Speaking of rear-facing white lights, I see this occasionally. Also, some people put front-facing red lights. I've even seen some people use both at once. WHAT IS WITH THESE PEOPLE? Do they think that deceiving people about their direction of travel enhances something?

Agreed. If you consider all the possible car and bicycle speeds, and all the drivers' reaction times, and look at where a reflector becomes visible before a driver sees the cyclist (especially if the cyclist has on something besides black clothes); well, there's a tiny chance the side reflector will make a difference. The cost-benefit ratio is vanishingly small. Put on a yellow jacket or jersey, instead.

As for front and rear reflectors, headlights diffuse at 1/R^2 between the motor vehicle and you, and another 1/R^2 going back from your reflector to the driver, for a total of 1/R^4 (R is the range from the car to your bike). If you've got a working light, you're only looking at 1//R^2. A cheap $20 light is more visible that a reflector until that car gets too close for my comfort.

I wonder why not many people use spoke lights. Perhaps because it's not required like headlight and taillight? They are cheap and so much more effective than reflective ankle bands.

I don't disagree, but as a "devil's advocate": you're crossing an unregulated intersection, to your right a car tops the hill and guns it to beat the truck a short ways behind you. Seeing your reflectors, she doesn't gun it but yields instead.

The relevant elements are crossing an intersection, a vehicle approaching on the cross street, driver attention focused on other traffic, and an incentive to accelerate. It doesn't sound all that uncommon.

r&j

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwjZ6j11mc

Really amazing, my next jacket, if I don't get run over wearing a jacket with only a little illuminite!
R

I use reflective tape on my spokes, and think it works fine. But I don't really know, I've never been able to check out how well they work.

I notice that if I strap a small non-blinking light to my ankle, cars actually give me a wider clearance.

I like to have a light on my helmet, one somewhere in the middle, one on my rack, and one on my ankle. Of those lights, I only set one on flash. Up front, I have two 300+ lumen lights and a small helmet light. The helmet light is mainly to see my computer, fix a flat if need be, and to give drivers some idea of how far a way I am. I never run flashing front lights at night.

man that rear blinky is BRIGHT

Reflective straps on the wrist are good if you need to signal turn across traffic lanes.

Ankle reflective tape works regardless of panniers because cars coming from the side "REALLY" see you. Quite impressive to see.

Plus: those dorky illuminating vest are some of the best visible clothing articles that all cyclist should have. Visible, cheap and you don't need to buy a bunch of other high prices clothing.

Quite true. Looking at the video linked by 10 Wheels in #31 , the cars' rear lights were less bright than the bike's rear light, but they have much brighter and wider headlights, which is what makes them so visible even from behind.

I live in Minneapolis, where there are a LOT of people biking after dark on the road. I don't think your list covers what I see as the genuinely important factors.

#1 - Any light is better than no light. I see so many people with no lights whatsoever, many of them just seem to appear out of nowhere on the road. I won't go into this as I must everyone reading this thread agrees it's a bad idea after dark.

#2 - The most visible bikers are actually often the "1 rear blinky and 1 front light" crowd - I always see them. Just 1 good rear blinking light marks them in my brain as being there. (I prefer 2 myself, but that's only because 1 might fail and you can't tell because it's behind you).

I see a lot of the "trying to be visible and screwing it all up" crowd on the road as well that have made huge mistakes -

a. They bought something that looked like it was reflective - but it's not

b. They bought something reflective, but it's gotten grimy. Don't buy reflective gear that's to big for you to clean (if you ride in the winter or in or after a rain). You're better off with a reflective leg band that's high quality and clean than you are an entire reflective suit that's no longer reflective because you never get around to cleaning it after it gets grimy. It sounds obvious, but I see these guys on the road again and again and again. It's not until I'm about 10 feet away that it suddenly looks like they're wearing reflective gear.

c. They have multiple crappy rear lights because they were to cheap to buy something decent. I'm talking the difference between $5 and $15 here. You're better off with 1 good rear light than 3 poor rear lights, and no, it doesn't matter if you already own the cheap crappy light and you "don't want it to go to waste". I don't care if it was on sale, or if it was a gift from your favorite person.

d. They have multiple dim rear lights because the batteries are low. You are FAR better off having 1 or 2 rear lights that you change the batteries in every week, than you are having 5 rear lights that you change the batteries in whenever it happens to dawn on you.

e. On a related note - they use alkaline (disposable) batteries in their rear light. If your rear light isn't regulated, these kind of batteries get dimmer over time. Even if it is regulated, it create pointless disincentive to put fresh batteries in the light. Did you change the batteries lately? You don't want to throw it out if it's still good? You can't remember? Just buy 2 sets of rechargeable AA's (like Sanyo Eneloops) - and swap the freshly-charged batteries for the in-light pair any time you have any thought of changing batteries. Even better, do it on a schedule like every week. Changing AA's to much hassle? Get one of the usb-rechargeable rear tail lights and leave it plugged in every time you use it.

These are the things I've seen being the "key" to being visible. In my own experience, there's little functional difference between someone on a bike covered in reflective gear and blinkies and lights, vs someone with a single bright, functioning blinky. They either see you or you don't. You can find plenty of stories of bikers lit up like christmas trees, they still get in an accident, and the driver still honestly seems to think that they didn't see them.

That's a matter of personal opinion, but I really don't think putting a million strips of reflective gear as well as blinking lights on you matters if you aren't regularly cleaning off the reflective parts, and changing out batteries on a very regular basis.

Some people here run ultra bright headlights at night in blinky mode. Why? On the bike trail, I find it highly distracting when they are oncoming. Grr!

Oh yeah, that's incredibly, incredibly irritating.

But I've seen bikers run lower powered from blinky lights that were about as bright as tail lights being very helpful for seeing their bikes. They stand out a lot more with a blinky light that's bright enough to be seen, but not so bright as to be blinding.

Woah! Now you're taking all the fun out of it!


Seriously, like others have said: reflective ankle bands are good because they are moving.

I have a spoke-mounted light but keep it on a slower-moving bike (kid carrying bike) because it's a heavy, rotating mass.

i have two front facing lights. the bar mounted light is a Gemini Olympia, a triple Cree unit of about 1800 lumen OTF. the second light, helmet mounted is a Gemini Duo, a dual light rated at 1400 lumen OTF. On the rear I have an old Gemini Titan with a red lens mounted under the saddle. this light is rated at 750 lumen and i run it at 60% in flash mode. I also have a Blackburn Mars 4.0 facing rearward and running flash mode. I also have another Blackburn light in flas mode on the light loop on my bag.

My fenders have reflective tape rrunning full length and the mud flaps both have reflective tape on them.

I also have bits of reflective tape on the backs of my shoes and my pedals.

I am told I am very visible.

I have only used alkaline AA/AAA batteries. I change them in time to ensure the light stays bright. It's easy. No need to have the hassles of recharging or remembering to recharge. I may try rechargeables soon (bought a headlight with rechargeable battery), but so far I've been fine.

So far you haven't been hit. Like I said, I see a lot of people who probably think the dim rear light behind them is fine. Don't know if that's you or not you at all, but I see a lot of them on the road.

I...can't believe you wrote "No need to have the hassles of recharging or remembering to recharge." If you have 2 sets of batteries, there's no extra hassle to rechargeables vs throwing out an old battery and putting in a new disposable battery. It's exactly the same amount of work, the only drawback is rechargeables have a higher upfront cost.

Next time you catch up to a rider with dim rear lights, just tell them that its not bright enough. The only thing you might get is a negative reaction. But at least it was a reaction.

Just make sure your own light is bright enough.

That's assuming you're fast enough to catch up. I got passed by someone with a very dim rear light and didn't have the chance to tell him he was barely visible from 50 feet away.
And then there's ego - passing someone with no lights on a completely dark pathway and instead of tucking in behind and taking advantage of yours, he keeps passing you... and slowing down again because he can't see... and getting passed .... and passing you...etc, etc. (Honestly, what gets into some people?)
As far as side visibility goes, the tires with reflective sidewalls are very good. I have them, but didn't know how far away they could be seen from until I was driving one night and saw two reflective sidewalls crossing an intersection nearly a block away.