Originally Posted by
cyccommute
But you can lift your chin. Or turn your head. Or look down. The light is on a gimbal mount that has a wide range of movements.
Well... No, thank you, it's rather bad advice, can result in bad consequences. See, lights like Magicshine and alike have very broad beam. Even if there is a hotspot in the center, it is still pretty wide. So you really have to turn your head sidewards or downwards and keep it so for ten seconds or longer if you don't want to annoy fellow road users. But you should be seeing what is happening to the left, to the right and ahead of you instead.
I find it pointless to mount a (helmet) light with a powerful symmetrical beam in the way that it's illuminating only the near field, it gives very little bright spot, wasting the battery. And if you mount it properly you need to look away which is dangerous. I am not saying you never shall mount your mighty light on top of the helmet, but what is perfectly good for mountain biking may not be appropriate for commuting.
You and mikhalit are both making a common argument that is based on mistaken observations about bike lights.
You are making a rather broad assumption about the observations made by other people, seems it is based on no data. What do you mean by "most people"? Why compare it to the car lights only a hand away? Which car lights do you mean, focused with the cutaway on the top or the flood lights?? Could you please tell me exactly what part of my observations is mistaken? Why shouldn't one look at the light directly? The lights I am talking about have a very wide front opening, symmetrical reflector, surely the people you meet look directly into it unless you look at your front wheel.
First, yes, the beam is intense if you look at it directly. But, then, a car light is incredibly intense if you look directly into it. Go out and stand at arms length and eye level...which is how most people 'test' the brightness of bicycle lights...and have someone switch on the lights of your car. You'll be seeing blue spots for a week.
But a bicycle light is a lot of light packed into a pretty small space. That is both the problem with the 'hold the light at arms length, turn on the light and then complain about how bright it is' and the argument that the light is blinding to road users. Putting that much output into a small package with a small reflector concentrates the light into a narrow cone. When you consider where we cyclists ride, i.e. usually a few feet to the right of the passenger's light on a car, a narrow cone of light isn't going to shine into the eyes of on-coming traffic.
Do not forget why they add a little cap on the top of bright lights. It is already very annoying when you pedal standing and get just a little bit of the beam in your eyes.
Well, lights nowadays have beams too wide and lumens too many. I am not saying all of the lights will make others blind, but many will if they are set correctly. And there are not only the motorists out there, but also fellow cyclists and pedestrians who will curse you if they get a bit of such lights into their eyes. I know, it happened to me even with lights way less powerful than 1000+ lumens.
Nevertheless, i find that a "be seen" helmet light is almost a must for commuting in the dark. But please be careful with those Chinese monsters.