Originally Posted by
dougmc
I think you've exaggerated the difficulty of changing the battery in a single cell flashlight by a large margin. Certainly, in the real world, it's not difficult at all, even in relative darkness. Maybe it gets a bit worse if you're somewhere cold and are wearing gloves, but you'd have similar problems with your battery pack too.
Are you likely to drop parts of a flashlight? Probably not. But it can, and does, happen. There is no part of an external battery light that can be dropped. You don't take the lights apart, only disconnect the plug. That's not all that hard and you can't really drop anything that makes the light nonfunctional because you haven't taken anything apart. I have had wires disconnect but that can be repaired at home. Lose the end cap of a flashlight and it is trash.
I have, do and will always suggest that anyone who rides at night carry at least one backup light. I also suggest that everyone use two headlight sources. I do so because I believe that you can't have too much light and I also know that stuff happens. I've crashed and lost the use of not one, not 2 but three lights...sheared off the mounts on my bars and my helmet. I was able to limp home with my backup. And the only reason that I had my backup was because I started carrying one after doing a Gilligan's Island on Hermosa Creek in southern Colorado.