I have a cygolite something or other, and my favorite setting is a steady beam with a flickering to it. Good for daytime and night time use.

That's not a light output issue but a light management issue. Many of the LEDs I've used are flood lights and have, for me, exactly the same problem that you detail. The light is just too diffuse.

But if you use a 12° spotlight, it's pretty easy to see that the LEDs don't compare.

$50? No, but we are talking about your life so it might not be crazy to spend a little more. For my commuter, I gave up on battery lights entirely and use a reliable dynohub light set. The B&M Eyc on the front and Topline Light rear work perfectly. The front light has both daytime running beam and night time mode which switches automatically using a photo cell detecting light conditions. The daytime beam is focused higher to get driver's attention. The rear also has a brake light option which is governed by a chip monitoring the input to judge deceleration. I use a Sanyo hub on a wheel built by Peter White which wasn't horribly expensive and only adds .5 watts drag compared to the extremely expensive SON 28. If $75 sounds crazy then I'm certifiable, alive, and hey, I no longer worry about batteries.

Marc

I'll keep my LEDs though. Something to be said for 3 ounces of battery instead of 3 pounds of battery and the same runtime.

And there's the inevitable dynohub post. Like clockwork.

That pair of Cygolite lights that [MENTION=328212]downwinded[/MENTION] recommended are good. I know the Metro well and bought a Streak. The Streak is smaller and less expensive but just as well made. The downside is shorter battery life. I don't think I can get two hours out of it, so to be safe, I have to charge it before every ride. But it is a very good light for the money. If you think $75 to $100 is crazy, wait until you spend the money. You'll realize you've gotten your money's worth.

Flashing headlights are good in the day. The only place where they are obnoxious is when I am on the bike path and someone is flashing them while aimed poorly. The angle of incidence to my eyes is tiny, which makes it painful. I know I should just look away, but for some reason, my eyes go to the source of the light. And it's one place where a bright flashing light is not necessary.

I personally don't use a flashing headlight, but I agree they are a good thing. I generally use a steady light, powered by a dynamo. It's not for everyone, but it works for me. I really like the convenience of not using a battery for my headlight, as a good headlight requires a lot more energy than a tail light. I don't mind battery powered tail lights. I use my Cygolite Streak only on bikes I don't ride often, because those bikes don't justify the installation and cost of a dynamo system.

Cygolite Metro 400, $38
Cygolite Hotshot 2W, $21

These lights charge with a USB mini (not micro) connector, and you cannot remove the batteries. This arrangement works well for me but not for everyone.

Construction is excellent, and so is customer service. They replaced a light for me in which the battery had stopped accepting a charge before the unit was three years old.

I found this set on Amazon. And this set too. Both are cheap. Took me 5 seconds.

Thanks, Korina.

No offense intended, but I'm not asking anyone to Google "lights" for me. The problem is, everything looks awesome in photographs, whether it has a $2 price tag or a $200 price tag. I started this thread primarily to see what people think about the idea of daytime lights -- not so much which lights I should buy. I'm only going to upgrade if enough people can support my hypothesis that daytime lights are important and that the basic ones I already have are not good enough.

Thank you again for providing those links, though. To me, they look kind of cheaply made. Have you actually seen or used either of those sets?

The second set you cited uses some kind of non-rechargeable, non-AA or -AAA batteries. That would be a pain to replace. I got one of tail lights that came with a bike I bought. I'm also not confident that it's bright enough.

Yeah, don't use lights that use watch batteries. You end up spending money on them, and you hardly get any light out of them.

Neither one of those is, IMO, anything like a usable daytime light.

As conditions require, I will run my dyno operated headlight to make me a bit more visible to oncoming traffic. If conditions demand, I'll turn on my tail lights as well.

plus one and then some

The hearty perenial.

Flashing is one thing... strobes something else.

No strobes. my cheapo $30 chinese light doesn't flash, it's a freaking disco strobe, making it useless in flash mode.

But a 1s high / med / high / low modulation would be good. I'm all for making people notice me.

I agree with nyc above. Super rapid strobes are bad and if there's a valid use case for them, I don't know what it is. I have one headlight that has ONLY the seizure mode, so it doesn't get used much, and only in steady mode.

Maybe a 2hz flash is about ideal to me. For attention getting, it could be about 20% duty cycle or even shorter. that is, on 20%, off 80%. Saves battery, just as attention getting as a 50% flash.

"Strobe" means extremely short duty cycle, like a 1/100th of a second on or less. Even if it's only coming on once every 10 seconds, that's still a strobe. Most of the super fast flash modes I see are not strobes, they're just rapid flashing.

I really like the Cygolite strobe. It doesn't flash many times per second (2 or 3) but the flashes are extremely short duration, so they're not blinding, just attention getting. The strobe over steady is particularly nice - it's a steady 500 lumens or so (on my Metro 550) with just very short 50 lumen pulses over the top of that, so you can see by it but it's also attention getting. That's a strobe too, by my definition.

Which Cygolite Strobe is that?

The flash / steady is quite noticeable. Occasionally I meet a guy on my evening commute that uses one. Both my Metro 500 and 300 have the feature. But, I don't like to use it in the dark or even dusk. It's just too "nervy" for me!

The Metro 550. The strobe mode on it is very short pulses, 3 or 4 per second. The strobe over steady is nice too, it's 5 very rapid pulses then a pause, repeated once per second, over the normal power of the steady light.

No offense taken. I'm sure they are extremely cheap, going by the prices. So, have you learned what you wanted from 75 people with 82 different opinions?
I often use my lights on my ride home on the highway, particularly my tail light. Always in flash-flash-pulse mode, because a steady light would be near invisible in full daylight, but motion will catch drivers' attention (assuming they look up from their phones once in a while). I wear hi-viz shirts, so the light is just a see-me. HTH

True; I was just too lazy to search more thoroughly.

You know, I make the same mistake on these forums over and over again. I hate wading through gigabytes and gigabytes of prejudiced online ads, reviews, and opinions, so I ask a question of the readership thinking there's actually going to be some kind of consensus on an answer. That way, I can just go out and mindlessly do what everybody tells me to do. But there's more than one way to skin a cat - or in this case, a Cat-Eye (rim shot/cymbal crash) - and maybe ALL the answers that have been posted are "correct."

I started this thread because I've been seeing A LOT of riders using daytime lights. In fact, all of a sudden, I feel like I'm seeing riders where I never saw them before, so maybe they just blended into the scenery before they decided to light up. Perhaps I answered my own question. I want to be seen on the road during the day, especially on foggy mornings like today, and I really believe daytime lights can help.

I am still not sure whether it would be worth the investment to switch to a flashing headlight, but now I know there are steady headlights that also pulsate, and I'm very interested in that option. I don't find flashing lights offensive, but I respect that some people might. If I ever go out on the road using one and someone shouts at me like "WTF?" I always have the option of turning off the flashing option.

So I thank everyone for their input, but that's probably enough for now. There are already way too many options to consider and now I'm feeling paralyzed about making a decision. One of these days, though, I'll be in a shop with some money burning a hole in my pocket and I'll impulsively buy any old light (under $25 or so) that catches my eye and I'm sure it will be just fine - definitely better than what I have.

So what is your conclusion so far?

Personally I'm ambivalent. I'll run the headlight if I have it and I'm not saving the battery for later, but I don't sweat it if I don't.

I only run my lights when I wear my helmet, and I only wear my helmet if I think there's the possibility that the protection it offers would be beneficial. I've gotten many many comments over the years about my lights too, and they're all been really positive with people saying things like they noticed me way sooner than the people that don't use lights.