Originally Posted by slvoid
There are guys here who's bike lights are brighter than motorcycle lights...
Brightness is not the only factor. The size of the lamp is what motorist see. When you go down a highway and a car is coming at you from a mile away do you notice the beam on the road or the headlight itself first? You don't even notice the beam on the road till the car is at the most 1/4 of a mile ahead of you and even then the most noticeable aspect of the light is still the headlight.
When I see a cyclist approaching me on a highway all the headlight looks like from a mile away is a tiny sparklier, which doesn't improve any till that bike is about 1/10 of a mile away then it looks like a bright firefly, and that's if the light is a very bright one! The dim ones look like someone lit a match or a very dim firefly at about 1/10 of a mile; and thats only IF the light is heading straight for you! If it's off at an angle you can't see it all or it looks like a very small dim orb.
Pay attention next time your out driving at night and look for cyclist and their lights and you'll see what I mean. That's why a bright front flasher is so effective because it attracts your attention to the bike first and their cheap.
I'll grant you this though, I can't say that I've seen the brightest headlight on a bike ever made because I don't stop a cyclist and ask if that's what they have. But most folks on this forum can't afford the over $400 price tags (and a couple I've seen are over $1,200!) for a light, which is a fact that the original poster has a problem with. Also a extremily bright light like you mentioned has the problem of all that light bouncing back at your eyes off the pavement giving you night blindness so you can't see much when you turn your head to the side. The really bright lights are really the best when used off road so you can see trail details and the dirt does not reflect the light back at you like the pavement does.
I seriously believe that cyclist's need a light that has a lens size of at least 4 inches and built so it can be seen off angle, but then all the cyclist's would complain that it's too heavy and not aerodynamic enough.