My lights are pointed down to illuminate the road about 30-50 feet in front of me. They don't dazzle drivers any more than auto low beams do. If you are really worried, you can use tape or paint to mask off the upper 1/4 of the lens.
Try this, and you'll see that it doesn't help at all. Aim your light at a wall, and use some cardboard to block part of the lens. The top of the beam isn't affected at all.
Even a shade projecting in front of the light needs to be 8-12 inches long to really cut off the top of the beam if you want the rest of the beam to reach far down the road.
Originally Posted by
gecho
I'm getting a 1000 lumen Dinotte XML-3, my primary motivation being runtime not maximum brightness. Most lights seem to have similar rated running times at the maximum setting, but cold weather dramatically reduces battery life. Many times in the winter I can't even finish my ride on the middle setting of my Stella 200 before it falls back to the lowest setting.
Even on the 200 lumen max setting, there are times where I feel I could use even more light, particularly on wet roads or new asphalt.
Riding the MUP at night during the summer I could really use a helmet light in addition to one on the bars. There are many sharp turns that you essentially enter blind because the handlebar is pointed in the wrong direction.
I have this Dinotte light. It's very bright, over 1000 lumens on high. And compared to a Magicshine (which is actually about 500-600 lumens), it's beam is at least three times as wide with very even coverage, and then it tails off gradually to a very wide spill light. It even somewhat lights up the sidewalk when I'm riding in the street, and the wide coverage works pretty good on turns, too. So it's not designed to be a 30-40 mph high speed downhill light--it doesn't project that far.
Surprisingly, I've never had a car flash their high beams at me, even with the light projecting way down the road. I was worried about this when I got the light and saw how wide the beam was. If I prop the bike by the road and view the light from 100 feet away, it seems somewhat brighter than typical car headlights, but not nearly as bright as car high beams.
The 1000-1100 lumen high beam is very good when riding in the city. Unless I'm going very fast, it's aimed in front of the bike, brightly lighting 10 feet through 40 feet ahead. It's a blue-white light that contrasts with typical yellowish car headlights, and when aimed down like this, it lights up the street as bright as the car headlights. I think the pool of light helps me to be seen, even from the back, and I don't lose sight of the road surface by oncoming car headlights at small rises in the road.
On dark country roads, I'll use 50% power, about 550 lumens. If I aim the 1100 lumen 100% beam downwards, it's actually too bright close to the bike, messing with my night vision. Aimed straight forward, I can see far down the road, but half the light is going up in the air. But I'll switch on high when the road gets twisty or the surface is bad.
For night group rides, I'll switch it to 25% power, about 275 lumens and aim it downwards. I made a small shade about 3 inches long out of a piece of black plastic frozen dinner tray, held on with a rubber band. I think it helps somewhat to keep the light out of co-rider's mirrors when it's aimed downwards. And the 100% power is really nice when I'm at the front--it's wide enough to cover the full lane.
Originally Posted by
CliftonGK1
...snip...
I used my DiNotte XML-3 coming home from work the other night. 1000 lumens, no cutoffs, handlebar mounted and pointed about 30 feet out for the center spot. Not a single complaint (to my knowledge) versus my usual B&M IQ Cyo mounted just below my front rack. In seeing the spread pattern on the XML-3 light, the outer rim of the spot covered 3/4 of a traffic lane when I was sitting on the passenger tire track; so I don't think it's really a wide enough bright spot to irritate oncoming drivers unless I pointed it straight forward like a photon torpedo.
..snip...
So you had it pointed downward, too. But it's still bright at driver eye level. Perhaps the wider beam cuts the intensity just enough at a distance.