I am putting this thread in "Recreational" because that's pretty much how I use my bikes. Riding around my neighborhood, riding back streets, and some trail riding. Problem is, I have very little time to do this in the daylight hours and I have found myself riding more and more at night. I rather enjoy it actually. Anyway, I have found my Cateye EL-500 to be pretty adequate for being seen and is fair for slow riding with the assistance of a street light here and there. But I am finding a lot of areas where it just isn't cutting it. A 10W Halogen would probably be fine for the streets, but prefer to have a little more light in reserve for trails.

I started off looking at cheap lights and progressed all the way up to the L&M Arc NiMH. Overkill. I have decided I have no use for it other than to throw a bright beam of light and to get shocked looks from others. ;) I would like to have a pretty good choice of wattage, like what a dual halogen set would give. So I started looking at the Jet Starfire dual. I really like the looks of this set and it seems to get really good reviews, but it is back up in the $300 range. After searching this site for two evenings, I saw two lower cost dual halogen setups mentioned. Both duals totalling 20W. In fact they look fairly similar.

I'd like to get some more feedback about the following lights


Dual Halogen from Bicyclelights.com (http://www.bicyclelights.com/bikelights.html)

and the Dual Halogen from Batteryspace.com (http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1369)

Batteryspace also shows a NiMH set that really looks like the one from Bicyclelights for $100 as well. I just through the Li-Ion model up because it was different.


If anyone has experience with either, please let me know how it has treated you. If anyone has a picture of one that show it off, by all means, post it! :)

There are several threads in the commuting forum for lights. Check over there advice, comparison shots, and any other help you need with lights. They should answer any questions you have, but if they don't, ask. There are plenty of light geeks waiting to answer your questions.

The first post in the thread "light selection guide" has all the information you could want and more. There are even links to photos that show what the different beams look like at night so you can compare the different lights. If you're going to ride trails or even ride a lot at night there is nothing wrong with the L&M arc li-ion. It's not over kill. The Cygolight HID light is around $250 for a three hour light. Be sure to consider run time as well as output, this changes things a lot. HID gives you more run time with high power.

I went ahead and bought the Laseredge dual. I swapped out bulb and have 15w in each. I have ordered some 20w narrow floods and 10w spots to experiment with. The way it sits now, I can't believe how bright it is compared to what I was using. It does what I was looking for it to do on the road. People stop and wait not knowing what exactly is headed their way :D I know the HID is brighter, and if you knew me personally, you would know it would be just a matter of time before I have one of those too...along with two or three others :D

I went ahead and bought the Laseredge dual. I swapped out bulb and have 15w in each. I have ordered some 20w narrow floods and 10w spots to experiment with. The way it sits now, I can't believe how bright it is compared to what I was using. It does what I was looking for it to do on the road. People stop and wait not knowing what exactly is headed their way :D I know the HID is brighter, and if you knew me personally, you would know it would be just a matter of time before I have one of those too...along with two or three others :D

That light is an extremely good value. Good decision. If you have both 20 w lights in that light you will be as bright as many HID lights.

There have been lights as bright as HID for years, but the run time was very low, sometimes too low to be practical. I had a 40 watt halogen around 1995-96, but it only went about 35 minutes on high. More lights are using Li-ion and NiMh batteries than years ago too. That makes high power halogen run a lot longer too.
Which battery did you get?

It's a 4000mah 14.4v NiMH

BatterySpace used MR11 bulbs. I find these a little hard to find in local stores. The other type didn't say what type bulb. Call them and see if it is a MR16 type. If so, get it, MR16s are common in local stores and go up to 50 watts if you want to upgrade. NightSun uses MR16s. If either bulb holder is metal that is good too. More durable and will not melt if you put in more powerful bulbs. Get one that allows for replacement batteries for when you want to ride longer, use more power, or forget to charge the first battery. A H.I.D. super light can be had for under $200. Check Slvoids' light thread in Commuting.

Most of the accidents I have had were on quiet residential streets. The people were relaxed and not focused. The one night ride the wife and I had to a club meeting on our semi-recumbent tandem I had her comtrolling the 100 watt spot light mounted between her feet. (the stoker is in front on a Counterpoint tandem) She had fun nailing potential threats with it :D