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Re. lights, I use 2 rear lights, one flashing and one steady.
This is based on my own experience seeing others when I'm driving - I find flashing easier to notice (small steady red lights often get lost in the city surroundings, even bright ones) but steady is easier to judge the position/distance/speed.
better strapping a light or reflective strip round your ankles
Smart LED Bike Light Pedals | Arclight PRO Clipless Pedals – Redshift Sports
A good point.
You can ‘blend in’ in a city with a surfeit of yellow high Viz
as another point, on a country road with wet tarmac, green trees in the background with low sun/dappled light, I've seen the stereotypical retiree randoneur uniform of hi vis coat and helmet cover, with plain black leggings nearly disappear.
Red would be ideal in this situation, apart from the red-green colourblind.
better strapping a light or reflective strip round your ankles
pretty sure that almost no "proper*" bike complies with this, but pedal reflectors are technically required after dark. Reflective backing on the shoes is a good substitute. reflective pants clip for the urban commuter another good idea.
(*a proper bike being one which doesn't come stock with pedals from the shop, tongue firmly in cheek here)
pretty sure that almost no “proper*” bike complies with this, but pedal reflectors are technically required after dark.
You can get reflectors that clip into SPDs to make them single sided - used to have them on my commuter.
Its true a lot are dumb about dark night/miserable weather clothing. I personally think riding on the road is an excuse to wear mad colours 🙂
Pink or bright orange Rapha gilet, or coat with reflective bits all over on my night rides or bad weather. My commute used to be reflective gilet and/or yellow goretex jacket. Even in the summer I go for bright colours. always ride with at least one rear light/camera in the day and two lights front and back at night. Still have had the 'didnt see you there mate' !
As I was walking home from work, a driver went straight through a zebra crossing while I was waiting. I had a black coat on so it was my fault.
I go with what I've observed to work as a frequent city driver. Front and rear light flashing at all times. Steady lights just blend in with city traffic. A white helmet is visible day and night.
I have mostly dark cycling kit but do have reflective bits on shoes and top.
I got T-boned from a sideroad once on my motorbike and more recently on my pushbike (low sun was blamed by the driver. I had my lights on my pushbike but they weren't switched on)... Both in broad daylight....
Decathlon only do their roadie waterproof in a dark translucent fabric but otherwise it's really good ?♂️
I think I get the get the best passes riding solo in club kif (doesn't work on club rides though).
I think light quality makes a difference. There's a special time of day - just before dusk - when cyclists on the road become quasi invisible and anything that might up the chances of being seen is worth a punt, bright colours, lights, reflective. Ditto in rain / fog etc.
In good visibility I'm not sure it makes much difference at all, but I ride always with a rear light and sometimes with a front. At night reflective stuff makes you super visible.
I think you can get caught up in a lot of nuanced fiction about bright colours and the way drivers behave, but ultimately it's always seemed to me that it's better to be visible than not. Second guessing what preconceptions some random driver might have - and let's be honest, 'drivers' are not some homogenous group, they differ wildly from one another - is beyond my remit / capabilities.
So, I mostly don't wear black on the road, particularly in low visibility conditions - dusk, rain, murk, night. But I don't have strong views on what others choose to wear either.
That said, I've chanced on - almost catastrophically - riders dressed in black, with no lights or reflective in the pitch dark. That seems daft.
At night, I'm legally required to have lights, so I do. I can see and be seen. I'm also legally required to have some reflectors on the bike, but I make sure I have some reflective on me instead. Proviz overshoes are amazing and horrendous all at once.
Daylight I'll also use lights, and don't worry too much about clothes. Most of my kit is a pretty solid block of some colour or other, so will stand out against some backgrounds at some point. Nothing will work in all conditions, so I don't worry about it and I don't worry what other cyclists wear. Their choice, their risk.
Nothing will work in all conditions, so I don’t worry about it and I don’t worry what other cyclists wear.
I was thinking that actually what's needed is an inverted high-vis. A "high-vis" gilet blends into the leaves and hedges, whilst black leggings blend into the road. What you really want is bright yellow leggings and a contrasting top.
But yea, I was on one of those motorcycle accident reduction courses run by the police and their take was that nothing works all the time. If you're riding down a treelined road in autumn with strobing lights and yellow high vis feeling invincible then you'll get hit because actually your jacket matches the leaves and your strobing light just looks exactly like the dappled sunlight poking through the branches. In that scenario you'd be better off in all black. At the same time, if the car is outside the woods looking in, the lights stick out more because they contrast (from the drivers perspective) with the dark woodland. Same rider, same gear, same place, completely different levels of visibility depending on where the car is coming from.
Think about whether the driver has seen you as well as whether they can.
It's the MTBers that concern me. Any rear lights are covered in muck, they have huge blinding lights, including helmet lights on the road and wear black, covered in mud.