There have been some emails going around about lights and gear to keep safe as well as techno gloves!!! I do the Hamilton to Crookston urban rat run 3 times a week – to be honest, about 15 of the 20 mile trip home is OK until you get to Paisley Rd West where you have to pray and hope for the best! In terms of clothing – don’t see Fluro stuff as an asset unless it is the short period of time when it is just getting dark, so if you ride between 3 and 4pm go for it. Reflective stuff – yes. I do confess to wearing black, but with plenty of reflecive highlights – the planet x overshoe has some nice tabs on the reverse to replace pedal reflectors. White is best colour at night as it shows up well in car lights – so if you have some bling Assos kit, you are sorted. Lights – 1 watt smart light on chainstay (very bright indeed), a less bright 3 led cateye on seatpost as backup and a trek helmet LED – I find this a must as when you thread through traffic it is only you bonce cars will see! I run a dealextreme front light on medium – this seems good enough and not bright enough to dazzle on backroads. I’d avoid anything too bright on front – a dazzled and angry motorist is not your friend! My latest weapon against side road chancers are the Nite Ize Spokelits from Amazon (see pic) – pop 2 of these on front wheel – ignore the camp ‘disco’ version and get green ones – unique colour gets noticed and bike looks like it is from Tron. I now have very obvious side visability – £18 quid well spent. In terms of the gloves – I had some Northwave skeleton gloves that had reflective ‘bone’ fingers – Ideal if someone chooses to ignore the fact you are lit up like an xmas tree. Best gloves are sealskins though – they have some reflective bits too.
Only been knocked down once, on purpose, nothing to do with my visibility which seems to work well, in fact it may have made me an easier target!,,, but keep safe out there 🙂
