I am one of an honest lovers of cycling. I always go cycling outside the town on weekend. To keep myself healthy, happy and slender is my final purpose. It might be a bit funny reasons to make me reach the goal.
With the coming of summer, I plan to go cycling every night in order to make me slender much more quickly. However, I just feel it unsafe at night to go cycling. I have prepared all equipments for my plan. I have to go across downtown nearly 20 km before I arrived my destination to continue cycling. I am a bit worried about the traffic. It has a busy traffic at 6:00pm. Is there anyone have good suggestions to me to follow?
I have bought a flashlight online, but I am still not much sure if I can go cycling at night. Please give me some advice. Thanks, all!
Most automobile drivers do not see folks on bicycles, they just don't.
At night it is even worse.
Having a flashlight on your bike is a good idea, but it is facing forward, drivers will not see it.
You can have all the reflectors on your bike, the wheels, front of the bike, rear of the bike.even on the pedals - drivers just won't see them.
Put a red flashing LED light on the back, drivers will not know what it is
Wear white clothes, yellow reflective vests, drivers will not know what they are approaching.
Bike lanes ? Isn't that just another small lane for a car to squeeze by to make a right turn?
You should make the trip during the day, keep a lookout for storm drains that have long openings that are flush with the street. There is nothing like having a tire fall into one of these.
Unless you can make the trip all the way on the sidewalk, I would not be comfortable riding at night...
If it is dangerous or not to ride at night, depends on every city and the attitude of local drivers towards cyclists. It's not the same in NY, Bolivia, or Sweden.
If you have been riding for some years, you may "know" and "understand" what drivers do. If you don't, I suggest you to start riding on the day, and when you feel safety about that, try at night. You should use a red backlight, visible clothes, and a white frontal light.
About this, if there is light in the city, I suggest you to use low modes: you just need "to be seen", and not to see the road (because it's already visible) or call the robbers saying "I HAVE A POWERFUL LIGHT AND A BIKE FOR YOU, COME AND TAKE THEM". Use the high modes if you are going faster (drivers or robbers may think you have a motorbike) or in rural paths, and if there are cars, try not to blind the drivers.
Well, just don't do stupid things, and you will learn on your own. And remember that there could be more drunk or as*holes drivers at night.
I saw one bike rider get knocked off his bike by a car pulling out of a gas station, Fortunately, no injury. I came close here in Florida by a car making a right turn and the driver was looking to the left for approaching cars. I was stopped at the curb and I knew the driver was not looking my way.
I ride on a bike path, no cross streets, only a couple of seldom used driveways. SAFE ....
The US has come a long way for bicycle safety, but it is still not like most other countries where lots of the population ride bikes...
The problem and risk with flashlights on a bike is the circular beam pattern. 75% of the light will go somewhere else, where You don't need it. This blinds You and oncoming drivers. It is also a waste of runtime or energy. I am using the Philips Saferide LED bikelight. It is very expensive, but it has a beam pattern like a car headlight and therefore 400 lumen are enough for a safe ride. It is available in a battery and in a hub dynamo powered version and it is the strongest LED-Light I know of, which is complying with the German regulations on bike lighting.
This light is bright enough to drive safely with up to 30 km/h on paved roads. If You are driving through woods, a strong and floody flashlight might be safer, because it will illuminate the potentially dangerous vegetation (branches) around You.
First, let me make this VERY CLEAR! I am ONLY SPEAKING FOR MYSELF.
You can do it..I am going on 72 years old, sure there is a little danger out there, but you have to be aware and that's it. Yes, IMO, the FLASHLIGHTS are enough. Just like with all flashlights, you have to tailor the flashlight to the job at hand. Bicycling is no different.
I ride at night, in the morning, I merge out into traffic doing 50mph+. I GOT TO HAVE STRONG LIGHTS. My flashlights provide me with strong lights..
With the below they see me coming..and going, and since I have been running flashlights, they DON'T take my right-away as much.
I ride in traffic at night. I need STRONG lights. With the above, they see me, they let me have my place on the road. With LESSOR lights, they didn't do that. That is what I found out FIRST HAND, nobody had to tell me that. and that is what I go by.
Nothing is really safe, so I can't speak for others.
ceh
BTW, I also have strong blinkys in the rear also on my helmet and backpack. My wife calls me a Christmas tree.
Nothing in life can be considered safe but with little bit of common sense and using appropriate equipment you will be fine.
Perhaps most important light on a bike is tail light. It has to be reasonably bright and more than anything reliable. Passive elements like cat eyes and spoke reflectors (http://tinyurl.com/6nxpkkk) should not be left out either. Ideally front light should have a cut-out beam pattern to avoid blinding but they are quite scarce and expensive. In reality magicshine style light or even C8 with OP reflector will do nice. This optics can be really helpful too for road use http://tinyurl.com/7trguar
It even works very well on C8 but you have to be creative to attach it.
I live in a small college town so lots of people bike at all hours. Like some people previously noted no matter how well you are lit up pretend you are invisible. I always have at least two sources of forward facing light. I usually run two bar mounted lights, my EDC in my pocket plus a bright red flashy light facing backwards and an extra set of batteries in my bag. I tend to go slow at night and try to ride on the sidewalk towards the oncoming traffic if there is any and I always pretend every car cannot see me and is going to hit me.
First off, welcome to BLF! Lot's of cyclists on the forum.
Riding a bike anytime has it's challenges. You can get hit by a car in daylight as well as at night. Ultimately whether it's safe or not depends on where you live and how you do it. Visit a major metro city like New York or Chicago and you will see many cyclists in daytime and at night. Is it safe? personal decision. Personally, I would not be comfortable riding on the streets of Chicago, but my son does it regularly and sees no issue. I ride in suburban and country settings during the day, at night only on trails, closed roads or very rural roads with low traffic and always with several other cyclists. As has been stated above by many, bright reflective clothes are a must. At least two lights on the front to see by and be seen. On the back at least two tail lights, one flashing, one solid is recommended. Above all you have to alter your normal riding behaviour to account for the fact that you are harder to see. Ride slower, be more cautious, never assume anyone can see you, especially approaching intersections.
I have found this out too. Since I have been running two powerful lights up front, at intersections, I have noticed if it is my rightaway to keep going, they let me pass. Those two front lights, does all this. That make such a presence that cars, whether willingly or not, give respect.
And 2nd, all other things being equal, road cycling at night is just as safe as road cycling during the day. Which is to say not very safe depending on the circumstances. No matter how good the lighting system, there will always be an element of risk. The risk must be assumed if you want to co-mingle >20lbs of cool with 2 tons of ugly.
Bike path at night is almost as bad as the road, IMO. If you believe in bigfoot and aliens, mountain biking at night is the best. You will ride real fast when you are scared! Especially when you are way out there alone.
Seattle is supposed to be a great cycling city, so I would imagine that you would be somewhat less invisible because people are used to seeing cyclists on a regular basis. But only somewhat.
So my advice, after more than two decades riding in the dark, is to buy the best possible system you can afford, have a backup plan, and take the long way home (it's usually less congested).
I'd love to give you budget advice on what will work, but I use a Niterider system that was anything but budget. Luckily for you, lots of guys here have gone the budget route, so I'm sure you will get some great advice on how to do it on the cheap.
I mentioned it earlier, but it might be overlooked. Ride the route during the daylight hours, look at the road surface. Check for pot holes, debris, or anything else that might get tangled up in the bike, That stuff is difficult to see at night, even with lots of light on the front.
I love riding at night on summer, and even on winter, I'm not afraid of traffic in my country, but what scares me are the thieves!
I think that with 2x XM-L at the front, and something red at the tail, and some spare batteries is enough to be seen, maybe it could be even safer than with daylight because with the lights on you catch drivers attention.
