Help yourselves. Night riding attire

Forgot to mention. I have some of these on my bike spoke reflectors

Hard to tell on my own when I’m sat on it, but having seen them on other bikes they appear to be reasonably effective.

I’m sure all of you advocating bright lights shining in a shitty beam pattern are completely fine with drivers not dipping their full beams or turning off fog lights either?

Consideration for other road users, try it.

Some of the commuters on the bike path near me have a habit of riding too fast and using lights which are too powerful. I’m escalating the situation by taking an exposure six-pack out on dog walks, take that wobbly hat man!!

*except for the one time I was rebuked by an oncoming cyclist to turn my lights down. Ironically I was shielding my eyes from his ridiculously bright head torch

Yeah the light Nazis are about around here as well 🙂

(They do only seem to only come out the two weeks after the clocks change round here then they migrate)

ransos

Nonsense. I commute along a cycle path, and cyclists from the opposite direction with stupidly bright lights dazzle me to the point of not being able to see beyond them. One of these days I’m going to ride into a pedestrian as a result. Those sort of lights are meant for offroad use, and with good reason.

Amazing you’ve survived this long.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/proviz/switch-gilet-ec121390

Bought one of these recently , I commute 20 miles each way along some fast , dark lanes.
Proper bright / reflective , I’ve had cars slowing down at night , asking what I’m wearing.
Only challenge , breath-ability of a heavy duty bin liner !
To be fair it’s not dropped below 10 degrees yet , but worn over a thin long sleeved base layer , shoulders & upper back are absolutely dripping 10 minutes into my ride.
I really hope this becomes less of a problem as the temperature drops , as I defo feel safer in both light & dark conditions.

I’ve switched to a B&M Ixon Premium for commuting this winter. Previously used my MaxxD. Even on low and directed down and away, which kind of defeats the object, oncoming riders and pedestrians rightly objected to the brightness of the MaxxD, and cars would flash me.

This winter all has been peace and harmony so far. No complaints, its easy to dip the beam, and on full power its easily bright enough for unlit towpaths at 20mph.

Curse these Germans and their highly effective value for money road lights!

I’ve not discovered a properly reflective gilet which is very breathable, and also reasonable money.

Any recommendations? I sweat enough in good gear, let alone in boil-in-a-bag type clothes

Amazing you’ve survived this long.

After I have been dazzled by a stupid front light, I slow right down until my vision has regained sufficiently to be sure that there are no pedestrians in the way. It’s called courtesy – try it sometime.

I’ve switched to a B&M Ixon Premium for commuting this winter

+1 – they’re great. Only issue is you have to look out for pedestrians’ feet as the light won’t show the rest of them due to the beam cut off.

I presume “France mouth” means presta.

Apparently not – the questions are recommending valve adaptors, but I’m not going to go there.

French Mouth must be as filthy as I was thinking after all 😀

ransos

After I have been dazzled by a stupid front light, I slow right down until my vision has regained sufficiently to be sure that there are no pedestrians in the way. It’s called courtesy – try it sometime.

Courtesy? I’m bloody full of it. I don’t need to regularly commute anymore but I do ride in traffic most Tuesday and Thursday nights. When I did commute I encountered the same guy every evening coming the opposite way with what I assume was a MaxxD (close as I could see). Every single night I would pass this guy on a narrow, unlit, pot-holy, leaf strewn path and I never once had to slow down, stop, panic etc….I just didn’t look at the light. It was irritating yes, for about 30 seconds but that was it.

Every bloody night I met that guy. Still do the odd time. I don’t really resent him, perhaps he has shitty eye sight and he needs that light to see the ground in front of him or perhaps he wants to be sure cars won’t cut him up/run him down.

I don’t understand this scenario where a bicycle light will send other road user careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. Plenty of times when I’m driving I see cyclists with bright lights, I just look at my lane. It’s certainly nowhere near as bad as another motorist in a luxury car who won’t dip their full beams on country roads which happens all the time. Haven’t crashed due to that either, touch wood.

My kids all have these, but I’ve not seen any Presta ones

What you need is a presta/schrader adaptor like this

Had my eye on the proviz switch.. Put off by the cut and it being seemingly non breathable. Any other recommendations apart from the hump gilet?

I’ve just got a proviz jacket and TBH if you see one on the road you’ll want one.

Total boil in the bag experience thou but it’s that good it’s worth putting up with.

I thought brightly coloured hi-viz was recommended more for daytime riding? Reflectives and lights at night when colour is not going to have a lot of impact.

I’m yet to come across any cycle lights that I’ve been blinded by (any more than a car headlight) while I’ve been driving. It does surprise me how many people venture out with little or no light. Passed someone this morning in very heavy fog. Could only see them from 10 or 20 metres (on a busy A road). At first I thought they had no light, but I was able to just make it out as I was passing. I literally had to be within a couple of metres before it was visible to the human eye! I’m still not entirely convinced it was switched on. Maybe it just reflected a little light back at me. I don’t like the victim blaming thing, but there are times when I worry someone is going to get hurt, most probably because they don’t realise just how invisible they are.

Amazing isn’t it how drivers can see all these ninja black cyclists riding around with no lights on. And if even one cyclist jumps a red light, every driver within a mile can spot them doing it and log straight onto the Daily Wail to complain about it.

But then when they pull in on you, pull out on you, cut you up or actually hit you it’s always “sorry mate, I didn’t see you”.

Really odd phenomenon that one…

Amazing isn’t it how drivers can see all these ninja black cyclists riding around with no lights on.

What makes you think we see them all..?

I’m glad the car full of young men who were trying to kill me and other road users tonight swerving around and shouting abuse at me were hampered by my stealthy ninja clothing and jumping onto the pavement.

It was irritating yes, for about 30 seconds but that was it.

So what would happen if you passed someone with one of these every 20 seconds or so?
Not quite so much fun eh?

imnotverygood

So what would happen if you passed someone with one of these every 20 seconds or so?

If you ride full ninja you never ever think anyone has ever seen you. Stealth strategy win.

Courtesy? I’m bloody full of it. I don’t need to regularly commute anymore but I do ride in traffic most Tuesday and Thursday nights. When I did commute I encountered the same guy every evening coming the opposite way with what I assume was a MaxxD (close as I could see). Every single night I would pass this guy on a narrow, unlit, pot-holy, leaf strewn path and I never once had to slow down, stop, panic etc….I just didn’t look at the light. It was irritating yes, for about 30 seconds but that was it.

Every bloody night I met that guy. Still do the odd time. I don’t really resent him, perhaps he has shitty eye sight and he needs that light to see the ground in front of him or perhaps he wants to be sure cars won’t cut him up/run him down.

I don’t understand this scenario where a bicycle light will send other road user careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. Plenty of times when I’m driving I see cyclists with bright lights, I just look at my lane. It’s certainly nowhere near as bad as another motorist in a luxury car who won’t dip their full beams on country roads which happens all the time. Haven’t crashed due to that either, touch wood.

If you’re cycling on a narrow path and someone is coming the other way, then you cannot help looking at the light, because it’s a narrow path. That’s why it’s different to a motorist using a full beam on a much wider road, which is of course still very irritating.

jimjam – Member

Agreed. Not just in the dark but from about twilight onward so called high viz is anything but. Reflective clothing seems to work very well though.

high vis clothing should incorporate reflectives!

The trouble is, a lot of cycling kit isn’t high vis at all, it’s still basically just yellow, or has a few spots of token low quality reflectives. That’s still better than black but it doesn’t take much effort to be much better. The difference between a cheap crap reflective and a quality retro is enormous. It’s a bugbear of mine that people want to protect themselves but buy junk.

The other thing is rucksacks, a vest doesn’t make that much difference from behind if you have a rucksack over it. So mine has epic 3M retroreflective tape in a big chevron on it. Cheap and easy.

benp1 – Member

I’ve not discovered a properly reflective gilet which is very breathable, and also reasonable money.

Any normal class 2 vest. I’ve a suspicion that in urban riding blaze orange will be better than yellow but don’t quote me on that.

I’m tempted by one of these (yes it is a men’s jacket). I followed a cyclist in fluro pink earlier in the week and it certainly got them noticed.

Personally I think pink is the most effective hi-viz colour on the open road. Orange isn’t bad, yellow is meh, and green… green sucks: https://twitter.com/beztweets/status/625682227809120256

I’m still waiting for someone to make some decent shoes/winter boots/overshoes in the Proviz style of totally retro-reflective. I’d go for those: large, always in motion, and a clear indicator that it’s a cyclist. In many respects it would probably be the most effective visibility aid you could possibly have in the dark.

Oh, wait…

http://www.provizsports.com/en_gb/catalog/product/view/_ignore_category/1/id/1163/s/proviz-pixelite-shoe-covers/

Someone please tell the yout’ in Chesterfield a few nights ago. Dressed head to toe in black, black bike with no reflectors and worse of all didn’t even have 1 cheap sh*tty light front or rear.

Due to the fog visibility was about 40-50 feet. He came past me in the middle of the lane, on the back wheel showing off.

Seriously, pulling a wheelie, at night, on the road, in dense fog, dressed in black with no lights.

Darwin awards are waiting for this yout’