One way to maximize your bike riding is to do outside-the-box activities or extreme adventures using the bike. Whether it’s riding in rugged terrain, biking at night, or any other types of related activities, doing these adventures will give unique accomplishments and joy in relation to your biking experience. However, bike riding during the night will require you to learn how to attach bike lights properly to ensure proper visibility and increase your safety.
Learning how to use the right bike lights is the safest way to boost your visibility at night. But it is essential to mount the bike lights properly to maximize the benefits they can bring to the bicycle. The biker must select the right bike lights, learning where to put them, and knowing how to install them on the bike.
In this article, our team will try to cover the basics of properly attaching bike lights. We will also provide other relevant information, including looking at the best bike lights and finding the best position when mounting this bike accessory. Our objective is to give new bikers the pertinent information to boost their visibility when biking at night and ensure their safety when hitting a dark road.
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What Bike Lights Do I Need?
The bike lights you will need will depend on the type of bike riding you do and the type of conditions in your ride. For example, if you are using the bike for commuting in the town and other urban areas, your objective is to be visible to other road users when acquiring bike lights. You will need between 50 to 200 lumens. But, if your bike is used only with daytime running, you will just need at least 100 lumens.
However, in serious road riding, you will need a more powerful set of bike lights to make you more visible and let you light while illuminating your way ahead. Upgrading your bike light is the best way to make you safe when riding unlit roads while lighting your destination to see any potholes, uneven road surfaces, stray pedestrians, and other road obstacles. You will need powerful bike lights to make you safe all the time.
If you live in a rural area, bike riding will need you to see where you are going, and you will need bike lights that produce between 400 to 600 lumens. Meanwhile, if you are doing extreme bike riding on the trail and you want to see everything, you will need more than 600 lumens. Typically, you will need a brighter front light compared to the rear light to make you safe all the time when on the road.
Where to Attached Bike Lights
In general, bike lights can be attached or installed in your bicycle’s front and rear parts. Doing this can help maximize the use of the bike lights for the biker to be visible at night and let the other road users see you. But knowing where to put specifically into the bike is also important, and it will all depend on the bike you own and the availability of the space in your bike.
Where To Put Bike Lights?
I have been bike riding for a long time, and the best spot for your bike light should be the handlebar and the seat post. Mounting your bike light in this part of the bicycle will put the bike lights in the appropriate height and let the biker be more visible to the other road users. But there are also different positions or spots where the bike lights can be mounted. Some bikers put lights on helmets and bags, but there are downsides when you attached the lights to other places and not on the bicycle.
There are times that the handlebar or the seat post is occupied with bags and other things, which makes it challenging to find a location in mounting the bike lights. But with the advancement of the biking industry, more and more companies are getting creative in finding different ways to mount bike lights anywhere in the bicycle. Check out below on other ways to mount bike lights in other parts of your bike:
Mounting in the Axle
A unique way to mount a front light is to convert the quick-release nut of the bike to a place for your front light. This method can be done using a unique light holder, enabling the nut release to be mounted with a bike light. Although the front wheel will somehow block some portion of the light, most of the beam can still help light the road and what lies ahead.
Mounting in the Eyelet
If your bike uses the front rack or has the fork eyelets, a nice way to put the bike light is in the eyelets using an eyelet stub and light mount. The upside when using this position is to give the bike light the much-needed height while having a lesser shadow on the ground objects.
Mounting on the Steerer
If your handlebar is occupied with a bag, the next best thing to do is to mount the bike light into the steerer. You can use a stem cap light mount installed on the steerer and will be used to mount the front light of your bike.
Mounting on the Brake Stud Light
When using rim brakes in your bike, you can also mount a bike light using a special light mount adapter to bolt the bike light into the brake studs.
How to Position the Bike Lights?
Generally, the golden rule is to position the bike lights as far as possible on the bicycle. You must ensure that there is the right amount of distance between those lights to ensure that the eyes of the other road users can carefully distinguish them on the road. I suggest separating the lights vertically to ensure that they will be seen by different people regardless of whether the vehicle is low or tall.
I also suggest mounting the primary headlight into the handlebar for your bike headlights while putting the secondary light into the helmet. But make sure that the light in your helmet is not too bright and has a narrow beam. This technique ensures that you can light up in a particular area without affecting the other road users.
For taillights, I suggest mounting in the seat post or the bike rack to provide good visibility while you are on the road. Doing all of these methods can help add your visibility and make you safe while riding in the dark.
How to Install Bike Lights
Learning how to install bike lights is an essential skill that every biker must learn. The main reason to understand is that the government requires every bike owner to mount bike lights to ensure safety and protection when riding at night. You will need to follow the law or get punished. Please check on the proper way to mount a bike light below:
Deciding Where to Position Bike Lights
The first thing to do when installing a bike light is to decide where to put it. The ideal situation is to use the bike light in the front and back of the bicycle to maximize your visibility when biking in the dark. After that, you should also select where to put the lights in the exact place on your bike. The most popular is the handlebar in the front, while in the back is the seat post. But sometimes, circumstances will prevent you from installing those parts, but there are other areas in your bike where you can still mount your bike lights.
Battery Installation
Most of the bike lights now use lithium cell batteries to produce lights. Some of these product includes a battery which is already installed in the bike light. However, if the battery is still not installed in the light, you will need to install it yourself by following the instruction provided in the product guide. Lithium cell or button cell batteries are easy to install. You will only need a screwdriver to unfasten or removing the screws. When installing a button cell battery, you will only need to insert the battery into the space provided in the bike light but make sure that you will not invert it because it will fail to work.
Bike Light Attachment
Different bike lights come in different ways when mounting into the bike. However, most of the models I know come with a single tightening clip used to fit snugly into the bike. You will only need to clip the light into the position you identified while snapping the clip shut to mount it. Other models will let you tighten the light using different mechanisms to secure the light.
Bike Light Adjustment
Most of the bike lights that I used before will allow you to adjust their position up and down to achieve better visibility when hitting on the road. After the installation, you can spend some time doing fine-tuning and making adjustments to ensure that you will have enough lighting before going on the road.
Conclusion
Learning how to attach bike lights is an essential skill that I biker must learn for him to maximize his visibility while riding at night. Having the right amount of bike light is also vital for protecting everyone, not only the biker but also the other road users. It is also essential to choose the right bike light, which ensures the safety and protection of the biker while hitting on the road at night.