Bicycle rant 1

[finneco]

I am trying to do more biking, and have been tuning up and adding to my vehicle to make it useful in more situations. One recent addition is lights (front and back) for night time safety

Comments

[quikchange]

The great thing about biking is that, even if you were to collide, I'm quite certain you'd both walk away from it.

[blueheron]

I am not.

I have seen some pretty gruesome bicycle accidents. I have broken bones (ok, a bone, singular) in a cycling accident.

Night time cyclists without lights should be fined. Vigilantly. A cheap front and rear light from MEC will cost you $3.00 to $3.50 each.

[finneco]

Having just purchases such lights from MEC myself, I totally agree. What would it take to get the police to monitor along the bike path? even one night would get the word out that it matters, and it is seriously important with the increasing bike traffic, particularly downtown.

Finn

[blueheron]

It would be nice if they did. Maybe talking to Velo Quebec or some cycling organization with some clout would help?

I mean, the cops are out there right now ticketing people in the Plateau who ride on the sidewalk or the wrong way down the street. That is a good start.

[blueheron]

I agree with you %100.

For a while when I was riding along the canal after hours, and you really couldn't see anything, I replaced my LED front light with a high intensity light that I normally reserve for cycling in rural areas. It works more like a motorcycle headlight than a "look, I am here don't hit me" warning light.

Made a big difference. Just sucked batteries.

[finneco]

I've been weighing how much I need a headlight - if I am going on this bike tour in the fall, rural will be most of the time. The double LED turtle I put on the front half blinds me as well as alert oncoming traffic, so some adjustements are necessary.

Finn

[blueheron]

I have since replaced my other light with one of these. They are not bad for good visibility when you are confident that you aren't going to fall into a giant pot hole. In other words, not good for Montreal ;).

It is bright enough that it illuminates the ground quite well, but not more than a couple of metres in front of you, which means that you have to go pretty slowly if you don't trust the terrain.

The best option, IMHO, for real night-time rural riding are the Nite Hawk line. The cheapest one that they have is about $75, and they go all the way up to $200+. Kind of crazy.

Or I suppose that you could always duct tape a mag light to your handlebars. ;)

[blueheron]

Also, I suppose it is really going to only matter if the tour will be rolling a lot at night.

I have only been on a couple of tours myself, but usually we stop before dark in order to have time to setup camp, make food, and rest a little.

[waterandwine]

I noticed recently that they've added many more bike paths in montreal... now they just need to add one to sherbrooke street. The very few times I rode along there I was praying that I would escape unscathed.

[ramou]

Before the bike path extended past Green, I started choosing to bike along Rene-Levesque instead of Sherbrooke. I found fast moving cars much safer than parked cars with suddenly opening doors and errant pedestrians. Still annoying to get up to McGill... But that's just my gripe with Sherbrooke ;)