Originally Posted by
a1penguin
As a cager, I find that obnoxious Fredly bright neon yellow jackets do wonders for visibility. I've seen riders way off down the road because of their large spot of yellow jacket than from their red rear blinky. Combine that with a blinking light.
I think flashing modes generally will run for 2x longer than steady modes. The light should tell you the run times. I would recommend a floody light for visibility. XM-L or P7 flashlight will do. shiningbeam.com has some nice lights, but none of them seem to have flashing modes. What battery or form factor are you interested in? The
KD C8 is a popular inexpensive decent light that has strobe mode. And it's perfect for night use. The Magicshines also have strobe mode. There are lots of MS and MS clones out there. You could purchase an older P7 version pretty cheap.
Excuse my ignorance, are "floody lights" the same thing as a "thrower"?
The flashlight I've been looking at is this
one with 1,200 lumens. It gets very high positive reviews. A reviewer, however, said the following:
Evidently, this light is not a thrower. If you're looking for one of those...look elsewhere. It throws usable light a little past 100 meters. If you need something that'll throw light out to 300 meters, look for something with a larger reflector or a smaller emitter.
This quote made me question whether this flashlight will be good for road cycling. I basically want to get away with a good and inexpensive flashlight that will be quite visible for daytime riding in flashing mode. I also want to place it permanently under a randonneur rack without having cables or external battery packs. I remember reading somewhere that you have to increase lumens considerably to be visible under the sun, even in flashing mode. By the way, I do wear my green fluorescent safety vest, but a good flashing light won't hurt. My rides last 3-4 hours and I don't mind switching batteries if necessary. I guess a couple of rechargeable 18650 batteries should be plenty. If I ever use it at night, it will most likely be in low or medium mode so it won't be so annoying.
What do you guys think?