Due to my crazy work schedule, I can only bike before I leave for work or after I get home - either of which means darkness. I suppose I could use a blinking light on my bike, but is biking in the dark something I should even be considering?

[QUOTE=Tricon7;13785973]Due to my crazy work schedule, I can only bike before I leave for work or after I get home - either of which means darkness. I suppose I could use a blinking light on my bike, but is biking in the dark something I should even be considering?[/QUO

Where I ride you need a lot more than a blinkie I use a tail light and a blinkie on my helmet and a head light. Biggest problem around here is the critters in the dark. The cars are easy to see because of the lights but dogs, opossums, raccoons, hogs and deer jump out in front of you.

I do almost all my cycling in the dark. In the winter it's because it's dark whenever I have time to ride. In the summer, it's because it's too damned hot to ride during daylight hours. Get yourself a good headlight. There are some crazy bright ones, but I find anything over about 200 lumens is adequate for my needs. Get a high quality tail light or two as well. If I have two tail lights, I leave one on in steady mode and put the other one in a blink mode.

A blinking light makes you visible, it doesn't illuminate the road enough. Grab this
https://www.competitivecyclist.com/pr...63.1695.0.html
I have this on my bike and it's tits for riding at night. Even the blinking level is super bright and I can see up to 100 feet in front of me.

Also, for your tail light, get a super bright annoying blinky one.

Great riding at night and if properly lit, very safe. I went the expensive route, I figured at night paying for quality was a lot cheaper than medical bills.
I went with this company https://store.dinottelighting.com/din...ight-p181.aspx, their product is of superb quality, waterproof and insanely bright. I have the 800 lumen headlight and the 400 lumen rear. I do a lot of my riding on backcountry roads with no lighting at all on the streets and this set up allows me excellent visibility.

I noticed that cars gave me a much wider margin at night than during the day, so marked was this difference that I started riding during the day with my taillight on at all times. The light is very visible during the day and I find that I see the same effect with daytime riding.

One of the great pleasures for me is riding at night on a cold winters night, full moon and snow covered ground, an almost surreal experience.

200 lumens may be too bright for some truck ladies.
jk. inside joke. move along.
i will review my 900 lumen when i get it.

I generally like riding at night, but I'm wary now. A couple of years ago my bf, myself and a friend were on a summer night ride in a rural area. Good Nightrider headlights and such. Not much traffic. A giant racoon jumped out of a ditch and ran right into the back wheel of my bf's bike. Knocked the bike right out from underneath him. He went down, knocked him out cold for a few minutes. Ambulance ride to ER, grade 3 concussion, minor brain hemmorage (yes he was wearing a helmet). I worry about critters.

I have something similar to that headlight, and I mount it on my helmet. Now I just need a better tail blinkie.

I went the dinotte route as well, but there are some nice lights out there on a budget also. The magic shine headlight is great bang for the buck. Also, you can always slow down a bit if you don't have enough headlight. The taillight is where I'd recommend spending extra to get a good one. I am not a believer in the planet superflash tail blinky, but there are lots of fans. It's probably the best cheap one, but I doubt it is 1/10th as bright/noticable as the dinotte. I run my dinotte tail light during the day when riding solo and it still gets attention.

Get a Cygolite Hotshot. It's USB-rechargable, has center intensity BEYOND the best Dinotte, and is the size and weight of a SuperFlash. All for under $40. The beam is narrow like a SuperFlash, so aim it carefully for maximum effect. Some people remarked that theirs suffered water invasion from direct tire spray, so if you ride on wet roads and it's in the line of fire, you might want to put a sandwich baggie over it.

Along with that, I recommend picking up a couple Jogalite reflective legbands from REI. The motion catches peoples' eye and makes it easy to identify you as a cyclist, and they're lightweight and can be used with any of your bikes.

On the topic of headlights, for road riding, I find that Dinotte has too much of a flood beam. They're great for off-roading, I love my Dinotte 1200+ for that, but when you're trying to spot lumber that fell off a truck at 3-4 seconds out, you need less light in the foreground so you can see what's further out. In this case, something with a stronger center spot is better. Dinotte does make one version of the 800L with a more focused optic, but I don't know if they're still producing it now that their new-gen units are out.

My night/rain bike also has reflective tape on the forks, rear stays & crankarms. Makes you a bit more visible, especially if one of your lights quits in the middle of the ride. A reflective vest is a good add-on for nighttime.

Bike light forum:
https://www.bikeforums.net/forumdispl...ng-amp-Gadgets

In addition to critters, I worry about stealth cyclists without lights, cars coming from side streets or driveways, joggers with no lights or reflective clothing...

Yeah, get some lights.

If you're on a budget, get 2 Terralux 300 flashlights ($40 each) and mount them on your handle bars. I have 1 and it's my backup in case my Magicshine dies.

I see what you did there....

I'm pretty happy with my MagicShine BJ808 (rated at 900 lumen but in reality probably lower). I find that it illuminates enough ahead of me especially on a descent or at speed. Very easy to adjust both angle and intensity. Apparently it has a strobe feature that I have yet to be able to find how to use. The beam is definitely brighter than a lot of headlights but not blinding to drivers providing that you're not aiming it up. The colored light indicator in the rear also shows you battery life. Battery life has been very respectable at this point. I'm always looking for the best value and at around $85, it was cheaper than my Niterider lights when I originally bought them. I can't address durability at this point (too new).

I had upgraded from my Niterider Sol headlight (rated at 115 lumens) that I had been using for a little over 4 years. This will probably become my helmet light since it still does a pretty good job and holds a very decent charge. Currently using the Super Flash blinky. Seems to do it's job.

Last fall I did a lot of riding in the dark. I actually felt more comfortable with the traffic as the cars gave you more room. I think at night a texting driver has a better chance of seeing you if your lights are flashing. I have two flashers in the back and a Nite Rider 450 for the front. My nite rider though is only 450 lumens which is fine but I have to keep it on high for the most part and then I only get two hours out of it. I guess I could get another one and just flip it out.

january and feb are my highest volume training months so i end up riding in the dark a lot.

dont skimp on lights.

i am personally of the opinion that all other things equal, night cycling with lights is probably safer than riding during the day, esp in more rural areas where good strong lights pop out of the darkness.

use good judgement, avoid places without shoulders, with blind, fast corners, always use two rear blinkies (you really have no way of knowing if a light fails if you cant see it, so its best to have a couple running.

Minewt 600 on my bike, Planet blaze on my head and Radbot 1000 on my seat while wearing the Canari green windbreaker with removable sleeves.

Point taken. However, in my area (central Florida) we have roaming bears and the occasional Florida panther to worry about, not just raccoons/opossums.

To hell with that!

Most of my riding is at night also. I do a 250 lumen up front and a 1w blinky in the back. Personally I like the planet bike superflash turbo as it's flash is random and Very bright. I have people roll down their windows at intersections and ask what it is because they saw it a mile away at dusk.

This. Get two just to be annoyingly bright.

The Hotshot's way brighter, rechargable, longer runtime, about the same price... and not only does it have a random mode, you can adjust the flash rate. And on steady-burn mode you can adjust the intensity from super-low to full power, so if you're on a group ride and people don't like your flash mode, you can compromise with any level of steady-burn.

Hotshot > Superflash.

In the summer I do most of my riding at night due to the heat and use 5 light LED front and rear that put out a good amount of light.. I do stay off the larger/busy roads on my night rides and stick to side streets mostly.

Would you happen to know if the Hotshot will fit on the existing SuperFlash mount? Looks pretty similar on the Cygolite website but Planetbike does have more mounting options. My seatpost is not a standard one (it's integrated with my frame and therefore mounted on the rear dual-seat stay).