Originally Posted by cyccommute

I've already said that my lights are aimed so that I can see the ground. Most cyclists I've seen riding at night do the same. There's no sense in carrying a light so that it shoots off into the sky and does no good. Additionally, cars put out far more light then I can on my bike so I doubt that I could 'blind' anyone anyway, unless I intentionally aim my helmet light at them. Then I'm trying to blind them for my own safety. I don't care about them at that point.

I have not suggested $350 for lights. The prices I've seen on the Double shot (around $200) are far closer to that then lights I suggest. When I suggest lights I almost always suggest halogen since those have the best bang for the buck. A Niterider TrailRat (10W with around a 2 hr run time) goes for about $100. For what you paid for the Double shot, you could have 2 lights (one bike and one helmet) and far more flexibility as well as output (replace the 10W bulbs with 15W pretty cheaply). With a Cygo system, I might even be able to get 3 lights out of it. If I were building the system myself (using Niterider Sports), I could put together a 3 or possibly 4 light system that would run 2.5 to 3 hours per light with charger, lamps and batteries. That won't match the run time of an LED but that's long enough for most people's needs. Used conservatively, for example turning off 2 or 3 of the 4 heads when not needed, I could easily get 9 to 12 hours out of the system. I've done that in the past when I did a half century at night. And, I'll guarantee that they will exceed the LED output for that kind of cash.