Originally Posted by
User1
...Speaking of which........ there was dude that had the Hotshot light on the last group (night) ride I did. The dude had the thing aimed up and fast flash. If you ever had the pleasure of being behind a 2 watt light aim like that, you owe yourself the pleasure. I asked the dude if he could change the setting and he just turned it off. THANKS!
Yup. I've had the Cygolite Hotshot SL 50 for a few months. Good but not great daylight visibility -- a viewer needs to be directly behind the light to really notice it, because Cygolite uses reflectors and lenses that concentrate the beam into a narrow aperture or angle of view. There's little side visibility.
Excellent nighttime visibility, but it's not suitable for group rides other than in steady mode, with the light dimmed a bit. Unfortunately the Hotshots so far cannot be dimmed on any flash/strobe mode. The pulses, flashes, and slow zooms vary, sure, but they still peak at maximum output. A couple of friends on nighttime group rides have mentioned how annoying and distracting the light is, so I either set it to steady dim or turn it off completely and use my old combo light/reflector for group rides.
Occasionally when I'm riding in the very back of a casual group ride to stay with the slower riders who don't have lights, I'll flip on the Hotshot to flashing mode to be sure cars can see us. But I try to stay behind every other rider.
The only possible use I could see for a brighter Hotshot is for solo daytime use only. Cygolite really needs to design the Hotshots to adjust the dimmer in flashing/strobing modes. If they do that I'll buy the most powerful one they make. They're very good values.
Blackburns have better side visibility. I use a 2'Fer on the back of my helmet. Most Blackburns omit chromed reflectors and lenses. Instead they use reasonably bright LEDs against a white reflector and emphasize better, more uniform visibility side to side and from behind.