Bike lights/life savers.

It’s that time of the year when natural light does weird things. Like not be switched on for a very long time in the day and when it is it tends to cause some iffy problems that don’t occur much at other times of the year.

I’ve spent most of this year riding on my own. Lots of commuting, not many club rides or riding with mates. When I’m out on my own I always have a bright and small back light on, set to a day mode flash when the sun’s up and then down a setting or two for the dark. One of the most dangerous things for visibility on the road is GLARE. It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing high vis or riding in the correct place, if you’re on a damp road surface and the sun catches it you’ll potentially disappear to anybody approaching from behind. Bad timing and it could all go a bit Pete Tong. So stick a back light on, it’ll save your life. You only need it to do it once for you to be grateful, so spend a bit of cash on a good one.

The other fun thing that happens around this time of year is FOG. Again, no matter what you’re wearing in fog you just turn into a faint blob of dark grey. Problem solved by that little flashing “day mode” on your back light.

Snow and rain: These effect visibility massively. If you've driven in heavy rain, you know how much your view out of the windscreen is altered when the wipers are going full speed and the rains smashing down. It's not that much fun cycling in this weather, but it's less fun being run over in this sort of weather. Stick a couple of flashing lights on.

Things to look out for in a back light:

Day mode (or just one really bright flashing setting) - I’d say this is essential in this country for visibility because of the weather.

Durability - check out the USB charger cover, does it look a bit cheap? Does it fit snuggly or is there wiggle room for water to seep in and fry your light? A couple of big brands seem to have a rubber USB cover that leans on the USB charger and damages the connection after a while, I’d avoid that. The last thing you want is the light to go out half way through a ride in the fog/dark without realising it as you can’t see it whilst you’re riding.

Steady mode - good if you’re riding in the dark a lot to help drivers judge their distance from you better.

Battery life - even cheap lights these days last for hours on full mode. You’d be hard pushed to out-ride the battery life of your back light.

Things to look out for in a front light:

Are you using it solely for being seen or for seeing where you’re going? If you’re in a city or other built up areas even if you’re riding in the dark the street lighting will keep you on track so look for something that has a good flash mode. If you’re out in the sticks and need to see where you’re going on dark country lanes you’ll need something more powerful.

Front lights are a bit of a big subject and very dependent on the type of riding you're doing and where you're doing it. If you're off-road you'll want a super bright light or light-set. A lot of lights that are more of an off-road sort of thing come as a head unit and a battery pack. You'll need something with a wide spread as well so that you can see your surroundings better.

If you're on the road a more focused beam will be better and avoid you blinding oncoming traffic. There is such a wide scope when it comes to front lights that you're better off reading a more specialist blog if you need info on them. I use an off-road set up on my road bike which has a "dropped headlight" bluetooth switch that means I can control it without adjusting my grip on the bars. I only ever use it on full whack when I'm going down hill pretty fast and there are no street lights. Never when there is on-coming traffic.

The lights that I find the most useful are the Bontrager Flare RT back light and the Bontrager Ion 450 R front light. These will get you through pretty much any situation and are fairly small and easy to attach. I've not ridden a single mile without my Flare RT on the back since buying it in January 2020...