Bicycle Touring 101: Reflecting the light

Three shots of me riding my Icebike. Yes that really is snow on the ground!
I will try to remember to take some night shots of me riding the bike at night during my next tour.
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Ask people who tour and you will rapidly discover that most of them never tour at night. In a lot of ways this is a smart choice because riding a bicycle at night is considered to be more dangerous then riding one in the daytime.

I will readily and quite officially admit that I have toured at night. Generally it happens on a day when I feel like putting some distance under the wheels or perhaps I've had a late start or a long lunch. Another reason is not finding a reasonable place to camp yet. For all these reasons I carry two bicycle lights, a helmet light and two rear LED lights.

When I ride at night the biggest complement that can be paid to me is that I glow in the dark. That's my goal and on the five or six occassions when it's been voiced it's made my evening! My bike has reflective tape installed and one item on my criteria list for bags is that they have reflective strips and preferably a place to mount a rear light.

Although touring is the primary purpose of this web site this article refers to touring, commuting, joy riding and any other type of night time bicycling.

My touring lights!
Top Left - Vistalite rear LED
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In the picture above you can see that I rely on lights and reflective tape to help me be seen. I have two battery powered rear LED lights that I always leave in constantly on mode. The batteries wear down faster but I've heard that drunk drivers tend to be attracted to things that blink. While I have no idea how true this is I have also discovered that the lights seem brighter when left constantly on.

Part of my battery changing strategy for lights is to change the batteries at different times whenever possible. This way if one light has dead batteries hopefully a second light can still get me home.

On tour if riding at night I will typically wear the Goretex jacket you see in the pictures above. Sure it's a little warmer especially on a hot summer night but the jacket really improves my visibility so a bit of heat is well worth being seen.

The picture to the right shows the lights I use when on tour. All three lights are LEDs.

The Cat Eye is a light that is very visible to oncoming drivers while giving me some light to navigate with. A nice feature is the flexible mounting strap. I typically mount one light on each side of the drop handlebar close to where the brakes are located. This avoids conflict with the handlebar bag while providing a lot of visibility from multiple angles.

The Vistalite is currently my preferred rear and front LED. I carry one front and two rear LED lights on tour. I find the light not only very visible when compared to other models but surprisingly inexpensive as well!

Jakub riding his bike in simulated dark mode. He rode with his lights off on purpose on an empty and very safe multi-use trail to help pass the message.

He normally has the lights on, fresh batteries and soon he intends to cover the several thousand feet of buckets with reflective tape!
Click to enlarge.

The Petzel headlamp is a fantastic light to have. Mine fastens very quickly, easily and securely to my bicycle helmet when I need it as well as being an incredible light to use when cooking dinner, writing journal entries, reading a book or doing some late night bicycle maintenance. In addition to the normal clear shield that comes with it by default you can also obtain other coloured shields like yellow and red.

The picture to the left shows Jakub Ner riding his bike with his lights turned off but wearing a typical construction workers vest.

As you can see in the picture the vest is somewhat visible, the rear light with no power isn't a great reflector and if you look carefully you can see a small slice of reflective sidewalls from his Schwalbe tires.

He is more visible that many people who ride at night with no lights or reflective tape whatsoever.

Compare the picture of me on my bike to the one where Jakub is riding. Which one is more visible? Which one is more likely to be seen at night?

Sometimes you hear people mention the extra weight of carrying the lights. Fair enough. I think that my extra lights add two to three pounds to the load.

In exchange for that minor burden I receive more clearance when cars pass me at night and peace of mind knowing that I am much more visible.