freesafety22

i've got a litespeed appalachian and i need front and rear lighting.
any advice or links or pics!
i can't find anyone in town that has anything decent and ehe nite rider sight all looks like very unsexy 80's crap to me.
any suggestions?
THANKS

Rolla

My three NiteRider Luminas have been working reliably for a loooong time. But if you don't like their styling, look at others. Maybe you'll find Lezyne more arousing.

SpedFast

Are you looking to be seen or to see? Lots of variety online ranging from cheap to extreme. With name brands you do get what you pay for,

black_box 

I've been happy with my lezyne and light & motion lights.

chaadster

Yeah, we need more info about what your needs are in order to make solid reccos, but sharing your concern for styling, there are two brands I keep going back to for lighting: Knog and Specialized.

In particular, Specialized Stix I use a lot for daytime running. They’re sleek, versatile mounting, and have good run time and brightness. The white front unit is particularly useful, as I can mount around headset spacers (under stem) , or discreetly inline with the handlebars. I even use velcro to stick one on the headtube of one bike. Very slick products, Stix.

Also, Specialized’s Flux headlamps are stylish and versatile, and throw proper lumens for lighting the road.

Knog’s Lil’ Cobber is my favorite tail light, both for styling and light quality. Particularly for group rides, the low power modes, either flash or steady, are not as annoying as typical lights which use a single, bright, high output emitter. I also like their Blinder headlights for certain trips when I might be coming home in dark but mostly riding in light, because they’ve got battery enough to day flash three hours, are compact, but also bright enough to light the road for the ride home.

I have several other lights, mostly Cygolite, Lezyne, and Bontrager, but my favorite and go-to lamps are from Spesh and Knog.

chas58

shoot, anything from cygolite or night rider would work fine. I've found my light in motion were not very durable, but the first two are pretty bomb proof.

chaadster

But NiteRider was the OP’s specific complaint!

Koyote

Perhaps you should show us an example of a sexy bike headlight.

Bryan C. 

dwmckee

Here is what I use - Rather phallic looking, but an excellent light and it has a strong horizontal cut-off so you do not blind everything that is headed toward you. From Busch & Muller...

Amazon.com: Busch & Müller Led Battery Powered Light Ixon Core / Ixxi Set : Home & Kitchen

EricOnHisBike

OK, not what you said in terms of front and rear, but I also like side lights:
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...acon-light-set

-Eric

Noonievut

For the rear, Garmin Varia. Most ‘game-changing’ (LOL) cycling item I’ve ever purchased. I believe it’s saved me from being hit by a car a few times.

Koyote

Don, how is the brightness? Is 50 lux enough to see? And enough to be seen in daylight?

dwmckee

For road use with other vehicles or pedestrians around the cutoff and no light wasted on illuminating the sky this is plenty bright. If you are offroad trail riding then one of the inexpensive symmetrical beam lights mentioned above is a better choice. I have owned probably 30 headlights including a couple of dyno lights and this is the best of all IMHO if you ride around other vehicles...

This throws more light further out so you have even illumination close and far and get WAY less tunnel vision and night fatigue when using for a longer ride. If you are a serious night road rider this is one of the best choices.

If you want for daytime visibility then you want a flasher that has a broad beam. There are a lot of choices here. My favorite is the Lyzene superdrive XL. It is not made anymore but you can find it on ebay. I like it because it is bright and uses replaceable 18650 rechargeable cells. It never goes bad because you can replace the battery, and you can carry a few small extra cells for an all night ride. (I own 5 of these!, some close to 8 years old now I think.)

Koyote

Thanks for the detailed response!

zen_

Without knowing anything more, I recommend the Cygolite Dice 50 + Dice 150 pair to start. The Dice rear is the only light you'll ever need for that, and the front one is nice as a day light, low power night, helmet, or lightweight backup. I wish I had just got those to start years ago instead of cheaper lights that sucked, got ruined by water, or stopped charging.

Koyote

Ehh...I disagree with this recommendation. I had a Dice 50 and found the battery life to be very poor - esp after a couple years of light use. And 50 lumens is not much for daytime use. As for the headlight: 150 lumens is pretty weak -- not bright enough to be highly visible in daylight, and not bright enough to see well at night.

A Cygolite tail light with at least 100lm is a good starting point, and a headlight with at least 400lm is a good all purpose choice.

zen_

YMMV with the durability of any electronic device, but I have not noticed any drop off with the Dice 50 TL from two years of heavy use. I still use the 150 HL regularly as a day light commuting, or a jersey pocket backup for rides later in the day, or very long rides as a primary backup since it's so small and lightweight. The single pulse day modes also seem to offer extremely good visibility because the lens is effective. Not that it should matter, but it does matter because we like our bikes to look good, they look sleek on the bike, too.

freesafety22

thanks a lot gents!
i would use it for getting home in the dark i guess but also for safety in the daytime i suppose? not even sure if i would turn them on in daytime to be honest. i don't think i will do trail riding at night so no need for a wide angle?
this looks like it would do it i https://us.knog.com/collections/road...ont-bike-light
what about the for the rear? do i need to clear space on my seat post for something like the cobber?
THANKS

chaadster

I have a previous gen version of the Blinder Road front, my second, and I like it particularly for the alternating lens flash pattern, which is calm and not seizure-grade frenetic like some flash patterns. Be aware that run time isn’t very long, though, if using steady beams to illuminate the road. For short trips though, it’s great; discreet, mounts tool-lessly, and leaves nothing behind on the bars when you’re not using it. Regarding the wide angle beam, I like it for totally dark, rural roads (like those where you barely even get night sky because of tree cover) because I prefer seeing the edges of the road to just a pencil beam of light ahead on the road, mainly to watch for deer. Well, I do get that panicky, I’m-being-chased feeling, too, when it’s just a narrow spot light and dark on the edges!

The Cobber is seatpost mount only; even the light, separate from the mounting bracket, is curved, so it’s hard to hack some other kind of mount.

EDIT: oh, I nearly forgot that this is the gravel forum, and so I should add that the Blinder 600 is not the most stable light for rough roads. I’ve had trouble with the even smaller 300 or 400 lumen Blinder model rotating down because of bumps, so with the larger head of the 600 hanging out there, I imagine it’s something to be considered. It’s more stable on my 35mm bars than the 31.8s, but I’d much prefer a hard mounted light, like the Specialized Flux 850, for night time gravel.

AlfaW

I got lights from Sigma.