Originally Posted by
chandltp
On the Cygolite, the I misread the runtimes.
As for how much I ride at night, that's not really the point. When I get on or off the bike, I like leaving all my equipment as is. If riding a bike becomes a big inconvenience, I'm going to be inclined to buy a car again. When I get home from work, I don't want to take of 3 lights, take them in, charge them, and have to put them back on the bike later that night or in the morning.
I want to use them until they start to get dim and replace the batteries. Most of the time that would be somewhere that I could charge them, but on occasion that would not be the case. Without a battery indicator, sometimes it sneaks up on you.
On secondary bikes, when I go out and find out the tail light is dead I don't want to have to charge it before I can ride it.
T
I think the L & M light is too expensive as well nor are the run times satisfactory, but it is one of the brightest on the market. I haven't bought the Cygolite yet, not sure if I will because my main light, a Blackburn Mars 4 is extremely bright though the company way over exaggerated it's run times, on steady mode it will last about 8 hours on steady and about 18 hours on flashing...they quoted 50 on steady and 150 on flash!!! But I like the light because it has the side amber lights for added safety so I'm willing to put up with the battery life to get the side amber lighting...that's the reason why I like the L & M because they also have amber side lighting, but the price is kind of a deal killer when the Cygolite Hotshot is about as bright and is rechargeable too, except the Cygolite has no side amber lighting but it cost $50 less. There in lies the reason I am completely happy with the Mars 4 because it's cheaper then the other two and nearly as bright, and has the side amber lights.
I would think riding a bike waiting for lights to dim to change bats is just as inconvenient as unclipping a couple of lights and recharging them. My tail lights I have right now do not have a built in recharger, so I have not only unclip my lights but then take the bats out and put them in a charger! I do carry back up bats like you because sometimes I forget to charge them up, but I've only ran out of battery once on a ride in 40 years so really I don't ever use the backup bats. The other problem with waiting till bats dim is sometimes they dim without you knowing it while riding, then suddenly your riding around without a tail light or a very dim and thus useless light. Running out of bat on a ride is the second reason why I also use several tail lights, in case one goes dead and I'm not aware of it, the others are still functioning. I would think based on having to keep purchasing batteries and replacing them and maybe having one go dead on a ride it would be more convenient to be able to charge them up every night...but that's just me because I currently have to remove my lights, then the bats to recharge so by just having to remove the lights and plug in would be great, in my opinion.