Originally Posted by Michel Gagnon
For anyone riding in pitch dark environments, I think it's advisable to have a second headlight "just in case". Something small like the Planet Bike Beamer 5 (about 15 $ at MEC) is wonderful to be seen (especially in flashing mode), and can help you get home if your main batteries die.
I have similar concerns for my taillight, only more so because a taillight may have failed for a few hours before it's noticed.
I keep my spare single beam helmet light at work. And always carry a Maglite with a Two-Fish handlebar block.
As for taillights, I could bur out half of em and still be lite like a runway.
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This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.