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 :)

Bike Month Day 25: Man bicycles himself out of high blood pressure!

John suffered from high blood pressure. He was prescribed medication to a try to reduce it to a safe level, but it wasn't working.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the dangers associated with high blood pressure are numerous and both life and quality of life threatening. (I've copied a list of some these dangers to the end of this post - click here to visit the Mayo Clinic website for more details.)

One month ago John's car died, which may seem unfortunate, but as it turns out ... the death of John's car was very agreeable to John's heart.

Without a car, John began bicycling to get around, and in the video below John shares what happened:

John joyfully spoke to the staff at East Coasters about his new bicycling life. I caught up with him as he was leaving and John was nice enough to talk to me all about bicycling too, and ...

I noticed that John had equipped his bike with Dinotte bicycle lighting. I'm a bicycle hi-vis lighting geek, and I'd heard about the super-bright ultra-high visibilty (and expensive) Dinotte lighting, but I'd never seen a set in person.

Since John is riding on the roads all the time I'm really happy and feel safe knowing my new found cycling friend has invested in this incredible lighting system.

Check out this video to see just how impressive John's Dinotte 400L lighting system is:

So, if like John, you've got high blood pressure, I hope you find some comfort in this post ... in knowing that a fun resolution could be as simple as enjoying bicycling to get around.

And if you will be bicycling, please consider running ultra-high visibility lighting day and night to help keep you safe :)


Here are some of the Dangers Associated with High Blood Pressure (from www.mayoclinic.com):

• Artieries 
• Artery damage and narrowing. 
• Aneurysm. 
• Heart 
• Coronary artery disease. 
• Left Ventricular Hypertrophy - thickening or stiffening of the left ventricle which increases your risk of heart attack, heart failure and sudden cardiac death. 
• Heart Failure 
• Brain 
• Transient ischemic attack (TIA). 
• Stroke 
• Dementia 
• Mild Cognitive Impairment 
• Kidneys 
• Failure 
• Scarring 
• Kidney Artery Aneurysm 
• Eyes 
• Blood Vessel Damage 
• Fluid Build up Under the Retina 
• Sexual Dysfunction 
• Erectile Dysfunction 
• Decreased Sexual Desire / Arousal 
• Vaginal Dryness 
• Difficulty Achieving Orgasm

what the heck is that?!

i bet some people think or exclaim those words when they're approaching our xtracycle (sport utility bicycle) from behind because of this:

i take being seen, especially by distracted motorists, very seriously for lots of reasons ...

these BIG reasons

& her

& her

and all my beloved family & friends. plus i really enjoy being alive and well, and ...

because i care about motorists too. drivers don't want to hit bicyclists, it's horrible for everyone when accidents occur, but the fact is that cyclists are the smallest and least visible users of the roads, so at times it can be hard for even good, alert drivers to see us.

by using the ultra-high-visibility bicycle lighting that's now both available and inexpensive, we protect ourselves and our loved ones and we make it easier for motorists to safely share the roads with us.

my top three ultra-high-visibility lighting pics are:

#1 - PDW Radbot 1000

#2 - Blackburn Mars 4.0

#3 - Planet Bike Superflash

i own all three of these, and another new model that i'm anxious to try is the Planet Bike Superflash Turbo which doubles the light output of the already awesome Superflash.