Favorite ways to light up your bike in the winter?
Where I live, it'll soon be dark by 16:30. I have a good headlight and an ok taillight on my winter ride but I'd like to add some fun, funky lights for added visibility and lolz. There's a lot of crap out there especially on Amazon, what have you all had good experiences with?
A friend of mine put christmas lights on the wheels.
Saw these cool hi-viz LED harnesses on a runner once. That one had a rainbow changing pattern. Looked very cool in the dark.
Edit: The thin straps were LED and changed color too, as well as the big bulky piece on the chest and back.
I'm considering getting some cheap USB-powered lights on eBay to wrap my frame for Christmas and New Year's. I'll run them off of a phone power bank. Will definitely post pictures if I do it.
Something like this:
Free standing room lamp with diffuser, really helps keep the glare off the zwift screen
For me I'll only ever run red lights on the rear and white lights on the front, lights are there for your safety primarily and other road users need to know which direction you are facing and travelling in. I dont want to be a Christmas tree.
I've always found the best way to be seen is to have a light or combination of lights that have an always on elements as well as some kind of flash. The always on element so that you are never in the dark from any direction between a flash and a flash pattern that has a random element. Anything that has a constant predictable flash is likely to be ignored, not always intentionally by the people you want to be seen by due to the predictable nature.
Added on top I have a good reflective jacket and for the cold winter months I wear bib tights that have reflective patches on the legs as well which adds another moving lit up area.
I'll never understand people who run white lights on the rear of their bikes.
Your reply is, from the perspective of a driver and a cyclist, the best advice.
I'd add that if you can afford it a jacket from proviz is an absolute life saver - as soon as any light hits then in the dark you become a beacon.
I use this Resolute Bay jacket -
So I hopefully I stand out fairly well along with all the lights that I run day and night.
I've never understood why people wear black and have little or no lights. Half the people driving are not paying enough attention to other cars, let alone cyclists, even in broad daylight. The more seen and predictable in terms of where I'm travelling I can be, the better!
Where I live it is the law that you have red on the rear, white on the front and amber on the sides of any mode of transport you use. Not that is is enforced properly unfortunately.
Yes, a front and rear light are on my bike (pretty much all year).
But I LOVE the reflective sidewalls on Schwalbe tires! You just have to be sure to give them a good cleaning once in a while, especially during dirty winters.
Free standing room lamp with diffuser, really helps keep the glare off the zwift screen
Get a toplight on your helmet (combined front and back light) leave it on there, except when it needs charging so that you ALWAYS have a light available. It's surprisingly easy to forget your other lights in the morning.
I set the toplight to flash, so wherever you look, there is a flashing light. The amount of times I 'surprise' a driver who is about to pull out, just by looking at them has probably saved me a lot of grief over the years.
Haven’t lit up my bike before, but I would assume gasoline would do the trick