Originally Posted by
northerntier
Each time I come back here I look to see if there are any responses to the reviews that I took the time to write up. Instead, nothing but inane bickering over crap that has nothing to do w/ my post. This wastes time for those who might be interested in the original posts, and discourages others from making their own informative posts. Please stop.
+2
Thanks for posting your review.
It's pretty amazing, isn't it? 10 years ago, dynamo light was - frankly - crap, lol. Even 5 years ago, it was still essentially useless. I mean you could put out enough light to be the same as 1990's $30 AA battery light, but who wants to spend the money on a dynamo just to get that? There's a few niche areas where people found it useful, but it just didn't compare to a decent battery light.
But 3 years ago they came out with the Cyo, and things completely changed. The Cyo covered 90% of my riding better than any battery light had (a combination 1650 lumen's of battery power did a better job of lighting things up, but weren't as good because it used a wide beam and blinded oncoming traffic - so bright and wide it seemed to be a problem even for cars).
The drawback on the Cyo was that it didn't have much side lighting. But the Luxos U, and the more recent (and less expensive) Cyo Premium lights fixed that, to. Dynamo lighting is finally very very good, better than a lot of battery lights (see next comment).
Originally Posted by
northerntier
I haven't done straight-up comparisons with the battery lights yet. I'd expect that the battery lights (especially the megadrive) will still provide more light. For me, however, the Luxos has crossed some critical threshold where it provides "enough".
I actually have (though unfortunately weather has not let me test out my Ixon IQ longer than riding it around the block yet, but I own the Cyo before that). The Ixon IQ is the battery powered equivalent of the Cyo Premium.
It's not a matter of dynamo vs battery (as I said the light I have right now is the battery powered version) - it's a matter of beam pattern and shaped beam vs round beam (or semi-shaped beam with Light and Motion lights).
Once you get above a certain lumen output, the amount of light your light is putting out becomes oddly fairly unimportant. I've own a Dinotte 200L, 2 Dinotte 400L's, a Dinotte 600L, a Light and Motion Seca 900, and a Light and Motion Seca 1400 for battery lights.
Of these the worst light was the 600L. It put a ton of light on the road - but only the road immediately in front of your bike. It had no more throw than the 200L. It was just awful. 2 400L's (with a lens kit that let me change the beam somewhat) were better, but again it was weird (though typical of lights) - the difference between both lights on on low vs medium vs both light on on high was about 10% between each jump. I'd go from 400 lumens to 800 lumens, and - it appeared to be about 10% more light. I've seen read that this is typical of how the eye perceives light.
The Seca 900 was my favorite for a while with good throw, but it wasn't quite wide enough. The Seca 1400 went the opposite way - super wide beam pattern, but not as much throw. I seemed to be blinding people on the road with it (unlike the 900, which while not great for bike trails didn't seem to be a problem for cars because of it's narrower beam). The most enjoyable combination for me personally was to ride with the Seca 900 on high and the 1400 on medium. It had enough lumens to really light everything up, and the beam pattern happened to come together perfectly with lots of throw but also lots of side light. Problem was - completely blinding to anyone coming towards me, lol.
What amazed me when I get the Cyo was that the Seca combination from above was the *only* combination that I liked better than the Cyo. It's because the Cyo has a shaped beam - there's not a hotspot affecting your vision, the light closer to you isn't brighter than the light further away. It's really difficult to describe, you eyes just seem to adjust to whatever light is in front of them. Put an even pattern and your eyes seem evenly. Put an irregular pattern with a hotspot, and you see irregularly with a hotspot.
With the Ixon IQ (same beam pattern as the Cyo Premium), it's even better with more side spill light and more throw. I haven't had a chance to do a long night ride with it yet, but so far I believe I will end up thinking it's far **better* than any of my battery light combinations (for road riding of course).