The common wisdom, unless you are doing randonneur-type riding or winter touring, is that you won't be riding at night much on tour unless you've screwed up or are trying to get home from the pub.
Many tourists agonize over what type of high power, (usually) rechargeable system to bring and how to charge the batteries, etc. Additionally, handlebar bags complicate the light mounting issue for tourists. There are plenty of workarounds. some tourists prefer dynamo lighting, but is expensive and slightly finicky IMO.
A very common way in the last 30 years to have night riding lighting on tours is making do with a high powered climbers' type headlamp also useful for around camp. Early on the high powered ones used D-cells (acetylene too!) and were quite bulky, nowadays you can get 3W and 5W luxeon bulbed LED climbers headlamps from Black Diamond or Princeton Tec, among others, that throw a LOT OF LIGHT using 4-AA batteries.
A climbers' headliamp works quite well for those once in a blue moon nights you've misplanned the mileage for the day and find yourself miles from the next campsite as dusk rolls across the landscape. and even the best and brightest headlamps are well under 100 bucks.
Recently I'm intrigued by the Vetta Micro-LUX light system using a 4-AA battery pack and a 3W LED headlight with available flashing tailight option.
I've got one at home and am thinking of ziptieing it to the Long Haul Trucker. Seems as bright as the first gen Niterider Minewt, offers higher power 'see the road' lighting with the conveinence of buying batteries on the road as needed.
I will still bring a smaller flashing LED in the front for safety during the day and as backup.
Last edited by Bekologist; 05-12-08 at 08:59 PM.