angotja said:
...I am a new night rider, and I believe that a headlight and a self-illuminating taillight, coupled with reflective apparel are sufficient for safe transit. Have I overlooked anything here? Advice/participation is greatly appreciated.
What I have
Québec law requires us to have a red reflector behind, a white one in front, red and yellow in-wheel reflectors and pedal reflectors. Plus headlight and taillight. Strangely enough, one needs to have the reflector kit in daytime, but the lights are required only at night... go figure!
My headlight is powered by a dynohub so it never dies. I like to be able to go out for 4-5 hours at night, even at -15 C, and to be sure I won't find myself in the dark.
The commuter has a Shimano NX-30 and a single round Lumotec, whereas the tourer has a Schmidt dynohub, a Lumotec Oval Plus and a secondary Lumotec. These headlights have a built-in reflector, BTW.
Rear lighting is done via a few battery powered Vistalite Super Nebula, which are the brightest I found so far.
I also have the required spoke reflectors (a bit of side visibility doesn't hurt, though I don't consider it that important), and a few large SAE (automotive) amber (2) and red (1) reflectors on my mudflap and an amber one on my saddle. My rear fender has also the red and white reflective strip found on trucks. BTW, we need one red reflector and one red taillight; no restrictions on extra stuff, providing it's not white.
I lost the pedal reflectors when I switched to clipless last year. I may add reflective tape on the cranks of my touring bike, but probably won't do it on the cranks of my tandem (black cranks).
Details of my headlights are found at
http://peterwhitecycles.com. The rationale behind my reflector and light kit at
http://www.bikexprt.com.
Where do you ride makes a huge difference in what you need
For instance, my commute is urban riding. Mostly one way streets, traffic lights everywhere, car traffic at 10-35 km/h (i.e. it's packed), and later when bars open, pedestrians cross everywhere.
So I find the basic headlight is more than enough. I like to add a flasher when bars open, because theese seem to catch the attention of pedestrians.
For taillights, using 2 Vistalite is enough to be visible, and add a bit of safety: if one set of battery dies, the other will continue to work.
On the other hand, with the tourer, I often ride at night -- after kids are in bed -- in suburbia, semi-rural routes, etc. that are poorly lit or unlit, where traffic is mostly local (freeways nearby) but still fast moving. So the second Lumotec and a 2 or 3 Vistalite (1 steady, the others flashing) offer more visibility.
Finally, when I ride at night on highways -- at least once a year -- I install 3 or 4 Vistalites in a compact shape, so my taillight is not only fairly powerful, but also large enough to be seen from far away... which is safer when traffic moves at 100 km/h.