With the end of daylight savings time, a discussion of bike lights seems to occur every time I talk to anybody who has ever seen a bike or more likely not seen one. We get spoiled here in Michigan, being on the western edge of the time zone and being annoyingly closer to the north pole than other Americans, we have long late daylight most of the year. While I almost always use a Planet Bike SuperFlash for a rear light, I depend on a white Blackburn Click as a head light around town for most of the year. It makes me legal and visible when caught out after dark and that is what I really want in the city.
People seem to think that is inadequate but I think the lighting issue is overexposed. In the city the challenge is to be seen, and not be one of those stealth dummies out there in black hoodies riding around without reflectors or anything.
Even on a poorly lit residential street, dyno driven headlights get absorbed in the ambient brilliance of our cities, and provide little help actually seeing. Now on a darkened country road,
like this pathway in the middle of a park
a dyno powered LED like the Spanninga that I use, is very helpful to illuminate the road
while the battery operated Blackburn Click is virtually worthless. But
provides a lot more safety around town. It's especially good on flashing mode, because we all know
that drivers are like little children, they notice bright flashy things.
Now I don't mean to knock any particular type of light, there are great battery powered, dyno powered, halogen and LED lights out there. I just think that being visible should be the first concern in town. I highly recommend the website of Peter White Cycles. Peter has made himself an expert and distributor of most really good lighting systems. There is a wealth of information on his site, and great photos comparing different products on the market.
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