I've been using a Hope Vision 2 as my main front light for a good few years. I'm not really sure how well Hope are known outside the UK, but they're designed and built just up the road from me. It was a gift, in 2007 I think and I'm pretty sure it was last year's model, reduced to £180. At the time, it was a serious light - popular with mountain bikers riding unlit trails at night. 480 lumens and a decent burn time meant it was a great commuter light in its day.

Anyway, I hadn't given it much thought until this year. Actually it was using 18650 torches off the bike that made me think that maybe lower tech was catching up with the Hope.
As the clocks went back on Sunday, my commute home was plunged from almost dusk at the end to pitch black before I set off. This week I've really felt the difficulties of riding in the dark.

Oddly enough, it's not the unlit sections of my ride that give me the most trouble. It's those moderately lit suburban roads, with orangey glow from the street lamps and the constant swings of brightness as car headlights come up from behind getting brighter and brighter, then pass leaving it duller as the next car streams up. It was playing havoc with seeing the detail in the road surface and I could feel myself tensing on the bike. I'd had an off a few weeks back and now struggling to see every little crack, undulation and surface change, I was riding braced for another fall.

This morning I mused that it's the peripheral I'm losing out on with the Hope. I can put a spot far enough ahead to see what's coming at speed, but it's lost by the time I get to it... or I can put the spot closer and see what I'm riding over but not far enough ahead to adjust my path accordingly.
So this morning I attached a torch to my handlebars to compliment the Hope - a Convoy S2+(somewhere around 700 lumens). A bit of a bodge really - I just looped two hair bobbles round the bars, but it held very snug. The idea was that I would point the torch right in front of my front wheel and the Hope further ahead. I think I probably had to do it this way round, as the torch isn't designed for road use, so has quite a wide beam. Turns out that's lovely for flooding the floor 2ft in front of you.

The result was fantastic. I felt way more confident to ride quicker now that I had both a good volume of light and a better spread of something right in front and still light ahead of me. So if you're struggling in the dark, I'd suggest giving two lights at two angles a try - it works a treat!