that saying about fish not needing bicycles? ;)

http://fish.orbust.net/images/neon.jpg

You ought to be on Leno with that one!

It's a neon tetra. Very popular aquarium fish.

I use a 3W halogen dyno setup, usually either B&M or Union - never any battery hassles - supplemented by reflectors and reflective tape.

I'm curious about the blue neons. I've been using blue reflectors for a while now, under my personal theory that "blue is for bikes". I've got blue running lights on my truck, too, 'cause they look cool...

I'm curious what a simple blue neon setup on a bike would look like, electronically?

:)

I use a 3W halogen dyno setup, usually either B&M or Union - never any battery hassles - supplemented by reflectors and reflective tape.

I'm curious about the blue neons. I've been using blue reflectors for a while now, under my personal theory that "blue is for bikes". I've got blue running lights on my truck, too, 'cause they look cool...

I'm curious what a simple blue neon setup on a bike would look like, electronically?

:)


Well, this is the hard part. The setup can only be temporaraly and i am working on a quick install/release way. You need a power supply of !2v, plus a switch. I add an extra couple of V's because batterys can flatten easily. I use 2 6v torch battery, (big ones), and a switch that has 2 1.5v battery's in. This gives me 15v. The massive 6v battery's are held by drink bottle holders and the switch is on the handle bars. But..you can by 12v battery's, they are long and thin and rechargable :). I am working on ways to get a better setup, but we must remember that these were originally designed for in-car, and have been re-wired and modified ;)

Hmmm... you mean a rear rack and a deep-cycle marine battery is not an option here? :D

There is a 12V dyno available, not sure if it would put out enough amps/watts to run the neons, though, and it's a bit on the pricey side (~$250.00). See here:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/dymotec.asp

Well the battery's i'm using are about $20 for 2 6v's, and suprisingly they last a long time.

The neon does use up a lot of power, and only needs a 12v voltage. (I give it a bit more for extra glow).

I will start a new thread, with a couple of pictures in it, for anyone who wants to know what neons look like. Hopefuly we might see an attitude change around :rolleyes:

Hi,

I use a Metal Hallide HID along with a Schmidt Hub generator/Busy light with circa 3-4 Vista Lights in the back. On my head there's a Lupine Halogen, and I usually have a blinkey in the front (on the bike) too. When I can get it up and mounted, I also have red lights in my helmet.

Illuminite tights, reflective tape & leg bands, and a yellow jacket, and I'm good to go. Occasionally, I have a bike blinker too.

I like to be able to see when I commute in the winter. In the summer, just three vista lites, and a blinkey in the front.

The reason for the überlighting is that I find that the rain really sucks up the photons present, and excessive is just BARELY enough.

Your mileage, may, of course, vary.

Take care,
Tom
Flawil, Switzerland

P.S. Did I mention the spokey reflectors (small slip-on to the spokes)

P.P.S. I've been recognized by people who know me at night by my Xmas treeness...

Hi,

it gets dark early here in Scotland during the winter so my answer to this is a wee KnightLite for the rear and up front I use a 35w mr11 spot halogen which is overvolted to 14.4v. Next to this is a home made 50w mr16 spot overvolted to 15.6v. Turns night into day...... :D

I have a short commute from work with a lot of street lamps but I do have several dark spots on the way home so I got the Nite Hawk Emitter. It works great for that application.

Lots of ambiant light around from street lights and such so I get by with a walmart head light I power with 4 AA Nicads and a red LED blinkie in the back.