A Guide to Lights on Your Bike - How to See and Be Seen

A basic item that you really need to have if you are riding in darkness. is a handlebar-mounted headlight. In most cases, these are intended simply to make you more visible to others, as opposed to illuminating your path. Having a strobe option (like many lights do) is always a nice idea since I'm convinced that a flashing light is more noticeable to drivers than a solid beam. Plus it's easier on batteries and doesn't get lost in the glare of other headlights. Additionally, for simplicity in your life, consider getting a headlight paired with a dynamo that provides it with juice. With one of those, you never have to worry about batteries since the light is powered solely by your bike's motion.

Things to consider in assessing headlights:

• What type of battery does it use?
  
• Are the batteries rechargable?
  
• How many hours of run time does the light have before draining the batteries?

Halogen and LED bulbs are both good choices for delivering strong, bright light. Expect to pay $25 and up for lights that allow you to be seen by drivers; more ($100+) for stronger lights to help you see, i.e., strong illumination for your path as you go down the road.

For additional visibility, a real plus is to wear a helmet-mounted light. These are good since on your head they sit up higher, lifted up above much of the automobile traffic, making it less likely to get lost in the stream of car headlights. Plus since a helmet-mounted light points in the direction that you look, it's effective at grabbing drivers' attention with the bright beam pointing directly at them as you approach.

By law, riding after dark not only do you need a white light on the front, but you also need a rear red light on your bike as well. Though most lights have a solid red setting, I prefer a blinking red light as a more an effective way to make yourself visible as people approach from behind. Depending on how your bike is set up, you can mount the red light on a fender, on your seat post or on your rack or trunk bag. Most tail lights run on either one or two AA batteries, and last for several hundred hours.

Like a front white light mounted on your helmet, attaching a red blinking light to the back is another good idea. It's an easy way to keep you safer, and the lights generally clip on to the helmet pretty easily. The light is lifted up higher, again making you more visible to motorists. If you can't find a way to clip the light on your helmet, attaching it to the collar of your jacket or on a backpack or messenger bag will achieve the same result.

As a bonus tip, beyond just lights if you really want to be seen, you want to get yourself the brightest colored reflective vest or jacket you can find. Though it may feel just a touch dorky the first time you wear it, your goal is to be as visible to motorists as possible. A bonus is that when you're not riding, you can also wear these vests to direct traffic, go deer hunting or just pick up trash alongside the road.

When you combine that with a reflective strap worn around your ankle or calf, you're really jamming. The strap is designed to pick up lights from headlights, and the fact that it's moving up and down when you pedal makes it that much more visible to others.