Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
I've got a Hotshot, and it's definitely nice and durable, but I don't particularly like its extremely focussed beam. I'm thinking about getting a Danger Zone instead.
In the winter when I'm riding at night a lot, I use a Magicshine which is way brighter than any of these and runs off my headlight pack, for $30, but if you have to buy it with the battery pack it's not only huge but way outside the budget.
Yes, the beam on a Cygolite Hotshot is quite narrow. But it's as wide as the road at about 50 to 75 feet back. ( And closer than that, it's very bright from any direction, no beam needed.) At a few hundred feet, it's way wider than the road. So cars will see that bright blink even if the road is curvy. That focused beam makes it very visible on cloudy days, too.
And there's some diverted light at wide angles, even up to 90 degrees, that's bright enough for close range cars on side roads to see.
I have mine aimed slightly downward, and if I look back, I can see the pool of red light on the road behind me. That's bright!
Side lighting
Here's the Hotshot laid on it's side, exactly horizontal, at an inch above the paper. The brightest light shows as yellow, but it's actually red.
The bright side light aimed at the camera is visible, and the other side lighting that hits the paper is pretty bright, in a checkerboard pattern. You can see the central cone of bright light is already hitting the paper just 6 or 8 inches from the light, so it has a decent spread.
This side lighting is just diverted light, via prisms, from the main beam. There's only one LED.
WARNING: if you push the On button in the store, when the light is still in it's box, don't aim it at your face...
