Originally Posted by
sbslider
I recently asked my wife to critique my night time gear. I was wearing a reflective/neon vest, had a single rear blinker, and my headlight. She approached from behind and said I was very easy to see. She did comment that it would be nice if I had some sort of light up high to give a better picture of a person on a bike. I have added a blinky up high on my vest. I like this spot better than the helmet, as it tends to point back more, where ones head is moving side to side periodically. Either is better than nothing. Both have the problem of being hard to keep pointed well in the correct direction. But it the rack mounted one stays put (as it should), then the one up higher can have a lower visibility factor and still be effective.
Unless you are the Exorcist baby your head does not swivel enough to keep a helmet mounted tail-light from being seen. Some tail-lights, like the PB Superflash that I have on one of my bikes can be seen as easily 90* to the side as directly rearward. So, be at peace. Also, I suspect that most drivers perceive cyclists at night much the way I do. If it flashes, its a bike. From 200 yards they cannot make any sense of the shape or any other characteristics of the light pattern, nor do they have time to process this minutae. The redundancy of two flashers is nice but one good flasher with good batteries in it is more than enough to pull you out of invisibility.
H