Night Cycling - safety and lights

[Riverman]

I feel quite comfortable riding on singletrack lanes at night. The advantage is you can see cars coming a long way off since you can often see the approaching lights as a glow above the hedges, even around what might be a blind bend in daylight.

grante but even then there's no guarantee they won't mow you down anyway unless you're hugging the hedge lol.

I guess I'd also be worried I might start daydreaming erm night dreaming? and not notice the lights in the distance..

 

[Flying Dodo]

Riverman - for the external pack, I just got one of the 6 x AA holders from Maplins, with 5 AA's in (and a blank for the misssing one), so as they're rechargeable batteries, it gives about 7.5v, which then sits in an old Smart light battery holder on the top tube. A bit of wire then running to the lights which have small holes drilled in, and then soldered onto the contacts.

That gives me around 5-6 hours run time.

 

[psmiffy]

Im a believer in being seen - most of the time its cycling in a urban enviroment under street lighting so I am not bothered about seeing where I am going - At the rear which I consider to be most importent (very few post have mentioned this - If you are going to get hit this is where its going to come from) two Cateye LD1100 red flashing lights, at the front two Cateye EL5300 - all of which have amazing battery life. My experiences as a driver lead me to believe that at dusk a flashing LED at the front is very visible - so one of those as well - not used in the dark as I find it interferes with my night vision

On tour - my motto is DO NOT CYCLE AT NIGHT, however it does not work like that, so - Rear two Cateye LD1100 red flashing lights mounted on the panniers supplemented by two small 3LED lights mounted on the rack - I find the flashing rears are quite good in the daytime in bad weather at keeping the traffic away from me - it seems that when they are on I get at least an extra couple of metres of space. At the front two Cateye EL5300s (produce a nice pool of light that its difficult with a loaded bike to outrun) plus a 1W LED head torch for map reading and road signs - sometimes useful for dipping/nodding head to get drivers to put their main beams down

All supplemented by refective tape and tyrewalls so that I am visible from the side

For off road I have a 12V godzillion watt Xenon beam that will produce a small spot on the moon

Generally I avoid any thing that is rechargable and I cannot pop into a garage and refill with batteries

 

[Fab Foodie]

Riverman - for the external pack, I just got one of the 6 x AA holders from Maplins, with 5 AA's in (and a blank for the misssing one), so as they're rechargeable batteries, it gives about 7.5v, which then sits in an old Smart light battery holder on the top tube. A bit of wire then running to the lights which have small holes drilled in, and then soldered onto the contacts.

That gives me around 5-6 hours run time.

FD, if that's what you ran on the chilly night-ride from Oxford to Paddington, I can vouch for their brightness, I thought you had something far more exotic on board.

 

[Flying Dodo]

FD, if that's what you ran on the chilly night-ride from Oxford to Paddington, I can vouch for their brightness, I thought you had something far more exotic on board.

Yup - it's not bad for £20!

However, on that occasion I was in fact running it off a dynamo, which isn't as bright as the batteries, plus I had a dodgy earth contact which meant at times it was running even dimmer. So you would have been blinded if I'd been on a fully charged battery pack.

 

[Randochap]

Sorry Rando, but I'm going to dispute your dispute.

Well, the important thing Foodie is that your lighting set-up inspires your confidence. If you can ride at 20 mph safely, it sounds decent.

However, my on-bike lighting system completely obliterates any ambient light coming from the Tikka at road level, so that tells me you aren't getting anywhere near the kind of light I get from my system, otherwise you wouldn't be able to comment on the Tikka output.

Anyway, it's not my intention to get into a "mine's better than yours" confab.

Whatever works for you. It certainly sounds as though it's good enough for your purposes and to get you seen.

My needs are different in that I need a system that runs a long time and I don't like messing w/ batteries.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Cheers Randochap. I'm not disputing that there are better lighting systems available, there undoubtably are. But the point I was trying to make is that the Tesco 3w torches are pretty amazing and cheap way to get into some serious lighting, beyond Cateye for a tenner. If there is a fault I guess that it's a narrowish beam, which is great for lighting the road-up a lot of yards ahead, the downside is that there is an area right in front of the bike poorly lit and the Tikka plus seems to do an excellent enough job at bridging the gap... for me at least! I don't feel knowingly underlit and the Tesco torches are very good at slowing cars down too! Always an advantage on narrow roads.

 

[Riverman]

Are these the ones?
http://direct.tesco.com/product/images/?R=203-8191

 

[Jim_Noir]

I learnt my lesson with lights. When I started to cycle to work and back it was in the dark. About a mile and a 1/4 of the trip is on a country road with no lights. Cheap lights from Argos don't do anything bar let others see you. I also had a a set fly off one night when I went over a bump! I got a decent set from my LBS, not had to really use them at night so no idea ho well they light up the road. I'll 2nd that point that cycling at night is a great buzz.

 

[Steve Austin]

I used to ride with a cateye doubleshot which was fine, but now use a Hope Vision II which is quite amazing.

The Tesco torches I have still get used and mainly on the road, but if I ever need to go out off-road then the Tesco torches work fine for that too. The run time isn't that great, and they can be a pain to mount, but they work very well, and give enough light for me to ride around the woods at near 30mph.

 

[grhm]

Are these the ones?
http://direct.tesco.com/product/images/?R=203-8191

Kinda. I believe it's the smaller variant powered by 2xAA batteries that most are talking about. The above is powered by large "D" batteries. I believe there is also a "C" battery variant.

I think I read somewhere on here that the "AA" variant is no available on-line (I certainly couldn't find it when I looked). I also semm to recall someone on here saying they had one AA and one C torch and found the C variant gives a wider beam.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Kinda. I believe it's the smaller variant powered by 2xAA batteries that most are talking about. The above is powered by large "D" batteries. I believe there is also a "C" battery variant.

I think I read somewhere on here that the "AA" variant is no available on-line (I certainly couldn't find it when I looked). I also semm to recall someone on here saying they had one AA and one C torch and found the C variant gives a wider beam.

Agreed, its the AA version that most go for and the ones that I use.

 

[Randochap]

they work very well, and give enough light for me to ride around the woods at near 30mph.

Wow! That's impressive lighting and offroad speed. You da bomb!

 

[Steve Austin]

gee thanks rando