I personally consider the Vega old technology - it was good for its time but
LED technology has already moved on.

First there was the white LEDs. Then the white Luxeons. Now the big name
in LED is Cree and those suckers are bright - the new Tri-Newt by nightrider
is 500 lumens with 3 of those leds inside the housing. It's nearly as bright as
my HID (about 725 lumens).

What I did for a long time is use multiple LED lights. The Cateye EL300s
(discontinued now but still available at mail order sites) in tandem were
almost bright enough to use for commuting but in retrospect dimmer than
a single 1 watt Luxeon. The EL500 was a big increase in power but two
EL530s (rev 3 of the EL500 design) would probably be an ideal setup for
you.

See: http://www.amazon.com/Cateye-HL-EL53...6149326&sr=8-1

A single one of those is 1500 candlepower and two are 3000.

That might work for you. Personally, I was using two Cateye EL300s and
two Grip 28 led flashlights. I finally had enough horsing around and went
HID (Trailtech Eclipse 13w).