Headlamp recommendations for night riding

Russ said:

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to get some input from others on the topic of headlamp setups.
There are a lot of choices and lights get very expensive.

Background
- My bike is a Specialized Elite
- I ride locally in neighborhoods and on trails
- I want to not just be seen at night, I really want to *see*
- I'd like at least 2-4 hours at full brightness. Also, selectable light
levels.

My question is the "sweetspot" between cost and light performance?

The sweet spot is different for different riders & different conditions.

There are three types of bike lights: the "flashlight style" ones
powered by standard internal batteries (AA or C size); the ones powered
by separate rechargeables; and generator lights.

Most of the first type are "be seen" lights, OK for city work where the
roads are lit by street lights. A very few put out enough light to
actually see the road in less ideal conditions. (Some Cateye lights fit
the latter description.) Run times are typically shorter than what
you'd like. These sell for $10 to $35. For me, anything less than $20
is likely useless.

Most of the middle type are expensive, like well over $100. Almost all
have no optical design to speak of, meaning they use a hardware store
MR-11 bulb and spray most of the light where it's not needed, unless
it's technical mountain biking you're doing. (For that, you do need
light everywhere.) Battery life is finite and replacement is expensive.
These are the kind people sometimes build for themselves, because
except for cosmetics, the one you build is as good as, and cheaper than,
the one produced by mass production - a clue that the manufacturers are
doing well financially!

Generators are out of fashion in the US and hard to find. (Bike shops
rarely sell them any more - you have to go mail order.) They require
more mechanical and electrical aptitude to install. They're generally
limited to three watts output, which puts them between the "flashlight"
lamps and the rechargeables. They slow you down a little when you ride,
maybe 1 to 2 mph. But they tend to have the best optics by far, and in
many cases light the road better than a 10 or 15 watt rechargeable set.
Run time is infinite, and batteries never need replaced. Cheap
generator sets start at $15 in discount stores, and actually work well
if you replace the vacuum bulb with a halogen bulb. Typical price may
be about $60 or so. The world's best is over $200.

I ride only roads and the occasional bike path at night. I also use my
bike a lot for utility, and want the light always ready to go (no "Did I
remember to bring it along?" or "When did I last recharge that
battery?"😉 So I like generators. But Your Mileage May (definitely) Vary.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

"Frank Krygowski" wrote...

Quoted message said:

Most of the middle type are expensive, like well over $100. Almost all
have no optical design to speak of, meaning they use a hardware store
MR-11 bulb and spray most of the light where it's not needed, unless
it's technical mountain biking you're doing. (For that, you do need
light everywhere.) Battery life is finite and replacement is expensive.
These are the kind people sometimes build for themselves, because
except for cosmetics, the one you build is as good as, and cheaper than,
the one produced by mass production - a clue that the manufacturers are
doing well financially!

(snip)

Quoted message said:

I ride only roads and the occasional bike path at night. I also use my
bike a lot for utility, and want the light always ready to go (no "Did I
remember to bring it along?" or "When did I last recharge that
battery?"😉 So I like generators. But Your Mileage May (definitely) Vary.

Best battery life (at least for SLA) is obtained when you re-charge after
every ride. Sometimes this is not possible but with a 'proper' charger it
will give you maximum battery life AND you'll always have a full charge to
ride on.

Another comment: My commuting bike has two separate SLA halogen headlight
systems .. totaling 3 bulbs, and two batteries. The first was a PERFORMANCE
system that I suspect was built by someone else and Performance put their
name on it. I don't think they sold very many. The headlight is *enormous*
by today's standards ... the reflector is a whopping 3.5" in diameter and
the lens is designed to provide a wide, flat beam across the road. It also
has two illumation levels.

The second system is a Vistalite with dual bulbs. I forget what the wattage
is .. I think 10 and 10 (I think it originally came with 10 and 20 bulbs)
The reflectors are 2 inches in diameter. The reflectors can be adjusted
in-out to change the beam pattern (wide, small) .. but the beam is still
circular.

I just bought a new system (for one of my other bikes) from Bike Nashbar
that has the current style bulb. REAL small, and not adjustable in any way.
It was on sale for $40 and it's a 10 watt SLA system that should run for at
least 2 hours.

I dunno .. I think BICYCLING magazine's STYLE MAN has warped everyone into
thinking smaller is better ;-)

Quoted message said:

My commuting bike has two separate SLA halogen headlight
systems .. totaling 3 bulbs, and two batteries. The first
was a PERFORMANCE system that I suspect was built by
someone else and Performance put their name on it.
I don't think they sold very many. The headlight is
*enormous* by today's standards ... the reflector is a
whopping 3.5" in diameter and the lens is designed to
provide a wide, flat beam across the road.

That sounds a lot like the old Union headlight. I have used two of them,
each with a 10-watt halogen bulb, one above the other on my bike, aimed
to give a nice rectangle of light on the roadway.

Quoted message said:

I think BICYCLING magazine's STYLE MAN has warped
everyone into thinking smaller is better ;-)

Long before Style Man came along, riders had decided they didn't like
the bulk of the big old Union lightsets and were buying smaller
lightsets instead, even though the early alternatives were nowhere near
as good as the Union lights.

--
Robots don't kill people -- people kill people.
http://www.irobotmovie.com/

Russ said:

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to get some input from others on the topic of headlamp setups.
There are a lot of choices and lights get very expensive.

Background
- My bike is a Specialized Elite
- I ride locally in neighborhoods and on trails
- I want to not just be seen at night, I really want to *see*
- I'd like at least 2-4 hours at full brightness. Also, selectable light
levels.

My question is the "sweetspot" between cost and light performance?

Thanks
Russ

I posted a similar enquiry a couple of weeks ago and received a number of
most informative responses. A copy of the thread can be found at:

http://www.bicycle-forum.com/general/Lamps_for_Road_Bike_311067.html

In the end I purchased a Cateye HL-EL400 as a 'be seen' light. I'll no
doubt buy the HL-EL500 when it becomes available in the US (it boasts
1,000 candlepower as opposed to 90). Seems that when I really need to
light the road (which I don't at the moment), I'll go for a hub system.

"Glm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:opsb4ttldbipeop9@artemis...

Quoted message said:

Russ said:

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to get some input from others on the topic of headlamp setups.
There are a lot of choices and lights get very expensive.

Background
- My bike is a Specialized Elite
- I ride locally in neighborhoods and on trails
- I want to not just be seen at night, I really want to *see*
- I'd like at least 2-4 hours at full brightness. Also, selectable

light

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

levels.

My question is the "sweetspot" between cost and light performance?

Thanks
Russ

I posted a similar enquiry a couple of weeks ago and received a number of
most informative responses. A copy of the thread can be found at:

http://www.bicycle-forum.com/general/Lamps_for_Road_Bike_311067.html

In the end I purchased a Cateye HL-EL400 as a 'be seen' light. I'll no
doubt buy the HL-EL500 when it becomes available in the US (it boasts
1,000 candlepower as opposed to 90). Seems that when I really need to
light the road (which I don't at the moment), I'll go for a hub system.

FYI
I was using a "night rider" single lamp with the battery hanging from the
top tube for a while. it's a good light for conditions where there is no
other light but I eventually found that, in the city where i usually ride at
night, it was actually detrimental to my overall vision since the light was
causing my pupils to focus on the area right in front of me and the
periphery was less visible. I finally decided that the streetlights are
enough and i could see better without a big light but still need to be seen
so i got a light battery-op blinker for the front.
-alan

Mon, 02 Aug 2004 10:41:12 -0400, <[email hidden]>, Frank

Krygowski said:

Most of the first type are "be seen" lights, OK for city work where the
roads are lit by street lights. A very few put out enough light to
actually see the road in less ideal conditions. (Some Cateye lights fit
the latter description.) Run times are typically shorter than what
you'd like. These sell for $10 to $35. For me, anything less than $20
is likely useless.

A broken switch last week gave me occasion to rely on the Planet Bike
3 LED Beamer for lighting my way home. Even though the batteries were
old and needing replacement the amount of light it put on the path was
sufficient for getting back to civilisation. I was impressed.
I use it mostly in blink mode as a stand light in conjunction with the
generator lamp. Batteries last a long time in that type of service.
--
zk

"dreaded" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

I finally decided that the streetlights are
enough and i could see better without a big light but still need to be

seen

Quoted message said:

so i got a light battery-op blinker for the front.
-alan

I forgot to mention in my previous post ... in addition to two seperate SLA
halogen systems on my commuting bike, I also have (in a effort to "be seen"😉
a LIGHTMAN white strobe on the front of the bike.

Richard in Boston, MA, USA

So, is anyone using the HID setups like a Niterider
"Flamethrower"(http://www.niterider.com/BIKEPRODUCTS/FlameThrower.html)?

Are these really *that* much better than lights half their cost? Man, these
are expensive. Is this the only way to really light up the road in front of
you?...or do these even accomplish that...?

Ok now....who sells the setup with the car headlight and a water bottle
battery? Sounds like that would work! 🙂

Russ

"Russ" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to get some input from others on the topic of headlamp setups.
There are a lot of choices and lights get very expensive.

Background
- My bike is a Specialized Elite
- I ride locally in neighborhoods and on trails
- I want to not just be seen at night, I really want to *see*
- I'd like at least 2-4 hours at full brightness. Also, selectable light
levels.

My question is the "sweetspot" between cost and light performance?

Thanks
Russ

Russ said:

Ok now....who sells the setup with the car headlight and a water bottle
battery? Sounds like that would work! 🙂

A number of years ago, I mounted a moped headlamp (21W @ 6V, IIRC) with a
SLA battery on my commute bike. It lit up the pitch-black frontage road
that I rode every night quite nicely. But both the SLA battery and the
metal bracket for the headlamp were rather heavy.
--
Darin McGrew, [email hidden], http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, [email hidden], http://www.HTMLHelp.com/

"There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't."

Russ said:

So, is anyone using the HID setups like a Niterider
"Flamethrower"(http://www.niterider.com/BIKEPRODUCTS/FlameThrower.html)?

Are these really *that* much better than lights half their cost? Man, these
are expensive. Is this the only way to really light up the road in front of
you?

My impression is that super-expensive HID lights are used almost
exclusively by well-heeled mountain bike riders. Going fast on dark
wooded & rocky trails apparently needs lots of light.

But those are definitely not the only way to "really light up the road."
The first principle is, put the light where you need it.

a) The main beam of your headlight should be focused by the optics so it
hits the road, with none of it spraying into the trees.

b) The beam should be shaped to fit the lane you're riding in, with
perhaps a certain percentage of extra width to handle turns.

Quoted message said:

Ok now....who sells the setup with the car headlight and a water bottle
battery? Sounds like that would work! 🙂

Funny you should mention that! Car headlights and motorcycle headlights
are focused the way I described. (Check it out by pointing your motor
vehicle at a blank wall and turning on the headlights.)

Bike headlights should be designed that way too. Anything else wastes
light, requiring more lumens (or watts) to make up for the waste, and
requiring a bigger, heavier, more expensive power source.

But since bikes are nowhere near as fast as cars and motorcycles, they
don't need as much wattage as a car, so no need to carry a ten pound
battery!

I'm a generator fan, as mentioned. But for the "rechargeable" fans,
I've long wondered why nobody markets a rechargeable headlight set based
on the 3.5" diameter Union headlight. It's got a nice rectangular beam,
wider (therefore slightly dimmer) than the typical generator headlight.
But with a 6 watt bulb, it would probably light the road much better
than most MR-11 headlights.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

I just recently came across the "Digital Pro 12-LCD" from NiteRider and it
looks like a good light with different light levels to choose from (highest
being 32W). This seems good. Not being a HID, I thought it would come in a
lot cheaper, but it is also ~$370. Wow....

Russ