Last week I was about half way through my now completely dark ride home when I come up to a 4 way intersection just behind a guy on a hybrid with a very sorry excuse for a headlight. This thing was barely a "see me" light, never mind a "see" light.

So, I ride along with him for a bit. He asks me where I got my nightsun headlight. He was pretty impressed by it. I told him it was stone age halogen technology and he needed to look into a new LED light. I told him I had heard a lot of good things about the magicshine.

I was pretty much shocked when he told me he was on a 32 mile ride and only 8 miles in. Most of this ride is very rural with zero street lights. With the light he had, if you can even call it that, I don't see how he could see 2 feet ahead of him. He was pretty much riding in the dark.

Anyway we rode together about 5 miles till our routes parted. I wished him luck and was a bit worried that he'd make it. He had a blinky, but, it was very dim. almost as dim as the pathetic headlight. I have a 2 dollar led flashlight strapped to my helmet and it is way brighter than what he had. I suspect that it was a cheap see me light that was on very low batteries.

Tonight I am headed home and who do I run into at the same intersection?

Yup. mr dimbulb. Cept now, his blinky is much brighter and he has a freaking flamethrower for a headlight.

"that's a little better" i said as i greeted him. He told me he was inspired by my lighting and did a little looking online and ended up going to EMS (eastern mountain sports) for his new LED light.

I asked what kind it was, but, he couldn't remember the name. Said it was around 90 bucks though. From what I could see, i don't think it was the magicshine, but, it was nice. Quite a bit brighter than my old nightsun. when I rode ahead of him, i cast a distinct shadow, even where my light hit the ground. When he was ahead of me, there was no similar shadow in his light field. he also had way better dispersion to the sides.

I was seriously outgunned!

I told him i knew what the wife was buying me for christmas.

I am pleased with myself for maybe helping some guy see the light (pun intended). if he kept riding that route with his sorry old light, he was gonna end up in trouble.