To this end we find reflectors important, but too little too late as the swift grill of pontiac justice bares down us only to realize at the last moment in shades of the black night the completeness of their actions.
To this end we blink. We glow. We shine.
Blink.
While highly annoying on the myspace page, the blinking effect is highly effective in getting motorists attention. Hopefully, bicyclists should realize that a front white light and a back red blinking light are essentials to riding at night. There are numerous different flavors of both varieties, and while the freebee lights that you get by attending a SLC bicycle festival are neat, they are quick to break and don't hold up well.
Planet Bike Super Flash blinkys are a becoming quite the popular item, but as with all safety matters, don't go with the cool kids that smoke, go with what after school programs have taught you. Most bicycle shops carry a wide variety. My vote goes for Fishers Cyclery on this one.
After you are done with the front and back lights, its time to set your bike up with the art of LED. Above and center is the often most circulated led project. However, I didn't get instructs on those instructables for the SpokePOV: LED Bike Wheel Images. If you create the creation known as SpokePOV: LED Bike Wheel, then you will be the greatest thing to Salt Lake City Bicycle Culture since Dave Z Day. In fact, if you figure those instructables out we should hold an unofficial (so its cool like Critical Mass) Tour of Lights. (Bonus points if you get a spoke pattern in the shape of a caricature of a famous political head.)
For everyone else we have Hokey Spokes. Why they are called 'Hokey Spokes' is still beyond me, as they remind me of this. So what is this alien device that sounds as though it belongs on a horse rather than your noble steed, the bike? I asked CycleSmith to consider stocking these, but I'd myself be damned to stock something with 'Hokey' in the title if I owned a bike shop. The Japanese Manufactures call their version LexLED. Now that is classy.
More details on the hokey spokes website.
Other illuminating options for your bike:
Bicygnals
Rock the Bike downlowglow. A bit spendy. (consult local glowers instead)
Instructables: bike light
..and leading up to the next topic Instructables: glow
Glow. http://www.glopaint.com/ offer some amazing technology of the spray and paint on kind. However, it is the near future of glopaint that looks truly spectacular. They are creating a non-toxic glowing light source known as Lithospheres that emit light continuously for 12 plus years without any exposure to light or other energy. Imagine having a bicycle painted with this material. The cost to light up a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of plastic 1/8" thick is about .35 cents.
While the spectacular awaits in the distant future, stop by and glow spray paint your bike and accessories in array of blue, red, green, orange, purple, yellow or pink. For every item you have painted, you expose it to light for 15 minutes and it will glow in the dark.
Rain riders, snow travelers and general Utah folk might try for a waterproof variety, however I imagine spray paint will stick and stay reasonably well. You will just need to reapply a new coat to avoid that awkward forty year old going gray look where everyone knows your have lost your glow but you are covering it up.
Biking on, we encounter the Bicycle Warriors of Portland, offer reflective tape and other glowing odds and ends for you to look at in the bikeportland forum.
Glow technology impersonal? Perhaps you can use the cat glow technology.
Shine.
While corny, entirely necessary is improving the ability of a cyclists so that they can 'shine' and be seen simply by how they ride their bikes. Whether you ride for recreation or for work, if you don't manage well in the day, the night will bring out the demon steel traps - (D.S.T.s) all about you.
"The concept you have to keep in mind is that you want to establish your identity as you catch the driver's eye so they know what you are. Motorcycle research shows that if you want to be seen on a motorcycle there is one thing that beats daytime headlights, orange vests, flags, big windshields or any other device -- be a cop! It turns out that drivers usually see a police motorcycle. We have asked motorcycle cops and they agreed, although there are exceptions. So you are not just trying to catch an eye. You are really trying to register on a driver's brain that you are a vehicle moving on the road, and establish that you are a bicycle so that the driver has some idea of what your speed and position on the roadway are likely to be. Often you are doing that in the midst of incredible urban light clutter from other vehicles, traffic signs, streetlights, commercial signage, porch lights, windows and many other sources."
-http://www.helmets.org/lights.htm
Be that shining citizen, the cop, that people see and people respect out at night. Tacky yes.. but if you demand the authority to be seen it will increase your chances of survival in this time known as night.
Thats all I have to say about that. Looks like you survived this far. Don't go maiming yourself into oblivion on account of blind drivers. Wake them up with lights of all flavors. It would be less than amusing to add another name to the long list of individuals killed by motorists.
Blink. Glow. Shine.
Thanks for posting this. Whilst driving in my car a while back I stopped and yelled at a kid on a bike-- wearing all black, black bike, no reflectors on a dark street. Give me a break-- for six bucks you can get a blinky light at Smith's!
ReplyDeleteI myself rock the Mars blinky.
I recall once being yelled @ by a motorist that I shouldn't be wearing all black/dark colors while riding at night, despite having an excellent front light and solid red blinking back light. So I hope I blink enough at night that you won't yell at me. :) The SLC Bike Collective sometimes have some cheap blinkys too..
ReplyDelete