Light up your ride - winter bicycle lighting

A good set of bicycle lights makes a big improvement to your bike riding experience in Sydney. Apart from the obvious motivation of being able to see where you are going, lights on bikes in Sydney are actually mostly necessary to let others see you. Our streets are choked with cars, most of them in a bad mood, driving and parking all over the place. One thing you can do to avoid uncomfortable situations is to become more visible from more angles on your bike. From behind, cars will be able to see you sooner, giving the bad ones more time to get over their initial blind rage at the sight of you and form a more intelligible phrase to vomit from the window as they pass. The better ones will have more time to moderate their speed and position to share the road more safely. Visibility from the side will mean fewer cars pulling out in front or into you at t-intersections while visibility from the front helps to stop cars failing to give way at roundabouts. Finally, the most satisfying advantage of riding with lights is having full moral indignation when a near miss does occur.

Bicycles in Australia often are not equipped with lights when sold, like so many other missing essential accessories like racks, mudguards and kickstands. Many cyclists are frustrated with bike lights as they don't seem to last a winter without falling off, getting stolen, becoming lost or simply grow dim requiring continual purchase of non-rechargeable batteries. Not to fear, we have the lights for you. Choosing bike lights isn't just about cost and brightness but also about time, convenience, ongoing costs and weight or size of the lights. Different cyclists will prioritise different aspects and will have different needs of brightness. We've listed below some of our favourite lights for different types of cyclists. Let us elaborate...

Reelights: These are lights that require no batteries, are permanently mounted and maintenance free. They are 'be seen' lights. Recommended to anyone who rides a bike in the city. Downside: not super bright, too heavy for road bikers.

Skullys: At the opposite end of the spectrum, this is a light that is submergible, mounts anywhere, tiny, bright but uses non-rechargeable 'button' batteries. Great for use in conjunction with reelights.

Super bright lights: We have 300 lumen lights at $120 which is a convenient and affordable light, nice and bright and rechargeable that I'd recommend to anyone who cycles at night. We have 900 lumen lights starting at $200 which is not as cheap and is of a brightness that would only be needed by sports riders (people who go very fast on rough terrain at midnight).

Upfront Cost - this is how much you spend to get your bike lit up and legal. If this is the priority we have sets of lights with front and rear flashing LEDs for around $40, non-rechargeable batteries included. These are probably the most commonly used bicycle lights but have many shortcomings.

Convenience (theft and loss) - bike lights are often stolen as they are usually easy to take on and off. These means that you have to take them off every time you park in many areas in Sydney or risk having to keep buying them. Paradoxically, the taking them on and off probably leads to more sets being lost in bags and rooms than would ever have been stolen. Lights that are mounted permanently to the bike mostly solve this problem, especially if stealing your lights requires stealing more than one part. The magnet powered Reelights are mounted permanently and both light and magnets would need to be stolen. Hub dynamo lights also fit the bill.

Convenience (batteries and charging) -  It's no use having bright lights if they just are just going to grow dim as the batteries die. If your batteries aren't rechargeable you'll probably put off replacing them and spend most of your time with dull lights or none at all. We have front lights in the Super Bright Category with their own wall and USB chargers starting at $120. We also have front and rear lights in the 'be seen' category (not very bright) with USB rechargers starting at $35. The lights that use AA or AAA batteries will work with but are not sold with rechargeable batteries.

Brightness - If you ride on unlit paths or roads you'll need lights to be able to see, not just to be seen. In this case you need to look at how bright they are. For front lights this is either measured in how many Watts (W) of power the lights uses or how many lumens the light provides at a defined distance from the light (usually 1 metres). We have 1W front lights starting at $40, better ones at around $80 both with non-rechargeable batteries. We call these 'bright lights' and they produce around about 80 lumens. The 'super bright' category is almost always measured in lumens and always come with rechargeable batteries, as otherwise they will be uselessly short-lived.

Other features - Some lights are completely submergible so you don't have to worry about rain from any angle and can therefore be installed in unconventional places like on spokes, mesh baskets, helmets etc, like our Skully lights. Some lights have better side visibility than others. Some are small and compact, others last a long time on a set of batteries. Depending what you're into, these factors might be important.

A final note: visibility isn't just about lights. We have reflective tape and stickers you can put on bags, forks, baskets, helmets. Many of our better city tyres have reflective sidewalls which help side visibility immensely. Other than gadgets, riding assertively in a sensible position like right in the middle of the lane will also help you to be seen.