Barrettscv 

The reflective decals on the rims on my HED road wheels are very bright.

10 Wheels

cplager

I find that the motion of pedaling is very distinct and easily recognizable by the human brain.

Agreed. And when it's dark, that's why I ride with one of each.

Long-story-short: Being seen isn't about the finding the single, magic bullet that fixes everything. It's about doing a lot of little things that all help (lights, reflectors, riding consistently and predictably, etc.)

zacster

If I ever get to ride in the dark again this year, my bike is now front steady only. I put a B&M light and dynamo on my bike. I put the rear on blink though, and I'm supposed to be getting a blinking Magnic Light once Dirk starts sending them out.

Leebo

The correct answer is both. I run steady on the bars and helmet. And blinking on the bars. When I'm driving in my car, the bikes I notice first have blinking lights on them.

spare_wheel

these reflective strips put all others to shame. i've seen them in the wild and they are insanely bright:

Western Bikeworks Features: LIT Ultra-Reflective Tire on Vimeo

Leisesturm

You know... it just might be that flashing lights do not allow an approaching or overtaking motorist to accurately judge your speed and direction... it doesn't matter. It does not matter! What matters is that the motorist is made aware of your presence on the road. In the rural conditions under which I ride at night a steady taillight isn't a liability. In a more urban setting... me personally, I'd flash. For the same reason ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, road work vehicles... in fact, just about every vehicle except passenger cars flash their running lights these days. Why do some of you think your brains work better than the collective knowledge base of hundreds of behavioral scientists and lighting tech engineers etc. Flashing gets attention. Period. That's all you need to know. Come on, you drive. You wind up behind bikes occasionally. Really. How bad is a flasher? How annoying for the 10 or 15 seconds that you are behind him or her? Don't you think you are worth being that pro-active about your chances when its your butt on the saddle?

I occasionally drive at night... sometimes I see a bike flasher with fresh batteries and the flasher is all I can see. Many times I never actually catch the bike, either it turns before I reach it or I do. How important was it that I know that it was exactly 200 feet ahead and traveling at 10mph? There have been three times in the last five years where at the end of my commute I discover that I have no rear flasher. I lost it somewhere along the way. That doesn't happen anymore because I securely attach my flashers and no longer move one from bike to bike. But I did. And without any flasher at all made it home safely!! Imagine that!

We overthink this stuff. We really do. When and if you get nailed it will not be because you didn't have enough steady or flashing wattage to alert the texting soccer mom in the overtaking minivan! I run 28mm Schwalbe Marathons because they are good tires. That they have a reflective sidewall is nice but I hope never to need it. In fact, I submit that if I am ever crosswise in front of an oncoming vehicle that is otherwise unaware of my presence in the intersection... ... game over. If I didn't see or hear him approach and placed myself in his path without making certain that he was slowing or stopping... ... game over. Mind you, I wear flashing arm-bands that are visible from the front-side and rear. They do not depend on an approaching vehicle having its headlights on and in the rural conditions in which I ride a vehicle can usually see things approaching the four way stop before they appear directly in front of it. If they flash.

H

noglider 

NOS88, that report is interesting. I already wear reflective trouser straps around my cuffs. I hope I remember to wear them when I wear shorts. The report says it's good to reflectorize your knees, too. OK, sounds good, but I never heard of that. I don't even know how. I don't want an elastic around my knees.

I think I'm going to put some reflective something or other on my spokes. I think I should be able to do it on racing bikes without adding significant weight or making the bike look Fredly. If I just wrap a few spokes with tape, it will be inconspicuous in the day.

enigmaT120

My generator head and tail lights only work steady on, though the headlight has a high or low intensity choice. But I also run a pair of blinking PDW Radbots on the rear, as I too ride in the country and need people doing 65 mph to know there's something in front of them, even if they can't immediately identify it. I even run them during the day. I swap out the rechargeable batteries every couple of weeks.

Barrettscv 

Tom,

3M SOLAS reflective tape id the best way to go. Small, dime sized patches on rims or patches on cycling clothing is very effective. It's Coast Guard Approved for life jackets: SOLAS Reflective Tape - ReflectivelyYOURS.com

MEversbergII

I wonder if tyre rubber could be made with some reflective stuff in it, like road lines? Maybe at intervals, so it "flickers"?

That sounds complicated.

M.

noglider 

I should mention that I am not a bike commuter. I'm a freelance computer consultant, so I don't have a regular commute, though I do travel by bike whenever possible. Since every ride is different, I can't have the same equipment each time. I don't usually wear cycling clothing, and I'm not going to put reflective strips on my trousers permanently. It's a good idea, but it's not for me. It's already too much to keep track of my gloves, helmet, lights, trouser bands, mirror, lock, water, lock, and everything else!

jyl

For the front, I think if you have only a single dim light then it better be blinking, but if you have multiple or bright lights, they can be solid, and in fact the reflections of a bright strobing light forward are irritating for the rider. So on my commute bike I have a central halogen headlight which is about 600 lumen, flanked by two bar-end lights with forward-facing white LEDs. The set of lights is really quite noticeable.

For the rear, I use two red LED lights, both blinking, one is down at the seatstay and the other is up on my backpack. I think the separation of the lights may help convey the size of what the driver is looking at. The bar-end lights have rear-facing red LEDs. I have a third red blinky light on the saddlebag, mostly as a spare/backup.

When things are really dark, rainy, foggy, when traffic is heavy, or when i just feel apprehensive for some spidey sense tingly reason, I turn all those lights on, plus my helmet mounted front spot and rear blinkie, plus some LED blinkies I wrapped around the front and rear hubs . . . that is four solid forward lights and six blinking rearward lights plus revolving lights at each wheel . . .

It looks like the circus has come to town, but drivers most definitely see me, though while crying with laughter they sometimes run down pedestrians or lampposts.

Paramount1973 

I commute with flashing lights on the handlebars and rear rack. I have a solid rear facing helmet light on a gymbal mount. My 300+ lumen headlight is on steady. My Fenix BT10 has a flashing mode, but it's incredibly bright and annoying to me, much less other vehicles. Thinking of getting ankle reflectors of some type, my pedals have fore and aft reflectors.

Just thinking out loud, I wonder if I could adapt one of those flare systems that military aircraft use to deflect surface-to-air missiles. That would be hard to ignore, even by a texting soccer mom.

fietsbob

B&M lights are only on steady .. the 4D toplight senso blinks when on and you go through a tunnel in the daylight.

Bike Gremlin

Just so you know: ambulance, police etc - all use BOTH flashing and steady lights at night. Period.

Having only blinking lights does make it more difficult for others to judge your speed (and direction). Do you think this is irrelevant, or helpful, or bad?
It does draw attention, however.


My experience has been that cars pulling in from side roads react better and notice more often a strong steady beam, than my other, flashing light. So I often run both, especially when I wish to ride fast.

Leisesturm

Not here. The police cars, fire engines, etc. everything on them flashes. Even the head and taillights alternate left and right. With all that strobing however, the vehicle is never completely dark, not even for an instant. That is the key. A trully rapid flash is not a bad thing even if it is the only light. A really lazy blink pattern is a bad idea even if you have a steady light to back it up with.

A. Irrelevant. A single flashing strobe says "bicycle!" to a driver and s/he instantly knows what that means. Speed is informed by the fact that realistically the speed differential between car and bicycle is likely to be high. Assuming that this is the case is not usually a bad thing because the driver is assuming a very slow moving or even stopped cyclist. If that is incorrect, the worst that happens is that the car takes longer to overtake than the driver assumed. Direction is implied by the color of the light. If the cyclist has decided to be an a$$hat..and run red up front or vice versa.... well that's on them wouldn't you say? In any case, the main infrormation is that a bicycle is out there and all that that implies. As I understand it, the majority of cyclist fatalities is not from them being run down in traffic. The majority of cyclists kill themselves by colliding with fixed objects or other kinds of single vehicle mishaps. When cyclists are hit by cars it is usually in cross-walks or on sidewalks or a salmon situation where the cyclist was behaving more like a pedestrian than a proper cyclist.


FWIW the 1st generation MagicShine lights had a flash pattern that was more of a "sizzle" effect. The light never went completely out but strobed at a very high frequency. Very attention getting and from the cyclists perspective it has no effect on what you can see in the beam. Only by seeing the beam head on (or its reflection on something shiny) can you notice the effect. My PB Superflash tailight does the same thing. The flash is a high intensity sizzle that never leaves the bike in total darkness but is very much more distinctive and attention getting than the steady light would be.

Leisesturm

@Barretscv, what kind of bike is the plain black one in your photo's? She is one sexy vixen. Reminds me of early Cannondales.

H

RidingMatthew

i run my light on flash during the day to be seen while commuting. It said it was 2000 lumens. It is pretty bright. I wish that i could blink in low or med too. I have noticed the battery indicators show it is being used more while flashing than steady on low or med depending on light conditions. i think it depends on if you are on the road or a bike path too.

that is a truly brilliant <-get it design. I wish that all wheel manufacturers incorporated reflective stuff like that in their wheel design.
@10wheels yours are nicely reflective as well

I have michelin city on my commuter and they have reflective side walls i wonder sometimes how effective they are.

NOS88

That's what I've done. In fact, with the assistance of my sons we discovered that it only takes about eight evenly spread spokes with a bit (less than the width of a pencil's thickness) of tape around them to be very visible at 500 ft.

mstraus

I know I have knee warmers with some reflective material, but only wear them when its cool out. I agree reflective band around the knee would be uncomfortable.

For wheel reflectors, a good lightweight option Lightweights for wheels - essentially a set of reflective tape pre cut to put on your wheels.

Amazon.com: Lightweights Power Reflectors for Wheels (86-Piece): Sports & Outdoors

Barrettscv 

Pedal Force super-light carbon bicycle

CrankyOne

Given how many times I've wanted to strangle people with bright flashing lights, and that The Netherlands and other countries have gone to non-flashing, and the difficulty I've had judging a bicyclists distance when I'm driving and they're flashing (and none have been very sexy), and how many times I've wanted to strangle people with bright flashing lights, and how much I hate people with bright flashing lights, I never use flashing lights.

And, it sounds like there will be a bill in our house this session to outlaw them due to the complaints from drivers.

That said, possibly having a fairly bright steady red in the back with a much dimmer flashing red might provide enough alert to motorists without them wanting to strangle you. Similar for the front.

I think reflectors are key. My Marathon's have reflective sidewalls, red on the rear rack, white towards the front, and yellow on both sides of both pedals does a great job of screaming to motorists that I'm there and riding a bicycle.

HydroG33r 

I have the L&M Urban 700. It has a "pulse" mode where it pulses between the low and mid intensity settings. Good for power consumption, but also increases visibility while never leaving me blind if it's dark. The only time I use my steady brightest mode is when I'm on an unlit trail where I'm not going to run into cars coming at me.

Sixty Fiver

From the point of view from one who cycles and drives, a blinking rear light stands out better then a steady light especially when you are mixing it up in traffic.

Off the front I usually run a steady and a flasher, the flasher is also effective in the daytime when you might be invisible to motorists.