I know about the obvious stuff like a bright vest, blinking rear light and wearing light colored clothes but is there anything else that I need for when nightfall hits?
blinking rear light
Blinking lights are my pet-peeve with cyclists. Cars don’t have blinking lights - neither should bikes.
Any blinking lights except indicator lights are often illegal in traffic.
I recommend clear safety glasses. Especially if you live someplace dry. You don’t want dust or insects in your eyes. I hit a palo verde beetle once and it almost knocked my glass off my face.
Get retroreflectors. White pointing forward, red pointing back. You won’t always realize when a light craps out, it’s best to have passive backups. Get amber-colored retroreflectors that you can put between the spokes so you have sideways visibility. You can also buy reflective tape and wrap it around the frame.
There’s retro reflective tape etc for the spokes, too.
Sadly, going ‘full tuk-tuk’ is the goal here…
A lot of crashes are side impacts. So reflective frame tape or lights in spokes can help with side visibility. Some lights throw a little light to the side for this purpose as well.
