General Cycling Discussion - What's the best set of head lights and tail lights for night riding?

Hi everyone!

I'm purchasing a new bike, the weather's getting nicer, and I'm looking forward to getting out there this Spring. I am wondering if anyone can recommend a high quality (i.e. bright) set of headlamps and tail lights for biking at dusk and beyond. I'm interested in a set for myself and my wife. We'd also be interested to know if anyone uses any "side lights" or "spoke lights" Sorry if my terminology is poor, but I'm a newb ;-) Will will be riding on trails, paths, and neighborhoods in the suburbs, we will not be cruising through downtown traffic at night. It would be great if I could get the lights from that big online book selling place, or that big online auction place....

Thanks for your help!

-E

Well.... I will start with I personally use Blackburn taillights (mars3 on my wifes and mars4 on mine, I prefer the 3) and a Magic shine headlight. I also have those little valve stem light dealies, they screw onto your valve stems and light up when the wheels spin. The Blackburn I bought at the LBS the magic shine comes from Taiwan and does get some mixed reviews but it is super bright and was half the cost of anything else I could find that had comparable lumens. NOW.. the one thing I might do different is to have a removable flashlight style light or a helmet light for those pesky midnight flats. It is a lot harder to avoid debris in the dark. You could also go with a hub generator and they have different lights that go with them. I have had good luck with mine, the batteries on the tailight last forever and the headlight gos for a few hours.There is a sticky thread on electronics and gadgets

Well.... I will start with I personally use Blackburn taillights (mars3 on my wifes and mars4 on mine, I prefer the 3) and a Magic shine headlight. I also have those little valve stem light dealies, they screw onto your valve stems and light up when the wheels spin. The Blackburn I bought at the LBS the magic shine comes from Taiwan and does get some mixed reviews but it is super bright and was half the cost of anything else I could find that had comparable lumens. NOW.. the one thing I might do different is to have a removable flashlight style light or a helmet light for those pesky midnight flats. It is a lot harder to avoid debris in the dark. You could also go with a hub generator and they have different lights that go with them. I have had good luck with mine, the batteries on the tailight last forever and the headlight gos for a few hours.There is a sticky thread on electronics and gadgets

Hello, digger531!

Thank you for your quick reply! I forgot to mention that my wife and I are backpackers, and we have, and will be riding with, our Petzel headlamps, which are pretty bright. I'm looking for the same performance in something that mounts to the handle bars; removable would be nice, for the times I may forget my headlamp.

What are the valve lights you mentioned? Are they more decorative than a safety thing? Can you post a link?

Thanks a lot!

-E

Here's a good quantitative review of a lot of headlights: http://reviews.mtbr.com/2011-bike-lights-shootout

Note that despite the URL, it covers 2012 light reviews too...

Here's a good quantitative review of a lot of headlights: http://reviews.mtbr.com/2011-bike-lights-shootout

Note that despite the URL, it covers 2012 light reviews too...

Awesome, thanks! I'll look that over....

-Elaphe

I am not computer savy enough to do links but they are very cheap little lights. I found them on ebay for like $2 a pair or so. I order a dozen assuming they were cheap and only half would work. As it turns out the first four work great but anyways... they seem a little trinketty (I know thats not a word) but they really improve not only side visability but also defining you as a bike. I believe you mention that comercial with the glowing bikes in your original post, that is actually phosphurous (however you spell it) paint. It is available but apparently only glows for a short while after being out of the light. There is a MIT student working on a concept that he was hoping to have available this year that would light the entire bike frame and be easy to add to existing bikes but I am sure someone will buy the rights and jack the price

For a tail light I have tried many and even built my own. I would get a Cygolite Hotshot with the USB charger. Used to be $40, now going for about $28 if you look around on the internet.

For a headlight I prefer a handlebar mounted flashlight that runs off of 18650 rechargeables. I am very happy with my Shiningbeam MC-E. A mount will cost about $2-3.

I think I searched valve stem lights and found them, by the way. They apparently used to be popular on motorcycles but are now illegal at least in MN

as I ride year around,
I use a hub dynamo to power my lights, so they never need battery charging.

I do have some LED battery lights, touring I'm on site , tent up at dusk, usually..

my disc braked wheel keeps the reflex band on the tires cleaner, so they reflect headlights..

and my Taillight is seen at 180+ degrees .. so where I live its more than adequate.

Schmidt Hub & Edelux,HL, B&M taillight ..

indianashawn really shows how to be Fred-ulously visible at night .

MagicShine on the bar. Expilion 250 on the helmet. Two or three PlanetBike Superflash on the back. WIll get a Cyglite HotSpot sooner or later.

Lights as described above have worked really well for me.

I like Stella front lights, have a SuperFlash Turbo from Planet Bike for the rear. There is a new one on Kickstarter that is trying to get funding that is intriguing, but almost seems too good to be true. Won't be available for a while if it works though.

The Hotshot has come down in price on Amazon. It gets the nod because you can adjust the brightness of not only the steady mode, but the flashing modes as well. You might even be able to modify the rate of at least one of the flashing modes as well, but I could be wrong. If nothing else, you can run it dimmer on the MUP and then make it brighter when riding the streets.

As for the front, you might want to check out this sticky in the Electronics forum (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/435347-The-best-headlights-under-50-thread). If you do, jump to the end and then navigate back like three or four pages and start reading from there, as a bunch of the stuff from the beginning is obsolete.

Depends on how often you will ride at night- How long and how far. I ride at night on the road and use a powerful front lamp. Hangover from mountain biking and is overkill for road use. Whatever you get make certain it is an LED and a minimum of 150 lumens. That will give enough light for general use but more powerful has it's uses and most lamps have a High and low power setting.
Price will come into it aswell and you can pay a fortune for some. Buy good and within your price range. Rear lamps and Cateye make some very good lamps across the price range but I always use two rear lamps. I can never tell if one has stopped working or has fallen off- whereas I instantly know about the front lamps--And my second lamp is a Helmet mounted one that is ideal for reading signs- shining at other road users and repairing the bike if required.

Hi guys!

Thanks very much for all the great feedback and suggestions! There's certainly a lot of options here, so I'll have to look them over. It seems many of you have multiple rear lights, so I'll have to consider that too. As for the headlight, my primary concern is that it's fairly bright. I have had great luck with the camping/backpacking oriented LED headlamps by Petzel, and I'm basically looking for one of those mounted to my handlebar. If it comes off to use like a regular flashlight that would be handy too for the times we're without our headlamps.

I'm going to look over some of these suggestions, and see what I like, and how much everything is. If anyone has further suggestions please let me know. Thanks a lot to all who have responded thus far; I very much appreciate the help!

-Elaphe

... I have had great luck with the camping/backpacking oriented LED headlamps by Petzel, and I'm basically looking for one of those mounted to my handlebar....

I have these too, and perhaps they're sufficient for walking 3 mph but not for riding 15+ mph on roads or trails. You need to see fairly far ahead. 500 lumens is a good output to start with.

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I've been very busy over the last week. Thank you very much for all the great replies and ideas. Although I am still shopping, I can definitely say that it's hard to find the lumen output listed for most of the lamps I've looked at. This is why I think there personal accounts are so valuable. I've mostly been looking at Amazon, and I haven;t found anything that's really winning me over. Can anyone suggest a cycling specific online store I could try for accessories like lights?

Thank again for all your replies, I very much appreciate it!

-Elpahe

Hi Elaphe,

Allow me to suggest that first you visit this website and research the various categories. Cateye makes excellent products. I'm most certain that at least a few will suit your needs throughout the coming years.

www.cateye.com/en/products/ (http://www.cateye.com/en/products/)

- Slim

I like Planet Bike products (http://planetbike.com/page/), they have a light comparison page (http://planetbike.com/page/learn/lightfinder/) that shows real world what their lights do. I primarily use a dyno hub and a variety of B&M LED headlights and taillights (http://www.bumm.de/produkte.html). My constant is a fixed generator powered head light and taillight as well as a flasher mounted on the seat post. I run this setup on all of my bikes that I ride regularly at night. I use a couple of different flashing taillights, PB SuperFlash (http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3034_1.html), RadBot (http://www.ridepdw.com/goods/lights)and an old Blackburn Mars. My personal favorites are the PB Superflash and the Radbot. The Superflash has an unusual flash pattern that doesn't blend into the background of strobes and other flashers that are found in most city traffic. YMMV

Aaron :)

I use a bike planet super flash for my rear light and a niterider 250 for the my handlebars, I also have an old helmet mounted light. This way the handlebar light shows where the bike is going, the helmet light illuminates where I am looking. I normally keep the helmet light off and turn it on as needed because it attracts bugs to my eyes and face in the night.

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I've been very busy over the last week. Thank you very much for all the great replies and ideas. Although I am still shopping, I can definitely say that it's hard to find the lumen output listed for most of the lamps I've looked at. This is why I think there personal accounts are so valuable. I've mostly been looking at Amazon, and I haven;t found anything that's really winning me over. Can anyone suggest a cycling specific online store I could try for accessories like lights?

Thank again for all your replies, I very much appreciate it!

-Elpahe

Start with Geoman (http://www.geomangear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4&zenid=dic0ss14nftfsosdcv9of61tu7). The XM-L 1000 or the MagicShine 900 may seem like a lot of money but when you consider that their light output is, roughly, 10 times that of a $35 Petzl Tikkana or $75 E87 and roughly twice that of the $400 Ultra, it's a bargain. And all the fit issues have been worked out for you so that you don't have to kluge something together to fit the bike or your helmet.

There are other lights of similar brightness that are more expensive but the lights at Geoman are a good place to start. Stay away from the less expensive headlights from Cateye, Blackburn and Planet Bike. Those okay as backup lights for a main light system failure but they really aren't good lights if you are going to play in traffic at night. They are just too dim. They get lost in the ocean of lights that we humans find necessary to scare away the night.

Dinotte, XML-3 headlight, 400R taillight

http://www.dinottelighting.com/index.html

There are several issues. You can pay a bunch of money for lights, use multiple lights, etc. If you set a maximum price, and ask what the best choice is within $xxx, you're more likely to get a useful answer.

I have used one of the older Magicshine lights. While it did put out a lot of light, it was not well aimed at the road, so my current hub-generator light is less bright, but about as useful for riding.

With rechargeable lights, I'd come in and forget to plug it in when I got home, and then couldn't ride the next night. I've not used any AA-powered lights that were bright enough, though. That led me to the hub-generator setup.

Magicshine and their knockoffs on dealextreme are the only lights I have found useful for headlights. Store bought units that take AA or AAA are hopelessly weak and will likely lead to an accident. You will need to use two lights to get proper vision. LED light tends to cast sharp shadows that make identifying objects lying in the road difficult. I use a flood on the bars and a spot on the helmet. These lights are so bright that motorists and pedestrians either compliment or complain about them when I ride in town. The run time is about two hours on these lights. At this price they are practically disposable.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/p7-water-resistant-ssc-p7-3-mode-1200-lumen-white-led-bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-82734

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t6-smooth-crown-waterproof-xml-t6-3-mode-1200-lumen-white-led-bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-82507

I have these too, and perhaps they're sufficient for walking 3 mph but not for riding 15+ mph on roads or trails. You need to see fairly far ahead. 500 lumens is a good output to start with.

Looigi has got it right---You can only ride as fast as your lights allow. 500 lumens may be a bit of overkill on the road and I currently have one that is 300 lumens that I rarely use on full power. This is however about to be replaced with one that has 680 lumens. And if Offroad-- 300 is the minimum you want.

Hello again everyone!

Wow, I have to admit that when I started this post I had no idea there were so many options for bike lighting! Thank you all for your insight and suggestions, I'm definitely trying to take it all in. Please keep the suggestions coming.

Thank you again, I really appreciate the help!

-E