Road Cycling - I need a BRIGHT headlight

I just went on my first night time ride, using a Trek 2.4 watt halogen headlight. My neighborhood is out in the country, and there are no streetlights where I ride. Other than porchlights and lights from house windows, it was very dark on the street (the houses are offset pretty far from the street). My headlight didn't give me enough brightness or lighted distance ahead of me to make me feel safe.

I really enjoyed the ride otherwise, and would like to continue riding at nights after getting home from work. Can you all recommend a headlight that has long range, and is bright enough for pitch black streets?

A lot of the good mountain bike trail lights work great on the road. I've got a Night Rider Digital Evolution that I use on my commutes as well. Light in Motion is making some great lights as well.

I started with the Digital Evolution but I just LOVE to ride at night, same as you, street lights are non-existent where I ride. Evolution was good but i needed more ride time. You wanna see where you going this is the ticket .... http://www.niterider.com/BIKEPRODUCTS/FlameThrower.html

A little on the pricey side, BUT not only does it let me see where I'm going, it most certainly lets people know I am coming!! 4 hours on the bright setting, and 6 on the low setting which still puts my evolution to shame. For me the decision was based more on run time than on brightness, but having the best of both worlds sure comes in handy on those dark nights.

The HID lights are expensive but totally worth the investment.. I have the Light and Motion ARC HID. It has a burn time of 3.5 - 4 hours.. The nice thing about the L&M is that it has both handlebar and helmet options right out of the box which is a nice thing. For those used to halogen, a 10 watt HID burns as bright as 32 watt halogen. The big advantage is the type of light which is Bluish, great for seeing at night and triple the burn time of halogen.. I know that most HIDs are 300-450.00 but they are worth the money if you like to ride at night..

I concur, A HID headlamp is the wayto go.

I have Lupine edison10 with 8hours run time in low beam mode. i use it for commuting, training at night and 24hr events.
Brilliant light (pun intended)

I use lumicycle (don't know if you can get them stateside) Halogens, 12/20w with 4 hour run time on 12w and 2.5 on 20w.

They are superb.

About £170 with a NiMH battery and fast charger. Very light too and machined from aluminium. (or aluminum :))

I have the flamethrower HID. It is a great light. I can ride dark nature trails and can reasonably assume that the battery won't go dead and leave me in total darkness ten miles from Egypt.

The HID lights I have seen look great. The down side is they are all pretty expensive. If you want to consider a less expensive option, the Cateye EL300 LED is amazing for the money. I recently tried using a pair of them on my mountain bike and the results were very very good. If you have the bar space or add one of those accessory pods you could mount a pair for under $100. Super long burn time too.

I bought my NiteRider Storm (helmet mount) H.I.D. back in October for under $300 off of eBay.

I'd check there first!

L8R

One of the problems with HID lights is that you will find out in an abrupt manner that your battery is dead. The light does not weaken as you are running out of juice, it just shuts off. The newest Nite Rider lights have built in LED's. That way if your battery dies, you still have a way to get home.

The L&M Arc has a 15 minute reserve and the button starts flashing when it goes into reserve mode... I have yet to outride my light 3.5 hours is a pretty long burn time for any light...

Just in case you have charging or ride length issues, carry a small light like the Trek 2.4 watt light, as a back up.

The CYGOLITE Rover NiCad Xtra ( 6Hr Runtime ) I have used this for 2 1/2 years with no problems.(13 miles oneway in the dark) and still on the same battery. With a NiCad battery you just have to make sure its 90% dead and than recharge. http://www.cygolite.com/light/products/10RoverNiCad.htm

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. I returned my 2.4 watt headlight and bought the NiteRider Trail Rat 2.0, which has a 10 watt halogen bulb. I was a little apprehensive that a light that small would put out enough light for me, but after charging the battery and taking the new light outside at night... WOW! This light is BRIGHT!!! I look forward to many peaceful and quiet rides at night now.

The HID lights are expensive but totally worth the investment.. I have the Light and Motion ARC HID. It has a burn time of 3.5 - 4 hours.. The nice thing about the L&M is that it has both handlebar and helmet options right out of the box which is a nice thing. For those used to halogen, a 10 watt HID burns as bright as 32 watt halogen. The big advantage is the type of light which is Bluish, great for seeing at night and triple the burn time of halogen.. I know that most HIDs are 300-450.00 but they are worth the money if you like to ride at night..

HID"s don't put out as much light as you are lead to belive. the blue color makes them look brighter. You can get more light out of a halogen system that is overvolted. a 20 watt 12v halogen running at 16v really is brighter and puts out more usable light.
but You don't have the runtime unless you have huge batteries.
myself I ran a 35w halogen at 12v and it lights up a whole street lane and three otehrs beside it very brightly. but I only get a about 1.25 hours run time on the cells.

One of the problems with HID lights is that you will find out in an abrupt manner that your battery is dead. The light does not weaken as you are running out of juice, it just shuts off. The newest Nite Rider lights have built in LED's. That way if your battery dies, you still have a way to get home.

this is because they use a controller to regulate the voltage so the current is the same always. it keeps the batteries from getting too drained. it's not a problem it is just a different way.

I had a Niterider 12E previous to my L&M HID.. At 32 watt mode it was equally as bright as the HID light but with a burn time of 1:20 versus 3:30 hours with the HID.. The HID also throws a much broader pattern so you can see well going through turns where a Halogen has much narrower beam pattern.. If you are going to spend the money the HID has the best features for the money.. If you are just going to use the light occasionally then buy a halogen..

I had a Niterider 12E previous to my L&M HID.. At 32 watt mode it was equally as bright as the HID light but with a burn time of 1:20 versus 3:30 hours with the HID.. The HID also throws a much broader pattern so you can see well going through turns where a Halogen has much narrower beam pattern.. If you are going to spend the money the HID has the best features for the money.. If you are just going to use the light occasionally then buy a halogen..

tThat’s if you buy a stock light. But it is far less money to build it yourself. You get more light you can choose your beam angle and wattage and how much you want in run time.

The light it self is dirt cheap. About 25.00 for two of these cool really small fog lights for a car. I used my old mount to mount the light. The bulb is about 3.00 and you can get them in different wattages and angles. I got a LVR controller that let me run the light at different voltages. I have a 19.2v system and I can run it at 12 14 or 16v. This gives me a lot of different run times and a really bright light. The LVR was 60.00 it also regulates the voltage so you don’t run the batteries down. The guy who makes it can program it for any voltage you want.
Then the batteries. This really depends on how much light you want and how long you want it to run. I only need a little over an hour so I chose some 3000mah sub c cells. If I wanted less light I can go with 4800mah 2/3aa cells they cost me about 100.00 then I got a good computer controlled charger for RC cars. This is a far better charger then you will get with any ready made light. I can charge the cells fast or slow or anything in-between.
I got a bit carried away and have a light that is so bright and lights up so much road it is way overkill. Bit since I need less then 1 hour of light most of the time I can use a big light. But most people can get away with a 15 or 20watt bulb and get a lot longer run time.
A overvolted halogen bulb will give you a whiter light then a HID will. White light is brighter and will put out more lumens.