cncwhiz

I am looking at the Lezyne smart light set. I live rural so it gets dark here. Is there much difference between 800 and 1000 lumen?

Iride01 

Yes, 200 lumens. But some 800 lumen lights might focus the light better than some 1000 lumen lights. That might give you a better view of what's ahead of you.

So it's still a try it and see if you like it kind or thing.

VegasTriker

If you are comparing different lights, the lumen count is not the only thing to consider. What is the beam pattern? How much of the light gets to where you need it to go?
There is an interesting site that compares many of the commercial bike lights available in the US - Bikelightdatabase. https://bikelightdatabase.com/ It has reviews and redommendations for lights too.
I use a knockoff of the Lezyne Zecto Drive for my daytime running lights. They works great. I bought them after looking at the specs at the Lezyne website and realizing their version of the light had a lot of bells and whistles (7 settings) but all I wanted was two steady levels and a flashing mode plus USB rechargeable. Mine go for $11 a pair including shipping whereas the Lezyne lights are $70 a pair plus shipping. They are still good to go after being used several years.

steelbikeguy

the human eye is does not sense light in a linear fashion... i.e. a doubling of light intensity doesn't appear twice as bright. In fact, a doubling of light is noticeable, but looks to me more like a 30% increase.

Most of my bike commute was on dark rural roads. My light was LED, with LEDs that produced about 100 lumens per watt. With 3 watts from the dynamo, that is about 300 lumens. This was plenty for me. Beam pattern makes a big difference, of course, but my point is that with a decent beam pattern, 800 lumens sounds like it would do the job for you.

Now... who wants to discuss beam pattern?
There must be a number of threads in the past.

Steve in Peoria

noglider 

As someone else pointed out in another thread months ago, a more powerful light can be more useful not because of the higher output but because the battery has greater capacity. Then you can run it at half power and get more run time out of it.

cncwhiz

Based off of the information given in these posts, I bought a Cygolite Metro 800and a holeshot 150 package The light has three brightness modes ans well as different blinking modes for daylight. They seem to be good quality. I will start running them on my commute next week.

veganbikes

Just keep in mind blinking doesn't help anyone. Keep your front lights solid no flashing no blinking no winking or anything like that it can cause more issues than it would solve. Yes emergency vehicles flash but they are traveling at high speeds going to hopefully save someone and they have sirens and such to alert you it is a danger light no other road vehicle uses them aside from ermergency and police vehicles in an emergency (or running red lights for some police). You are none of those things and don't need to dazzle cars or would you want to as they might be more prone to hit you in that situation.

Also for anyone coming to this thread late, beam pattern is quite important. STVzO lights which are the road legal standard in Germany are ideally what you want for riding around other people/on road/paved trails, as they cut off at the top but give a good beam pattern for you to see. Also brighter is better not for the brightness really but for a longer lasting battery in the solid lower lumemage. Yes sometimes you need a little more light but really having something that lasts longer is always handy.

noglider 

Cygolite stuff is truly high quality. And their service is very good, too.

Of course, some of us disagree with @veganbikes about flashing. And Cygolite headlights have a so-called steady-flash mode where it is always on and has a high-intensity blink every second or so. You can see with it at night, and it definitely gets my attention when it's on someone else's bike, so I suspect it gets other people's attentions, too. I lost my Cygolite headlight, so I don't have a steady-flash headlight anymore, and I'm getting by fine, but it's not a bad thing to have or use, depending on conditions.

shmily_dana

Has anyone done a study on the optimum brightness? I don't use the higher settings on any of my lights. I find that if I have my lights too bright, nearby things are well luminated. But the trade-off is I don't see small reflectors on a shoe further away. Or that person wearing black sweats and walking a black lab. My current solution is to have a light on my helmet, so I can look away from close, bright things light speed limit signs. I also have a brighter light on my handlebar.

cncwhiz

I rode for a long time using low cost harbor freight lights. I have a Coros helmet that has built in led lights. I have rode for a few years using a ion front blinking light and I like it but for early morning commuting in a rural area the light was not enough to see with. I used the new lights in the daytime yesterday on a 50 mile ride and they worked good. Might start riding to work and back Thursday weather permitting.

Richard Cranium

I usually chime in with patented Richard "headed" comments when ever anyone starts talkin' "more power" ........

I've done a lot of night riding and I've owned a lot of lights. And it seems to me I feel far safer using any helmet mounted light than relying on a beam thrown out in front - no matter how powerful.

My favorite is a 300 lumen Coast - with adjustable focus. I've used 1000 lumen "real lights' with battery packs in the jersey pocket - but it just seem like overkill. But don't misunderstand - I still believe you need a good bike mounted head light - but it won't warn you of threats coming at you from around corner or of the road.

veganbikes

I can't see when people start flashing and strobing front lights and it is quite dangerous. There is also the chance someone in the opposite direction will move towards that flashing light.

If we were using STVzO lights at a proper height then maybe the flashing might not be as bad but with a good bright beam with a good beam shape I really don't need to flash unless I am in an emergency situation like say a ambulance. Maybe if the bike light was warmer it might also help out but I don't feel the need to make it more dangerous for other road users so I keep it solid. If I absolutely had to flash and blink then I would find a very low lumen light to do that with and have it pointing farther down so it doesn't get into anyone's eyes.

JohnJ80

I used to spend a lot of time riding at night on rural, winding roads. I found that at about 1000 lumens, I no longer had to go slower than I normally would in daylight when descending hills, but having more like 2000 lumens felt a lot better. A car headlight is around 1300 lumens and they have two of them.

But more importantly, having car-bright headlights and very bright taillights (100+ lumens) got me substantially more respect from drivers. They would pass me with a much wider margin after slowing down. Coming at me, especially at corners, I was much less likely to have trouble (left or right cross issues). The fact of the matter, drivers are not expecting to see a cyclist at night and it scares the crap out of them when they come across a cyclist they did not see. Powerful lights help them see you well in advance with no surprises for anyone. So my advice would be to invest in appropriate lighting that makes you look like all the other vehicles on the road.

Lumens only tell part of the story but most bike lights through enough of a directed beam downrange that it's a decent relative figure of merit.

As far as beam shape goes - I go with the primary concept that my safety trumps most other concerns and certainly over the irritation of other drivers. I'll try to not shine my light in their eyes but my primary concern is being able to see road defects and to be seen by approaching drivers. As a cyclist, I'm the one that is in the most vulnerable situation with the greatest consequences for a problem and I think that buys me some, if not considerable, latitude.

ZippyDan

I'm not going to comment on your specific decisions regarding lighting, but I'll say that this kind of attitude is the prime example of humanity's tragedy of the commons. Everybody doing what they feel is safer for them, without regard for the safety of others, makes everyone less safe overall.

In reference to lighting specifically, everyone starts driving around with flashing lights all the time everywhere, because it makes them stand out and makes them personally safer, and then suddenly the road is just a dazzling mess of blinking lights everywhere, and flashing lights become noise in a sea of excess stimulation and confusion. There may or may not be a bit of "slippery slope fallacy" in that argument, but it's at least worth stopping to consider why flashing lights are not allowed for bicycles in some jurisdictions.

JohnJ80

Seriously? Even considering the gross mismatch in vulnerabilities between a cyclist on the road and a car at highway speeds? You have got to be kidding.

Somehow, I think "humanity" will survive if I am more aggressive about my safety on a bicycle. Maybe more cyclists should do so and there would be less cycling fatalities. This is not an equity type of problem.

blaugusto

I Agree a lot!