$26 Rechargeable Bicycle Headlight

These $26 lights ship from China and are a copy of a copy of a fairly decent lighting system. A friend posted information about this setup on Facebook, he and his cronies are all great riders and they say they love this system ... so I thought I'd give it a try.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140842626907 

Bike Bicycle T6 LED Light HeadLight CREE XML XM-L HeadLamp 1200LM Blue

Adding this $3.95 Wide-Angle Lens changes the focused beam into a horizontally wide and bright beam that provides good visibility in front of you and about 30 degrees to either side of center ... which is nice when cycling into turns.

www.action-led-lights.com

I've done about 10 rides in total darkness with this setup on my CX bike and ... the system works. It's bright enough to ride very fast on the road, it's good in the woods and the system's unfazed by rain.

It seems to last a while too. I've run it on high for 2+ hours and it's still going strong when I've returned home. The recharger is a slow charger with an LED light on it that's red when charging and turns green when the battery is fully charged.

The glowing button on the back turns the light on and switches it between three brightness levels.

If you're looking for a really great lighting system with good customer support, a warranty, customer service and all of those really nice and important things ... visit your local bike shop. They will set you up with a lighting system that's designed for your riding needs and they will take care of you before, during and after the sale.

However, if money is tight and you want to ride at night, this bargain system with zero-frills packaging, no customer service and probably no warranty may help you ride more and more safely than without lights.

Light up the *DAY* with a PDW Radbot 1000 &/or Planet Bike Superflash Turbo [Bike Month v12#1]

We all know that when riding at night bicyclists can dramatically increase their visibility with lights ... but what about during the day?

Does bicycle lighting increase the visibility of cyclists during the light of day?

Thanks to recent innovations in high visibility bicycle lighting the answer is "Yes!"

When cyclists ride with high visibility lighting, even on a sunny day, motorists are able to see them sooner, which gives the driver more time to react and choose when to safely overtake the cyclist.

Here's a video I created this morning that depicts two low-cost super high visibility bicycle rear lights - the Planet Bike SuperFlash Turbo and the Portland Design Works RadBot 1000.

Tangent - in this video I mention that I bought my commuter bike for $50 on Craigslist. Coincidentally, it has been costing around $50 each time the tank needs to be filled on the wagon in front of the bike. Get bike. Have fun getting around on it. Save $$ :)

Portland Design Works (www.ridepdw.com) "The Radbot has one directive: to defend you and your bike from rear collisions."



Planet Bike (www.planetbike.com) I love that Planet Bike is expressly marketing this light for daytime use :)


"I didn't see them."

These four words are the most common response given when a motorist has hit a cyclist.

The great news is that cyclists can take steps to enormously increase their daytime & nighttime visibility.

Please join me in lighting up the day by equipping your bicycles with high visibility lighting and turning it on every time you ride - night and day :)