Which bike lights?

parking_question_chap

Also one further question.

Can the brighter lights be used on roads? I imagine they could dazzle drivers.

Johnmcl7

I mainly use Fibreflare lights for my 'be seen' lights, they are a sort of a strip of light that isn't massively bright but they're quite distinctive and easily visible from a range of angles. Annoyingly the one that also has a front light that shines forward is USB rechargeable but others are AAA powered making it easy to change batteries. Plus there's no bracket, they strap straight onto the frame although their usefulness is reduced if you have shallow seat stays on your bike (such as with some of my MTB's) as the light sits quite low so I use a Cateye TL-LD610 for them. Also AAA powered and easy to get additional brackets.

For my 'to see' lights I started off with cheap Cree Q5 powered torch lights which worked fine around town but not bright enough for off road or travelling at speed. I mostly use XML2 powered torch style lights with mounts for the handlebars such as the Ultrafire 502b, they're flexible making it easy to put them on bar or helmet and bright enough for off road racing. The only annoyance is they use 18650 batteries which are a standard but not common in the UK so it meant some new batteries and charger but they're not that expensive for decent ones and easy to change on the go.

John

brat

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Also one further question.

Can the brighter lights be used on roads? I imagine they could dazzle drivers.

They can dazzle drivers, but the Cateye Nanos and Volts are designed for road use. You really should try to ensure that you keep the lights shining down on the road, because they can be a nuisance to other road users.

Johnmcl7

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Also one further question.

Can the brighter lights be used on roads? I imagine they could dazzle drivers.

Most lights have different modes so you can drop the power when you don't need the light, I switch off helmet lights and nudge the bar light so it points down a bit rather than straight so I don't risk blinding drivers.

John

Nasqueron

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Also one further question.

Can the brighter lights be used on roads? I imagine they could dazzle drivers.

This is the problem with those cheap ebay Cree lights that are on a race to offer thousand of lumen ratings (10,000+ is common enough now), they're designed to be cheap and high lumen rating, but not to UK safety standards so they don't taper to stop the light shining all over (some of them are for mountain bike use where all around vision is a good idea) - they can and do dazzle drivers and fellow riders due to a combination of bad design and poor position on the bike.

Also, lumen isn't really a good rating for lights anyway in terms of bike lights, it's just how much light in total is emitted, but since the explosion (literally in a few cases!) of cheap Chinese lights it's become all about the lumen rating - lux is much better (the intensity of light in a fixed area) which is more useful as it represents how well you can see the road ahead.

The cateye volt I have lights up a country lane for 4-5m ahead of you allowing you to ride at a decent speed without dazzling drivers.

With lights you generally get what you pay for though so going cheap can be a fools errand.

esuhl

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Also one further question.

Can the brighter lights be used on roads? I imagine they could dazzle drivers.

Some bike lights can dazzle drivers. The Philips SafeRide light I mentioned above is designed like a car light, so this doesn't happen. They comply with German road law (which is probably the strictest in Europe).

I have a pair of torches with a P5 LED that are powered by 18650 cells. They are bright, and great for off-road, but completely dazzling. If I'm cycling off-road at night, it's rare that I'll come across anyone else, so they're fine for that, but I'd never use them on the road (unless they were pointed at the ground).

Johnmcl7

Nasqueron wrote: »

With lights you generally get what you pay for though so going cheap can be a fools errand.

That's what I thought until I tried out cheap lights from a recommendation here and I've been amazed at how well the cheap lights work. Their performance is good and so far I've had very few reliability issues, only a single one has failed on me which for a tenner I wasn't losing any sleep over. The advantage of having multiple cheap ones is that I can easily have spares for myself or others when out a night ride, it's great being able to loan people lights as no lights in the middle of a pitch black forest is a real problem. Also since they're all powered by 18650 or standard battery packs I can easily keep them going for as long as needed.

On the other hand, I wouldn't use any of the cheap batteries or packs that come with the lights as even aside the potential risk of them failing badly, their performance is usually poor.

John

fred246

On my main commuting bike I have a Shimano DH-3N80 hub dynamo with a Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ cyo N Plus and a toplight flat plus. I also have a Cateye HL-EL620RC and a Cateye TL-LD610. The dynamo system was fitted in 2009 and hasn't been touched since. Good lighting at the flick of a single switch. A bit of drag - but not bad. I normally just run with the battery system though - the front light needs USB charging at work, but I know the dynamo backup is always there. I have some forestry and some unlit country roads on my commute.

cubegame

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Also one further question.

Can the brighter lights be used on roads? I imagine they could dazzle drivers.

Call it payback time.

esuhl

cubegame wrote: »

Call it payback time.

It will be when they hit you because they can't see where they're going...