I'm just responding to people who tell me that battery lights are stupid. You, and anyone else who want to use generator lights, can do so to your hearts content. Let's not forget that the original post by halycon100 was about battery lights, one of which he already has. He wasn't asking about generator lights or even considering them. Every single light question on the forums eventually gets drug into the "generators are better" argument no matter what the original question was.

I'll admit that generators have some advantages but they also have many disadvantages that have been enumerated elsewhere. Batteries have disadvantages as well but they also have many advantages.

You are missing my point. If I want to ride any one of my 8 bikes at night in any season, I can do so by simply moving the lamps to the bike I want to ride. I don't need a new wheel for each bike, I just need to move the lights. I can...and do... use the same light for mountain bikes, road bikes, on-road, off-road, fast, slow or whatever I want to do. I can even loan my lights to someone. I've done that for my teammates at a 24 hr race. I couldn't do any of that with a generator light. That's a huge advantage for my uses. That seems to be an advantage for many other people considering that battery lights have a much larger share of the market than do generator lights.

Let's also not forget that generator lights were abysmal until the last 5 to 10 years. If, like me, you had to try to use the generator lights prior to that you'd probably have a different opinion about them. I went to batteries long ago because generators had way too many problems like blown bulbs unless you kept your speed down, low output and very poor light quality. Even a Cateye HL500 that had been TurboCatted had better light and it was horrible. A single one put out about the same light as the best generator light of the time. But I could run 3, 4 or 5 of them and get enough light to see by.

A quick Google of "bicycle generator lights" gives lots of examples of less than stellar optics. One is based on the Planet Bike Blaze which doesn't have special optics of any kind. There are some battery powered lights that have the optics that you seem to want.

But just because the optics are different doesn't mean that they are bad. For off-road riding, I don't want a light like some of the generator lights. You need a different type of illumination for trail riding. Even on-road, the conical lights aren't as bad as some would have you to believe. I can see where my light is going and 50% (or 75% or 90% or whatever other outrageous claim is made) is "spraying off into space". Nor is it "blinding" drivers who are coming at me. The claims made by many are nothing more than hyperbole.

Your "refined" optics for generator lights are a relatively recent development. Not too long ago (less than 15 years), the Union headlamp was the light to use for generators. It was a simple round parabolic reflector that was as sophisticated as 1965 Chevrolet Impala headlamp. Heck, even car lights from 10 to 15 years ago were basically the same. Just because lights are different now doesn't mean that they have always been that way.