A near death experiance prompts me to remind eeryone that when you are riding at night your lights are not only safety and for vision of the road, but also for keeping an eye on what is going on around you. Oddly enough I came to this realization while testing out the x-fire Bike Lane tail light so I was really paying more attention to what was going on behind me than in front.
Those of you who know me know that I am a big advocate of the Knog Skink front light that has plenty of power to see the road ahead of you, and for my commutes I go back and forth between my 350 lumen off road light and my little Skink.
On my way home last night I had my Skink and my Knog Strobe both on flash mode and my new Xfire on the rear. It had grown dark buy I had not yet moved my lights to constant mode, and I was on a small back road (Old LaGrange Road for you locals). This road is roughly wide enough for a car and a half, so when there was an oncomming car, I knew I had space, but needed to be close to the edge of the road. Those of you who night ride know that if it is truly dark, an oncomming cars lights will blind you, unless your lights overpower the cars.
So that is where I was, hugging the side of the road with very little visibility and luckly going pretty slowly when suddenly a deer stepped right in front of me. Fortunately I had scared it enought that is started runnig, but I came within a foot of it before it disaperared in a clatter of hooves. Two otherse crossed in front of me, at least one behind me, and I looked up I looked up in time to see a large buck siloetted against the night sky standing on top of the railroad track.
I bet the car had a great view of me crashing throught a herd of deer, but all I saw was a white tail and the buck. A scarry moment, but a cool memory, and a reminder that if you are not in the city your lights ought to be bright enough to see whats coming at you from the side of the road as well.
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