Palm Beach Bike Tours

Ken Steinhoff spent more than 40 years in the ink-slinging newspaper business where he had a license to be nosy. Palm Beach Bike Tours renewed that license in his retirement years. The blog is ostensibly about cycling, photography and using GPS technology to figure out where you're going and where you've been. It's really an extension of his lifelong effort to tell the stories of "ordinary people doing ordinary things", which sometimes turns out to be pretty extraordinary. If all that sounds like something in which you might be interested, please sign up for the PBBT RSS feed to keep in touch.

About 50% of my riding is at night. I never count on just one rear-facing light, particularly LED lights, because they are highly directional. I have a NiteRider taillight (the brightest taillight made as far as I know) on the rear rack.

Behind it is a highly-reflective Slow Moving Vehicle triangle. On my Camelbak are two blinking LEDs, one is most visible when I’m down in the drops, the other is higher, where it can be seen when I’m in a more vertical position.

In addition to the active lighting, I’m a big fan of reflector tape. I have strips of it on my cranks, frame and rims. In addition, my Shimano sandals have a large reflective dot on the back that is highly visible.

The manufacturer has some reflective material on my helmet, but I’ve added some tape to it, also.I find that motorists give me more room and respect at night because I don’t blend in with the visual noise present during the day.