cyclezealot

My first light was a Cyrgo Lite, Nite Rover. It is ok for medium distance lighting. It was like $65. Put on some other reflective strips and some flashing lights, you should be ok.

cyclezealot

My first light was a Cyrgo Lite, Night ROver. It was like $65. It is a decent inexpenisve lite. Just slow down a bit for caution. Put on some reflective strips and blinkies, you should be ok.

Atlee1080

Hi, I dont commute but I figured you guys'd be the ones to ask. I live in the suburbs, and do a lot of night riding for errands, restaurants, bars, etc.. I have been using a small multi LED light for a long time, but, I would really like something I can see with as well as be seen. I really dont have the money to throw down on a several hundred dollar light system. Is there a favorite used or slightly low end bright light to buy? Everytime I go to a good bike shop in town it always seems as though there is either $20 or $300+ and not much inbetween.

Mr_H

There's a thread up above that's really good for lots of differnet lighting systems.

For me, I went to Nashbar and Performance Bike and found a good midrange light (A nitehawk Phoenix 10 watt I believe). It's not the brightest in the world, but it does the trick for me, and it was only 70 bucks.

froze

You didn't say how much jack you wanted to lay down on a light. If your wanting to keep it under $100 then Cygolite Nite Rover NiMh Xtra is a good deal. This light has 16 watts total and can run for up to 6 hours on low beam: https://www.cygolite.com/2-Products/7-RoverNimhXtra.htm

You should also get a front clear or amber flasher to attract motorists attention to you such as BLT's Flare DX: https://www.blt-lights.com/flaredx.htm.

Atlee1080

Hey thanks a lot. Yeah, thats exactly it, around $70 and bright enough to see in a semi urban area. Im not trying to see things in great detail or from a significant distance. Just mainly trying to avoid a giant crack in the pavement or some other suburban road inconvenience.

froze

Trust me...at least somewhat!...all I have is a 12 watt Cygolite (the cheapest unit they sold called the Metro no longer in production) and I can see very well with it, so it's safe to assume that your going to see quite well with 16 watts. And around town with plenty of overhead lighting the 6 watt flood is more then enougn, that's all I use on lit city streets. And on 6 watts you can see tiny cracks, glass etc. If your running at 30mph+ on a pitch dark road or running dirt trails in pitch blackness then maybe 16 watts will not be adequate, but I doubt your doing that.

But please get a front clear or amber flasher as soon as financially possible because a lot of motorist who have trouble at night even with motorcyclist have even more trouble seeing bicycle lights due to their much smaller lens size! The brightness of the light even a HID level of brightness motorist don't see as quickly as car headlamp...due to the much smaller lens size. The flasher will grab their attention to you way before the light will. The BLT is the brightest I've seen on the current market but you LBS may have something different. I use an old VistaLite Xenon flasher that was originally my rear taillight but it came with an amber lens so I switched it to the front when Cateye came out with a brighter 5 LED TL600 taillight. VistaLite no longer makes that flasher but with the amber lens on it's very bright.

If you don't have a taillight the new Cateye TL1000 is very bright, can be seen from the sides, and can even be seen in daylight and it's reasonably priced. Also look into barend lights if you have dropbars, these little guys are very bright and can also be seen from the side. My Cateye 600 can only be seen from the side if mounted vertically then it's very visible form the side, it's a very good light and was the brightest on the market before the 1000 came out, but it's a good buy if you need to spend less money.

And don't forget to use reflective leg bands, their cheap to buy but are very effective.

I saw a guy last night that had 5, that's right, 5 rear flashers AND 3 front flashers along with a headlight. You know what attracted my attention to him as he came towards me from a distance? The front flashers! I spotted that guy from about a mile away and the headlight was barely noticable untill you were almost on top of him. Then I noticed all the other flashers as he went by. This guy knew how to get attention, and it worked. He had one flasher on his bars on one each on his forks; on the rear he had one on his helmet, 2 on the seat post and one each on the rear stays. Overkill? NO! In fact I call it underkill because his chances of being killed at night should be about zero!