Night riding

[steinspinne]

Well, I live in the middle of the city so I prefer to ride at night. Less traffic to worry about. Some of you may disagree with this, but I have a headlight and a taillight only. My commute is only 3 miles and the entire route has plenty of streetlamps to light the way, so the lights on the bike itself are just so others can see me coming.

Up front I have a Blackburn Quadrant and in the back I have a Blackburn Mars 2.0. Sleek styling, if I do say so myself. Check them out.

[caribou]

I read this thread this morning because I've just started bike commuting a couple days a week this summer, and want to keep it up now that the days are getting shorter. Just went back to fulltime work after years of 3/4 time, and miss my weekday daylight bike rides with hardly any traffic on the best routes, boo-hoo! Love the new job, but it sure is more challenging to get regular outdoor exercise in. Indoor gym or trainer work is the LAST resort.

Have any of you tried riding at night with rose lenses? I have Rudy Project frames, and the Racing Red is what I use for cross-country skiing in flat light conditions, to give more depth. I'm wondering if they work for night riding to reduce glare without being too dark. Got clear lenses too, but the idea of less glare from oncoming lights sound really good. I don't want to shell out more for yet another set of lenses--amber--if what I have will work well.

Also: from the motorist's point of view, I'm putting in a plug for those blinking red rear lights. As a motorist I've noticed many times how visible the blinking red rear lights are, and really appreciated the heads-up that a bike's on the road. So that and a medium-priced LED light are what I ordered, will see how they do on my short street-lighted commute (with bike lanes and no deer.)

[alicestrong]

Stock up on 99 cent store LED blinkies. The technology is surprising.