Riding at (or past) the edges of daylight

[HipGnosis6]

I'm lucky I have a specialty store near me (Seattle Fabrics) that sells strips of reflective tape, reflectorized grosgrain ribbon, even reflective-coated ripstop nylon. I add this stuff to EVERYTHING. But Denise is right - active lighting is way better than passive systems ilike textiles and reflectors. Reflectors only work at very limited angles, and things like coated fabrics have that same limitation as well as not working when they're wet! Sheldon Brown has some really interesting articles on reflectors:

http://sheldonbrown.com/reflectors.html

[DeniseGoldberg]

Sheldon Brown has some really interesting articles on reflectors:
http://sheldonbrown.com/reflectors.html

Thanks for the link, very interesting!
--- Denise

[maillotpois]

Great post! Yesterday, I had to go pick up DH from his long ride as he had misjudged the time and didn't want to ride without a rear light (which is on his commuter bike, but not the bike he rode yesterday). I was a little grumpy about it because I had to go get him in the middle of cooking dinner, and it seemed plenty light to me when I left the house - but he was right. By the time he would have been home, it would have been too dark to ride. So he did the right thing.

As for blinky lights - RUSA and other rando groups discourage use of blinky tail lights. I do remember hearing something about them being a magnet for drunk drivers as well. I can tell you they are SUPER annoying when you are riding beside or behind someone with a blinky tail light.

[GLC1968]

This is a great post!

My DH and I started commuting this year and we made a point of outfitting our bikes with lights, reflective tape, reflective clothing, etc. Then we each took turns riding around while the other of us was in the car (we went to a non-lit neighborhood) to see how visable we actually were. My tail light was very bright, blinking or not. DH's tail light was less visible when it was a steady light. We both put reflective tape on our bikes and extra reflective sticky things on our helmets after this exercise.

Something else to think about: I choose my clothing based on my riding conditions. My evening commute used to take me through a construction zone while the sun was setting and the leaves were turning. This meant that wearing yellow or orange wasn't going to help my visability. Those days, I wore turquoise or bright blue. Now, it's fully dark in those places (and the trees have lost most of the leaves) so I've gone back to bright yellow.

I also wear an illuminite vest but I have no idea how bright it is as I've never seen it on someone else! (I didn't have it yet when we did our little test mentioned above). I'll have to prop it up infront of my headlights tonight after dark to see how visible it really is....

[Geonz]

I've been told that my HOkey Spokes are "da bomb." THey not only are visible from all kinds of angles (but especially from the side), but because they're going 'round and 'round, they also announce that I'm a bicycle. I wish they were a little less eccentric; they sometimes turn themselves on, and sometimes one of 'em doesn't work, and they're expensive.
For the Gazelle, I felt all kinds of inconspicuous (and that's just not good for my closet extroverted psyche!!) even with the generator light and the taillight, so I got me some spoke lights. Maybe I'll start picking up the change in the intersections and saving for more hokeys They're not *as* bright as hokeyspokes but much the same effect.
I've also got a hi-viz camelbak - but of course you gotta have some light to reflect from!
I have, even on the bike, had a close encounter or two with people in flogging **black** clothes, no helmet of course, riding in the dark on the street. Ah, to be young and indestructible!! Not!!

[7rider]

Yup...you can never have too much reflectivity on your bod when riding at or around dark. And lights, too.
But one area that I haven't read here that I think worth mentioning as useful:
Reflective sidewall tires.
Both DH and I have them on our flat bar bikes and it's amazing how much light they bounce back.
Here's an example, but they do come in road bike and hybrid sizes:
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...cat=REI_SEARCH
I highly recommend them as your "winter tires."