Originally Posted by
squidrow
Wow, thanks for all the replies! Looks like there are many, many opinions on this.
So to answer the questions I can...
Yes, I am new to this sport. Just started riding maybe two months ago so I am a total newbie. My first 40 mile ride was last weekend, prompting my question about lights. I do not plan to ride at night but might end up coming home after dark or possibly even starting before daybreak once in a while.
Elevation where I ride is not that great, according to map my ride the Max is 745 feet so there are some hills, but nothing that you guys to the west of me would consider worthy of mention
I am riding the Trek hybrid in my signature but may move to a road bike if I still have the bug that I do now which is to go farther and farther. Time permitting I will do my first 50 mile ride this weekend on my hybrid
Average speed on my last few rides (mostly the same routes, distance is the only variable) has been as slow as 15.6 and as fast as 16 MPH. The 40 mile ride saw the 15.6 average (up hill on the ride back) and my lunch ride on Tuesday saw a 16 MPH average (1 hour, 10 seconds for 16 miles)
Hope that clears up the questions posed to me
Thanks all for the great insight into bike lights. When I started I never knew there was so much to learn. I appreciate it!
Wow, 40 miles is very impressive then. By average speed, do you mean what you usually see at the end of the trip, or do you mean what your speedometer shows as the average speed? That's certainly possible, but very impressive if you're keeping that up for that long - being so new.
Yeah, it sounds like a dynamo probably isn't for you then. Because of the cost, it's usually for someone who either rides at night a lot, or just has a lot of money to throw at making sure they're never left without a light. :-)
Something like this would probably be fine for your needs for like $20 (as mentioned earlier) -
Robot Check
For battery lights, I prefer a light with a shaped beam, but I do ride at night. Either the Ixon Iq Premium, or the Phillips Saferide, but either one comes to around $150 total including everything, so most likely not worth it for your more "might occassionally end up riding in the dark and want to be safe" needs.