Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I have to disagree that I'm just a cheapskate. The lights I choose to use are chosen because of their output and utility. I've been doing this night time dance for 30+ years and I don't choose lights frivolously. There's a lot of thought that goes into my light choices.
Quite frankly, the output of even the best LED is still only a fraction of an overvolted halogen. I used to run MR16 12 volt halogen overvolted to 14.4 V and they would throw out 3 times what any single Cree XML T6 puts out. Considering that the halogen had the same run time (about 3 hours) on a 4.5 ahr battery as the LEDs I'm currently using, I considering going back to them.
In the last 5 years, dyno have started to do much better compared to the old incandescent lamps and a little bit better compared to halogens but other lights have gotten better as well. Even if I don't use the $25 Cree lights and bought Magic Shines, I can still buy more light output for less money than a single dynamo system. That's not being cheap, that's being economical.
Being economical is just an nice way of saying cheapskate, there's nothing wrong with being a cheapskate. $200 for dynamo lighting on a bike isn't outrageous considering how much convenience it brings. I didn't like charging batteries, and I didn't like taking them on and off when I'm locking the bike outside. I hated worrying about battery life or charging batteries, which is something I still occasionally do because I'm still using battery taillights on some of my bikes.