Cycling Sisters

You can never be too visible when on a bike!

If you've ever driven a car at night only to be surprised by a pedestrian or cyclist who seems to appear out of nowhere, you begin to see what I mean. City streets have tons of distracting lights that flash or reflect. Oncoming cars have headlights that literally drown small blinkies in the contrast. Older drivers have pupils that dilate slower making picking out a dark cyclist even more difficult. Young drivers are often inexperienced and inattentive. Many drivers seem to multitask, talking on the phone, eating a hamburger, and adjusting the radio at the same time they should be focusing on the road. Bad weather can creat blind spots for drivers due to windshield wipers that only clear part of the glass.

So what's a girl to do?

MAKE YOURSELF GLOW IN THE DARK! Literally.

All bikes are sold with a basic reflector kit: both wheels, both pedals, front white and rear red.

If you pick up a bike second hand, your first stop should be the bike shop to get kitted out with these simple lifesavers. The next safety feature should be a front headlight and a rear blinkie. These are the minimum in my opinion. Many municipalities require front and rear lights for night riding (including Chicago), and you can be ticketed for not complying with the law.

You can pick up very good reflectors at most car part stores.

Amber is the most visible to car headlights, so consider them before even red if you are retrofitting your bike. Large amber ovals cost about $3/pair. These are great for attaching to your rear rack, milk crate, fender or seat bag. You can wire them on, use zip ties, electrical tape or even sew them with carpet thread to attach.

There are many, many different styles of blinkies out there.

Some mount to your helmet, others to your arm or leg, most mount to your bike frame (and have some sort of quick release so you can remove them when locking up in a public place). Keep in mind that brighter is better. Play with the samples in your local bike shop to get an idea of which have the best visiblity. Some blinkies are nearly blinding--go for 'em!

Take note: most serious bicycle crashes are FRONT end collisions.

You absolutly need a front light. There are small white or amber blinkies that you can buy which are fine for trails or riding a quiet side street but which provide little or no visiblity on city streets. Flashlights can be attached to your handlebars with a rubber band looped around either end. These are acceptable in a pinch. Better are LED lights that mount to your helmet or handlebars. Best are the extremely powerful H.I.D., lithium, halogen, and high-power LED lights. You can pay a pretty penny for HID and halogen systems, but they do provide huge visibility while on the road. These are rechargeable but have a short battery life (usually 2-3 hours per charge). I personally use a CatEye Compact Opticube handlebar light that has a flashing mode, lasts a long time on a set of batteries, can be rotated, and provides good visibility for the price (http://www.cateye.com/en/product_detail/341). For city riding, where streets are well-lit at night, the blinking option is better than a steady light. You are more noticeable to cars that way.

Safety vests can be a great addition to your basic kit.

These can be bought at any bike shop or running store. They are also readily available online. If you ride at night with any regularity, look into vests that meet ANSI class II or III compliance. These provide wrap around visibility (unlike running vests which typically work frontward and backward only). Do a google search for "ANSI vest" and you'll find dozens of sites that sell these for reasonable prices. I wear my safety vest most of the time because of the year-round visibility it provides me. It's especially helpful for riding in the fog, in snow or light rain, or at dusk (notoriously the most dangerous time for cyclists on the road).

There are also many hi-visibility clothing options out there.

Day-Glow t-shirts, jerseys, windbreakers, etc can make you stand out from background 'noise.' Illuminite jerseys are fine for dark country riding, but I've found them to be less than optimal in city conditions. Save your money for a that hi-viz yellow jacket that works in both day and night conditions.

Sarah Kaplan tipped me onto

Glo-Gloves

(http://www.gloglov.com) These are lightweight, *super-visible* safety gloves that you can wear alone or over another glove (including winter gloves). I cannot rave enough about this product. They make hand signals 100% more visible to drivers--day or night! I get way more respect when I ride in the loop with these on then when I don't have them. Just like with the safety vests, check around online with a google search to find the cheapest venue. You can probably find a good vest at the same time and save on shipping costs.

Finally,

your bike itself can be turned into a visibility aid.

There are many, many products that you can use to increase your presence on the road. Reflective tape is inexpensive and can be bought at car part stores, hardware stores, bike shops and online. You can decorate your helmet, bike frame, fenders, rack, etc. to your heart's content. Reflective tape comes in red, amber, yellow, orange, and white/silver (Illuminite brand).

Another cool product is

Light weights (www.lightweights.org);

these are small pieces of reflective tape that you mount to your wheel spokes. They provide excellent visibility yet are extremely small and well, light. Your entire wheel becomes a reflector. Even better they are made in Chicago and profits go to support child welfare programs.

My favorite wheel product has got to be

Hokey spokes.

Oh, how I love these things! Thay are completely over the top, but they are a wonder to behold. I call them my "party lights." :-D (www.hokeyspokes.com) Not only do they make you visible, but they look sooo coool. Not for the faint hearted nor if you are light in the pocket. A bunch of people from bikewinter and Critical Mass got together last year to do a group purchase that allowed us to get them at the wholesale price. My husband got me 8 as my Christmas gift. Gotta love a man who knows his woman.

Other neat wheel lights include Tireflys and Reflectz.

These mount to your spokes or your stem valve. www.tireflys.com New tireflys come in funky shapes like skulls or flowers.

There are many, many options for making yourself show up while riding. Don't hesitate to explore any and all of the above.