Akth8r

First of all, thank you for caring enough to come here with your story. Safety takes this kind of cooperative approach vs. the all to common blame the other guy for being a (insert epithet).

Odds are your memory isn't faulty, and the cyclist was without a light (or his died). But that doesn't really matter, you could have easily missed him even if he had a light. There's lots of visual clutter at night, and the low power light of a bicycle can easily be missed.

There are also various reasons why it's so easy to miss a bicycle, even in broad daylight. Here's some reading that might interest you, written by an exRAF pilot. IMO his info is beneficial as a reminder to motorists of the need to exercise extra diligence, and for bicyclists that even caring, careful drivers may not "see" them in their brain, even though they're in plain sight.