If you ever ride outside daylight hours (perhaps you aren’t a professional cyclist and have a job that eats up all those beautiful hours of sunlight…) then lights are the most important accessory you can get for your bike. They allow you to see what’s on the road in front of you AND make you visible to other users of the road. There is a dizzying array of options available and it is easy to get lost. Here are a few tips that will help you select the perfect light for your bike.
Where do you ride?
The first question you want to ask yourself when looking for a bike light, is where do I do most of my after-dark riding? If you mainly stick to city riding, where you can rely on streetlights for ambient lighting, your main concern is being seen by the distracted, inattentive operators of the two ton pieces of metal that you share the road with. You will want to make sure you and your bike are easily visible from all sides to avoid being t-boned by someone coming out of a driveway or intersection.
On the other hand, if you are riding in the country or anywhere else where ambient lighting is poor, you want to make sure the light you pick is bright enough to give you a clear view of the road ahead. Once you know the conditions you will be riding in, you can think about the lights that will work best for you.
Reflectors
Before we start talking about lights, it is worth mentioning reflectors. Reflectors conjure up images of those silly looking things you used to put on your bike as a kid, and often get forgotten in discussions of bike lighting, but they are a cheap and easy way to increase your visibility to drivers. A lot of bike clothing comes with reflective tape sewn in, but you can supplement this with reflective velcro patches, arm and leg bands and adhesive tape. I especially like sticking reflective tape on my bike – a roll is super cheap, and you can put it everywhere!
Headlights
If you are riding in the city, you can get by with pretty much any headlight from a reputable brand, but nicer models come with some pretty cool features. My go-to headlight is the Cygolite Metro 360. It is bright enough to illuminate the road well in darker areas; it is USB rechargeable so I don’t have to worry about keeping a supply of batteries handy; and it is water-resistant. It also has a nifty SteadyPulse mode that combines road visibility with an attention-grabbing strobe.
If you are relying on your headlight to see where you are going, however, something with a little more light output is desirable. Most people I know settle on a minimum of 500 lumens light output. In addition to the power, you want to consider the light’s beam pattern – a super-bright but narrow beam is much less useful than a wider beam that gives you a better view of your surroundings.
You might be interested in: Best Road Bike Lights
Tail lights
Your tail light is what keeps you visible to cars coming up from behind that you can’t see. I like to use the brightest tail-light I can find for this reason – mine is the Cygolite Hotshot, which has a 2 Watt LED bulb. I haven’t found anything brighter for a reasonable price, and it has the added bonus of being USB rechargeable and water-resistant. If you are riding outside the city I would add a secondary taillight – set one blinking and one solid. In very dark conditions, it can be hard for drivers to gauge distance to a blinking light. A dual set-up like this catches their attention with a bright blinking light, and allows them to track exactly where you are with the solid light.
Supplemental Lights
In addition to the standard head-light tail-light combo, many people like to add supplementary lighting to their bike to increase their visibility. These can be anything from a bunch of small tail-lights strapped to different spots on the bike, to strips of led lights laced into wheels or stuck onto your frame. As long as the lights don’t pose a safety risk (like coming loose and getting stuck in a wheel) then you can add whatever you want – the more lights, the more visible you are! Light up your bike!