BobbyG

When I ride after dark, or in the rain, I will put lights up on my helmet, front and rear. This year I bought LED shoes to aid in my visibility on the road. Last Thursday I caught my reflection in the front door of the office before my ride home.

ColonelSanders

Do you have a strong helmet rear light?

I noticed cars spotted me much easier once I added a good rear light to my helmet, to complement my handlebar based headlight and rack based rear light.

Tamiya

rykard

i always go by blinking to be seen and solid so they can place you. I have 3 on the back 2 flashing one not.

BobbyG

I use a mild 5-LED red light on the rear of my helmet. It's 3 facing rear, and one facing each side for 180-degree plus visibility. I don't want to blind other traffic.
As you will see from the video below, I wear a reflective sash, and have reflective tape on my rear fender and backpack (and helmet). I understand what you are "driving" at.. would it be more effective to shine a light at a large reflective surface, vs using a smaller brighter source. I don't know.
I set my rear helmet light to blink, my rear rack light to steady, just for the reasons you mentioned...I started doing this after I read someone's post about it a few years ago...possibly you. It does make sense to me.

My main bike (in the video) now has "Monkey Lights" in the front spokes, which I set to a solid orange color. My snow bike also has fenders, but Red and White striped tape on the rear and front fork.

My old road bike has no fenders, but I mounted a rear blinky on the left seat-stay...the tube that runs from the seatpost to the rear hub. On that bike and on my main bike...the front blinkie is also down low. My thinking is that the light "dances" off the spokes for increased visibility from the sides. I suppose I shuld do that woth my snow bike, but on all three bikes the front blinkies are 180 degree to begin with.

On my helmet in the front I run a small non-blinking 8-LED flashlight with a translucent, orange plastic tube on the front, which lets the light shine white ahead, and glow orange from the sides. It's an old prescription bottle with the bottom cut off. It's not a bright forward light, but does help me see my speedometer/odometer, and also helps me see when I am off the bike, walking to the shed, or house, etc.

Here's my setup from two years ago:

ColonelSanders

Okay I can see you have an excellent setup for you lights.

My comment in respect of having a strong light on the back of your helmet, was not well explained by me.

I like to use a strong light there for either daylight riding or at dusk.

At night I do use a lower setting.

BobbyG

That sounds smart to me.

noglider 

Your video does a very good job at showing what you have and how useful it is.

I don't need quite as much, as most of my commuting route is outside of motor traffic, and the streets I do ride have mild traffic. And speeds here are low, and drivers are accustomed to seeing lots of cyclists here. I think I have more lighting than I need:
- front steady light
- rear steady light
- rear blinky light
- spoke light in the rear wheel

I don't even turn on the spoke light most of the time, and I don't run the blinky light on the MUP, either.

My trouser bands are reflective, but I only use them when I wear long pants.

BobbyG

@noglider I have my "see by" lights, "be seen" lights, and "OCD" lights.

noglider 

I don't blame you at all. Even if you pass the point of diminishing returns, there is hardly a downside to having extra, as long as you're not blinding people, and I'm sure you're mindful enough not to do that. There are some cyclists who run lights that feel like they're stabbing my eyes. I wonder what they're thinking, though they're probably not thinking much at all.

RidingMatthew

my son has a pair of those shoes. I think they are cool. do they do multiple colors and patterns? i like Party on his haha

BobbyG

They do, but I prefer to keep them as a solid white. I really wanted solid Orange, but they don't really do orange, and the yellow looks kind of green. I just think the flashing, and especially flashing alternating colors would be too distracting to drivers. But when New Year's Eve or some similar occasion calls for disco shoes... I am so ready!

RidingMatthew

either way they sound fun if only they clipped in. that would be awesome for me

tdonline

I have tiny blinky LED lights on the front and back of my helmet. I think they do the job of "being seen" at short to moderate distances at night. My main lights are on the bike. I'd like to go with a little more candlepower in the front of the helmet, especially for day/dusk situations. And especially for the many occasions when I forget the main bike light--I never forget the helmet.

I just can't stand any weight on my helmet though. Waiting for that day when a powerful but super lightweight and affordable option is available...is it?

Skipjacks

Shining light onto yourself is a fine idea. In winter I put a cheap light mounted straight down so there is a big circle of light under the bike. Almost like I'm alerting someone to a sidequest in a video game. And aiming that light at a high vis jacket would be useful.

But aiming it at a reflective jacket is a waste of time. Reflective stuff sends most of the light light back in the same direction is came from. So it would only be reflecting back down to the light on the rear rack, not straight back at a car driver behind you. Think about a reflective street sign. They light up brightly when your headlights are shining on them because the headlights are bouncing straight back to you. But when you get next to the sign it's dark even though the guy behind you is still shining a headlight on the sign. His headlights aren't bouncing to the left and into your eyes, they are bouncing back at him.

I do see value in shining a light onto yourself and your high vis clothing though. A dayglow yellow shirt is still dayglow yellow regardless of where the light source is.

Skipjacks

Cygoligte Hotshots. USB rechargable. Pretty light. Good 'be seen' lights. They are not designed for a helmet though so they'd need a little creativity to get them to mount.

Darth Lefty 

I have my lights. But I also know that when I drive, the thing that screams BICYCLE is pedal and wheel reflectors. I just wish they were ten times brighter when seen. I wonder if anyone has done the math whether a retro-reflector or a wide angle light is putting more light back into a driver's eyeball.

noglider 

A reflector doesn't always work because it relies on the light angle and the viewer angle. A spoke light is better.

vol

Those LED shoes are nice, but I suppose they use button batteries like CR2016 or CR2032? If so, they probably need to be replaced often. Also, since I usually don't ride fast, I like wheel light strings that don't depend on speed, available on Amazon. They are better than the Nite Ize spoke lights and very visible, got compliments from drivers and pedestrians and kids are excited to see them. Some of them use AAA but some are USB rechargeable. I remember what a pain in the neck it was to replace those CR2016 batteries in those Nite Ize style spoke lights.

BobbyG

The LED shoes I bought are rechargeable and come with a USB Y-Plug to charge both shoes at once. They flash a dim red while charging, and glow steady green when fully charged.

BobbyG

I just want to add that I found a very bright helmet light didn't work for me. It made it too hard to see my bike computer at night. At first the odometer was too bright, and then after my eyes adjusted the surrounding area was too dark.

I've read posts from many people who are happy with a bright helmet light and I'm glad when people find what works for them, but I'm 56 and it seems my eyes don't adjust to light and dark as quickly as they used to.

Darth Lefty 

Because of course they do

vol

That sounds good. But I still think those lighted shoes are best for jogging or walking in the dark. Wheel lights covers a larger area and more eye catching.(Confession: there were a couple times when I was too complacent because of having the wheel light and ran yellow/red light in front of the cars and buses) But no doubt those shoes are really cool looking and everyone likes them.

noglider 

That may be why I don't want a super bright headlight anywhere on my bike. They work for some people but not for me.

Korina

When I first started commuting in the dark, I used the highest setting on my headlight. But with experience and experimentation, I found that the middle and lowest settings actually work better for me; I can see the road and the surrounding area better without blinding myself. Also discovered I can use the headlights of passing cars to give me a distance view of what's coming up.

I'm kind of desperate to know which LED shoes you guys have? The ones on Amazon were all under $30, which makes me think they can't be all that great as shoes. The light-up shoelaces(!), however, I ordered.