This thread suffers from the same short comings that any internet product review suffers from - objective, comparable standards and terminolgoy.

For one thing, your question fails to qualify what you mean by "see where I'm going." And the other aspect of a cyclist's vision needs relies of the specific speed they are traveling and the specific surface type they are traveling upon.

In the long distance forum - I always remind readers that "distance" is not the only measure of any give ride's difficulty. In this forum, a paralell admonisgment of not basing a lights "seeable" characteristics on power or lumun rating alone applies.

Two of the most important features regarding the relative success of lighting during a bicycle ride have to do with a lighting systems mounting, adjustability and beam dispersion. Its unlikely that cheaper systems will account for all these things well.

Still, everyone's imput is of value. All posts make an attempt to prioritze a feature and promote a particular perspective.

I've analyzed a few aspects of my limted night riding needs and ended up with a wholly different idea about when, where and how to use the several lights I own. For one thing, at least for me, was the mounting of one light head near my left handlebar area so I could rapidly adjust it's spot beam to the area I wanted for any changing conditions.

Up until a couple of weeks ago - I assumed lights should always be monted on the center of the handlebar. But now I realized that it was more important to be able to adjust the spot than to lock it on a particluar angle or line. Of course, depending on the light used - this may or maynot be a matter to most of you.

My point being, each cyclist's use of a given lighting system - and their own needs - reveals the best and worst features.