Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
I just haven't had that experience, not with decent commercial lights, since the advent of led's.
To be honest, I never used commercial systems until I started using LEDs. Commercial systems generally cost too much with too little value. My light experience also spans 35+ years and there just wasn't anything available that was worth the money...generator or battery...commercially for 15 to 20 of those years. Even generator guys of old had to do a lot of DIY.
Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
Sorry to hear that about your Gilligan Island experience...kinda want to point out a tiny bit that it wouldn't have been a problem if you had dynamo.
But seriously, I remember the first time I went mountain biking on a real trail at night. I thought I had plenty of battery life, then my light went dim, then it went off. It was getting colder, you can't see a thing in the middle of the woods, no idea which way was even back without a light to see the trail, and since you're in the woods it's pitch black - no ambient light. Fortunately for me, in my paranoia, I had in fact brought a second set of batteries. I switched the connection over to them and went on my way. It wasn't easy to do in the dark, but I figured it out and things worked out. 14 hours in the middle of the night - wow, that's a long time.
It wasn't 14 hours in the dark but 14 hours total. Lack of planning and a wrong turn...5 miles one way on a 30 mile ride...made for a very long day. A dynamo wouldn't have helped much since this was a full off-road single track mountain bike ride. That's why we have all these battery lights out there. Mountain bike riders don't really find generators to be of much use for night rides. The ride was also about 10 years ago so generators weren't all that good back then.
We did, fortunately, have a squeezy key chain light but after 10 or 15 minutes your hand starts to cramp. I carry a key chain flashlight now...and plan better
Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
You'd have to define "casual user" - like I said, I personally own an $800 road bike and $300 in dynamo lighting on that bike. It's totally worth it for me, I never would have found out about it if someone had started making assumptions for me about what I did and didn't want.
squidrow is the perfect example of the "casual user". He didn't do a 40 mile ride at night but he did a 40 mile ride that ended after dark. It's his first 40 mile ride...those were the days
...so I'd assume that he's pretty new to the sport. I would assume that he's not a utility rider nor a bicycle commuter so he doesn't have a need for a light on a regular basis. Dropping $400 on a light system of any kind probably wouldn't make a lot of sense for his needs. Dropping $20 on a battery powered light that has a good output so that he can get his feet wet. I'd suggest that for any one new to night riding, however. If you like the experience, then by all means explore options further down the road but I'd still suggest going cheap to begin with...especially given how good the performance of the "cheap" Cree type lights (aka Magicshine clones) is.