Bike light recommendations

[hozn]

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?5963-Lighting-suggestions-for-Hains-Point-Rock-Creek-park&highlight=bike+light

[dasgeh]

We just had a thread on this topic: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?5963-Lighting-suggestions-for-Hains-Point-Rock-Creek-park

Does that help?

(Also, I PM’d you – on the upper right there’s a “notifications” drop down, and you should see inbox. I run Kidical Mass Arlington

And most importantly, welcome!

[hozn]

Dasgeh’s response was much more helpful! And yes, welcome.

[care free family]

Thank you both for the link to the thread that discussed lights.

[ShawnoftheDread]

So, back to lights yet again. Exposure has their Sirius light on sale for $90. 350 lumens and it looks as slick as the Diablo, only smaller. I know you Diablo users love I out lights, but does anyone have experience with this lesser light? http://store.ibexsports.com/mobile/exposure-lights/2013-exposure-lights/2013-exposure-lights-sirius-mk1-

The other I’m considering is the Cygolite Expilion 800. 800 lumens, $100. How swayed should I be by the lumens count? Should I expect a big difference in brightness between the two, or just a small difference.

I admit aesthetic considerations are pulling me in one direction. Also, I’ll be buying with a gift card so it’s almost a freebie.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@ShawnoftheDread 78696 wrote:

So, back to lights yet again. Exposure has their Sirius light on sale for $90. 350 lumens and it looks as slick as the Diablo, only smaller. I know you Diablo users love I out lights, but does anyone have experience with this lesser light? http://store.ibexsports.com/mobile/exposure-lights/2013-exposure-lights/2013-exposure-lights-sirius-mk1-

The other I’m considering is the Cygolite Expilion 800. 800 lumens, $100. How swayed should I be by the lumens count? Should I expect a big difference in brightness between the two, or just a small difference.

I admit aesthetic considerations are pulling me in one direction. Also, I’ll be buying with a gift card so it’s almost a freebie.

I have an Expillion 300. It’s a fine light but I hate the mount. It can pop off somewhat easily and doesn’t fit many different bar sizes/shapes. I’ve come to appreciate Cateeye’s mounting system, which fits my needs a bit better (due mainly to the varying sizes of handlebars in my stable). FWIW, my Cateye is a 600L, with a 300L (I think) “low” setting, but the 600L setting feels only maybe 30% brighter.

[OneEighth]

Exposure Diablo mounted beneath the bar so you can easily thumb through the settings without having to move your hands from the tops.

[hozn]

Apparently the exposure sirius @$90 is out of stock, so that may make this easier. I might have bought one at that price for mountain biking (the supernova airstream won’t work well for that; I will probably warranty my Niterider Lumina [for the second time] for that purpose).

[ShawnoftheDread]

I’m pretty good at letting time choose for me. Now I’ll wait for the cygolite to go on sale for $80, at which point they’ll be out of stock too.

[Riley Casey]

Rant post – no useful suggestions on brands & models.

In a fairly dense urban area like DC metro it’s not enough to have powerful or even entertaining point source lights of any sort. After 14 years of bike commuting I’m convinced that no bike light is suitable competition for a busy downtown intersection of 30-40 cars and trucks, traffic lights and assorted store windows. There are two completely different needs to be met in looking for bike lights. One is a light that allows you to see the road ( or lack thereof, gotta love pothole season) where you are looking ( as opposed to where the bike is pointed ) and the other is lighting that allow drivers to see you.

I ride with a strobe front light on my handle bar, a fixed light on my helmet, a dual row red rear light with different flash rates on the two rows plus a cheap Chinese strobe flashlight pointing down at my legs and bike frame to illuminate the frame and my moving legs. These plus the reflective sidewalls of my tires and my reflective yellow road worker vest are barely enough to make me visible to the alert drivers. Not nearly enough of course for the cell phone distracted drivers – entirely useless for the drunk drivers. I don’t think any one light on my bike cost more than $40 and given some of the places I lock up thats a good thing but it’s the ensemble that makes for a safe ride in the dark.

[Harry Meatmotor]

There’s a couple of ways you could go about this depending on how much you want to invest, imho. if you’re just looking for a good lumens/dollar ratio you can’t beat this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008KXDO8Y/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Though, i’d highly recommend getting the wide-angle lens:

http://www.amazon.com/Angle-MagicShine-Gemini-Lights-Headlight/dp/B004WLCLQY/ref=pd_bxgy_sg_img_y

And don’t count on the batteries lasting for more than a season’s worth of charging cycles. the batteries are, however, fairly inexpensive to replace.

If you’re looking for something more robust, both the cygolite expilion 800 and the niterider lumina 650/700 offer good output, good beam patterns, good mounting systems, and decent product support. Lezyne’s higher output lights also offer some pretty good output plus a great beam pattern.

If you’re looking for something that’ll last for several years with no problems, look at exposure’s systems (diablo + blaze = fawsome), or dinoitte (understated BLING!). Check competitive cyclist’s website for deals on the exposure systems – they’ve got good deals from time to time.

[Steve O]

Peter White has a pretty comprehensive section on his web site devoted to lighting.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Steve O 80691 wrote:

Peter White has a pretty comprehensive section on his web site devoted to lighting.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm

He’s a bit fussy to deal with, but if you’re looking for euro-style dynamo solutions he can’t be beat. I picked up a BM 350 lumen LED lamp for my wife to replace a crappy incandescent dynamo powered lamp from peter white and it’s awesome. QBP does carry supernova and also stocks shimano’s 1.5w and 3w dynamo hubs, so any shop using QBP as a distributor can get a hold of a lot of what peter white carries. as a side note, I’d love it if some american distribution lighting manufacturers started making some high-cutoff lensed headlamps. the difference between just throwing huge lumens and throwing a focused pattern at the trail is significant, especially from an on-coming rider’s perspective.

[mstone]

@Harry Meatmotor 80693 wrote:

as a side note, I’d love it if some american distribution lighting manufacturers started making some high-cutoff lensed headlamps. the difference between just throwing huge lumens and throwing a focused pattern at the trail is significant, especially from an on-coming rider’s perspective.

And a flashlight is pretty much the opposite of a well focused beam…

[hozn]

I will heartily recommend the Supernova Airstream light. Not sure what lumen output is, but plenty bright for commuting in the dark, good battery life, seems to weather well so far, and nicely shaped beam to keep light out of people’s eyes. Last year’s model was heavily discounted at PW earlier, too lazy to check again from my phone.

[Author]

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