aka Tom Reingold
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA
Posts: 40,548
Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem
Mentioned: 511 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 7368 Post(s)
Headlights designed for dynamos have carefully engineered optics in the reflector and lens to create a sharp cutoff at the top of the beam. This is to prevent the light from being a high beam. This keeps the light out of people’s eyes, and it also makes the most efficient use of energy to paint the roadway surface that you need lit. Aim the headlight so that the top of the beam is dead horizontal or maybe the tiniest bit downward. You can lift the front wheel very slightly off the ground and spin the wheel and see where the beam lands.
Lights that use batteries typically have round beams, so to keep the light mostly out of people’s eyes, we tend to aim them downward. You might have done that with this light, out of habit.