Originally Posted by
no1mad
Yeah, funny. There are factors at play that you are not aware of. Lemme throw some light on those factors:
-I'll only ride at night if it's an emergency during the summer- like I get stuck at work, make it back to the bus station but miss the last connecting.
-The poor night vision goes hand in hand with glaucoma. Doc declared me legally blind 2 years ago.
-My hours/wages have been cut since the declaration. The wife lost her job last Friday. And there are 4 kids to feed.
-The local transit requires that anything that fall off the bike be removed before boarding. Though I doubt an external battery pack would fall off, I really don't fell like arguing with some driver who wants to be anal about it.
EDIT: Originally stated having 5 children; in reality, wife has given birth to 5, but one lives with his dad out of state.
I'm very sorry to hear that. That sounds rather rough. Really.
And I can't tell you how much light you'd need exactly, as I don't have bad night vision. Neither probably do most of the people making suggestions for flashlights. Has the Coleman LED actually worked out well for you for biking at night other than biking on the MUP?
I mean, I've had all kinds of experiences - I've ridden home in the dark (but in the city where there's always some amount of ambient light) with no light (accidentally), and was surprised to find that as long as I wasn't trying to race at breakneck speeds, the only thing I found really dangerous was oncoming bikers without lights. (Though I may have pretty much just hoped there wasn't anything bad laying on the bike path) But I don't have poor night vision.
I've used a Dinotte 200L and thought it was enough light as long as I wasn't pushing my speed as well. It lit things up "well enough".
My dad has a Planet Bike 1 Watt - it works pretty well as long as you're going completely straight.
Really, I don't know what to suggest - a combination of not wanting / being able to spend money on bike lights along with very bad night vision seems like an impossible combination. If you had terrible night vision - seems like you'd need more light. But again, I can't say as I don't have any personal experience with that.
About the only thing I CAN say is that lots of people go through a similar thing where they keep trying to "save money" or they say "I'm not a serious biker, I'm absolutely not going to spend a lot of money on lights" - then they end up piddling out a bunch of money over time trying to find a cheap light that will work for them. They buy a $30 light, they buy a $50 light, they're looking for a third light - finally they buy something decent, but spent twice as much money as if they had just bought something decent to begin with. "Something decent" seems to be around $100 - but I'm not saying I know what would work for you.
And regarding the battery pack - I would think if they want you to take the battery pack off the bike, they'd want you to take the light off as well, in which case having 2 lights is going to be just as much of a pain as 1 light and a battery pack. I don't know how secure some of those bike flashlight holders are either.
When people ask for a "cheap" bike light, they usually get a bazillion "Magicshine 900" responses -
http://www.geomangear.com/index.php?...roducts_id=180
It claims 900 lumens, comparable to flashlights and other cheap light lumen ratings, but equivalent to about 400-500 lumens compared to a quality light that accurately rates it's lumens like a Dinotte. A Dinotte is better made than a Magicshine, though.
Either way it's more expensive than what you say you're looking for - all I can say is that I wish you luck! :-) Bike lighting is a quirky subject. Once you get "enough" light, adding more light doesn't even help unless it's shaped in the right way...but that's a whole 'nother topic, lol.