Originally Posted by
rumrunn6
as a light user, why does it have to be super ultra bright? I understand that a dim "blinkie" may not be adequate riding on roads. but after a certain level of brightness, the brighter lights are just overkill, in my opinion
I rode for a number of years with a Cygolite 750 lumen headlight that was terrific. But there were two issues that I noticed during that time that sorta needed to be addressed. One was, although the Cygolite-made 750 lumens was pretty effective at illuminating my path ahead in ideal conditions, it wasn't a wide enough or sometimes even bright enough source to reveal all the hazards ahead of me on the road in suboptimal conditions. I'm talking about things like fissures and holes in concrete or pavement and potholes. Or, especially this time of year, the massive amount of debris in the form of leaf piles, branches, limbs, and just general crap in the bike lane. We also have a lot of rocks right now left over from the summer's paving projects. So, that's one. Avoiding debris/road surface hazards as close to 100% of the time as possible for me required more than a single 750-lumen light I found.
Two was, where I live, it rains for about 8 months out of the year. The other four are basically perfect, but during the rainy months at night, it is unbelievably hard to see the road. There's a whole thing here about the relationship between visible light and water. Won't get into it. The point is, in a place like Portland or Seattle during the wet months, it is almost impossible to see at night without a huge amount of help. You just cannot believe how difficult it is to see when you combine the wet with the dark. Cars have trouble seeing. It is bad.
When you combine these two issues--poor, unpredictable road surface conditions and abundant, dangerous debris on the roadway plus the insane difficulty of seeing at night with so much water coating every surface--well, it's easy to see, riding a bicycle can quickly become extremely dangerous. In my fairly abundant experience and just personally in my opinion for me, a single, good 750-lumen headlight is totally inadequate to ensure rider safety in such conditions. Just my take. As a result, I actually employ three headlights now on my setup. One 1100-lumen Cygolite on my helmet, one 1000-lumen Ceco (which I just love) on my left bar, and one 1300-lumen, 3-LED Cygolite on my right bar. Won't go into how I aim all these for maximum efficacy and to minimize annoyance to other people and cars, but it's doable. I ride every day unless there's ice. Since adopting this setup, I have not put the bike on the pavement or been hit by a vehicle, cyclist, or pedestrian. I have not destroyed a rim and I have one pinch flat. I am not some exceptional bike talent. Just an average road cyclist for my age. But I am now covered at night. I think I'm about as safe as I can be in terms of illumination on the front of the bike without just getting ridiculous
So, there you go. One person's experience on why having more than just a single good headlight, for them, seems to improve safety. Now, a final caveat. In a former life I used to sort of take care of people who had gotten in car crashes. Motorcycle accidents. Biking mishaps. So on. Anyway, I freely admit that this life has colored my view of the world and its relative danger. I am an absolute freak about safety in pretty much everything. So keep that in mind. I'm probably an outlier. Sorry for the length of this. This is a topic I am passionate about. Be safe out there.