Originally Posted by
myrridin
This is not a problem of the lights being too bright, but rather that the light is not directed properly. It should be focused some distance on the road directly ahead of you, with minimal spill (particular up spill)... If done so, then almost no amount is too bright.
Yup. The German generator-driven light on my commuter has a horizontal cutoff that keeps glare pretty minimal. I've also got a helmet light that sprays in a less-desirable full circle, but I haven't used it on MUPs here (which serve well as shopping/commuting routes across the river, btw). If I needed to use it regularly, I'd have rigged some sort of glare shield to make it more civilized.