Essential gear for night riding?
Essential gear for night riding?
I know about the obvious stuff like a bright vest, blinking rear light and wearing light colored clothes but is there anything else that I need for when nightfall hits?
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blinking rear light
Blinking lights are my pet-peeve with cyclists. Cars don't have blinking lights - neither should bikes.
We aren't riding large vehicles, so we have to put more effort into being more visible.
A combination of a blinking rear light and reflective gear gives us better odds.
Studies have shown that blinking lights improve reaction time to bikes on the road. The most common issue is determining the distance to the bike. This effect is more pronounced during night.
That's why I use my bike lights all the time set to blink with a multi-second on phase. It makes me more noticeable and easy to estimate distance.
Also cars do have blinking lights these days. The newer car models like to blink the center brake light for a second before going static. Motorbikes have also long had rear blinking and "breathing" front light.
Any blinking lights except indicator lights are often illegal in traffic.
You can easily spot a car at night, but not a cyclist.
In Europe blinking bicycle lights are allowed (white front, red rear).Front blinking lights are illegal in Germany as they should be, don't ever put fronts on blinking mode.
TIL
Also The Netherlands.Also in France. Blinking rear red lights were also forbidden in the beginning, simply because anything blinking was forbidden unless you were police, firemen, paramedic... (or the light belonged to the yellow warning family). Later, in 2016, blinking rear red lights were allowed, while blinking front lights remained forbidden since they are a real pain.
As far as I am concerned, I bought a rear light that can at the same time: 1. shine continuously backwards 2. and blink towards the ground. So the light that goes straight into the drivers' eyes, being constant, is not aggressive, yet there is a blinking element which acts as a reminder that I am a bicycle, since during the last 15 years or so, a blinking red light (legal or not) has become a symbol of bicycle rear lights. (Its name is Seemee 300 by Magicshine, if anyone wonders)
Yeah, blinking lights make it more difficult to assess position and speed relative to cyclist, especially at night without street lights. At least get another one that shines all the time, or one that fades in and out but always shines at least a little, or a really good and big reflective one.
The point of blinking bike lights is to be noticed by drivers. Once noticed, divers are able to track you using their headlights and your reflectors.
Using blinking lights also means I can use a bright light while not running out of battery in the middle of my trip.