black_box 

I have a single 350/500 lumen light by lezyne on the bars. 350 is ok to "be-seen" or at dusk, 500+ for darkness. I would add a helmet light (or at least some type of backup light). For trails, a wider throw on the bars and longer throw on the helmet should help. There is always the risk of animals, rocks, new cracks or dropped objects in the road, so if possible, take a bike with wider tires.

FlashBazbo

I've used dinotte lighting for several years. 400+ lumens for the tail light. It is sometimes mistaken for an emergency vehicle, from a distance, but that's okay. I don't want there to be any excuse for not seeing me.

For the headlight, I use a 3200 lumens light but usually only have it on half power. I turn it up full if it is especially dark, the road surface is unfamiliar, or if there is a high probability of road hazards. I can easily outride an 800 lumens headlight. I've never outridden 3200.

Zaskar

I've probably ridden 15,000 miles in the dark over the past 10 years. I've used Dinotte, Cygolite, Magic Shine and a couple chinese/ebay pieces of crap.

Solo rides:
- As bright as you want to go. Don't believe anything the ebay/chinese knock-offs say - most of the products are total crap and all of the lumen ratings are BS.
- I don't see the need to exceed 1,000 lumens. Sure, cars have more, but they go 75mph. You will not outrun 1,000 lumens on a bike.

Group rides:
- Don't exceed 850 (or 70 for the blinky taillight). Super bright lights suck in a group - they cast odd shadows when behind other riders, and make it tough for riders to look back, e.g. checking the group, looking for cars, etc.

For any ride:
- Don't go under 500 lumens. Well, I'll qualify that. Don't use a light with a max output of 500. I use a Cygolite (max of 850) and will keep the beam on low or medium if I'm in the neighborhood warming up, or climbing. Once I'm out of the local neighborhoods, I toggle up to medium or high.

wayne310

thought i was on candlepower forums.

how much did it end up costing you?

i also do majority of my riding at night ...but in the city..i guess that will be overkill

SylvainG

I've put a 'hood' on my CatEye Volt800 to reduce the height at which it lights up, which has the added benefit of lightning up my brifters gear position.



This is the beam pattern I get:



My lit city road preferred light mode is called "Hyper Constant mode 800/200 lumens" which is a constant 200 lumen with a 800 lumen pulse every second. Light lasts 7.5 hours in that mode. If I suddenly enter an unlit area, double pressing the power button brings it into full 800 lumens mode and another single press brings it back to its previous mode.

I also carry a spare small 150 lumens light with me in my saddle bag in case my main one breaks down (never happened yet).

Brad Bike

Thanks for the awesome feedback, everyone. I'll likely shoot for something around 700-850 lumens since I'd like to get up to 1.5 hrs out of it and it seems like the 1000+ lights have a somewhat shorter life. I'll also look at helmet lights as the idea of illuminating around a turn makes a lot of sense.

Fox Farm

I have been using NiteRider for about 25 years. Their stuff is pretty well worked out for beam spread, battery life, mounting, etc. I use a 750 max Lumen setup now on the front and a Light in Motion 100 lumen on the back. I also like Light in Motion but find their mounting system to be not on par with the quality of their lights.

Bob Ross

:::insert Speed Of Light joke here:::

canklecat

Check the We Test Lights site for actual performance compared with manufacturers' specs. We Test Lights is run by Light & Motion but appears to be unbiased. Their tests show some models of competing brands as better than some of their own L&M models. It also shows significant variations between models within a brand, so a Zappo 500 might actually outperform a Spiffybeam 750 over the duration of use to battery exhaustion.

Performance of my older Light & Motion Urban 500 and NiteRider Lumina Micro 750 matches the We Test Lights results perfectly. The NiteRider Lumina Micro 750 starts out at 750 lumens or brighter, sure. But it drops rapidly within minutes. Within 30 minutes it's half that brightness. After an hour it's only 200 lumens, where it plateaus until exhaustion. I've observed this in routine nighttime use on longer rides.

The L&M Urban 500 stays at 500 for almost 40 minutes, then holds at 400 lumens until the 80 minute mark, then continues gradually dimming but never dipping below 250 lumens until the light goes out around 90 minutes. And the battery indicator light seems to match the battery drain characteristics.

So after half an hour the Urban 500 is effectively brighter than the Lumina Micro 750. I've seen this many times this year running both lights on high until exhaustion. The NiteRider Lumina Micro 750 is really a 500 lumen or less light with a turbo mode for higher peak power.

That's only at the maximum output settings. I usually run the NiteRider on low or medium so it'll last longer. I use it on high only for local errands and for some tricky spots on nighttime rides that should last only an hour -- mostly a familiar 20 mile workout route nearby that's cooler during summer nights with little or no vehicle traffic. There are a few areas used by deer and other critters for road crossings, so that's where I use the brightest mode.

Other models by NiteRider, Light & Motion and others have significantly different output and runtime characteristics, so check that review site for each model you're considering.

SHBR

150 lumens, vs 400.

Multiple lights with multiple settings is best for long distance riding, for casual riding, a single light with a few settings is sufficient.

Brightness, depends on your eyesight, and conditions.

rm -rf

The difference to your eye between 750 and 1000 is fairly subtle. The 750 should work.

Check out how the light switches between bright and dim modes. It should be simple, since you may want to do it quite often while riding.


Helmet mounts
I had a 200 (actual) lumen light, back when those were considered very bright. It was okay for riding under 15 mph, but gave very little warning at higher speeds. So I added an LED flashlight of 180 lumens on my helmet.
Advantages: seeing around a corner, very nice. Blasting a barking dog in the eyes, it backed off.
Disadvantages: I wanted to keep my head steady, so that the beam would normally point down the road. The narrow flashlight beam projected farther than the bike light. But that was hard on my neck! And in group rides, I had to be careful not to look at another rider.


Beam patterns
Some lights have a narrower beam that projects farther down the road for the same lumens. But these tend to have a sharper cutoff at the sides, which is kind of distracting to me.

I have a very bright light with a wide, smooth beam. So it lights up the whole width of the road, and the sides, too. I go full power in the city, to compete with car headlights and make a bright pool of light on the road. In the country, that's way too bright -- reflective signs are extremely bright.

Group rides at night
Like another post mentioned, bright lights behind a rider cast distracting, moving shadows in front of the rider. I put my light on the lowest setting, and aim it downwards. Each rider in a group just needs to light up the road directly in front of their wheel, then the whole group can see. So a light that can pivot downwards while riding is useful.

And the newest rear blinkies are way too bright for a group. Mine has a non-blink, dim mode.

Psychocycles

As many people have said, it's totally dependent on your riding conditions. If you're in an urban environment, I think 350-500 lumens are enough as you just want to be seen. If you're in the backcountry with pitch black roads, I'd recommend two lights if you can run them on your aero bars. Different makes and models have different light types, even at identical lumens, and I'd find one light that has a very wide spread so that you can see 180 degrees in front of you and one that's very narrow and long, so you can see hundreds of feet in front of you. If you run one or the other you'll be missing out on crucial information either to the sides or farther in front of you.

Beaker

I've had a light & motion TAZ1200 (1200 lumen) headlamp for a few years that I routinely run at 600lumens, as that's supposed to give me 2-3hrs run time (1.5hrs at 1200). I pair that with a helmet light as that really helps on twisty roads when you want to be able to see around corners before your bars are lined up with where you're heading (currently a light & motion Vis 360 pro that I run at 300lumens). I'm often out just after 5am and we don't have a lot of street lighting where I'm riding, so it's helpful to be able to go to 1200 on the bars and 600 on my helmet light when I'm riding fast on a flat but dark road or going down a descent.

Gotta say I really like L&M products - very robust and made locally in Monterey, CA.

tcs

Run times? My lights use a standard 18650 that slides right out after a cap is toollessly removed. I can fit quality Panasonic 3400mah batteries and carry spares. With this setup my run time on high could be dusk to dawn.

rumrunn6

riding at night, in the woods, alone, can be freaky. I love it! could swear a coyote was smiling as he crossed my path last Fall

buffalo4life

I prefer at least 500 lumens on the bars and for technical riding a few hundred lumens on the helmet.

cthenn

My light has different lumen output modes, I run 300 in residential areas with street lights, lots of cars or illuminated signage, etc. 700 in total darkness out in the sticks.

indyfabz

Yeah. It's freaky but fun.

I took this last year just in McKean County, PA as the sun was about to rise. (It was not as light as the photo makes it seem.) Before I did, a YUUUGE black bear walked out from between the dumpsters. I had gotten up much earlier and seen the wreckage. That dark blob on the left is a big pile of scat with a paw print in it. There was also a pile of scat not 50' from my tent. I kept my head on a swivel as I made coffee and ate breakfast. Packed up, walked my bike around to the front of the campground office and leaned it against a bench to put on the helmet and turn on the lights. That's when I heard clinking and clanking as it emerged. We looked at each other for maybe 10 seconds. I slowly moved back and sideways. It made its way into the brush. Scary yet exciting.

GeneO 

This^