If it's dark, my lights are on. Front, back, wheels, and frame. But if it's daytime, at most I may run the headlight if I've got reason to worry about left hooks. Otherwise, I have three different types of batteries to chase after, and only one of them is standard or easy to find ( rechargeable AAs ). I'd rather not use the lights when I don't need them, then not be able to use them when I do need 'em.

Five weeks ago I crashed my bike breaking four ribs, puncturing a lung, and getting a concussion too in spite of the helmet. One of the residual effects of the concussion is total amnesia of the event. I remember eating lunch in a local restaurant with my wife, I remember waking up in the ICU of the hospital late that night, I remember nothing in between. The accident happened as I turned for home at the end of a ride off the busy street that runs past our neighborhood and we know that only because that is where I was found and the time I was found indicates that it would have been at the end of the ride. The pain was bad enough, though after five weeks I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, pain-wise. Having absolutely no idea how or why I crashed is worse, it is maddening and a little frightening. The bike is undamaged except for some bent rims where I apparently went over the curb of my street in the middle of the turn. The local shop was able to true the wheels again with so little effort that they did not even charge me for the labor. Evidently I was not struck by a car outright or the bike would have been as heavily damaged as I was. Did a car brush me as it passed while making the same turn? Did a car pull out in front of me as I was turning, forcing me to evade it and lose control? Did I do something stupid all on my own? I don't know and it does not seem that I will ever know.

So, all I can do is to try to be more careful about everthing I do on a bike since I would really rather not repeat this experience. I never used lights in the daytime before, I will have them flashing from now on! I suppose not on the bike path, but on regular streets and roads for sure.

Ken

I have the lights on flashing mode during the day. At night time I turn the head light on as a regular light to see. Having the lights on during the day makes huge difference. People are not expecting a bike and when you go in/out of shady spots your invisible. I cannot think of one good reason why not!

Front one's on all the time, blinking when it's light out and steady when it's not. The rear ones go on when it's getting dark.

Khutch:

A lot of people would have given up after a frightening experience like that. That you're not inspires me.

I turn on mine during the day for the same reason I turn my car headlights on during the day: if I have the habit of always having to turn them off I will not forget and kill my battery when I started out in the dark and it was light by the time I stopped.

I run my front and rear lights all the time while commuting. I used to run them only in the dark, but began to notice that cars were much my respectful of me when lights were on. The front light in particular keeps people from pulling out of sidestreets and driveways in front of me. What really convinced me was when the local newspaper printed a photo of me commuting on a busy street during Bike-to-Work Week. The headlight on my bike really stood out in the photo and made me realize how bright it is, even in day light.

yes! cuz when you are in the deep shade on a sunny day you are invisible!

Me too, an dI always use the flashy/blinky function, which is technically illegal here....

illegal? where?

It is illegal in Hungary for any vehicle to use flashing lights other than emergency vehicles. I have only ever heard of one town where they actually enforced the law and that was short lived...

April through Labour day: only when it's raining or especially gloomy.

My friend just got a set of lights installed on her fork and dropouts: they are powered by magnets on the spokes and flash twice for every revolution of the wheels. Nice bright LEDs, no batteries, always on, hard to steal. I am going to get some soon as well.

Ouch... I hope you get well soon.

during daytime no. once dusk is approaching, or if it is overcast, then yest. back blinky (planet bike superflash), and when in manhattan i put a cateye rear light on my backpack as well. and front planet bike blaze 1w as well. my seat bag has some reflective material on it, and i am sticking a lil bit of reflective tape on my helmet, front, side, back.

I use Li-Ion batteries. charge once a week for the front and once a month for the rear. It can last twice the time before having to recharge. So I am not worry about running out of juice.

I want some of those!!!!

This ^^^

These are great for being seen but not so great for seeing... installed a set on my girl's folder and work great.

I have 2w and 10w headlights as well as a 5 LED 1w front blinker that is always on... the 2w is good for urban riding and provides good seeing light and the 10 watt turns night into day... also run a Superflash in the rear and have a helmet mounted rear blinkie which is the best thing ever.

I only use the two red & white blinkies and only when it's dark as I don't ride in areas that require a headlight to see.

Although I have never had a problem with being seen in the daytime, after reading this thread though I will probably get a powerful flashing headlight to use in the daytime as well. Always better to be safer than sorry.

Year around here. 5:30 am is still dark no matter what time of year. Even in full daylight I ride with lights going on commutes home. somewhere in my drivers ed classes as a kid they mentioned that headlights give the oncoming drivers 3/10's second heads up. roughly the amount of time it takes to hit the brakes. so I figure I am ahead of the game. I also drive my car with lights on all the time. Insurance companies support this.

Thanks, it's been close to six weeks now and I am starting to feel mostly normal. I am still avoiding putting much stress on my left side since I want the ribs to heal completely before doing that. It will probably be at least two more weeks. The constant pain is a thing of the past though. If my experience inspires you I am glad. It certainly does not make me a hero, many people endure much worse, I actually feel lucky in comparison to what I see on the evening news most nights. Our goal is to avoid injuries like this but if it is no worse than this you will survive. I'm 58, not exactly a spring chicken any more!

I hope to resume bike commuting in June. For me it is a bike/rail journey and my biking is through quiet residential streets, less busy than the one I crashed on for sure. It will be lights flashing from now on anyway for me though. I was out for a test ride around the neighborhood two weekends ago and was not comfortable at all in terms of rib pain. There was a moment of emotional discomfort too when I first climbed on the bike and pushed off. I honestly did not expect that. I tried it again last weekend and the riding was much more comfortable. So I seem to be on track to resume in June.

The director of our commuter rail service in the Chicago area was under investigation for some kind of misdeeds related to work. He was regarded as a nice man and credited with rescuing our Metra rail service from bankruptcy 20 years ago and making it one of the best in the US. The details of his misdeeds have not been released yet, he was to have been fired at a Metra board meeting late last week. That very morning he stepped into the path of a Metra train and died. A note left at home makes it clear it was a suicide. Maybe time will make clear what brought him to that point, so far the accusations against him seem too minor to make a man do that. Makes me feel lucky indeed though. The spot he choose to depart this mortal coil is a place where the bike path I (probably) rode the morning of my accident runs parallel to the railroad and only a few feet away. Given that I was going to have an accident I wish it could have happened there and then instead of when it did. Maybe finding me crumpled up on the path in need of help would have distracted him from his purpose....

Life didn't work out that way though. I say keep your lights on flashing when you don't need them to see by. And if you find yourself in the same place as our Metra director, go find help. It is out there.

Ken

Same here.

I'm not actually sure that drag is minimal; but I don't care. Lights stay on.

taillight always, no battery headlight in summer but the dynohub bike, I always leave that on. I do use a battery headlight 24/7 in the other 8-9 months of the year though (days are short and dark then).

I pretty much always run with a flashing headlight and two flashing tail lights.

On most of my rides I spend a goodly amount of time on roads with traffic that can be moderately heavy at times, and oftentimes I'll also pass through some areas with lots of side streets and shopping centers with all the resultant cross-traffic.

And even when I commute in the dark and add much brighter helmet- or bar-mounted headlights (where I put them depends on how I feel that day) I still treat all my lights more as "HERE I AM" lights, and not really as anything that illuminates my path.