We make it clear elsewhere just how essential vision is to your riding. Within any 24-hour period you're bound to experience huge changes in light quality, so you need to know what to expect.
Glare from reflective surfaces and sunstrike (particularly on a sunny day after a shower) can severely reduce your vision and be disorientating. Shutting your eyes, even for a moment, is not an option.
Tinted visors do a fair job although good quality optical sunglasses, particularly polarized, are better. Photochromatic glasses are good too, provided the sunlight isn't too strong and there aren’t a lot of shadows (they take a few seconds to adjust to different light levels).
Never wear a dark visor or sunglasses at night. Keep your headlight glass and helmet visor clean, and free of scratches. Use your main beam whenever the road ahead is clear, but look for lights ahead and dip before you see the oncoming vehicle’s headlights.
When an oncoming vehicle’s lights shine right at you, make your eyes follow the left of the carriageway (lines, reflectors, kerbing) until you can look past the vehicle without being dazzled. Slow down if necessary.
Hopefully you have a bike with twin headlights and twin taillight bulbs. Check your light works before every ride and make sure the headlight is adjusted correctly to suit the load being carried. If you only have one headlight and a bulb fails, it's probably the more-used low-beam. Switch immediately to high beam, stop and aim the headlight lower to compensate.
Use the roadside reflectors and white lines to build a picture of where the road goes, similar to the vanishing point. Your real vanishing point, however, will be closer - only as far as your lights let you see.
Right side reflectors usually have two amber reflectors, left side markers have a single, longer silver reflector. When these reflectors intersect to your left or right ahead, you’re approaching a bend.
Poor light is likely after dawn or just before dusk. Watch out for vehicles without headlights on. Animals and birds are very active at these times and a hazard. Avoid using tinted visors or sunglasses.
