Bike lights.

I was sitting in my car on James Congdon Drive near Bunnings last night, waiting for the RAA, and later, the tow truck. (Dead fuel pump, on my way to pick up my wife from work, from West Beach where evening buses to the city are rare.)

As I was waiting, i was watching the bikes as they passed. All had front lights, although some you would almost need a candle to see if they were on. In the hour or so I was there, only about 3 had what I would consider really good front lights.

The tail lights, however, were all very good, visible for several hundred metres. Most had two lights, many three. The best I saw had five lights - two on the back, two bar-end lights and a helmet light. Brilliant!

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Comment by Gus K on June 17, 2011 at 13:12: Great point. Bright front and back. I think you can get a pretty good red flasher for pretty cheap but a good front flasher can be quite expensive.

Did you see Contador? He got busted by police in the French Alps for not having any bike lights - story.

Comment by Peter Hill on June 17, 2011 at 16:14: Funny about that. I was fanging along on the new commuter (aka 'King Canute') last night, crossed Sir DB and saw a car parked in the slip lane to Bunnings. "who the hell would park there" me thinks, "oh, must be broken down". Zoooooom.

eye burning expillion on the front, basta on the back, reflecto jacket over the baked alsaka. gone.

Comment by heather on June 17, 2011 at 21:09: David, at least you put your waiting time to good use.

Comment by Baron Von Thierry on June 17, 2011 at 21:31: I turned down Railway tce else it would have been 4 ... Cygolite rocks!

Comment by Steven Orr on June 18, 2011 at 10:47: Hi David, hope you all got home safe after the bike light audit;-)
I simply don't understand those that ride sans lights or have those almost useless baby knog/blinky lights...Personally I think there should be a mandated standard, but how to enforce it is probably why it has not happened. As a cyclist and motorist I detest the 'ninja' or 'the almost ninja' types because I have almost run into them in both my car and on my bicycle..

Comment by Pete Roberts on June 18, 2011 at 23:29: I'm one of those people that have gone a little "Overboard" with lights: I ride with 700 lumens on my bars, a further 110 lumens on my helmet. On the rear I have 35 lumens on the rear on my seat post & a further 4 lumens on my helmet I also have side flashers both left and right, plus I carry a spare set of lights just in case all of that lot fail. ( and I wear bright contrasting cycle gear too )

...Yet People still cut me off / pull out in front of me etc, saying, "oh sorry, didn't see you."

Im not so sure that just being lit up like a christmas tree is the issue. Somehow we need to educate drivers to concentrate on driving and their environment.

Comment by heather on June 25, 2011 at 21:15: Pete, I am almost as visible when night cycling and still have some incidents.

Bike lights.

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