01
.Introduction
The primary role of bike lights isn’t to help you see your way in the dark, but rather to make you visible to other road users. The more visible you are, the less chance of being overlooked by a motorist.
When you ride your bicycle at night or in low-visibility conditions, such as fog or heavy rain, the Australian Road Rules (which form the basis of state and territory road rules) requires that you have lights. These include:
- A white light at the front.
- A red light at rear.
- A rear red reflector
The lights can be steady or flashing, and must be visible for at least 200 metres. Ideally, they should also be visible 50 metres from the side. The red rear reflector should be visible from 50 meters from the rear when light is projected onto it by a vehicle's headlight at low beam. Good head-on and angled visbility is essential - but durability, size, ease of fitting and removing, and battery replacement is also important to consider when buying a bike light.
Ride On, the Bicycle Victoria magazine, recently tested 50 bike lights, a combination of front and rear compact lights, dynamo lights and high-powered LED's. See the full report report in their April/May issue.
Find out more about bikes and bike accessories.
The test
The annual bike lights test brings together a panel of 10 industry experts from the cycling community to act as judges — including police, government, retailers, community groups and CHOICE. The lights are assessed at night on a suburban road with a popular cycle path, at a distance of 200m, and also at 50m with the lights angled at 45° (to simulate the bike approaching an intersection). The flash rate, where applicable, was also assessed. The lights were also assessed by a team of industrial design students from RMIT University in Melbourne, looking at ease of use and documentation, materials and components, construction (including weather resistance) and appearance.
Visibility ratings (out of 100) and industrial design ratings of aspects like usability, durability, waterproofness and value for money (out of 10) are combined to determine the overall score. Visibility is given the highest weighting (60%).