Originally Posted by
Yo Spiff
I usually use my 400 lumen Cygolite in flashing mode, but it is an $80 light that I bought mainly for night riding. I also have a couple of these:
http://dx.com/p/3-mode-5-led-white-r...3-x-aaa-114064
It is a very bright be-seen light. When I stand a few yards back and look at it, it is highly visible. Under $5 shipped from china. I'm sure you can get them from a US source faster and for just a little more. I keep one on my beater bike for running daytime errands. I don't know how reliable it ultimately will turn out to be, but sofar, it works just fine and I've had them over a year.
My wife and I have a motorhome and we carry a tandem bicycle on the back. A good bright light for day riding is absolutely a plus and it does matter in helping you be seen. The key is getting something bright and the newer CREE source lights are very bright and have a flasher option that will aid you in being seen.
These can be expensive. However, look up Meritline and search for bicycle lights. They did have a light with holder at one time that attaches to the handle bars. Mine has a Cree LED light and it is super bright. I bought from them also a rear flasher that uses 5 high brightness red LEDS and you can see this day or night.
I decided to look up the lumen output of the light I bought and it's a CREE T6 LED producing 1200 Lumen (as advertised by them) I can't prove the output is as advertised but it is too bright to comfortably look into. The light was approximately $10.00. It has three modes of on. Steady, Flash and Rapid Flash. You can't go wrong with this in daylight. It gets hot after about 10 minutes, but it uses a rechargable 18650 battery that lasts a few hours (high capacity model) and longer in flash mode. You should check out the CREE based lights.