Help Me Avoid a Second Car! $1,000 spree.
 

I have been bicycle commuting for two years. I live two miles from work. We have one car. Life is easy and beautiful.

We are moving eight miles out in the country. The road to town is a shoulderless highway that seems dangerous to be commuting on a 6:30 in the morning. I might have to buy a second car. Blah!

I've been kicking around the idea of spending $1,000 on safety/commuting accessories that will easy my mind and my wife's mind about the safety of this ride. I have all of the basics (fenders, pump, winter tires, rain suit, basic lights, etc). If you had $1,000 to make sure that every car withing ten miles could see/hear you coming, what would you buy?

Thanks!

I ride 10 miles to work on shoulderless rural roads all the time. It's not as bad as you'd think at 6:00 in the morning. I'd use a good headlight/taillight, plus a blinkie in the back. Get a reflective vest, and put reflective tape on the bike. If they can't see you with that, they can't see.

Get good red blinkies for the rear and white blinkies for the front and a reflective vest. Then send the remaining $900+ to me. We'll both be better off.

I would spend $400-$500 on a really good set of lights. I really like my Ay-Up lights. Others swear by Dinotte. Either way, they are a completely different class than the sub $100 blinkies.

Life Insurance :D

I'll be thinking of a Dinotte tai light and two MS Tailight where each MS tailight are mounted 45 degree outward. For the front, get a Bike Ray III and either a MS900 or better yet, a Geimni Titan. The Bike Ray provide flood while the Titan provide throw. Then on your helmet put a PB super flash turbo and a MG XP-G at 450 lumens.

Get some blinking led pants cuff strap and a reflective vest. A bright hi viz cycling jacket. An Airzound is also good. A good mirror to see what's about to run you over and that life insurance policy. :)

flash flag
 

I have a flash flag that attaches to my bike and sticks out about 18" towards traffic. It has a reflective triangle of cloth hanging down that I hear is very noticeable. I also wear an orange reflective vest. If/when I get hit it won't be because they didn't see me.:lol:

Google flash flag...I see one listed for $14.00, You should be able to get some great lights with the remaining $986.00:lol:

Good Luck!

I agree that most likely the ride in won't be highly trafficked. But this varies from location to location.... The ride back will be more congested.

Wear yellow/orange jerseys. I have one good headlight on the front and a red blinky that clips on the the back of my jersey.

But I saw a guy today that must have had 8 lights on the front and more than that on the back. I was impressed. Couldn't help but notice that guy.

Orange triangle on the back is good. At least one rearview mirror for the left side(as you are sitting on the bike)of the handlebar. But sometimes I could justify have one on each side.

You didn't mention whether you have racks or panniers, but since I also tour and commute, I have the Surly Nice Racks front and Rear, and Ortlieb Roller classics. I wish the Roller Classics had outside pockets, but they each have an inside pocket.

There is some really bright reflective material on the back of each bag. And the Nice Racks give the bike more 'girth', which seems to make it appear to own the lane better to drivers.

I don't really know it that's what it is but I get a lot more 'respect' from drivers on my LHT than I did riding my racing bike.

Sounds like dynohub and lights to me! ;)

Easy as pie: This plus the head/tail light of your preference and you don't need no stinkin' batteries to see. I run a Supernova E3 Pro/taillight and supplement with blinkies front and rear for visibility: a PB Blaze 2w up front and Radbot 1000 1W in back on multi-pattern flash. I use rechargeables in the blinkies.

This article and the follow-on with light beam photos is really helpful.

I've heard REALLY good things about this setup, which I'd consider for a shoulderless rural commute.

Other than that, 3M reflective tape on the frame, helmet and fenders, perhaps a vest or hi-vis shirt, you're set (assuming you already have rack, panniers, toolkit, decent tires, rain gear.......... ;)

For less than 100 bucks you can get two 5-led Planet Bike headlights and two Planet Bike blinkies from Amazon. If they can't see you then, they wouldn't see you in the daylight either!l

I think blinkies are equally important in the daytime, if not moreso - don't make me post the dancing bear vid again ;)

For a rural commute, with less ambient light, I'd say a focus on good illumination would be first priority with blinkies as a supplemental thing rather than vice versa.

http://www.bikelights.com/vis180.html

Something like that, or maybe Dinotte's taillight. Buy a headlight you like. In rural situations the headlight is more about seeing than being seen, and that's a personal choice. You probably will want to spend $200 or more on lights for dark rural riding. There's no city out there to provide lighting for you.

Get yourself some of that reflective tape for your bike, bags, and maybe jacket. Don't go nuts, but a few strips will be good.


Don't go completely crazy, you probably don't need to spend $1k. You may want that money if you decide you need a car for some of the nasty days.

why $1000? if it's unsafe it's unsafe with $100 of conspicuity gear. But since you asked, flourescent/reflective yellow vest. Dyno light with switchable output. I've got a SON generator with LightOn! headlamp and tailight set on low most of the time. Petzl headlamp on helmet with PB Superflash on helmet and bike. Petzl headlamp on strobe is almost like a xenon strobe.

The vest and your ability to ride in a straight line are the most important parts. After that the lights. But if it's unsafe, it's unsafe.

Speaking about SafeTee where can I get one of those triangle cloth safety reflectors that I can put on my butt or panniers? I seen someone with it and it looks really visible.

So why are you moving out of town? Sounds like you had it great, now you want some misery in your life.