Its getting dark again… I am not night riding my mountain bike yet, I have a few more weeks for that. But I ride to work in the dark every day. My ride is in the city and on some dark side roads and a park. So I like to be bright. I use three led’s on the rear of the bike and a LED in the front along with a dynamo head light. You have to be seen…
Rear blinky #1: Blackburn Mars 3.0
This light has been in use on my bike for over a year now. It has 7 LEDs, two of which are on the sides that emit an amber light to increase your side visitbility. It has many blinking modes, a nice seal to keep the water out and for a long time I thought it was the brightest rear light you could get. It was about $14 at REI.
Rear Blinky #2: Planet Bike Superflash
Good lord this is the brightest LED I have ever seen. It is blindingly bright, you can even see it during the day time. I am awed by the awesomeness that is this light. It has 3 LEDs, two regular and one super insane bright mega light. It is pricey at $24 and seems much cheaper made than the blackburn, but most planet bike stuff is kinda chincy. However there is nothing chincy about the light that comes out of this thing! I mounted it on my rear rack and I cannot be missed with this on.
Rear Blinky #3: Some Free thing
I put a blinky light on my blackburn metro helmet. I figure its higher up and moves around, gets attention.
Front Lights:
Now to the front, I have Shimano Nexxus/Dynamo hub. Which is nice, it really lights up the road and lets you both see and be seen. I also use a Knog Frog light. I bitched about this light before, but I was thinking I would use it to see, its not meant for that, its meant to be seen. And it has 5 blinking modes, 6 LEDs and uses the rubber body to mount it anyhow you want. I have it mounted on my carbon fork.
Also I wear the a reflective vest, Nathan Sports makes a great cycling specific vest with an embedded LED strip that is nice. I’ll do a better review of it later, but for now, I recommend it.
Plus lastly the city looked cool this morning.
I’ve got to get my fenders back, 1st one got shreaded in Newark on my way to jury duty, the second came off when I replaced the fork, it’s still attached to the old one in the garage. I’m set with lights, got a new rear blink’n deal from my LBS. trek 7 led with knog-like silicone strap and side facing LEDs. for the front I’ve got a white LED flasher and my HID helmet light. dumb lady yesterday was angry with me when I blinded her! granted she started her turn onto the road I was on early, lining up nicely to plow into me but I inconvenienced her by blinding her. I inconsiderately made her slow down and go around me, even tho going thru me at high speed would have gotten her to the stop sign much faster (not taking into account leaving the scene of a crime) I’ve found that being seen doesn’t mean the drivers understand what they be seeing! selective blinding is critical here in NJ on the bike-unfriendly streets with the bike-clueless drivers.
still can’t beat the bike tho!