@SRLevine and anyone else who wants to chime in - what should I look for in reflectors and bike lights (to enhance visibility from other vehicles, not to illuminate the path)?
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@SRLevine and anyone else who wants to chime in - what should I look for in reflectors and bike lights (to enhance visibility from other vehicles, not to illuminate the path)? Do you have any favorites?
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@SRLevine and anyone else who wants to chime in - what should I look for in reflectors and bike lights (to enhance visibility from other vehicles, not to illuminate the path)? Do you have any favorites?
@AngelaPreston For reflectors anything with the 3M reflective stuff is really good, even a little bit of light and it gets picked up (I've spotted walkers on the trail based on a tab on their shoes when they were otherwise in dark clothing in the dark that's how good the stuff is). One of the easiest options is to buy the loops that go around your ankles, which keep your pants out of the way and are also reflective. They are made of velcro and have a strip of the reflective stuff running through the middle.
For lights: get something either rechargeable or get a set of rechargeable batteries if it uses AA/AAA. If you ride a lot at night bright lights go through batteries really, really fast. The best light is one that you have with you and you will use. I like lezyne because their default attachment is essentially a giant rubber band thing so it's very flexible for handlebar sizes/styles, but it is a brand you pay a premium for and it might be overkill for you.
My front headlight is a lezyne macro drive 1300XXL, but I've found that anything over 400 is really blinding to pedestrians and even 400 is a problem on trails. I'll use 200 on a trail and 400 on the street. Brighter also makes your eyes do weird things as you try to look around and they can't adjust right, so my super powered light means it lasts for a long time on the lower modes I use, but you can buy something much cheaper if you're ok with charging more frequently. I had planned to get one of the smaller drive lights which have a lower max lumens, but got a deal on the 1300 so went with that.
My rear light is a lezyne zecto, which I really like because one of the options is to have two of the LEDs blink and one be steady. Blinky attracts attention, but isn't good for helping people judge distance (and I want cars to know where I am!) so the steady one presumably helps with that. I am not certain with the new zecto design if this is still an option however. I know knockoffs of these are available for much less on amazon.
I considered and ultimately decided not to get this one: https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-rear-bike-lights/products/laser-drive-rear because I hate having to adjust the rear light between the trail and roads and I wouldn't want the lines on the trail distracting people, but for your desired high visibility it seems very good?
(You can often find "new but damaged packaging" for lezyne stuff if you haunt eBay and get a discount)
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@SRLevine and anyone else who wants to chime in - what should I look for in reflectors and bike lights (to enhance visibility from other vehicles, not to illuminate the path)? Do you have any favorites?
@AngelaPreston @SRLevine that’s a good question for #bikenite, which happens every Friday at 4pm pacific time, 7pm eastern
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@AngelaPreston For reflectors anything with the 3M reflective stuff is really good, even a little bit of light and it gets picked up (I've spotted walkers on the trail based on a tab on their shoes when they were otherwise in dark clothing in the dark that's how good the stuff is). One of the easiest options is to buy the loops that go around your ankles, which keep your pants out of the way and are also reflective. They are made of velcro and have a strip of the reflective stuff running through the middle.
For lights: get something either rechargeable or get a set of rechargeable batteries if it uses AA/AAA. If you ride a lot at night bright lights go through batteries really, really fast. The best light is one that you have with you and you will use. I like lezyne because their default attachment is essentially a giant rubber band thing so it's very flexible for handlebar sizes/styles, but it is a brand you pay a premium for and it might be overkill for you.
My front headlight is a lezyne macro drive 1300XXL, but I've found that anything over 400 is really blinding to pedestrians and even 400 is a problem on trails. I'll use 200 on a trail and 400 on the street. Brighter also makes your eyes do weird things as you try to look around and they can't adjust right, so my super powered light means it lasts for a long time on the lower modes I use, but you can buy something much cheaper if you're ok with charging more frequently. I had planned to get one of the smaller drive lights which have a lower max lumens, but got a deal on the 1300 so went with that.
My rear light is a lezyne zecto, which I really like because one of the options is to have two of the LEDs blink and one be steady. Blinky attracts attention, but isn't good for helping people judge distance (and I want cars to know where I am!) so the steady one presumably helps with that. I am not certain with the new zecto design if this is still an option however. I know knockoffs of these are available for much less on amazon.
I considered and ultimately decided not to get this one: https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-rear-bike-lights/products/laser-drive-rear because I hate having to adjust the rear light between the trail and roads and I wouldn't want the lines on the trail distracting people, but for your desired high visibility it seems very good?
(You can often find "new but damaged packaging" for lezyne stuff if you haunt eBay and get a discount)
@SRLevine Thank you Sam! That is extremely helpful.
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@AngelaPreston @SRLevine that’s a good question for #bikenite, which happens every Friday at 4pm pacific time, 7pm eastern
@grammasaurus Thank you!
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@SRLevine and anyone else who wants to chime in - what should I look for in reflectors and bike lights (to enhance visibility from other vehicles, not to illuminate the path)? Do you have any favorites?
@AngelaPreston @SRLevine I found these spoke reflectors to be really super reflective: https://www.bikelaneuprising.com/product-page/reflective-bike-spoke-covers
Also find these light pedals from RedShift to really enhance visibility from multiple angles: https://redshiftsports.com/products/arclight-pedals
The most reflective vest that I have is from GoFluo: https://us.gofluo.com
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@AngelaPreston @SRLevine I found these spoke reflectors to be really super reflective: https://www.bikelaneuprising.com/product-page/reflective-bike-spoke-covers
Also find these light pedals from RedShift to really enhance visibility from multiple angles: https://redshiftsports.com/products/arclight-pedals
The most reflective vest that I have is from GoFluo: https://us.gofluo.com
