PaulRivers

I bought a Dinotte 600L for my road bike this last summer. I felt like it didn't have as much reach down the road as I would ideally like for high speed road biking at full speed like it was daylight, at night. I puts a lot more light on the road than my old 200L, but the reach isn't a *lot* longer. I was able to get around this by always running my 200L headlight in addition to the 600L which pushed the beam out farther down the road. However, this means I have to keep my head in just the right position for nearly the entire ride, and since my rides are (or were during the summer) over an hour, this gets tiring.

I recently contacted Dinotte to see if any newer LED's had come out or anything, and they very, very generously offered to exchange my 600L for 2 400L's, where each LED has a very focused beam. (On a side note, I would just like to mention that this is one amazing thing about Dinotte's customer service - can you imagine even hearing back from Cateye or Night Rider, let alone them offering to let you exchange a 6 month old item?) The only downside is that they want to do it now, not wait until spring when I'd be able to test them out side by side myself.

So my question is - is anyone else running 2 Dinotte 400L's on the front of their road bike, and if so, do you think it lights up the road ahead farther than the 600L or a single 200L? I know most people won't have experience between the 2, but I figured someone might.


Side Notes:
1. Several people have already told me that their 600L puts "more than enough light".
2. I do think the 600L is a nice light, just wish it shot farther down the road.
3. The last review I read about it's closest competitor, the more expensive Light and Motion Seca 700, said a similar thing about this light - not quite enough reach for bombing downhill on your road bike at night.
4. I haven't found *any* other lights that have more reach that doesn't also throw so much light out to the sides that it would blind anyone coming towards me on the MUP, and I don't want to do that. A really powerful light is going to blind anyone you point it at, but you just don't point it at them. But you can't do anything while riding about the light the light shines off to the sides. That's also why the Dinotte guy suggest 2 400L's, rather than their 800L - the 400L can do either a very focused or a wide beam (I would do all focused beams) whereas the 800L throws more light off to the sides. It sounds like it's more suited to mountain biking where no one is ever coming at you and you need to see off to the sides, but that's my opinion.

cdalefan

Hey!?!

PaulRivers

I meant "cdalefan" has already replied to my question in another thread, so I don't want to bother him replying to the same question a second time. :-)

Sorry if it came across differently. I appreciated your response. :-)

cdalefan

I got it, I just thought it was funny

KingOfTheHill

FWIW, I run 2 400L's on my MTB bars and a third 400L on the helmet.

The two 400L's on the bars throw great, and I do ride my bike on the road at times. I have two spot lenses and two medium floods installed since I MTB as a rule, not road ride.

Greg_R

The stock 400L has a narrow beam but you can swap out the lenses for a wider beam. Perhaps setting up 1 on long throw and 1 on wide throw would be your best option? It would be easy to experiment once you receive the lights.

How fast are you going when you're having issues? I've been fine with my 600L but ride on darker roads (less ambient light). If you are confident about your 600L aiming (i.e. not aimed too far down) then I'd swap it out for the dual 400s. IMO the 400s are underrated (in terms of light output) so you should end up with a lot more light than your current 600L.

Glynis27

I kept hearing about how narrow the beam was on the 400L. I thought a nice, tight beam would be great on my helmet. I got one for christmas with the additional lenses, but I feel like the standard lenses is WAY more of a flood than I expected. I would have liked the beam to be half as wide as it is. I can't imagine what the broader lenses would be used for.

I haven't used a 600L, but I would imagine 2 400L would be better for throw. Aim one slightly lower than the other and you should have pretty good throw.

PaulRivers

I'm typically going around 19mph on the flat. Downhill I'm going faster, naturally. The light goes *just* far enough on the flat though I'd be more comfortable with more throw. It's on the downhill that I really start to notice it. I'm a picky guy, though, to...

Very dark roads are actually easier with a light. In the dark your eyes adjust to the dark as much as possible, whereas in the city your eyes never reach that point because of the ambient light. It's weird - you think that would make the road brighter, but...

I'm think I'm doing the swap - 4 beams vs 3 beams has to be brighter, right? :-)