mfhorn

Am I better off running my lights in a steady or flashing mode? Does it make a difference if I'm riding at night, during the day, or at dawn/dusk?

I've been using the headlight on steady, and a slow flash on the tail light, but I've been riding when it's still a bit dark. Headlight is about 300 lumens I think, tail is around 50.

VegasTriker

(Anecdotal, not scientific) From what I see of cyclists riding during the bright sunlight here in the desert, a flashing light shows up a lot sooner than a steady light. For daytime use, a bright, concentrated light is going to be seen sooner than one that is spread across a bigger area. Of course, the brighter the light, the more likely it is to be seen but run time or battery life is indirectly proportional to the brightness for similar mAh batteries. During the day, 50 lumens is not much for a tail light. Prices have fallen recently on the newer USB rechargeable COB tail lights. I just got one in the mail today that cost me less than $5 including shipping. Raypal RPL-2266 COB LED Bicycle Bike Cycling Front Rear Tail Light USB Rechargeable 6 Modes Lamp | eBay Took 13 days to arrive in the mail from China.

At least for tail lights at night, the bigger the lit area, the better it can be seen. I made a set of DIY light sticks for my recumbent trike that are 11" long with 87 colored LEDs spiral wound around a 3/4" plastic tube. It can be seen 360 degrees and a long way off. I wanted to be sure nobody could say they didn't see me coming. Runs on a 12V lithium polymer battery with a run time of more than 12 hours. Cost for a pair with battery and charger was about $25.

canklecat

I'm a big proponent of using two or more lights, front and rear. It enhances our visibility by giving drivers a better gauge to quickly guesstimate our distance, direction and speed. The eye can quickly pick up on whether two adjacent lights are converging or diverging. More separation is better, and the easiest way to do that on a narrow bicycle is to mount lights on both the bike and helmet.

I vary my front and rear flashing lights to suit the conditions. I want to be seen but don't want to blind other cyclists, joggers or pedestrians.

In daylight I use the flashing modes that would be too annoying at night. Even my brightest lights barely register as brighter than a glint of sunlight off chrome or glass, so it's not going to blind anyone. It's just a slight edge, and I'll take whatever edge I can get in traffic. I've noticed drivers are more likely to see me and pause to let me pass, or hesitate before pulling out in front of me. Good enough to satisfy me that it works often enough.

My Serfas SL-255 has full power fast blinking mode so I use it on flash only in daylight or in heavy traffic at night. But the Light & Motion Urban 500 uses a lower power slow pulse that's much less annoying yet still reasonably effective, so I'll use it in early morning or near sunset when I don't quite yet need a steady headlight to see by.

I use a Vivo-Bike Illuminati (available under other brand names on Amazon) on my helmet, primarily as a to-be-seen light. It's aimed downward so normally the beam is just above the front wheel. But if I look up toward a driver the beam aims directly at them. I run it on flash for longer battery life in daylight and heavy traffic at night. Otherwise I'll run it on low steady. The only time I use steady high is as a supplemental to-see light on dark rural routes and twisty tree-lined parts of the MUP at night so I can see the roadsides better -- lots of critters along the roads so I like a little advance notice. Squirrels tend to dart across my path (at least a dozen times within a few minutes the other evening) while rabbits, cats, etc., tend to run away the opposite direction.

My brightest taillight is a Cygolite Hotshot. Most flash modes are too bright for nighttime group rides, so I set it to steady dim on those occasions. Otherwise I use the triple flash mode in daytime -- it'll run for a week in that mode. At night I'll switch to slower pulse or zoom modes, which varies slowly from dimmest to brightest, or combines rapid blinking and steady. I've parked my bike in a dark, remote rural area and walked back about 50 yards to see how it would look to a driver, so those modes seem about right to me.

My rear helmet light is a Blackburn 2'Fer, a very versatile lightweight light with white and red, steady and blinking. Normally I use blinking red since the battery lasts longer. It gets only about 90 minutes on steady and often my nighttime rides are longer than that. It's bright enough to be noticeable but not blinding.

kingston 

You don't need lights at all in the daytime and flashing lights are always obnoxious. If you care at all about other humans stick with solid lights that don't blink.

mfhorn

How many lumens would you suggest? WallyWorld has one with 120 lumens in back. They've got some full sets with up to 5000 lumens for the head light, but that's a bit out of my price range (over $200), and at least right now I'm just going up & down a residential street.

What I have has low/med/high/fast strobe in front, and steady/fast/slow strobe in back. The fast strobe front would catch people's eye for sure.

Something I might run in to on the back light is that my seat is all the way down, so there's not a huge amount of space. I saw one light on Amazon (Apace Vision) with a vertical mount tail light that wouldn't fit. I've got the headlight mounted under the handlebar.

Any advantages/disadvantages of external battery packs vs internal?

I've seen some lights with what they call 'overdrive' mode. Is that extra bright?

What about helmet mounted lights?

mfhorn

Thoughts on putting tail lights on the seat stays? I'd thought about a headlight mounted on the fork, but I think that'd end up shining up too much.

Any experience with any of these?

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Also thought about using this 3rd one as a light for my helmet
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mfhorn

Looks like I'll be ordering 2 tail lights- an Apacevision for my helmet, and a Blitzu Cyborg 168T for the bike. That should be plenty for no more than I'm doing now.

My wife said the current lights, a Lumintrail with 800 lumen is very visible from 2 blocks off in daylight. I don't like the strobe flash that much, but at least right now I don't want to spend anything more for the headlight I do like, a Cygolite 600 (or more) since the Lumintrail is working out okay. We'll see what happens in 6 weeks or so when I'm riding in the dark. She could only see the tail light from about a block off, so that's the first thing to fix.