Night Riding (DARK)

Dude I have the exact same problem as you, I wouldn’t suggest going crazy with all of the reflective gear, but you should definitely get a front and back light (“Cateye” makes some nice once) together they shouldn’t run you more then 50 bucks, and believe me they are worth it.

I have ridden down pitch-black dark paths and such with a set of Cateye Daylite II Twins (2 x 10W beams; one a wide beam, and the other a spotlight 'high' beam.)<br /><br />They'd be fiddly to place on a road bike though, you'd use up a lot of handlebar space.<br /><br />Riding at night in the city, I'd go for a good quality set of front and rear LED lights at the bare minimum. I've also seen reflective jerseys that you can buy, and also some sort of 'reflective' lycra pants and leg/arm warmers (I've never seen or used these, though.)<br /><br />I have a pretty basic reflective rain-jacket type thing that I use when riding at night, but it gets very warm and almost uncomfortable after 45 minutes or so. <br /><br />Better quality ones do 'breathe' to a certain extent I think, and might be worth a look into. But for a summer night I'd go for a reflective 'proper' cycling jersey for sure.

Steve, try training with others. You may also be able to find some flood light training near you (though its usualy for cyclo cross/MTB).

I bought two of the same lites at Walmart, (Bell), a charger at Radio Shack, and also Radio Shack's top quality rechargable batteries. (3000mAH) Either use BOTH at the same time for super illumination, turn one off, if not needed, or, since they both use the same mount, use up one, then, the other. They last over 2 1/2 hours, and the whole set up cost about much less then expensive name brand bike lite systems.