pandraztic

I love riding and I'm hyper paranoid for cyclists when I have to drive my cage to work. Fortunately for this cyclist I am. It was 40 minutes before sunrise and I was getting ready to turn right on to the main road when a car going the other direction passed. Thankfully it did, and illuminated the cyclist. This stretch of road has lights occasionally, but they are ancient and work poorly, so maybe he felt he had enough to see by? But as a cager, I barely saw him and I'm sure he was inwardly cursing me as just another barely awake cager, but really, I hate diving my road in the dark for that exact reason, because it is the only way to get through to downtown from up island on a bike, and it's a miserable stretch to ride because of terrible road surface. As he passed me I checked his bars and he clearly had no headlight. He did however have two taillights. I don't get the logic, but please, if it's dark use a headlight or some kind of forward illumination.

making

When my last old headlight died I was at work. I knew the road and it was pretty well lit so I had no reservations about riding home, except cars making turns in front of me. I was approaching an intersection when I seen a car coming up the other way to turn left in front of me. I expected him not to see me so I slowed and timed it out so he could go on by. He noticed me just as he was going in front of me. It scared him so bad I actually head him yell out in fright. But yea, there really is no excuse for riding at night with no headlight.

OldTryGuy

ALL of my bikes have these ...... Supernova lights https://www.roadid.com/c/HighViz ........mounted with clear on front and read on rear. I am ALWAYS prepared should I get caught out at night or when the weather becomes inclement and darkens due to rain, fog, sandstorm, eclipse, tornado....... whatever.

JanMM

A reflector or reflective tape on the front can be helpful if no headlight or dead battery. But two lights is the best strategy for always having a working headlight.

howsteepisit

Seems a bit like preaching to the choir here. I doubt many if any of the readers of this forum ride at night w/o lights.

LiquorLad

Yup. DUI commuters don't read BF. Or maybe their in the Living Car Free section.

I-Like-To-Bike

DUI commuters may be involuntarily living car free, but I doubt if any of them are reading or posting in the Living Car Free section. More likely to find in that section puritanical teetotalers and ascetics ranting about the immoral bad habits and lifestyle choices of the non-believers.

howsteepisit

Hey, that's no way to write about the A&S forum.

ItsJustMe

I don't ride at night without two taillights running, and a live and a backup headlight on the front.

Leisesturm

You're right, there isn't. So why did you do it??

AlexCyclistRoch

What's a "cager"**********?

KD5NRH

This is why I have a "see" headlight, a "be seen" (and see just enough for maybe 12mph on good roads) headlight and a small helmet light. (I can maybe go 6-8mph on just the helmet light if I really have to.) Any one of the three is better than nothing. The "see" is a $28 triple LED thing from eBay, the "be seen" is a Bell Radian, and the helmet light is a cheap 2AAA Energizer headlamp that claims 150 lumens, but I doubt it's really over 75.

canklecat

I can understand involuntarily forced transportation cyclists occasionally riding without lights. They might be caught out working late, maybe a double shift was offered or requested. No bus service after a certain hour, etc.

What gets me are the local group night rides -- clearly billed as night rides, with reminders to be prepared and appropriately equipped -- and people show up without lights. They're usually the ones who want to run the stop lights too, despite instructions from ride safety monitors.

Moe Zhoost

I wish cars here would use their lights. If it's within 40 minutes of sunrise, 1 out of 5 cars won't bother to illuminate. They move stealthily amongst the rest and are hard to pick up in what limited vision one has during pre-dawn periods.

Chris0516

A motorist

2manybikes

It's the only way to go. I always have thee separate head light systems.
I'm 50-70 miles from home (out and back) in the dark frequently. Maybe 40-50 at halfway when the temps are down in the teens.
With lots of snow and ice off road I'm maybe only 20 miles away but still a long time to get home. I'll be going slow on an MTB.
I have to know that the 8 hour light only goes about 7 hours when it's around 20f. We all need to think about run time in winter.

Jim from Boston

I have a safety aphorism, "When riding at night, look for cars, not just headlights," though I may see about one such car every two weeks or so. But those are the drivers more likely to be distracted.

2manybikes

And look for "ninja" cyclists.

making

Yes, I was pointing out my mistake. At least that is how I meant it.

pandraztic

What honestly confuses me most about it is the fact that he was running TWO taillights and NO headlight. At that point, I'd move one up to the front for forward visibility! I just needed to get it out there is all. I know we all ride with it, but man. First it just scared me, but then it really made me mad when I saw he was running so many rear facing lights. It was still full dark outside with barely a hint of light on the horizon.

Sorry ya'll. Just needed to rant a little to understanding ears! Thanks!

blue192

Just a couple of days ago a person was run over and killed on a bike in Ottawa (driver sped off) so best thing for us to remain safe is to light yourself up like a Christmas tree at night and travel safer roads than day time.