Originally Posted by
Staypuft1652
Anything over 300 actual lumens should be good for your purposes. I have a lil Serfas usl-305 I bought for $40 that is more than enough, usb rechargeable. Hour and a 1/2 full brightness. There are any number of brand name lights that differ mostly in beam pattern, not so much in brightness. People seem to love the light and motion lights, but they come at a premium. I also had a $35 Niterider swift 350 that was awesome, but it was more of a "flood" light.
is a good resource to read.
thank you! I actually drove by a biker on my way home and I was so tempted to stop him and ask what light he a using because it was so nice and visible at this time of night for us. and yes, my city is pretty well-lit at this time. we're not a huge city, but theres hardly any badly lit areas here and most of the city has sidewalks for me to us instead of a bike lane (which we also have, but I get skittish and we don't have many bikers/pedestrians in the area so it's allowed for us to use the sidewalk). my main concern is making my presence known while in the dark 300-400 lumens definitely seems appropriate~