Throughout my 30-plus years of cycling, I still cannot get my head around the reason why so many cyclists choose to wear black clothing, particularly through the dark, winter months. Black does not reflect light, it absorbs it. From other road users’ perspective, black isn’t easy to see, especially if that cyclist also isn’t using lights or other reflective gear.
I bring this up, because after riding many long audax events, where day slips into night and I’m still on my bike, I have grown fond of night rides. The first reaction is to think that, surely, night riding is more dangerous than riding in sunlight. Not so. Remove cars from the equation, which is the case at 3am on a remote country road, and the probabilities of meeting an…
