How To Pick A Bike For Your Bike Commute

Excellent article on how to pick a bike for commuting or going to places using a bike.

Source: http://hackerspace.lifehacker.com/commuting-by-bike-finding-your-new-two-wheeled-best-f-1504911194

Commuting by bike: Finding your new two-wheeled best friend.

Over the last few years I have had many of my friends ask me how they should go about choosing the bike that would work for them, and while choosing a frame style will ultimately depend your individual personality and preferences this overview can at least give anyone a basic outline and a decent place to start if you find yourself wanting to get out of the car and merge into the bike lane.

Figuring out which kind of frame is ideal for you can be a daunting task, and the only accurate way to find out what works is to go to your local bike shop and try as many different models as you can. Are you someone who enjoys the upright riding that is offered with mountain bikes and many commuter-specific hybrids? Maybe you’re the type that enjoys being streamlined with your top tube and flying down the road with just a jersey on your back. In any case the following breakdown is meant to give you a simple overview of the spectrum that exists within the framed world.

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Find a frame that suits both you and your goals.

Remember that this is the most important statement you should have an answer for when looking into bikes since it will heavily influence what style of frame and materials your bike will be made out of. I myself could argue that the bike styles no longer fit on a linear line, but to keep things simple I’m outlining the three most-common bike styles that I see on the road.

Road bikes:

The road bike is named after what it is designed for: riding on smooth, paved surfaces found on streets and different paved bike trails. Common features of this style are narrow bike tires, a lightweight frame, and a decent range of gears to choose from when climbing hills or speeding through downtown. Given a set of curved handlebars you have the option of riding more upright or in a position leaning towards the fork. While dropping in is optimal for transferring power from your legs into the bike and works wonderfully on a stretch of open road, being upright will allow you to gauge your surroundings a little easier if you’re making frequent stops. Much like cars, road bikes have their subtypes that have been modified for long-distance riding with heavy loads, those made for speed and handling, and several that fall in-between.

Mountain Bikes:

Opposite of the road bike, mountain bikes are designed to handle and withstand unpaved surfaces and rugged terrains. Depending on the demand, mountain bikes may come equipped with either front, rear, or a combination of suspension systems. Almost every one of my friends (including myself) learned how to ride on mountain-style frame. They have wider, deep-treaded tires, low center of gravity, and provide an upright position for the rider that is ideal for uneven terrains and quick adjustments. The gears found on these bikes vary greatly based on the trails they were meant to tackle, and the geometry of each mountain bike will typically give away what type of climbing they were made for. As a simple rule of thumb, imagine the frames triangle as an arrow indicating the level of incline it is capable of taking on.

Hybrids:

The best way to think about the all-encompassing world of hybrid bikes is that each falls on the spectrum that lies between what you come to define as a true road bike and a true mountain bike. On the one end you have hybrids that are designed primarily for road riding but have some components that allow them to venture onto dirt or light-graveled trails. The other end you have hybrids that will go through a stream and also provide some riding comfort on a longer paved trail.

Hybrids are becoming more and more popular with beginning commuter cyclists since they offer the ability to carry loads, are designed with the lightweight components and frames found in road bikes, have an upright riding position, and easily ignore defects in the road much like a mountain bike. The tires will also fall somewhere in-between road and mountain bikes depending on the usage it is designed for.

Many Others:

While the above listed have been advancements of the diamond frame from the original safety bicycle, there are also many other types of bike frames that exist in the world (including recumbent, tricycles, electric assist hybrids, and the now popular folding bikes). Keep in mind that your ideal bike may just fall into one of these awesome categories. Folding bikes are huge in the transit-commuter population right now.

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Typical Frame Materials

The overall feel of the ride will depend on your frames material, and since this is just a primer I will briefly go into three popular materials: steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber.

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Steel – Frames that are massed produced will almost always have a smaller price tag associated with them, and while they have the highest mass out of this group the metal will provide some vibrational absorption in the rough spots encountered during the ride. Additionally, if you are looking to get a bike custom built to your leg and torso sizes you really cannot complain about the price-point.

Aluminum – A very popular and lightweight metal that is use in mid to higher-end frames. While having approximately 1/3rd the density of steel it’s a very common practice to see frames with a thicker tube to prevent frame failures. The one real tradeoff you’ll see here is that these bikes tends to be more rigid which results in those small rocks and rough spots on the road jostling you, the rider, a bit more. Much of this rigidness can be easily offset by switching the front fork to an alternative material, which is what you see in many of the elite bikes used in major competitions. Custom builds for aluminum bikes will range from just under 1000 to well over 3000.

Carbon fiber – While many people view this as the end-all material to use in a debate, there are still many professional and elite cyclists who stay away from these frames. While carbon fiber will give you the best weight, stiffness, and durability overall, the prices for a properly built frame will not come without your wallet waking up with a hangover. The noticeable differences that I’ve felt with my own bike is that the low-vibrations you typically feel from the tires humming along the road is gone. Small imperfections or gravel in the road is masked, but as soon as you encounter an area that has a few asphalt bumps or a slightly recesses manhole cover, get ready because you are going to feel it in your bones.

Now because the condition of most inner city roads is not perfect rough spots are expected during a commute, and due to carbon fibers brittle nature I personally do not recommend loading up one of these frames with your working gear and blazing through downtown, as doing so could possible make short use of a rather expensive investment. If you are looking to get into some serious competitive cycling they do make fantastic road and touring bikes.

To see how one of these frames is made head over here (bonus: pretty good elevator music)

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What sizes should you be looking for?

Getting proper measurements to find out what size bike will fit you is essential if you’re in this for the long haul. Much like a good pair of jeans you need to start out by sizing up and then finding what brand fits you best. To take the analogy even further, most people could wear their favorite pair of jeans every day and not complain, so why would you expect anything different in your bike?

Your local bike shop guys and gals will almost always be willing to size you up as would a good tailor, but if you’re an avid DIY’er (as most are who will read this) use the following procedure and measurement calculator as a start:

The general rule of thumb is that the standover measurement of your bike should be 1-inch lower than your leg length.

1. Measure your leg length:

• Take shoes off, stand with back against wall.
• Place a book with its spine firmly against your crotch
• Mark where the top of the spine is against the wall using a pencil.
• Measure from the floor to the mark. Record measurement in both inches and centimeters.

2. Measure your height.

3. Go here, pick the type of bike you want to be measured into, enter data, and boom! You have a good estimate of the size that will work for you.

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Where is the bike zoo or an adoption center?

Alright so you’ve sized yourself up, have some basic knowledge, and have the urge to go through with this. While the ease and appeal of stopping by a big-box store and riding down the isles may be there, you wont be able to take it for a true test spin around the block without the local police on your tail. Recreational equipment outlets (ex. REI) will have a decent selection and a knowledgeable staff, however I highly recommend taking the time to go to your local bike shop and have a conversation with the professionals.

If you’re lucky enough to have a place like Flying Pigeon Bicycles on your block you’ll be set for everything from custom builds to repairs. You might even acquire a riding buddy for the morning commute! Whichever avenue you decide to go down make sure you try out anything and everything that appeals to you. Give the bike at least a mile, feel how it handles under fast and slow speeds, then ask do a little soul searching to see if it really fits you. Don’t have a soul or believe in souls? Then just use your brain.

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The bike that you want is really expensive… so how can you make the price tag more affordable?

This is where going to a local bike shop will pay off. Unlike the big-box and recreational stores, if you find a frame that you love but do not require racing components or ceramic disk brakes start talking with the shop guys/gals and ask them what they’ll swap out to reduce the price! You could also utilize your bargaining skills to see if they’ll come down on the price or throw in some extra’s.

In the case that money is really tight…

Still try and find out what kind of frame/style/size you like the most by utilizing the methods above, but go to a site such as BikesDirect or hunt on Craigslist to save some big money. If you do decide to go this route however, I encourage you to never forget the help that the local shop gave you. These people work and live on bikes, keep them in mind if you ever need accessories, tuneups, or have questions about riding.

Related

Restore a Discarded Bicycle

If you want to try bicycling on the cheap and support keeping waste out of landfills, consider restoring a discarded bicycle as your next project.… Read…

Additionally if you live around a college town and want to get into biking at the start of summer its worth talking to students to see what they’re going to be doing with their bikes at the end of the semester. Check out this older post: Restore a discarded bicycle.

Never forget your local bike shop.

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What else should you plan on purchasing once you find your bike?

Here’s a list of what I believe to be the bare essential items that go with a bike purchase:

• Helmet
• Some form of U-lock or bike securing mechanism
• Lights (front and rear, especially if you’re riding at night)

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Final Thoughts

The most important thing to remember when deciding if a bike is going to work for you is to repeatedly revisit what your goals are. Many of us are not aiming to qualify for the next Tour de France, so a basic bike with fewer bells and whistles will probably suffice. It also doesn’t hurt to really learn how to take care of your bike and handle the most common bike failures: flats, cables, chains, and seat replacements.

Related

Commuting by Bike: Signaling, Common Intersections, and Traffic

This week I’m going to go over how to properly use hand signals for stopping and turn indication, dealing with common signaled intersections, and the … Read…

Overall I believe that commuting by bike is something that is going to continue to become more and more popular within the next several years. I find that even in Los Angeles where we are still heavy into car culture it is perfectly safe to travel to and from your destinations as long as you stay aware of your surroundings and obey the rules of the road (you are a vehicle and need to act as one). If you are wondering how to handle traffic while on a bike my previous post covers the majority of intersections and maneuvers that one will encounter while biking through the city.

Thank you for reading.

Photos taken and images created by Joseph Skeate

UFB on Tropang Pochi

In November last year, our group, the United Folding Bikers joined the annual Tour of the Fireflies. After the 20+ kilometer ride, we were interviewed by the staff of Tropang Pochi, a weekly TV show for kids on GMA. We talked about folding bikes and this is what the segment looked like. (special thanks to Retro Man for the youtube upload).

Bike Parts Typography

With the recent discussion on the groups FB page about misspells and mispronunciations, this might clear some confusion.  🙂

Click on the image for a bigger version.

For the Love of God, Stop Wearing Your Bike Helmet the Wrong Way

From WIRED:

Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED

Many of us at WIRED ride bikes as a part of our daily commute, or for sport. So do a lot of other people in the Bay Area. And every few weeks (or sooner), we notice something: Someone is wearing their helmet wrong. Terribly wrong.

The numbers speak for themselves: helmets save lives. So if you’re going to venture forth into the world on two wheels, one of the most important things you need to do is make sure you’re wearing a helmet. But you also need to make sure it fits properly, which means you need to be wearing it the right way.

First, make sure the thing is not backwards. Yes, we regularly see folks on the street wearing their helmets the wrong way. While holding it level, with the straps pointed towards the ground, check which end has a higher rise. This is designed to accommodate your face so you can actually see where you’re going. This is the front of the helmet. Most higher-end helmets these days have features like knobs for adjusting fit, or even lights on the rear that make telling front from back pretty obvious. But for some cheaper helmets, it’s perhaps a little less obvious — if you’re putting them on in the dark with your eyes closed.

Next, the fit. If your helmet is too small or too large, it’s not going to protect you when you inevitably hit a pothole or skid on black ice and your noggin greets the pavement. If you’re buying a new helmet and can’t try it on in person, measure the circumference of your head to determine what size to buy. If you don’t have flexible measuring tape, use string or a cloth, then measure that distance against a ruler or stiff measuring tape. Another thing you’ll want to check: Whether the helmet is approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). If it is, there will be a CPSC sticker somewhere inside.

Read More: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2014/01/how-to-wear-a-bike-helmet/

DOTC exec wants less car, more bikes on EDSA

From GMA News Online:

Less cars, more bikes on EDSA.

This is the proposal of Transportation undersecretary Dante Lantin, as he noted that ongoing and scheduled road repairs in portions of EDSA, coupled with the increasing volume of vehicles in Metro Manila, will make the 23.8-kilometer thoroughfare more notorious for heavy traffic.

“On weekend naman ay carless day,” Lantin said in an interview with GMA News reporter Bam Alegre. “In that way makakatipid sa gasolina at makaka-contribute sa pag-improve ng environment, and we can encourage more bikers.”

Lantin conceded that his suggestion may appear “wild” to the public.

“Wild in the sense na baka ang initial reaction ng mga tao is masyadong marahas o masyadong mapusok,” he said.

Among the road construction and repairs expected to slow down vehicular traffic on EDSA are the Skyway Stage 3 project, which will connect South Luzon Expressway and North Luzon Expressway; the NAIA elevated expressway project; and the structural retrofitting of Magallanes interchange.

“Ire-retrofit natin itong buong ito, north and southbound ng Magallanes flyover. Papalitan ‘yung existing expansion joint, papalitan natin ng hindi slippery,” said Rey Tagudando, head of the Department of Public Works and Highways-National Capital Region.

Read More:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/346129/news/metromanila/dotc-exec-wants-less-car-more-bikes-on-edsa

TypeVertigo Style 003: Saddle height, starting and stopping on a commuter bike

I want you to take a good, hard look at how you ride on your commuter bike.

Lean your bike against a wall, to negate the need for balance. While squeezing the front brake, get on the saddle and put one pedal and crank arm at the bottom of its travel. Rest your foot on it so that your leg is extended. Get your picture taken – either by someone else or via self-timer.

How do you look? Are your knees set high? Are they at risk of hitting your arms as you pedal?

For many people, the primary concern with their bikes’ riding position is, “how easily can I put my foot on the ground while on the saddle?” This is a holdover from the time when, as kids or new bike riders, we were still learning and all scared of falling off our bikes.

As grown adults comfortable with balancing on a bike, however,  I think this isn’t the riding position you want – especially if you’re planning on logging serious bike mileage.

I will illustrate this by using a folding bicycle. It just happens to be excellent for explaining this concept, because the seatpost and handlepost on most small-wheeled folding bikes can telescope, to accommodate various sizes of rider without swapping out parts.

I stand five feet, eight inches tall, weigh anywhere from 180 to 185 pounds, and am primarily long of thigh. When I first got my Vitesse in mid-2013, this was my saddle height.

Photo taken literally on the day I brought my Vitesse home in June 2013. Check out the saddle height.

LOOKS LIKE A HEALTHY NORMAL HEIGHT, DOESN’T IT?

It wasn’t.

My legs complained the most. After an hour of riding, I could feel pain on my knees and the ends of my thighs. When faced with short, modest uphill climbs, I couldn’t generate any power to get up them.  They looked daunting at first.

There just has to be a better way, I thought.

Apparently there was: I ended up raising my seat height…a full three inches.

Do-it-yourself bike fitting. All you need is a wall to lean against, your fingers on the front brake, and a camera with self-timer function. Oh, and maybe a tripod, if you don’t have a convenient place to put the camera on.

“Wait,” you may say. “With the saddle that high you wouldn’t be able to put your feet on the floor when stopped!”

Well, yes, but we’ll get to that later.

BESIDES, THERE ARE SO MANY ADVANTAGES

As you can probably see from the photo above, my leg is almost fully extended, with only a partial bend at the knee. At this saddle height, the length of my leg is more fully utilized, and I can get maximum leverage out of every pedal stroke.

This brings two benefits.

First, it’s biomechanically efficient. You’re moving your leg as nature intended, through its full range of motion, no longer putting restrictions on your leg muscles every time you crank the pedal. Simply straightening your leg turns the cranks, efficiently conveying your natural leg motion into torque and power fed into your bicycle’s drivetrain. Varying your power output (and speed, depending on your gearing) is now just a matter of how hard you push the pedal.

And you’re not even standing up and out of the saddle mashing the pedals yet!

Second, and more important for a bike commuter, is that you can now keep pedaling – for far, far longer – without getting tired. It’s also an effective way of preventing muscle and joint soreness on long spells on the saddle. When you can keep enjoying your time on the bike, you can keep doing it longer and more often.

With more riding, you can tweak the saddle height further until you get the best compromise between comfort and power. Beware: you can set your saddle too high, though. This usually manifests when you have to swing your hips from side to side on the saddle to push the pedals, or if you get ankle strain from too much extension needed to pedal.

Maintenance night on the Vitesse. The saddle height is now almost parallel to the handlebars, which were never adjusted for height. Compared to the previous photo, the saddle height here is set two inches higher still.

OKAY. SADDLE HEIGHT’S DIALED IN. NOW – HOW DO I START?

With the saddle now set at its most efficient height for your physical build, you will also have to modify your approach of how to start and stop your bike. Don’t worry, there are advantages to this alternative approach as well.

We turn to the late guru of bicycle technical information, Sheldon Brown, for particulars of this “exotic” technique.

1. Make sure any kickstands are tucked away and that your hands are on the handlebars, the wheel pointing straight.
2. Straddle the top tube of the frame, your feet flat on the ground on each side. For a folding bike like my Vitesse, there is only a single frame tube, so straddle that.
3. With your non-dominant foot (in my case, the left), raise that foot’s pedal so that you bring the crank arm up to an angle anywhere from 45 to 90 degrees from vertical. Then rest your foot on top of the pedal. I call this “cocking the pedal,” because the sound and motion reminds me of the procedure needed to ready a shot on my dad’s 1980 Nikon FM SLR camera. You use the same principle on a gun – you cock it before shooting.
4. To set off from a standstill, put all your weight on the foot resting on the raised (or “cocked”) pedal.
5. What will happen is this: As the foot on the cocked pedal goes down, your non-dominant leg will be at full extension. You are now effectively standing on the pedal, and you can now slide your butt rearward onto the saddle.
6. At the same time, the other pedal will go up to the top of its stroke. Place your dominant foot (in my case, the right) on the other pedal…then keep pedaling!

INTERESTED IN STOPPING?

1. IMPORTANT: Make a habit of downshifting to a low gear when coming to a stop.
2. The easiest way is to put one pedal at the bottom of its stroke so that the crank arm is vertical. (I usually do this with my non-dominant left foot.)
3. Apply the brakes, modulating your squeezing force on the levers to come to a gradual stop.
4. As you decelerate and finally stop, put your body weight on the pedal at the bottom.
5. Once the bike is stopped, slide off the nose of the saddle and return to the straddling position with your foot on the ground.
6. If you’re not at your destination yet, don’t forget to cock the pedal!

If this sounds like Greek to you, here’s a clip of a young teenage girl demonstrating everything above for you to imitate:

It looks challenging, but with practice, this easily becomes second nature.

Notice how smoothly the girl sets off, with zero awkward wobbling as she gains speed. Remember that a bicycle is inherently unstable when at rest; all it wants to do is fall over. The opposite is also true. The more quickly you can generate forward motion in a bike, the more stable it becomes, and the more upright it wants to stay. By practicing this technique of starting, you are effectively preventing all chances for the bike to wobble on you. The only time a bike might give you wobbling starting this way is if you are attempting to set off in too high or too small of a gear.

The other main benefit, especially on a small-wheeled 16″ or 20″ bike, is very quick initial acceleration. This comes handy in many circumstances. If you are smart with your gear selection, pedal strokes and shift timing, you can actually out-accelerate quite a lot of vehicles in the first 50-100 meters from a traffic light on a small-wheeled bike – creating a cushion of useful distance from tailgating traffic. This is also an effective way of setting off from a stop when in the middle of an uphill climb.

Finally, note that the girl cocks her pedal at the very end of the video. I suggest you make a habit of doing this, too. This is a good “ready” position, so that you and your bike can quickly set off when needed – and without holding up traffic behind you.

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Don’t agree with me? Take what works for you, remove what doesn’t. It’s that simple. That’s essentially what I did, anyway.

Stay tuned. In the next installment, I will give my take on the stuff you need for safety and protection on the saddle. Cheers, and keep on riding.

000: Prologue
001: Bike tools for the commute
002: Light up and be seen

004: Safe from harm
005: The eleven principles
006: Refinements and tweaks
007: An ode to the bike commuter

Another Retro in the Metro… Jake’s 1990 Schwinn Highplains MTB

1990 Schwinn Highplains MTB

Damaged Tire?

I posted a guide here on how to mend punctured tires. Technically, it was mending a punctured tube. What if you have a damaged tire? This post from http://www.bikehacks.com shows one way of dealing with that situation. Original post here: http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2012/05/damaged-tire-zip-ties-to-the-rescue.html

Damaged Tire? Zip Ties to the Rescue!

Being huge fan of zip ties, it made me smile when reader Nico contacted us with a zip tie hack for a flat tire he came up with in a pinch.  His hack is reminiscent of the first option featured in our Eight Solutions for Riding a Bike in the Snow post.  If you have come up with creative hacks to deal with somewhat strange mechanical or repair circumstances you have encountered while far from help, let us know so we can feature on the site for all to enjoy.  Take it away Nico!

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Last Saturday I was out for a ride with my bike club when I had a flat. No big deal, we can fix that quickly and keep going. But I must have not noticed it right away and damaged my tire, because 5 minutes later my new tube burst loudly. We stopped again and saw what the problem was. The bead was getting dettached from the tire [photo 1 below] and the tube was getting pinched [photo 2 below]. Nobody had an extra tire. We had to fix it any way we could.

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The first thing we did is use some patches on the inside of the tire  to try to keep the tube in place.

It didn’t look like enough to me so I asked if anyone had some duct tape (I’m a huge fan of duct tape). Nobody did. Just a little electrical tape and some zip ties. We wrap the tape around the tire to keep it from bulging out and set off. This didn’t work well; we had to stop a few minutes later because it looked like the tube was going to burst again. We were still 10 miles away from home.

It was then when one of the guys had a moment of genius. Zip ties! Why didn’t we think of that first? That would keep the tire in place.

We put two zip ties covering the damaged part of the tire, cut them down, and I loosened my rear break so that the ties could move freely. It worked surprisingly well. I had no rear brake and my rear tire was inflated only about half way, but it got me home and I have a feeling that it could have taken me much further.

From now on I’ll always carry a handful of zip ties and a pocket knife with me!

– See more at: http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2012/05/damaged-tire-zip-ties-to-the-rescue.html#sthash.FkoWChba.dpuf

TypeVertigo Style 002: Light up and be seen

Back in the summer of 2011, I was fortunate enough to go to a trip to Eastern Europe. I spent the longest time of that journey in Poland. Entering the country by tourist bus from the Slovak Republic, there was a clear sign requiring all automobile traffic to run all their lights while driving, regardless of the time of day, to ensure visibility to other road users.

One of the signs you will spot when you enter Poland via a land route. The top of the sign says that running your vehicle’s headlights, on at least the low beam setting, is compulsory when in transit. Photo courtesy of AVTOTRAVEL.COM

I liked the principle, so I adopted it as a habit while driving when I got back home.

Lights on a bicycle are essential. Given my Poland experience, even when the sun is out, I ride my bike with all of them on. ALL of them.

A WORD ON REFLECTORS

Even if a bike has mandatory reflectors mounted, you just cannot count on them to be seen by other vehicles or pedestrians – especially the latter, as, let’s face it, reflectors are useless without another light source, and most pedestrians in Metro Manila don’t walk around at night with flashlights.

Bicycle reflectors, if you’ll notice, are also built angled to reflect light from three different directions. This sounds like a nice thing, but it also means that because the reflector is effectively cut into thirds, the surface area of the actual reflected light is NOT as big as the reflector itself.

The stock rear reflector on my Vitesse. As you can see, it’s split into three regions to reflect light at slightly different angles.

All the above is a long-winded way of saying – Why leave your visibility to other road users to chance?

My current lighting gear is made up mostly of components from Cat Eye, based in Osaka, Japan. The brand isn’t important; actual capability is. That said, I am happy with what I use, given that the point is to commute within urban areas with a bike.

I run two taillights, an “Omni 5″ TL-LD155R 5-LED unit, and an older TL-LD170R 3-LED unit. As rear lights go, these are pretty standard. The Omni 5, I particularly like, because it’s bright and its translucent case allows for good side visibility as well.

My Cat Eye Omni 5 TL-LD155R tail light, mounted to a loop on my saddle bag via the supplied clothing clip. The TL-LD170R light is below it, mounted on the seat post.

WHY RUN TWO TAILLIGHTS?

I came across this simple Dutch website packed with independent bicycle lighting reviews, and the reviewer mentioned an interesting point: Flashing or blinking bicycle taillights aren’t a good idea for distance estimation.

Let’s have some role-playing here. Imagine that you are a driver of a car or some other four-wheeled vehicle, trundling along a road at night. When was the last time you saw car manufacturers fit flashing taillights to their cars?

At night, when a driver turns on all his/her vehicle’s lights, the taillights come on at a steady glow, only growing brighter once the driver pushes the brake pedal. The entire point of a steadily glowing taillight at night is for drivers and other road users behind you to improve their distance estimation. If the point of having taillights on the back of a bike is for safety, I figure we, as bike commuters, might as well help other road users with judgment of how far we are in relation to them – so they can act accordingly.

My advice: If you can run only one rear light, for any reason, set it to steady glow mode. This, in my humble opinion, is a good fit with one fundamental principle of my style of bike commuting: being predictable to other road users. Take note of that; I will keep returning to this concept in future posts.

What, you ask, do I do with the second taillight? I prefer to set the weaker light to blinking or flashing mode, just to complement the stronger, steady taillight, and call attention to other road users that they’re looking at a bicycle. A strong flashing taillight can prove to be a distraction to other road users.

FRONT LIGHT USE, TYPEVERTIGO STYLE

My front light is another Cat Eye unit – a Nano Shot HL-EL620RC. It’s compact, rechargeable via USB, and delivers a healthy 208 measured lumens. It’s an all-in-one design, with no battery pack to futz around with.

My Cat Eye Nano Shot HL-EL620RC, as initially mounted on my Dahon Vitesse. I have since moved it over to the other side of the handlebar clamp.

(A quick word: No, I am NOT a shill for Cat Eye, and as with everything on my bike, I had to save up and pay for my own lights. I wish I got them for free, as the Nano Shot is pretty pricey.)

People may balk at the price, but in practice the Nano Shot is a good  front light for urban riding. When mounted right-side-up, part of the controlled beam spills toward the bottom, to better illuminate the road surface. Mainly, though, it’s a high-powered “to-be-seen” light, and that’s perfectly fine for, say, pedaling through a dark lonely stretch of Kalayaan Avenue at midnight.

Riding at night, it is best to run a front light in steady glow mode – for illumination, to be seen by others, and for those others in the oncoming traffic lane to better judge where you are on the road. I would resort to the flashing mode only as an emergency measure, usually when the internal battery is down on juice.

Riding at dawn or in the daytime, I run the Nano Shot in flashing mode the whole time. The distance estimation function for a front light isn’t as necessary in the daytime, I think – you just need to let people know that you’re there. I’ve heard this is especially useful in wide open places. The more attention you can call to yourself and your bike from other road users, the safer for everyone.

ONE LAST NOTE ON FRONT LIGHT AIM

I aim my front light’s beam around 5-10 degrees lower than parallel. This is a practice borrowed from car headlights. On low or dipped beam, car headlights are actually angled slightly downward and to the right, for left-hand-drive countries like ours. This is applicable even for high-powered HID (high intensity discharge) or xenon headlights, where a clearly discernible cutoff line is put into the beam projectors. This is to avoid dazzling or blinding other road users and pedestrians.

With ever more powerful bicycle front lights coming out year after year (click the link for the best light comparator utility I’ve seen online), I feel that proper aiming of their beams is especially important. You can use your front light to see with and to be seen with – all without having to blind people along the way.

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Don’t agree with me? Take what works for you, remove what doesn’t. It’s that simple. That’s essentially what I did, anyway.

Stay tuned. In the next installment, I will present my take on proper bike fit and the correct procedures for starting and stopping. Cheers, and happy riding.

Lights running on my parked Dahon Vitesse at Legazpi Active Park in Makati. Photo was taken at 11:00 pm.

000: Prologue
001: Bike tools for the commute

003: Saddle height, starting and stopping on a commuter bike
004: Safe from harm
005: The eleven principles
006: Refinements and tweaks
007: An ode to the bike commuter

Roel’s 70’s Canadian-Jap Touring Bike Sekine Black Panther.

Roel’s 70’s Canadian-Jap Touring Bike Sekine Black Panther.