Ok, so there's quite a bit of uncertainty with just how "bright" lights are on the road. It can be a little dizzying for someone trying to pick a light without buying up everything in sight and trying it for themselves. So to try to clear things up a little, I whipped up a little comparo of some lights I had on-hand.


The test rig (not shown, the Blackburn Quadrant. Yes, this means I had to go out and replace my lost Coleman light)


Your average run of the mill residential road. Lit by scattered streetlights. For reference, the stop sign is about 100' in front of the camera. The car on the right is parked just in front of the stop sign. The patch in the pavement is about 20' ahead, and was about where I aimed the individual lights. All shots were done on manual, daylight white balance, ISO 400, f2.7, 1 second shutter.


Blackburn Quadrant - (4) 5mm LED's, this is probably close to what you'll likely get with the average "cluster" LED light. Not so hot for seeing the road except at slow speeds or in really dark conditions when you don't have oncoming headlights. But still great for being seen.


Inova Bolt 2AA - about 60-70 lumens, roughly comparable to last year's top line LED models.


Coleman MAX 2AA - about 90-100 lumens, about typical for what you'll find for most current CREE-based lights, particularly in this size.


Task Force 2C - about 130 lumens, much tighter focus than you'll typically get with most smaller flashlights.

So as you can see, power makes a difference, but so does the inherent beam pattern of the light. The Task Force and Coleman are similar in power, but the difference in focus changes how useful the light is under certain condtions. The tight spot on the Task Force is great for long distances, but you get such a narrow view that it's not as useful for general illumination, and it can be a little distracting when you're wiggling the handlebars with how much the spot moves around.


Here you can see why I favor multiple lights vs one really bright one. Being able to point the lights separately gives you more control over your pattern. Here, I have two spread into a wider shallow pattern, giving a good view of the road ahead at moderate speeds


And the triple setup I ran the other night, with the lights aimed into a narrow long pattern for straight high speed bombing runs in the darkness.

Hope that helps!