Commuting - Lighting Poll

With the days shortening and lots of lighting threads popping up, i thought a headlight poll was in order.
Please share your:
1) current setup
2) conditions (i.e. city, coutry roads, duration of commute, etc)
3) experiences/impression with it

And whatever else you think worthwhile

For the record, I have a 2AA Fenix Cree light at the moment, combo of semi-lit suburb streets and country roads, about 50 minute r/t commute, and plan to go back to Halogen as it seems more eye-friendly.

Cheers

1)Current set up is a bottle dynamo with a 2.4w headlight (incandescent bulb?) from Target for $11.xx a few years ago. I also have a cateye EL 300 (310?) headlight, the one with 5 LED's. Hopefully by end of the day today I'll have my new Lumotec headlight to hook up to the dynamo...it'll have a 3 watt bulb in it.

Amazingly, the dynamo light puts out enough light to actually commute by. The cateye is only incase of bulb failure or I get too slow on one of the hills on my commute.
2) Conditions...moderately busy back roads, going by 2 schools on the way in to the office. Rolling hills with average gradient of 4-6%. One hill is about 1/2 mile in length.
3) Pretty satisfied with the dynamo set up so far...almost as good as my old cygolite 6+10w halogen system. But I don't to worry about keeping the battery charged now. I really thought the dynamo light would be really dim, and it is in absolute light output, but the light is closer to the road and focused correctly such that it is really useable light.

My main headlight is a halogen (NR Evolution).
Backup and/or supplemental lighting is provided by a 4-LED Blackburn Quadrant.

My NR burned out after 3 months. They're sending me a new bulb for free, though. They say those results aren't typical. This has been used only on pavement, no rough singletrack or even huge pot-holes.

I'm happy with both, but going faster than 12 MPH, my LED doesn't even come close to cutting it. A Dinotte LED would probably be more than sufficient, though.

13W HID. So bright it'll make you squint!

well, you left of dynamo powered lights, so i'm out of the poll.

dual E6 lights with schmidt dynohub. a cateye led as a 'be seen' light for stopping in traffic.
conditions - sadly i don't commuter anymore (well, i walk from my bedroom to my office)
but for errands and getting about town, they work great.
and for randonneuring events and century rides when i get back after dark, they are perfect.

I voted for halogen in your poll because my main light for night riding is a Cygolite. However, I'm currently using a cheapo LED light that I got for free at the Bike to Work Day event last spring. I'm using the LED mainly for visibility in traffic on my morning commute, not to actually see the pavement. Once the days start getting short enough that I actually need a light to see by, I'll start using my Cygolite again. It throws out quite a lot of light, particularly when you use both beams.

With the days shortening and lots of lighting threads popping up, i thought a headlight poll was in order.
Please share your:
1) current setup
2) conditions (i.e. city, coutry roads, duration of commute, etc)
3) experiences/impression with it

And whatever else you think worthwhile

For the record, I have a 2AA Fenix Cree light at the moment, combo of semi-lit suburb streets and country roads, about 50 minute r/t commute, and plan to go back to Halogen as it seems more eye-friendly.

Cheers

1) LED Planet bike blinkies
2) I only ride at night in the city...pretty well lighted, so it's all I really need.
3) Serves my purposes fine. The only important feature to me was that the rear light had a belt clip so it would strap on to my trunk/pannier.

1. Front = 5LED cheapie light. Rear, PB Superflash (plan on getting a second one soon)
2. Commute = 30 minutes one way. City streets with streetlights. I am after being seen rather than seeing the road.
3. The aiming of the five bulbs leaves much to be desired. They are all over the place. One of them shines exactly where I will soon be traveling, but the other four shine into space. If I could only focus all five, but then again that's not the intent with this light.

1. Light & Motion - Arc HID (Helmet mount), Planet Bike Super Flash, Cheapo LED blinkies Front & Back as backups.
2. 58km round trip on well lit city streets & unlit MUP
3. The Arc is a extremly bright headlight. I try to remember to turn my head to avoid blinding oncoming cyclist on the MUP.

well, you left of dynamo powered lights, so i'm out of the poll.


nah, stick it "other"
that's 2 using dynamo... they seem to be getting popular and I would've included them if i had thought of it.
cheers

I use a homebrew dual 3W Luxeon setup in the front, and a massive home made 120LED lightbar in the rear. My commute is 15-20 minutes in one direction, in all weather conditions. The rear light is bright enough to land a plane, but the fronts are a little lacking. I'm sure that cars can see me coming from a huge distance, but they don't illuminate the road as much as I'd like. I hope to replace the front lights with either brighter LEDs or a 13W HID by winter.

My ride is 11 miles more or less, with essentially none of it under lighting (thankfully; as an amateur astronomer I despise outdoor lighting). It's almost all rural, 4 of the 11 miles on gravel which can get rough and therefore requires good lighting lest you drop into a hole or hit a bad stretch of washboard.

13w HID from Batteryspace. Before that I had a 20W halogen. I'd go back to the halogen again without worry. The HID is nice but with the bulb+fixture at $120 versus $10 for Halogen, I could live with halogen.

I use a Nashbar Brilliant II (5 LED, 2 AA cells) with rechargable AAs as backup/be seen lights. I only run the HID when it's too dark to see by.

In the back, I have a Planet Bike superflash; I run it in flash mode in the daytime if it's raining/foggy/etc. In the dark I run it constant on and turn on the amber All Electronics xenon strobe.

I voted combo/other. I have two setups:

- a Basta 6V/3W halogen powered by a DIY battery (6 x rechargeable NiMH AAs). Basta is a basic light designed for dynamo/dynohub use. It doesn't have a standlight for example, but as I run it off a battery, that does not matter. The beam is quite good, easily enough to see by. This setup is in my summer hybrid.
- a Lumotec Oval Plus 6V/3W halogen with the built-in standlight, powered by a B&M bottle dynamo. This is my winter beater.

I carry a small LED frontlight (enough to be seen by) in case of bulb failures and such. For rear I have a 5 led Vistalite and a small Basta Rugby as backup. I change mountings from one bike to another as needed.

Conditions: I commute 31 km round trip, mostly on reasonably lit MUPs. Maybe 3 kms of it is on streets (again enough ambient light to ride by). The lights help to see road surface details in time to react. There are very few spots where I would need them to actually see where I'm going. Also, as I live up North, I have very little use for lights from late April to early September or so.

If I rode more on streets, I'm sure I'd be happy to get a HID and a more substantial rear light too. As it is, I'm happy with the current setup. Upgrade from bottle dynamo to a dynohub is likely in the future, but I'm in no hurry with that.

--J

1) current setup
Dionette 200L

2) conditions (i.e. city, coutry roads, duration of commute, etc)
city roads with durations of 30-50 min RT.
Been up to 35 mph with the light.

3) experiences/impression with it
-The light is bright.
-Lightweight and compact.
-Such a simple mount, yet it's great since I can move it from bike to bike with ease without having to buy multiple mounts.
-Not having to pack a big brick charger, because of a proprietary battery for the light, when taking my bike on a road trip.

1) LED Planet bike blinkies
2) I only ride at night in the city...pretty well lighted, so it's all I really need.
3) Serves my purposes fine. The only important feature to me was that the rear light had a belt clip so it would strap on to my trunk/pannier. Basically the same answer here. PB 1 Super Spot (1 W LED) on the front and the infamous SuperFlash on the back.

When I do go touring, I'll probably get a more powerful light for the front. Once I had to ride on a completely unlit country road at night, and 1 W LED just does not cut it... Thank god that road was very well paved. :D

1 - Planet Bike Alias 10w halogen (main) and Cateye LD530 (backup) in the front, Cateye LD1000 (seatpost) and Planet Bike Superflash (left seatstay) in the back.

2 - Moderate to decently lit city roads in the morning at 4:00AM, light traffic, 25+7 minutes (2 parts with a train ride in the middle), dry weather only for me.

3 - I like it so far. I almost picked up a second Alias since they are (or were) on sale but having 2 battery packs strapped to the frame is kinda excessive... I may still try it out though. :) The tail lights are great, the LD1000 is set to 1 bank of steady blinking and the Superflash is set to steady on. I think i'll be picking up another Superflash to put on the other seatstay to have as backup since they're pretty inexpensive.

well, you left of dynamo powered lights, so i'm out of the poll.

Me too, but for the record ... hub dynamo laced to 16" rim running a home-made 12 V 6W (I think) headlight and LED taillight from PepBoys.

Current setup:

Front:
CygoLite DualCross 200
Cateye EL200 (flashing)
Old-school Cateye halogen velcro'd to the top of my helmet (low-cost directional lighting)
ViewPoint Hot Spot (1 LED) on my helmet (flashing)

Rear:
Three 3-LED lights
- 1 on seatpost (solid)
- 1 on messenger bag (flashing)
- 1 creatively mounted to the back of my helmet (flashing)

Lastly, a generous amount of reflective tape on my fenders.

13w HID from Batteryspace. Before that I had a 20W halogen. I'd go back to the halogen again without worry. The HID is nice but with the bulb+fixture at $120 versus $10 for Halogen, I could live with halogen.


I used to have a 20W halogen, been considering the Batterspace HID. Has it been worth it? How has the bulb held out? How's the quality? Thanks for any input
Cheers

I have two bikes I ride for commuting, mostly the roadbike right now - which is equipped with the Planet Bike 5000x (4xAAs). My MTB has a Schwinn halogen (2xCs).

My commute is all urban, inner-city stuff - spots of dark, but my lights generally wash-out with street lighting and cars. Conditions can be anywhere from stupid hot to stupid cold, including insane but usually brief rainstorms and snow/hail storms of the crappy variety. My current commute switches between either a "visit" or "non-visit" day. A non-visit day sees me ride only 8mi. RT to/from work, a 'visit' day is 19/20mi. RT.

I have some stuff for a homebrew option that I've been sitting on for the best part of the year. Now it's getting closer to crunch time, I'll have to start building them. I have a 20W and a 35W MR16 with metal track lighting type things, I need a battery system and then just figure out how I mount the lights to the bike. I have already chosen the battery system I want, which is likely going to be this (http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3261).

In the summer time I either have no lights or Knog Frogs on flash mode. As it gets darker in the morning I'll be using my L&M Arc on my helmet with assorted Frogs flashing away.

I used to have a 20W halogen, been considering the Batterspace HID. Has it been worth it? How has the bulb held out? How's the quality? Thanks for any input
Cheers

I'm starting on my 3rd season with the batteryspace HID. It's been good. Watch the input voltage; when I bought it they sold the 14.4v NiMH as being "perfect for the HID". It ain't. A freshly charged 14.4v NiMH puts out nearly 17 volts. The HID says don't feed it more than 14.8v. It takes about an hour of runtime for the 14.4v's output to drop to 14.8v. I fried my ballast in 3 hours. Luckily trailtech replaced it free.

My advice would be to use a 12v NiMH, or better yet LiIon. I'd use LiIon these days; it's cheaper than it used to be and a lot lighter.

Halogen is good too, I ran it for a year and still would use it as a backup if I blew an HID bulb or something. But it's way too easy to get used to the light an HID puts out. I have several LEDs as backup, but even with all of them on and riding slow, I still feel like I'm trying to read by candlelight compared to when I'm cruisin' with the HID.

My main commuter has a rack with the classic milk crate on it for stops at the grocery store on the way home. (For some reason, I love the supreme dorkiness of the classic milk crate.)

My headlight is a 20-watt halogen MR16 spotlight from the hardware store, in a housing of PVC pipe from Home Depot. The housing has a toggle switch on the back side that runs the entire lighting system. The battery currently is a 5 amp-hour sealed lead acid battery in a wooden box fastened to the water bottle mount points on the down tube. A wire runs from the battery to the headlight housing.

Coming out of the headlight housing is another wire that runs to the classic milk crate. On the back of the classic milk crate are three LED-based red automotive clearance lights. The switch on the headlight housing controls the power to these tail-lights as well as to the headlight.

The 20-watt halogen headlight makes riding at night actually entertaining. I made this home-made setup because I thought it would be fun, and also because we were a bit short of money at the time. The total cost (including battery and charger) probably was around $60.

My backup bike that will become the winter beater has a similar headlight but the bulb is an MR16-format bulb with 32 LED's from superbrightleds.com. It runs for eight hours on a 1.4 amp-hour sealed lead-acid battery in a frame bag where the top tube and seat tube meet. The tail light is just a battery-powered blinkie. This light setup was designed to be light in weight because I am hoping to ride to work in at least one snowstorm this season to earn my winter commuting patch (yet to be designed). I thought a lighter bike would be easier to control when plowing through snow.

My urban errand bike, and old Schwinn Suburban with a broken derailer that I am hoping no one would want to steal, has a generator setup from that era (1970's?-1980's?).

Generator hub and B&M head and tail lights.

With the days shortening and lots of lighting threads popping up, i thought a headlight poll was in order.
Please share your:
1) current setup
2) conditions (i.e. city, coutry roads, duration of commute, etc)
3) experiences/impression with it

Cheers

I use a Cateye HL-EL320 and a Planet Bike SuperFlash blinky. I ride in the suburbs, no real dark spots. I run the Cateye in blinking mode unless I need the light. It seems to catch the signs and make them glow several blocks away. So far, so good. The blinkie seems to be bright. My main gripe with it is that it is so hard to press the button through the plastic casing. Not good. As a backup, I have a freebie blinkie from the AAA attached to my backpack.

I've still got my older Cateye 500 series. I'm going to keep it as a flashlight.

I have a 12 watt halogen (dual 6 watt beams) as well as an LED flashlight on the front. a Cateye LD600 tail light watches my back for me.

Up front Light + Motion ARC HID for back up a Cygolite Rover extra.

In the back DiNotte tail light with a Cateye tld 1000 for side visibility. I also have a Planet bike super flash for a back up light and fog/snow conditions.

front: Dinotte ultralight 5W LED (disclaimer-haven't used it for winter morning commutes yet)
rear: PB superflash 1/2W LED

1) current setup: LED front and back. I have a Bikesmart 7 LED front and a Cateye rear.

2) conditions: 9 miles of city streets that are well lit and 2 miles of poorly lit but much less traveled roads.

3) experiences/impression: For what I need them for, which is to be seen by traffic, my lights work fairly well. I haven't really had a need to really light my way because of the street lights. I would like to add a helmet light when it gets really dark for added visibility.

Please share your:
1) current setup
2) conditions (i.e. city, coutry roads, duration of commute, etc)
3) experiences/impression with it

And whatever else you think worthwhile ...
1) two different bikes, both bikes have cheap, disposeable-battery-powered dual front and rear lights.
Both bikes have (dual) cateye EL500 headlights (1W LEDs) but I usually only use one headlight at a a time.
Bike #1 has Cateye LD500 rears, bike #2 has Serfas TL2000 rears. I always run both rears on blinky when it's dark.

2) city commute 1.6 miles one-way at night, some recreational night riding on city (lit) and rural (unlit) roads.

3) What I got works fine for me, I ain't shopping for other lights. My commuter bike runs Marathon Plus tires (thick, anti-puncture) so I'm not real paranoid about running over junk. I also usually wear a Surefire L1 (1W LED) flashlight on a lanyard around my neck, if I need a light I can "aim".

I don't understand why people (especially riding on the street) think they need a 15-20-30 watt HID headlight, unless you have bad eyesight or something. I mean--if it'll make you happy--go ahead and get it by all means. But the ones I have work fine for me, didn't cost much and go for weeks of riding use on one set of batteries. If you're going to go overboard on lighting it seems to me that having a 15W rear light would increase your safety more than a 15W front light would. ...Sometimes when I'm riding alone on dark rural roads and the moon is full, I'll even turn off my headlight, because I can see quite fine by the light of the moon.


I have thought of rigging up another cheap headlight as a helmet mount, but haven't bothered to do it yet. That would even give me a reason to start wearng a helmet again (at least at night!). :O
~

1. DiNotte 200L helmet mounted
2. DiNotte Ultra Tail mounted at the rear
3. A MEC turtle (blink mode) mounted to the left end of my drop bar and point at 7-8'oclock position. It shoots a bean onto the ground to remind drivers to give me some room while passing. Well, I hope they get the message anyways.

My commute is ~28 miles round trip all on lighted city streets. I don't have problems seeing the road but with so much light pollution in the city, I need to make myself standout to be seen. Mounting a light on the helmet helps also.

For most uses (read: non-endurance commuter stuff) HID is the end all, be all.

I voted Halogen, but my tail light is an LED blinkie. Front light is two 20w MR11s powered by a 12V lead acid battery. My commute is mostly an unlit MUP (only about 3 miles one way), and half of it in a park where I can rarely even see any other light at all, so I needed something bright. However, I also use my bike for just about everything, so I ride in all kinds of conditions. I had taken the light off for the summer and have just been using a Cateye blinkie since I haven't been riding at night as much, but over the weekend I remounted my home-made light because I am planning a late night offroad excursion this Friday.

Homebrew. See sig. Headlamps are controlled by a Lightbrain for 7-10-20-30- 40 W output.

Mostly urban street, some campus sidewalk, some dark rural roads.

I love it. Both the headlights and taillights are brighter than cars'. I can see far ahead of me and cars can see me better. It grabs their attention because of its unusuality. 7W to be seen, 20W for campus, 30W for streets and 40W for dark country riding as well as spotting ninja pedestrians and bicycle riders in the street and on campus. I like having 40W of headlights available because: 1. They recently changed the street lamps from mercury to sodium vapor which don't light the road worth a darn. 2. I like confusing students on campus at night who can't figure out what's coming up behind them. 3. I look more like a motorcycle to vehicular traffic. 4. Instant switchover to a good headlight if one lamp burns out. 5. My night vision is deteriorating, something about getting older, I think, and brighter lights help. 6. I like playing with the headlight switch. 7. I'm a geek and it makes me happy. :D

Couple of blinkies. Well-lit city roads throughout.

And lots of reflective ankle straps because I always leave them in the wrong place, think I've lost them and end up buying new.

1) Front: 15W halogen on bar, 3W Cree LED on helmet. I have a 2nd 3W Cree on order from fenix-store.com.

Rear: 3x PB Superflash ( 2 steady on, 1 flashing), 1x Trek 5-LED blinky (steady on), 1x Viewpoint Flashpoint (alternating flash). See Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxkjQdLj9uA

2) Well-lit 40-45mph arterials with bike lanes, semi-lit 25-30 mph residentials, non-lit 2 lane 55mph road with no shoulders and moderate tractor/trailer traffic. About 25 minutes each way. Usually ride to work in the afternoon, ride home at night.

3) Just added the Viewpoint today and it makes a good addition to the setup. I love the Cree mounted on my helmet. In flash mode during the day and steady on at night, I love being able to look at somebody and instantly get their attention. I'm going to mount the 2nd LED on my bars and use it as a backup for the halogen. I'll also run it on strobe during the day to complement the helmet mounted strobe. The Fenix flashlights mount very well on my helmet or handlebars with a Livestrong bracelet and a rubber taillight bracket spacer.

1)
Hub Dynamo with small control box under handlebars w/ standlight supercaps and switchable bipolar cap (allows up to 1000mA from hub at high speed)
2 x Cree Q4 with aspheric lens in homebuilt setup. Gives excellant light above 4 metres away
1 x SSC U bin in an Inoled light with the electronics stripped. Fills in closer to the bike.
2 x planetbike rear flasher lights with my own LEDs in run from a small box under the carrier using cmos 555 timers. draws average of 10mA from supply. switched from handlebar.

2)
70km return trip, usually at least one half in the dark. 100kmh max highway + 3 towns @50kmh. Pretty good shoulder mostly.

3)
The cree aspheric setup is primo for road riding. It gives a sharp cutoff to stop excess light from blinding oncoming traffic. The light on the road is more intense than that of the automobiles passing me. Thats pretty good for a total system power of maybe 4.5 - 5 watts. The inoled is also purpose designed not to put excess light into the eyes of oncoming road users. For all that I get regular feedback of how extraordinarily bright they are, possibly the white colour makes them seem even brighter.

tspoon...homebuilt light details please! Are they all hub powered?

I run a standard bottle dynamo light sets on my Burco, and my Healing. I have built up a Shimano hubdynamo for my R20 fixie project and have fitted a Sturmey Archer Dynamo/Drum Brake hub to my Rocket (although I am waiting for a mounting bracket I ordered to arrive so I can mount the lights.:)) I also use at least one forward facing white/yellow flashing LED battery light and a rear red flashing LED light on all my bikes.

Depends upon lighting conditions. In city situations with lots of light and little traffic, I take my LED. In really dark roads, I prefer my Halogen Nite Rider so I can clearly see the road, with ruts and all that might take me down. To assist being seen, wear reflective gear. that is almost as effective as a ligting system. The up/down motions of your pedals is a sure give away from great distances.

Depends on the bike...

90% of my riding at night is on a two lane country road.

Raleigh Superbe I use stock 1930 technology glow worm dyno hub lights supplemented with a Planet Bike Super flash blinky on the rear and a PB Spot on the front as a marker light. I also have a cheapie helmet mounted head band led headllight that I use sometimes.

Staiger City Bike has a generator hub with a B&M Lumotec Plus head light w/ standlight and a B&M Toplight plus w/ stand light on the rear. I also run the PB Superflash on this bike.

Giant Excursion Tour bike has a bb mount generator with a fender mounted tail light and a rack mount head light with an E-3 bulb in it. It has an inexpensive set of generic LED flashers mounted front and rear(Avenir?) but seldom gets ridden at night.

At night I slow down a bit because my night vision is not what it used to be. I am more concerned about being seen than seeing. I also wear a reflective vest and all of my bags have reflective tape on them.

Aaron:)

1)
Hub Dynamo with small control box under handlebars w/ standlight supercaps and switchable bipolar cap (allows up to 1000mA from hub at high speed)
2 x Cree Q4 with aspheric lens in homebuilt setup. Gives excellant light above 4 metres away
1 x SSC U bin in an Inoled light with the electronics stripped. Fills in closer to the bike.
2 x planetbike rear flasher lights with my own LEDs in run from a small box under the carrier using cmos 555 timers. draws average of 10mA from supply. switched from handlebar.

2)
70km return trip, usually at least one half in the dark. 100kmh max highway + 3 towns @50kmh. Pretty good shoulder mostly.

3)
The cree aspheric setup is primo for road riding. It gives a sharp cutoff to stop excess light from blinding oncoming traffic. The light on the road is more intense than that of the automobiles passing me. Thats pretty good for a total system power of maybe 4.5 - 5 watts. The inoled is also purpose designed not to put excess light into the eyes of oncoming road users. For all that I get regular feedback of how extraordinarily bright they are, possibly the white colour makes them seem even brighter.


tspoon...homebuilt light details please! Are they all hub powered?
I'll second that. Pics and details please.

1) Front: 15W halogen on bar, 3W Cree LED on helmet. I have a 2nd 3W Cree on order from fenix-store.com.

Jeff, can you comment on the brightness of the Cree compared to the 15W halogen?

I used to use a 20W halogen, and switched to a 13W HID which was a lot brighter than the 20W. It seems the Cree is the brightness leader in the LED world now and I'm curious about where it falls.

I'll second that. Pics and details please.

me too. wanting to build a homebrew cree setup for my rando bike.

Light & Motion Vega headlight and a couple of Serfas LED rear blinky lights (one on the helmet and one on the bike).

Niterider HID out front.
PB Superflash and Vistalite Eclipse in the rear.

Sometimes one HID is not enough light when I ride on pitch black trails at night. One helmet light and one bar is preferred. Around town one HID is enough and it really gets drivers' attention. I need to add a high powered LED light sometime this year or next. I've run with two of the Niteriders HID's and still wanted more light. I think the new Lupine betty 7 led light would satisfy me at over 1400 lumens.:eek:

1) Battery space HID (13W) with the Li-ion mounted on helmet (still not sure I prefer the helmet mount but it does make it easy to switch bikes) A PB Blinky clipped on my backpack(back up or if I'm not on my X-check) I also have a Serfas TL-1000 mounted on the X-check.

2) 90% - 100% rural depending on routes. (do have a couple of routes that can be partially lit. suburban/smalltown roads)

3) happy with current setup -- Headlight has been tempermental at times (doesn't always want to light) once ON it works fine and it has never caused me to miss my commute, but there have been a few mornings when I have had to cycle the switch numerous times. lately (knocks on fake wood desk) it has been fine. The serfas light is very bright but very directional.




I don't understand why people (especially riding on the street) think they need a 15-20-30 watt HID headlight, unless you have bad eyesight or something. I mean--if it'll make you happy--go ahead and get it by all means. But the ones I have work fine for me, didn't cost much and go for weeks of riding use on one set of batteries. If you're going to go overboard on lighting it seems to me that having a 15W rear light would increase your safety more than a 15W front light would. ...Sometimes when I'm riding alone on dark rural roads and the moon is full, I'll even turn off my headlight, because I can see quite fine by the light of the moon.


I have thought of rigging up another cheap headlight as a helmet mount, but haven't bothered to do it yet. That would even give me a reason to start wearng a helmet again (at least at night!). :O
~

The primary reason for switching to the HID was car headlights on highbeam washing out my Cygolight LED and blinding me. The HID seems to keep my eyes better adjusted and I haven't had a car stay on High beam when approaching me since I got the HID (or I haven't noticed it ) before it was getting to be a near daily occurence. just my $.02

I don't understand why people (especially riding on the street) think they need a 15-20-30 watt HID headlight, unless you have bad eyesight or something. I mean--if it'll make you happy--go ahead and get it by all means. But the ones I have work fine for me, didn't cost much and go for weeks of riding use on one set of batteries. If you're going to go overboard on lighting it seems to me that having a 15W rear light would increase your safety more than a 15W front light would. ...Sometimes when I'm riding alone on dark rural roads and the moon is full, I'll even turn off my headlight, because I can see quite fine by the light of the moon.



People's night vision can be drastically different! I agree that to me, a HID light is overkill (and actually illegal to run on the road in some locations) - but the only way to know if a light is right for you is to test it at night, at speed, with your eyes.

That said, I have wished for more light to overpower the car headlights that blind me and wash out my lighting system.... so I understand the 'more is better' philosophy.


A full moon ride in quiet country is one of the rewards of having lights and not being afraid of the dark. I've also had to remind myself to stop, shut off the lights, and look up!

I don't understand why people (especially riding on the street) think they need a 15-20-30 watt HID headlight, unless you have bad eyesight or something. I mean--if it'll make you happy--go ahead and get it by all means.

I admit I do it for fun. I like to get on the bike in the dark, get to the end of the driveway, flip that switch, and see that big beam of light hit the road. I ride on city streets with street lights, so all I would need would be something to be legal. Gadgets and gear are one way of keeping my motivation up.

1) current setup

Fenix L1D-CE. Have been mainly using the medium setting but have been experimenting with higher settings. May start using high or turbo mode.

2) conditions (i.e. city, coutry roads, duration of commute, etc)

My night commuting is limited to my partial commute inside the steel mill where I work, from the outer parking lot to the entrance of the building I work in. It's only about 1.7 miles. The vast majority is well-lit, two-lane roads. There are many train tracks. It takes me somewhere around 8 minutes.

3) experiences/impression with it

I like the durability and efficiency of LED. For me, it's LED or nothing. The Cree LEDs are, or at least,were, outstanding, though apparently there is something even better now (Luxeon Rebel), though I haven't looked into those much. I have resigned to make do with what I have instead of constantly buying new stuff. If I were doing heavier night commuting (and I wish I were, but my family begs me not to) I might be looking for a brighter LED model, but for now this one is getting the job done.