SpokEasy

You can lighten your ride with, well, lights! 

If you must ride in the dark, that’s very important. Being seen is as important as seeing. I rode before sunup as a regular thing prior to my retirement. Often enough I saw riders out there in the dark; wearing dark clothing; without lights; and with minimal reflective material. They were hard to see until I was too close for comfort. And if that had resulted in my running into them, they would have blamed me!

Suppose it starts to rain? That reduces visibility for everyone; cyclist or not. Turn on those lights; and pull out the rain suit!

You can “lighten”  your ride in other ways, too; for instance, by practicing riding light in the saddle.  When you’re riding over a hump, for example, exert a steady pull with your arms. It makes it easier for  you to pedal more strongly; and it means your full weight isn’t on the saddle.

Now that I don’t have to rid before daylight, I don’t think about lights (and lumens) as much as I used to; but I still want those lights when I ride. Sometimes the sun is still rather low in the sky when I set out; and I need to be seen. That’s especially true if I must ride alongside traffic.

But today I’ve taken off from riding. I probably need it once a week; and of course there was a lot of work to do on my website. Tomorrow the weather should be OK; so off I’ll go!