AngryScientist 

i dont frequent this forum, but getting more and more into riding long, hence the questions. i was surprised to see not much on the first few pages about rando capable lighting.

those who ride through the night - are you mainly using generator lights? what lights are out there that can make it through a full night on battery power? i suspect a few battery changes might be in order, but the lights i currently have a good for a few hours at best...

next question : fork mounted light mounts - what's out there for road forks? i'm thinking of fabbing something up pretty crudely with aluminum bar stock and zip ties, maybe there are some more elegant solutions floating around for headlights?

my ideas are scattered at the moment, and i'm trying to consolidate what i want/need.

maybe what i need is your explanation of your lighting set-up for touring/rando bike, and why you went with what you did...

thanks in advance

Homeyba

I usually ride with a car behind me at night (when I'm racing). For randonneuring, generator hubs are very popular (that's what I use) and the new LED lights are really good. My main light is on a mount attached to the front brake and I have a small LED back-up light attached to the handlebars. For me handlebar space is prime real-estate for my hands and arms so I try to keep them clear of accessories. There are nubs you can buy cheaply that mount to your fork that you can attach a light to if you want. There are some decent battery powered LEDs' out there but I don't like anything with batteries. Having to deal with replacing them and/or carrying spares is not what I want to deal with.

Chris516

I have been looking for headlights that will brighten a long distance of road/path for me, should I get caught in the dark.

I have heard of some cyclists' on BF using lights by DiNotte. My problem with the lights DiNotte makes, is the cost. The headlights I do have, are junk. The most they will light up the road, amounts to the size of a Frisbee.

unterhausen

the people who are involved in long distance riding generally learn fairly quickly not to cheap out on lights. I rode a lot of miles with a homebuilt dyno light and a hub dyno, but I got tired of not being able to see that well while blinding approaching traffic. So I bought a Supernova E3 asymmetric, and I'm really happy with it. In the U.S., we are required to have a light on steady, and I have ridden all night a batch of times so it's tough to keep a battery light going for that long. I bought the E3 taillight and I'm pretty happy with that. My light that flashes lasts all night easily, I use a Radbot 1000 for that. I am thinking about getting a Dinotte rear or an alternative. I see it as a good investment in safety.

You see a lot of battery lights among randonneurs, but that takes logistics and discipline. I can leave home for a ride any time I want knowing that I'll have lights the whole time I'm out without worrying about spare batteries. The makers of battery front lights have pretty much stayed with symmetric reflectors, which waste a lot of light and annoy other road users.

The other thing that is important is reflective gear. Vest and ankle straps at a minimum. That is just as bright as a bright rear light and often more visible.

George

I made a fork mount light holder with PVC. I cut about a quarter of a 1 1/2" T with a 1/2 hole and put a short piece of 1/2 PVC, and screwed it in and attacked with tie wraps. I put a bar end cap on it and filed it down and painted it black. I filed the edges to dress it up, so it would look nice and neat.

k7baixo

Check out Peter While's site - lots of products to ponder and he offers quite a bit of advice also. I use a SON dynobub which I had built into a Velocity A23 rim coupled with an Edelux front light and a Busch & Müller Toplight Line Plus.

az_cyclist

Many in our club use ay up lights. They do put out a lot of light

bikenh

Yes, I know I will rightfully so get flamed for this comment but I have to say what I have experienced thus far. I do have an OLD Niterider light that I can't find the charger for anymore. I have want to find it and then see if I could shock charge the battery back to life or not.

Currently I don't use anything on the front end at all. I do have a blinker light on the bike of my pack I wear.

I haven't gotten home before 8:15PM any of the past 4 four nights and tonight will be the same. Actually didn't make it home Sunday night until 11:30PM and Tuesday night until 10:15PM.

I wear amber ski googles. I can always see, with or without the moon, 5-7 seconds in front of me. No, I'm not in town, this is in an area where there is no street/backyard lights of any kind. The only time I have any trouble is when I get blinded by car headlights. That is always a pain in the butt. Fortunately by getting home late I don't have too many cars still on the road. I also know the route I'm riding as I ride it daily, sometimes I go over the same surface multiple times a day. I know if their is going to be any ice or snow and where the bumps/holes are located. I do have a tendency to think I would try it an unknown location. I haven't did that yet though. I think I would rather off wait until it warms up this spring before I do that. Right now their is essentially no snow on the ground to help reflect any light so I'm working with the same conditions I would be dealing with during the summer months. I am quite surprised by how well I can see, especially with the ski googles on.

I do realize I would be much better off/safer with the headlight. I do one thing whenever I come to an intersection and I see any headlights. I stop and unclipped and let the car go first than I go through the intersection. I don't plan with the cars at intersections. I know I have the disadvantage and I also know I'm not in any big hurry to get home so I take my time and play it safe and remember the cars come first.

Like I said if I could find that darn battery charger I would see if I could shock charge the old battery back to life. I left it fully charged 15 years ago and then never used it again. I'm not sure if I could bring it back to life or not. I had hardly ever used the light after I bought it.

unterhausen

I assume you came here from the new posts link or something because you wouldn't last long on a long distance ride without a front light. People that post in this forum often ride 100+ miles in the dark, and it's pretty tough to know every pothole on a route that long.

garethzbarker

I don't know about other lights but I have these. Not to sound like a shill but they are incredibly good. The sales-team will help you set up your lights with the right lens and brightness options for what you need. The lights and batteries can be submerged in water. You would need one battery per night using the highest settings. I have two batteries and since I can't cycle three days in a row that's enough for me These batteries do require a long time to charge though so that's the only downside. If you completely drain the epic battery it's like 5 or 6 hours hours on the wall before it's charged fully.

I should note I'm not a hardcore long distance cyclist. I've only done a couple of all nighters.

Jamesw2

https://www.lightjunction.com/MagicSh...0bf17df752945c

With battery pack https://www.lightjunction.com/openlig...0bf17df752945c

I like the light

bikenh

Really, from what I've seen so far it's not much different than riding under questionably icy conditions during the daytime. You learn to look at the road and pay attention and not be gawking around. Like I did say thus far I have been riding in areas where I typically am riding during the daytime everyday and in some cases several times a day. Nights like last night really tempted me to keep on riding once I got home at 8:30PM. The almost full moon rising and crystal clear skies just about had me going off for a nice long ride. My problem always is the same though...I was home and why bother continuing when I had already ridden 35-40 miles for the day and hadn't eaten supper yet.

Around where I live during the winter months you may(not this year) have to deal with frost heaves but I rarely see any potholes. With the consistent temps below freezing around here, normally, potholes generally aren't a problem. One way to avoid the worst of the road conditions is to stick to state highways. I pretty much never ride on backroads, summer or winter, simply because of the pavement is so unreliable. State highways are generally always better maintained.

Their are only a couple of state highways around this area that I avoid, summer and winter, because the pavement is so bad. Most of the rest of them I would ride even without headlights during the night time hours. Granted I wouldn't do it if icy conditions were to be possible. I would be more concerned with chance of hitting the ice rather than hitting potholes/frost heaves. In an area I don't know I would treat it much differently. Anywhere around here...I wouldn't think much about doing 100+ miles, nighttime, once it warms up a little and I have a little better 'resupply' strategy figured out for how to handle filling up water bottle when everything around is closed.

Chris516

My other problem with lights is, that I don't want to have to try to engineer a light to work by rigging up some way to make it work. I just want a light bright enough that shows the road ahead of me, without having to fashion a clamp.

downtube42

On brevets, including PBP, I've seen about everything from frisbee-sized patches of light to light-the-countryside systems. There are a lot of "it depends", related to things like your night vision, perception of safety, typical speed, ride lengths, willingness to deal with batteries, etc.

I went with a dynohub and B&M lights front and rear, primarily because I didn't want to change batteries. An unexpected benefit is I turn lights on earlier and turn lights off later, because I'm not worried about batteries.

There are people happy with battery powered systems as well, including rechargable standard batteries, rechargable proprietary batteries, and non-rechargables. As I said, it depends a lot on what's important to you.

StephenH

bikenh, most organized events (ie, randonneuring and any kind of long-distance race) require lights for riding at night, so it's not an option for most of us.

I use a hub generator with light. Got it about a year ago, haven't regretted it. I use the skewer light mount, which works well for me.

For mounting stuff on the fork, I formerly used a Minoura unit that mounts on the fork:
https://www.minourausa.com/english/ac...-e/lh50-e.html
It worked very well, the main drawback being that it's not intended for carbon forks. I would be very cautious about how stuff is rigged up in that area, as anything accidentally rotating into your wheel could be big trouble.

The biggest problem I had with rechargeable lights is that I would come in from a ride and forget to plug them in to recharge, then couldn't ride the next night because the batteries were down.

Homeyba

I live out in the country and I love to flip off my lights and ride with no lights. I do it quite often. You can actually see a lot of things (mainly wildlife) that you normally wouldn't riding with lights on but (there is always a but isn't there) if I see the lights of a car coming I switch my headlight back on. The risk of not being seen is just to great. It's all great until you get squashed. If you have any kind of accident with a car at night riding with no lights it will be your fault, whether it really was or not. IMHO Riding in urban areas with no lights is just asking for it...

unterhausen

years ago, my commute was over 10 miles between two rural towns and I would occasionally turn off my headlight. I knew the roads very well. Around here, there are very few places where that wouldn't be insane. I wouldn't do it on a brevet because of the other riders.