Originally Posted by
noglider
Basically, the American attitude is more is better, even more is even better, and even more than that is even better.
Well, I'm not an American, so let's start with that. I didn't buy this thing because I wanted the most powerful light money could buy; I bought it because I had been riding with a 500-lumen light and felt the output was insufficient to illuminate hazards, and I knew that most non-brand-name lights vastly overstate their lumen output, so I intended to buy something that I hope would be about twice as bright as the light I'd been using. Just at a guess, I'd say this "3200-lumen" light is probably good for half that at best.
Originally Posted by
noglider
It is highly inconsiderate and dangerous to shine thousands of lumens into a person's eyes. No wonder the person cursed you out. You earned it.
So if I ride past you, an interaction that'll last less than a minute, while wearing a light on my head that I'm deliberately trying to direct away from you, I deserve abuse? That sounds like the more American attitude, I'd say.
Originally Posted by
noglider
Your safety should not come at the cost of everyone else's comfort and convenience.
That sounds like something cyclists would normally pillory a motorist for saying; what makes it wrong there, but right here? The amount of vitriol this simple question, asked in good faith, has raised is frankly shocking to me. I've had so many close calls on the trail with pedestrians completely unlit and reflectorless, invisible in the dark until I'm right on top of them; with their dogs, running off leash all over the trail, also unlit and unreflectored; but if I try to make the situation safer, I'm the careless and inconsiderate one? Your response seems to speak more from anger and emotion than reasoned consideration; that's disappointing.