I'm looking for a new set of lights for commuting on these dark winter nights in the UK. I'm looking for lights which are approved under either BS6102/3 or an equivalent EU standard. There are two reasons I'm looking for the standards approval: 1) it's the law. 2) those standards deal largely with the beam shape. I don't care whether the laws regarding bike lights are enforced where I am, I want to comply with it regardless.
The beam shape is important to me: I want to be able to see the road and other road users. I don't want to dazzle other road users. BS6102/3 and StVZO both deal with this kind of problem.
I don't have a dynamo, so I'm probably looking at battery lights.
So far, Busch & Muller's Ixon IQ Speed Premium is my front-runner. I've looked at the Phillips saferide 80, but I've seen some pretty negative comments about its runtime.
I really liked the look of the Specialized Flux Expert set, but it's not approved and it's £275 for the set (front & back lights).
Lights are w-ery, w-ery complicated... Are your batteres rechargable? Do they have a flat discharge curve?
Btw, rechargable AA = 1.2 V. Alkaline AA = 1.5 V.
So a pack of 3 rechargable AA's, = 3.6V. If the batteries dont have a flat discharge curve they might operate at 0.9V for most of the time which leaves a bulky light operating at less then 3.0 V.
A light operating with a Li cell can have a much higher voltage and these batteries can have some pretty good performance when backed with a steady output circuit etc.
Perhaps I asked my question poorly. I'll try to be clearer. I recognise that dynamo lights have advantages: They can be bolted down, which means less fuss about removing lights, and they never run out of power. They also have disadvantages: they're more expensive, they seem to weight at least 500g, not including the light, and they can't be swapped between bikes unless both bikes have dynamos.
For me, the disadvantages currently outweigh the advantages.
Anyway, my current frontrunner for a battery powered headlamp is the B&M Ixon Speed Premium. I have compared its beam shape to a number of its competitors and it looks like the best option to me.
