Days are getting shorter... be visible!

[Tom M]

I have a tutorial site with some info about visibility concepts for cyclists. The main agenda is to get people to realize they need active lights, not just reflective equipment. If anyone wants to be fully indoctrinated, that’s at www.mechbgon.com/visibility/index.html .

Anyway, here are a couple suggestions as the days get shorter:

• Be especially wary when the sun’s on the horizon. Heading home down Broadway nowdays, I’m going right into the sun. It would be easy for an overtaking motorist to lose track of a cyclist against the glare. If the sun's at your back, it's the people in front of you that'll have a hard time noticing you, so watch for oncoming traffic turning left across your path, or pulling out from a side street.
  
  
• Use active lighting (as opposed to reflectors alone). Reflective stuff has its place, but we’ve all seen people driving around with their lights off until pretty late. If their lights are off, there’s nothing to reflect back to them.
  
  
• Aim your taillights to best advantage. As a bike mechanic, I’ve seen taillights aimed alllll over the place, usually downward. Well, the cars ain’t down there, dude they’re behind you, and generally a bit to the left.
  
  
• Use decent lights.
  
  - Taillights The Planet Bike SuperFlash, NiteRider Cherry Bomb, and Blackburn Mars 4.0 are all very powerful. If it's tricky to attach a taillight to your bike/rack, just say... I've generally got ideas.
  
  - Headlights vary in power and price, so just as a starting point to go up or down from, there's the NiteRider Minewt Mini-USB at about $90-$100. It's compact enough to look OK on a road-racing bike, has enough power to show the road moderately well in full darkness, and you can charge the battery from a USB port on your computer at work.
  
  I believe in daytime running lights too. Die with your lights ON, that's my motto Seriously, you show up better with your lights on... if you've got them with you, you might as well run them.
  
  
• Consider some reflective stuff if you’re riding when people have their headlights on.
  
  - Reflective legbands are the value king. They attract attention with their motion, they’re visible from all directions, they’re light and cheap, they go from bike to bike with you, and they’re down low where low-beam headlights will hit them strongly. The Jog-A-Lite ones at REI are my favorite.
  
  - Tires with reflective sidewalls really scream “CYCLIST!” Continental makes the Grand Prix 4000 in a reflective-sidewall option if you want a high-performance tire. Panaracer's T-Serv folding training/touring tires also come in a reflective-sidewall option, and I know of others if you need help finding the right tire.
  
  - Reflective tape weighs practically nothing, and has all sorts of applications. Fenders, frame, helmet, between spoke holes on your rims, etc. Reflexite V82 is one of the highest-performance reflective tapes available, if you need a suggestion (this is the stuff on the SRV trailer ). Locally, you can get decent Peterson Manufacturing reflective tape at Fred Meyer in the Automotive section for $10. Reflective tape reflects from a wider range of angles than plastic reflectors do. Reflective tape is NOT habit-forming. *twitch*
  
  
• Hi-vis clothing Neon-lime clothing is highly helpful in day and twilight/dawn, not so much in darkness. If you don’t mind looking like a Masters State Champion total Fred, an ANSI Class II reflective vest is fantastic. Goes over whatever layers you’re going to wear for the day, doesn’t need frequent washing, and reflects like crazy after dark.
  
  
• Cover your bases. If you did get hit and had to sue for damages, the defense lawyers would probably investigate whether you had the stuff you’re legally required to have. For night-time riding in Washington, that means a steady white front light visible from 500 feet ahead, and a red rear reflector visible from 600 feet to the rear when illuminated by low-beam headlights. You can have a taillight in addition to the reflector, but you still need the reflector, and it needs to meet that real-world 600-foot performance target, so you’d want to keep it pretty clean. Ample amounts of good-quality red reflective tape up the back of your fender, or on an unobstructed part of your seatpost, would probably cover that requirement.