Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
If every person who rode a bike at night just wore a reflective vest I would estimate their safety factor would jump 10 fold. Reflective gear is vastly under-rated.
So you forgot the main lamp...What, no back-up? Shame on you ( ;-) ) If I forgot to charge my front lamp I'd still have my helmet torch and a front blinkie
...well, if you're using two blinkies mounted to your vest/waist I suppose that is as visible as a standard front blinkie. Got's to have a back-up "to see" lamp though.
I rode 25 years without a headlight after I hit an opening car door using a genertor light in 1968. Realized that a light that weak wasn't noticed by drivers and served to make me think I might be seen. Didn't change my riding until the halogen lights came out that were bright enough to both see by and be seen. Riding home after dark on roads I know like the back of my hand and ride several times a week with no headlight isn't a big deal. Just have to remember that it is back to the old days for the next 10 miles.
I don't load my bikes, especially the fix gears, down with redundancies. To keep things simple, I have one good headlight that goes onto the bike as I need it. Just one thing to keep charged. My workhorse fix gear has about 10' of reflecting tape on it. All my bikes have rear blinkies. I regularly wear that vest. Nearly all my jerseys and riding jackets are yellow. My helmet is white. My backpack has a lot of reflecting silver tape on it. I can forget any one item and the odds of me getting home intact are still excellent.
Ben