Night riding

[Geonz]

I don't go for fast riding at night but I do it a lot on my commute. (I still get a workout depending on which bicycle I"m riding.) I got a nice dynamo hub that lights my way, but I found the Cateye lights work well, too. WIth the dynamo I just don't have to worry about batteries. (I do kinda worry about "what about when the light bulb goes out" so I tend to have my light that goes around my head somewhere in my gear just in case. I would want that if I needed to get off the bike and see stuff anyway.)
I have put a Trek Flare 10 light on my helmet with its universal mount and cars give me a ton of room. I also got some strings of multicolored LED lights
that are wrapped around my camelbak and another one around theback of my bike.
I have hokey-spokes too but have to find the thingies to attach them or improvise something (soudns like an excuse to kibbitz at the LBS ) - they get lots of good reaction.
Just the helmet light works well - getting two strings flashing too gets me comments like "NObody's going to miss you!" I'll fire up the Christmas Tree and get it on the bike before too long...
(I'm in a college town on the prairie so I can get *some* traffic... if I go out a few miles I have to watch for wildlife but generally I'm not going fast enough to collide with them.)

[singletrackmind]

When I commuted I had blinkys on the back and front and a helmet light because it's less jumpy and looks where I do. Bright clothes and an orange safety vest with reflectives and lights on it that goes far enough down drivers can see it even when I'm bent over the bars. And a string of battery powered bright christmas lights wrapped around the frame.

And ride as if I was absolutely invisible to cars, pretty much like daytime riding.

[crazycanuck]

Since I can't see with the small lights I use Cat Eye Double shots during the winter & some other Cat eye one in spring/summer. I don't like handlebar mounted lights as i can't see so, I usually use a helmet light.

I hate blinky lights as man they hurt me eyes!! Ow! I leave my back light on normal mode just to save someone a headache.

C

[pinkychique]

Have any of you had experience with the knog lights? The little single led ones seem too small, but they have bigger ones, and they seem really easy to switch from one bike to another. I seem to need to do that between my good bike (for riding to my actual house) and my beater bike (for riding between my BF's house and school).

I love the Hokey Spokes!!!

[li10up]

How do you attach blinky lights to your helmet? I don't like the look of the light on my bike seatpost all the time...but how do you attach the light to the back of your helmet? Or do they make lights specifically for that?

[Dianyla]

How do you attach blinky lights to your helmet? I don't like the look of the light on my bike seatpost all the time...but how do you attach the light to the back of your helmet? Or do they make lights specifically for that?

On my regular helmets, I use the the Cateye LD100 which has a little built-in lanyard that I thread through the helmet vents. It's not the brightest light, but it's something and it blinks.

For commuting I recently bought the Bell Metro which actually has a flat/smooth back with a built in strap that pretty much any blinky with a belt-clip can attach onto. It's pretty slick.

[Fredwina]

1. las psyclepath said, lights and reflective gear are the key. As a slow Randonuesse, I know these things
2. Front lights: wish I had the money for a dynohub, but I've got two Cateye El-500's: they were about $30/each, and I can get a month out of the batterys(Almost all of my weekday riding is in the dark ) so , you can get buy without spending a ton.

I know i',m going to get some post about what "junky" lights they are, but they seem to work fine for me. I've actually gotten sincere comment about the amount of light I have
I also have a Princeton Tec headling on helmet. Handy for reading cue sheet and 'puters on those 300 and 400K rides

I've got some cateye blinkes on the back:
.