I have the tendency to commute to my social commitments via bicycle whether the activity is grabbing coffee at Cafe Taza (100 Elmwood Ave), sipping vodka cranberries at Nietzche's (248 Allen St), or dancing to live music at Thursdays at the Canalside. However, my measly clip-on bike lights and LED head-lamps from outdoor companies such as Petzl only help me to view my path back yet I remain concerned that I'm not very visible to cars, despite these measures. That's why when I saw San Francisco based Mission Bicycle's Lumen model in Men's Journal, I became very excited.

The Lumen is a bike that is coated in a reflective coating that helps cars to see you and most importantly, enhances the joy you experience on your way home by lighting up the night. It can even be fabricated according to different frame sizes to fit your height and preferences such as colors, fixed or multiple gears, assorted handlebar stances, with or without a U-lock rack. It's a custom bicycle that enhances your safety while night riding and unlike the majority of products covered in "gear-guides" it is priced as to be accessible to the majority of consumers, beginning in the $700 range, a criterion of the foremost importance in an era of tepid economic growth. The Lumen was first available in January of 2015, orders are still being accepted at:

https://www.missionbicycle.com/store/lumen-bike-deposit