I agree on the question of overkill. Also, it's awful to ride in a group when others are overly bright from behind.

I have no worries of being seen from behind at night. I run a Niterider 500 front & just a Blackburn 50 or 2'fer rear. I'm generally covered with reflective bits too. My concern is being seen in front from side street traffic. Common situation: Riding with traffic & have right of way, car pulls to stop on side street and then pulls into my path. Those drivers are looking at cars and fail to see cyclists - even in daylight. Plus, their headlights are not directed in my direction. The best addition for me has been a helmet light (Magicshine) that I can direct right at the stopped cars drivers window. I can usually see a driver acknowledge my presence.

If you're familiar with reflective tape/stickers you know once applied they are extremely difficult to remove. So I like to put down a layer of electrical tape on my cutting mat and then apply the reflective tape/stick over it, then cut to shape and apply to my bike. Makes removal very easy, even several years down the road.

those are fun, at night, on strobe, when it is snowing

This morning I had my light on "daylight strobe." Its kind of hard to miss me like that. That strobe effect really lights up the street signs...

Although I balk at wearing a safety vest, these gloves are great. Makes me wonderfully visible, day or night - especially good on cloudy days, and when signaling turns.. I bought two pair, and cut one to have half fingers. The full fingered ones work great in the winter.

The grey bits over the knuckles and the fingers is highly reflective.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Larg...ves/1000133033

I believe the term is, solas tape.

Interestingly, I find I get more room from cars at night than I do during the day. I have a simple Planet Bike Super Flash Turbo and a Busch & Muller rack mounted tail light. I have a Piko 3 mounted up front.

They obviously see me since they move over more at night than during the day. That being said, bright tops or reflective material on the helmet or back couldn't hurt.

Overkill is bad only in the sense that you've spent more money or time than necessary. Using more lights or reflectors than you need does not make you less safe. I do not use as much equipment as some people because I think I have enough and don't want to go to any further trouble or expense. Trouble is significant for me, since I ride several different bikes.

On my main commuting bike, I have:

- dynamo powered headlight which burns steadily (doesn't blink)
- dynamo powered tail light, also steady
- battery powered blinky light
- spoke reflectors
- spoke light in my rear wheel, which is a great attention getter

I plan to put reflective material on the bike, too. I will apply it to the frame and the pedals.

Just this weekend, I ironed on some reflective material to my jacket, and I plan to put some on my shoes, too.

I use an eyeglass-mounted rear view mirror, and one reason is to see inattentive drivers who might be about to run me over.

Last night, I rode my road racing bike in the streets in the dark. I had only a battery powered headlight and a blinky tail light. I normally prefer to have more, but I feel it's enough, as the streets here are well lit, the drivers are accustomed to having lots of cyclists in the streets, and traffic goes pretty slowly here.

I try to pay attention to what helps me see cyclists and pedestrians when I'm driving.

I saw a blinking light almost a mile down the road into the rising sun one morning, and when I caught up with him (I was on my motorcycle.) it was just a Planet Bike Superflash. So I believe in lights day and night. Reflective stuff is good and is visible a long ways off if you have your headlights one, even through fog sometimes. The color of clothing doesn't really matter at night but reflection does.

Me too.. I see what what works from a driver's perspective, and stick with that - for me, a simple red flasher along with the standard bicycle reflector bits is enough. As another motorcyclist, I am also very concerned about visibility and I do believe that overkill is NOT a good thing due to the "target fixation" phenomenon - ie, the tendendency to go where you are looking. Something too out of the ordinary and drivers will actually start staring at you.... and longer than you want.

For example, I occasionally see motorcyclists running headlight modulators (slow cycle headlight strobes) and I find that it simply draws my eyes to it like nothing else on the road... oh yeah I see him, but not in a good way. A friend that used one said he gave it up as he started noticing some cars veering over the double yellow toward him in straight aways!

My anecdotal observation is that overkill is as bad as using little/nothing at night. I've seen people wearing the jackets that are made entirely of reflective fabric and it's distracting. Ditto some of the safety vests. I use a reflective belt, ankle bands and some reflective iron-on tape on the back of my helmet. I also run one steady rear light and one flasher. You want someone to notice you and quickly be able to identify you as a cyclist. You don't want them to recoil from the eye searing reflection of your reflective gear or lighting.

I saw two blinking red lights blocks down a dark and empty road after bar hours years ago and thought it was a police car.


It turned out to be a kid with those shoes that light up when you step down on them.

Great thread - lots of food for thought here, props all around! I particularly find comments regarding side visibility useful for improvement of my own setup.

$12 got me 10 meters of the stuff, so my hi-viz rain jacket, gray rain pants, one pair of shorts, and a few other things now have a foot or more of it ironed on.

Shipping was nearly two weeks, but it was free.

I've got everything suggested except for the reflective things on the spokes. I think I'm going to add them. I'm not sure what the resistance is to wearing a reflective vest. Mine is a mesh fabric, very light weight, and I don't find it cumbersome at all during a dark commute. As far as lights, I have a dynamo powered headlight/tail light, two flashing blinkies on each side of the solid tail light, and a blinky on the backside of my helmet. I also have an up to 850 lumen light on my helmet. My Ortlieb Panniers have a large reflective triangle that are illuminated by the headlights of cars behind me. Tires have reflective side walls. When I list it all out, it seems like a lot of stuff, but it really isn't overkill... most of the stuff never leaves my bike.

I have never commuted in a group.

This weekend I ordered a large amount of 3M Scotchlite "black" reflective film for my black commuter cycle It is discrete in daytime and glows bright white when lighted at night time. I'll post pictures when I have the stuff mounted.

Kinco makes inexpensive high quality Hi-Vis insulated work gloves. The reflective band across the knuckles is effective for signaling turns, etc.:

I sealed the fabric and leather with a waterproofing treatment and use them down to 20 degrees F.

Uh, not in my experience.

It is a very very dull glow. I would compare its glow to the brightness of a license plate. Yeah, you can see my "black" reflective film, but its a dull glow at best. No comparison to white reflective tape which actually does glow bright under a good light (and is comparable in brightness to the white on an interstate street sign). The actual luminosity numbers are quite starkly different.

Interested to see what you find...

Thanks for the warning, now I'll be sure to check out the Scotchlite material for reflectivity before mounting it, maybe compare it with some Nathan tape that I have laying around.


Yes, I'm looking at a datasheet that does indicate 1/3 the retroreflectivity for the black as for the white Scotchlite:


https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/2...series-680.pdf


I guess I may need to use three times as much!

On those Kinco gloves - I don't ever ride with something with exposed leather like that - it soaks up water badly. Unless you treat it I guess.

In the winter I've had the things turn into frozen solid claws that are dangerously cold.

I bought a second pair of these after loosing the first one. They're comfortable and I think they make me more visible - no one has mentioned them yet but they seem like they do.

Of course leather must be treated, same as leather hiking boots. Leather gloves are popular with mountaineers, ski patrollers, foresters and line workers, i.e. people who operate in extreme conditions. When treated properly, leather remains dry and supple.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimothyH

I'm very pleased with the lights on my bike as well as my cycling clothing in terms of visibility.

I wear Nathan reflective ankle bands when I ride at night and believe that they make a difference.

Bikes are standard road bikes. Riding is mostly suburban to rural, sunset toabout 10 PM.

What is the next step with regard to visibility at night? Would love to hear your reasonable suggestions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Archwhorides

Great thread- lots of food for thought here, props all around! I particularly find comments regarding side visibility useful for improvement of my own setup.

+ 1 dittoes. I’m a decades long commuter through Metro Boston. Some additional comments I might add after skimming the thread:

One of my safety aphorisms is “Make yourself as visible as possible visible and assume nobody sees you.” Another one is “When riding at night, look for cars, not just headlights.” As a corollary to that, active illumination IMO is preferable to reflective gear. Indeed, I think the driver without headlights on is more likely a distracted driver.

Regarding overkill, the few instances I have encountered have been on MUPS with oncoming cyclists with blazing, blinding headlights. I often think that they believe a cone of light is a force-field that will protect them, even from oncoming cars, so the more the better. Here in Boston, most of my route is visible even with just ambient street illumination.

One other lighting feature I’ve looked for and even tried to fashion myself are illuminated ankle bands that would present a rotating lit motion low down to signal me as a cyclist. My attempt was to clip small lights onto an ankle band, but they fell off. Currently is a thread on the General Cycling Forum about those strap on C-cell battery-lights from the1970’s (see photos below).

Once while riding a switchback highway in Colorado in 1977, we came upon a snowshed at the beginning of the curve, a covering over a highway to divert avalanches. The interior was dark, so my wife insisted we stop and put on our anklelights. As we entered and followed the road curve, we saw that the shed was only about 100 feet long .

Finally, I recently bought a rear tail light with a laser guided bike lane. The rearward light is significantly brighter then the Planet Bike Flash I had, but the lateral laser lines are likely not readily visible to cars, and it was uniformly panned on that thread.

Thanks for the pictures! I am going to get some of those. I commute 22 miles on my expensive CF road bike and would like something permanent on my bike that won't slow me down. I've been worrying more about having more reflective surfaces that increases visibility for cross traffic.

Headlight on the helmet, headlight on the bar.

Taillight on the helmet, taillight on the seat post.

Reflectors on the pedals, handlebar, standard spoke reflectors, reflectors on individual spokes

Ankle reflector.

Tiny bit of reflective material on cycling jacket and backpack.

A bit more reflective material on the panniers.

Green lights on the wheels.

I may wear a reflective vest from here on out, along with adding a bit of 3M tape here and there.