Originally Posted by
cellery
One thing I cannot recommend enough to night riders is having some type of bright helmet or head mounted light. I believe that I was hit by a car at night because despite my bright bike mounted headlight, the lady did not notice me out of her peripheral vision before making a turn just as I was passing by.
A helmet light allows you to actively interact with the vision of motorists at night - if you think there is even a small chance they are going to make their turn into you, you can point the light directly into their field of vision and get their attention immediately. I have had motorists stop in mid-turn several times since starting to use a helmet light.
I use a Petzl Tikka II headlamp, which admittedly was designed for hiking. I found it is easily helmet mountable when I secured it using velcro cable ties.
This is something Ive toyed with, myself. I have one of those head lamps, in fact.
Currently, I have my forward vision lamp fastened so it shines just at the horizon line. During normal riding, it shines directly in front of me. But with just a flick of the handlebars, it can be made to shine into the driving compartment of oncoming traffic. This would be true, also, of perpendicular traffic.
What Ive been looking for is a low profile strobe light that could attach to my helmet, but not look like some Pee Wee Herman gadget.