squidrow

As I ride longer and end up further and further from home, getting back before low light conditions take over is becoming more and more of a challenge.

For example, left yesterday 3 hours before sunset with a goal of my first 40 mile ride.

As I approached the 20 mile mark and prepared to turn around, the sunlight was replaced by heavy dark clouds. As I completed the trip it was just about dark and I was quite nervous about it.

So, I am looking for recommendations for lights that are bright enough to ride in the dark as well as let all cars know that I am there.

(for the record I hit my first 40+ mile ride yesterday in 2 hours 42 minutes and ended up at 42 miles!)

blue_cheese

I use a Serfas True 550 and am very happy with it, there are better lights out there but this one is relatively inexpensive $<150 You probably have about 2 hours in the dark on full power before the battery drains, you can purchase and swap in an extra charged battery, or you get a larger light with a larger battery source

https://www.serfas.com/products/view...hts|usb-lights

PS it doubles as an awesome compact flashlight for working on the car or in dark spaces....

Shanej

I have one of these and am happy with it.

Blaze 2W

dadman50

To see, I have a LIGHT & MOTIONS URBAN 700. It gives a bright, wide beam and has dim, med, bright and blink modes. It's USB rechargeable, no batteries.
To simply be seen, you could use any inexpensive clamp-on light. One that blinks.

For the rear, you want red lights that blink with random LED patterns.

RocTurk

I recently bought Cygolite Metro 500 for ~70$ at amazon. So far very happy with it despite some glitches. Let's talk about the good stuff first. This thing is bright. I used it in pitch black condition on a bike tail and had no issues with being able to see where I was going. It is probably too bright to the coming traffic, so I'm tilting it downwards when I see people coming towards me. Now the things I don't like. It is not very easy to unmount the light from locked-in position, especially when the weather is chilly. Solution is taking the whole mounting unit off the handlebar. No big deal, it's very easy to mount/dismount the bracket. Also I think Cygolite now has a better mounting bracket, so the issue may no longer exist. next, not sure if this is true for the other flashing LED lighting systems too but when in flashing mode, it interferes with my "wireless" CatEye bike computer and the computer stops reading the speed. Again no big deal during daytime (unless you use the flashing mode daytime too) and for nighttime the main goal is to go home safe rather than performing analytics. if you use wired computer or no computer at all, then it is fine. btw, continuous mode does not interfere with the computer.

Battery life is 1.5hrs on high mode (500 lumens) and 2.5hrs (300 lumens) which is good enough for a evening commute unless you ride >30 miles.

After falling in love with this, purchased Cygolite Streak 310 for my wife for 45$ again on amazon. Streak is smaller and lighter than metro 500 but highest output is 310 lumens. The light beam is narrower than Metro 500 but still wide enough to help you ride in pitch black conditions. Maybe not good enough for mountain biking at night though.

dazevedo

I bought this set and it's perfect for my speed ( 13 to 15 mph ) at night on Med ( 260 Lumens). During the day I use the flash mode on the headlight and the steady flash on the tail light. Seems to get me noticed a lot more then with them off. Run times same as the Metro 500.

Cygolite Metro 400 and Hotshot USB Rechargeable Headlight and Taillight Set - Modern Bike

fietsbob

LED Hub Dynamo Powered Lights have no limit to how long they will stay on.

yashinon

To those of you with lights do you use lights during the day?

Arizona Nights

Cygolite Metro 500 is $70 on Amazon. Extremely well built, USB recharging, easy to mount and unmount, 500 in-your-face lumens. I would definitely stay away from the Bontrager Ion. It's bright enough but shorted out after a month. One night on a very dark road it went out and I had to keep tapping it to get it back for a few seconds. On all subsequent rides it did the same so I just gave up and spent the $70 for the Cygolite. Never looked back.

I don't often use my light during the day. If I'm riding in traffic I usually use my blinky tail light since I'm more concerned about cars coming from behind. And I always wear day-glow orange or green shirts.

Triaxtremec

I used the serfas Thunder bolts front and rear flashers for daytime and night use. I also use and Exposure diablo helmet lamp after sunset.

ColonelSanders

I'd be looking at this beastie. Robot Check

Cateye Volt 1200

Best value for money light that has the battery self-contained in my view.

a1penguin

Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets

There are lots of posts in this forum. And check out the 2014 Mtbr Bike Lights Shootout - Mtbr.com. This has lots of comparison pics to give you some idea of the differences in lights.

no1mad 

Agreed, which is why this was moved from Hybrids.

Antieverything

I use 2 Niterider Lumina 350s for late night rides, most days I use it on flash mode and can get 8-10hrs on a charge. Evening rides I use it on the second light setting and can run it for 4-6hrs. I use dual Serfas Thunderbolts on the rear at night on the low blink setting, 6-7hr run time, and a single on the high setting for daytime at 3-4hrs. I got the Niteriders for $79ea and the Thunderbolts for $40ea. Not great pricing but it works for me, essentially I can run one of each and swith out to the second when they die and can get a potential of 14hr+ run times if ever needed.

chewa

After years of commuting year round here (the winter days are very short this far north), I've tried virtually all combinations of lights.

Last year I bought a couple (for my wife and I ) of Cree LED lights from Ebay. The equivalent of $20. So far they have been great. I get 4 hours on low (which is still bright enough to ride ), with the full only needed for pitch black descents on unlit paths.

This is the type of thing, but I got the larger battery pack. I also bought a diffuser lens to flatten and broaden the beam (I think it is a Light and Motion one)

CREE XML XM-L T6 1800 LM LED Cycling Bike Bicycle Head Light HeadLamp HeadLight | eBay

I run at least 3 rear lights (one solid, two blinking) with the solid being a Smart 1w and the two blinkies being Cateye (LD600). I run a backup front blinkie too.

I use rechargeable AA or AAAs

cyccommute 

There are hundreds of choices out there for battery powered LED lights. Fleabay, Amazon, and many others offer a vast array of lamps. This one from Amazon is a good value if you can get past the batwings. This one from Fasttech is very bright and very small. Fasttech has a large variety of other lights as well.

Be aware, however, that the claimed brightness is vastly over rated on most of the lights. Fastech seems to be closer to the actual rating than many of the other lamps out there. The light that chewa linked to and the Amazon light I linked to definitely aren't putting out the claimed lumens. The Cree emitter on both puts out around 700 lumens at the maximum amperage and less in real life. The Ebay light likely puts out 400 to 600 lumens and the Amazon light likely puts out 800 to 1200. That said, they are still good bright lights for a lot cheaper than you can get a "be seen (but not really)" light like the Planet Bike Blaze.

You are also going to get a bunch of "get a dynamo light" suggestions. While a dynamo offers convenience, it is also a costly alternative. The Cree LED battery powered lights have shorter run times and you do have to charge batteries, however you can buy 8 to 10 battery powered lights like the ones above for the cost of a single dynamo light system for a single bike. I have 3 Cree LED battery powered lights that I payed around $120 for and I can use them on any bike I like. I can loan the lights to someone if need be. (My wife and I are doing a ride this week end that requires a light so she will be using one of mine.) If you have only one bike, a dynamo system might make sense but if you have multiple bikes (I have 9), you need at least as many lamps as bikes (not cheap) and maybe 9 wheels (definitely not cheap). Even 2 wheels is going to drive the price to several hundred dollars for the system(s).

Finally, using a helmet light can have advantages on- and off-road. The lamp goes where you look and illuminates corners, potholes, lions and tigers and bears...Oh my! I find them extremely useful even when street commuting (I don't commute on bike paths at night). You can't really drive a helmet light with a dynamo so you have to use batteries.

KenshiBiker

Yes.

I typically run my Niterider Lumina 650 in flash mode during the day. At night it goes to steady mode. My early morning commute that starts along unlit streets then moves onto an unlit MUP justifies my Dinotte XML-3 on my helmet (on steady). In the rear is a Dinotte 300R - flashing during the day and steady at night. During early morning commutes I'll add a Niterider Solas tail light in flash mode.

fietsbob

B&M Eyc-T, like seen here: B&M Lumotec IQ2 Eyc T Senso Plus
Busch & Müller: LUMOTEC IQ2 Eyc

& Shimano-Brompton front wheel, I just leave it on, light sensor in the day, cuts the Bright One, leaves the 2 smaller day running Lights On.

10 Wheels

Bought all of my lights for Day Strobe riding.

Found out they are also Great for Night rides.My night Century Bike.



My Day Bike

PaulRivers

Lol, well, cyccommute is generally right on about dynamo lights. They're still great if you only have 1 or 2 bikes, and cost is less important than convenience. They're always on the bike, you never have any battery drama whatsoever - no "forgot to charge", not "accidentally left it at home on the charger", no "oh crap the battery if getting old and shut down halfway through the ride", no "ended up on a long ride and battery ran out". It's just like a car - you don't even think about charging the light, if it runs the lights work. I have one on my commuter, no question they're more expensive than the cheap battery versions though. Dynamo lights also have a very good beam pattern.

However, if your goal is simply "to be seen", a low powered flashing front light works even better than a main light (can't see with it, but others can see you) -
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WCH53I/...I3E9SZJDVW9NGZ

mrbubbles

Do dynamo light proponents have to repeat their advantages every time?! As per cyclocommute, a yinding set with 2 xml is $50. 4 to 10 times cheaper than dynamo setup, and 3 times brighter, with 5 hour runtime on medium. And I have 4 bikes with dynamo lightings.

cyccommute 

On the negative side, you have a single light. If something happens to the wires...say someone pulling a bike out of a rack and hooks your wiring, you are without a light. If you crash and break the mount, you are without a light. If you stop for more than a few minutes, you are without a light. If you have to fix your bike, you can't take the light off and use it on the bike. You might be able to rig up more than one light source but it's still powered by a single power source. And it costs many times more to purchase a dynamo system than a good, inexpensive battery system. You can spend more on battery systems but I fail to see the reason.

By the way, some dynamo lights have good beam patterns. There are others...the ones used on B-Cycles here in Denver come to mind...that don't.

If you can see with the light, you'll be "seen" with it too. Why waste $20 on a glorified reflector when you can spend less and get a real "see/be seen" light?

PaulRivers

True, though haven't heard of that happening.

Ok, but if you crash and break a light that's mounted on the fork crown, odds are almost certain your whole bike is wrecked.

Until you start moving the bike again, but true.

True, that's the one disadvantage other than cost I could being a drawback that might be a problem.

Right, it's not really worth it.

Not really interested in getting into a pointless debate. I listed the reasons above, and clearly agreed that there are also good reasons not to buy a dynamo light.

[QUOTE=cyccommute;17175407]By the way, some dynamo lights have good beam patterns. There are others...the ones used on B-Cycles here in Denver come to mind...that don't.

Fair enough, most but not all dynamo lights have a good beam patterns. I forgot they've introduced more lower end models in the last couple of years here in the US.

I feel like this is just heading towards having another long pointless multi-thread back and forth that you're often involved in. That's not actually a question, you're making a statement. And I'm bored if someone doesn't have interesting points to bring up. I'm sure people can figure out why a blinking front light is more visible than a solid one.

I quoted your post and agreed with you, if that causes you to try to bring up another long dramatic back and forth I'm going to assume there's no actual way to discuss anything with you that doesn't. I'm perfectly happy to discuss the points at the beginning of your post, but the end here just seems like it's a lead in to a pointlessly contentious back and forth.

PaulRivers

It's like I'm assuming everyone hasn't read every other thread in the forum or something. No one said that mentioning "dynamo" means you can't talk about your lights if you want. It's not a "communist vs capitalist" debate. People use either kind of light.

cyccommute 

I have had it happen long ago when I was using a generator light. I don't park in racks much anymore so I haven't had it happen with a battery light but it's a possibility even there. I do use multiple lamps with multiple power sources so I'm less likely to have a total system failure.

Not all dynamo lights are mounted on the fork crown just like not all battery lights are mounted on the handlebars. You can mount them just about anywhere that you feel like.

I'm not trying to be facetious but what speed do you have to go to get the lights to working again? If you had to walk, would that be fast enough for light generation? What if you had to push a bike with a flat tire? Would you have light or would you be pushing along in the dark?

Again, not be facetious, but why not? I know you have shaped beams and all but I've never run across a situation where having more light wouldn't be an advantage. In an urban setting, people think that they can get by with less lights because there is all that ambient light out there but, in my experience, urban settings require more light since you have to compete with 1000 light sources within any given 300 to 500 foot distance.

Shaped beam patterns...I don't necessarily agree that the German light pattern is that good...for dynamo lights are relatively recent, like in the last 10 or 15 years. Before that, the light patterns were truly abominable. Light enough to see by with a dynamo is also only a relatively recent advancement. Pre-LED, the light output from a dynamo was what gave them a very bad reputation.

Personally, I find a blinking front light to be about the most annoying thing I've seen on the road. If you are going to ride at night, it's better to actually see the road with a steady white light than try to guess what is on the road between flashes of a slow strobe. That said, every LED out there has multiple modes that includes flashing...and often multiple flash modes. I really don't see the point of the Cateye Reflex when you can buy a light like the one I linked to on Amazon which is cheaper and brighter.

I'm not trying to convince you to change your mind on generator lights nor are you likely to change my mind on battery lights. We both seem to be willing to live with...and acknowledge...the warts of the respective systems. I am, however, trying to convince squidrow that he doesn't need to shell out a lot of money for some very good lights that will meet his needs. A $20 to $60 investment will allow him to decide if he even wants to ride at night on a regular basis. For the dabbler, the LED lights linked to above are perfect to get him to get his feet wet. If he decides that he likes it, he can investigate other equipment but if he decides he doesn't like it, he's only out $20 to $60.

Generators really are for enthusiasts like you and me. That's why I often get a burr under my saddle in these discussions. Dropping $200 on a light system that you may not even use more than a few times isn't the way to go. Wait until he comes back excited about night riding to convert him.