Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
I'm sorry, I am missing the gene that makes people believe flashlights are better than bike specific headlights. The proponents only prove my point when key elements of bike practicality are missing in the flashlight wheelhouse. Flashlights even today are optimized for handiness. They have abysmal runtimes because you are not expected to be using them more than a few minutes at a time. The strobe mode in a flashlight is an SOS, HELP ME function which, well how long before you either die, or are rescued do you need the SOS function to last? This could have been a really short thread. 2nd post should have been "Get a bike headlight". Problem(s) solved. Oh, not even going to accept that it is acceptable to want to put AA batteries in landfills every week. If a flashlight can be built better than my MagicShine I want to see it. I might buy it. To use around the house!
You are woefully uninformed. Flashlights have always been lightyears ahead of bike specific lights in LED technology. Flashlights have always had much longer runtimes and much more brightness at the same time.
As far back as 15 years ago I was already using 18650 lithium ion batterie Fenix flashlights as bike headlights. Back in those days bike headlights were universally trash. The flashlight could be run several times brighter than any bike specific light. It could do this for 6 hours. When one reduced the brightness to match the brightness of bike specific lights, the flashlight could run for multiple 24 hours continuously. It wasn't even close.
Bike specific lights have caught up slightly in recent years, but still cannot match the raw lighting performance of flashlights. High end flashlights have their own enthusiast community. There are flashlight online forums, just like bikes have forums. Enthusiast flashlights only have to do one thing: light well. They are constantly updated with the latest LED tech coming out of Asia. Sorry to say this but bicycle specific lights are outdated, over-marketed, overpriced, and poor performing products marketed at lay people. High end flashlights are enthusiast products. Bike specific lights are consumer products. It's the same as the difference between an enthusiast bike and a mass market consumer bike. You're not even in the same segment, and you're not getting the same lighting quality. When you look at the marketing of an enthusiast flashlight, it will tell you the exact LED chip used inside. When you look at the marketing for bike specific lights, this information rarely shared. Ever wonder why? Exactly.
Flash lights have round beams. Some bike lights have shaped beams with a cutoff above the horizon. Bike specific lights have dedicated mounting systems. Some of them have remote switches and other smart features. That's where someone might consider bike specific lights. You're making a choice based on secondary features, because I'm sorry, bike specific lights do not, and will never in the future compete on the primary lighting part.
FYI 18650 batteries are the same batteries as used in laptops and portable battery banks. If you open one up, you'll find a bunch of 18650 cells inside. Certain bike specific USB recharging lights have them inside too. All things being equal, you'd prefer the battery to be removable so you can charge them in your own charger, and replace them as they wear out. With bike specific lights, the cells are sealed inside so when they wear out, your light is done. Yet another indication of their consumer product segmentation.