GEAR

No, it's not a merchandise shop (yet, anyway :-) but what you'll find here, instead, is info about the gear you need for riding at night, be it for social rides or general transport. While the laws governing night cycling vary from place to place, the best gear will easily meet most legal requirements. So apart from the usual bicycle, you'll need the following to ride by night safely and legally...

HELMETS

OK, don't bitch at me, I know these lumps of styrofoam and acrylic can cause holy wars. Just the same, in some places they're mandatory, and at night, they're not a bad idea. Even with reflectives, you'll still get the odd motorist so engrossed in their mobile phone call that they won't register all that glaring, flashing light. Riding at night is NOT as safe as riding by day, so you should consider a "lid", and that's coming from somebody who hates wearing a helmet.

My favourite brands of lid are Bell and Met, but I'm sure you have your favourite. However, while I point to these 2 brands as a starting point, I make no recommendation. Helmets are an item of clothing which requires exact fit to work properly, and as such, you should choose your helmet by trying on many until you find one which feels comfortable and doesn't move about on your head.

LIGHTS

While minimum bicycle lighting laws vary around the world, you should never use the minimum legal requirement as a rule. The rule to live by is "the brightest available is best." This rule applies to head lights and tail lights.

Your typical 6 volt, 6 watt headlight (ie the Cateye Halogen) is OK for well-lit city streets, but if you're planning to fly by night over country lanes or off-road trails, you'll need at least 2, and spare batteries if the trip is going to last longer than half an hour. A much better option would be to invest in a high-power rig such as the BLT or Nightsun systems. Flashing white strobes are OK as a supplement to REAL headlights but should never be used as a stand-alone headlight.

Tail lights, while also following the rule of "brightest available is best", are better as flashers. The reason why this is so is due to the flashing making the tail light MORE visible due to the percieved "movement". This can, at the right flash-rate, make the light appear as much as 10 times brighter. It also saves battery life.

Again, checkout the above lighting links, but remember that I make no specific recommendation. It's up to you to choose the right lights for your riding conditions.

REFLECTIVES

Read this very carefully as I will only say this once - REFLECTIVES ARE NO SUBSTITUTE FOR LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It doesn't matter how much reflective tape you wear, you still need lights, but reflectives help improve your visibility and are recommended. The best place to find this stuff is your local bicycle shop, but you can also find some good stuff at work wear stores - particularly winter-weight reflective clothing as used by road gangs.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT

So, there you have it, night-time cycling gear is pretty straight forward. All that's left now is to get out there and hook up with your local chapter of TEAM FIREFLY (or form one if you don't have one) and get riding.

Have fun,
Kilroy.