FWIW ~ I use an original Magicshine w/ a wide angle diffuser & I added a beam cutoff hood (so I don't blind "them"). seems to do pretty well even w oncoming traffic

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d5bcdbc145.jpg

however, past cpl months been riding off road. took the beam cutoff hood off. when aimed higher it's great off road.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aed7832e35.jpg

but at perpendicular traffic (riding to the trails) it's pretty formidable

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...422762123a.jpg

Cool. It's beautiful here on Humboldt Bay; it's all flat, surrounded by the Trinity Alps, or at least their foothills, so you can pick your terrain. Lots of hiking, cycling, mtb, kayaking, and more artists per square foot than I've ever seen.

This is where I am at exactly except there is a lane of same-direction traffic between me and the oncoming traffic.

The tricky part is berms of snow and pine needles collect in the bike lane, making the rideable area that much narrower as well. My commute times jump up when it's warmer, I bet, because I am not as tentative!

You said ' helmet visors ', I did not..

Traditional Bike caps cleverly let you flip up the brim for those occasions ... + you can wear them under your helmet..




...

Part of my trip home involves a short uphill section with bumps and some small curves that's across a busy street from an apartment complex that has a security light that shines into my eyes. I've used different lights over the years including a Magicshine with the wide angle lens and the only thing that works there is more lumens.

You getting out the Skidoo for the arctic weather, there?

I added a little tab to the front of my helmet so the tab drops down over my left eye. It stays out of the way above the eye unless I lower my head and turn it to the right a little, then it blocks really bright light coming from that side. It works pretty well for most cases I run across, which is cars coming from the opposite direction on two-lane roads. It also did OK for sunset yesterday when the sun was peaking out from under the cloud deck and spearing me in the eye. It's better than not having it. It wouldn't do as well on a four-lane road or with a long line of on-coming traffic when on a bike path because then the light wouldn't be a point source and would be more spread out.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4bfd1450a9.png
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...52fa056edc.png

I stayed indoors for most of it - too cold for me.

OK I have to amend my previous answer.

My headlight is the same as this (I don't believe the claimed 2000 lumen rating), and I usually run it on medium, aimed so I get an ellipse on the ground with a size and position that shows me as much as I need to see, and it works great.

But last night I was riding on a mup that was on the 'left' side of the road so I was against traffic. The mup is even elevated 5-10ft above the road, so in theory car headlights should not be an issue, but I was seriously blinded. It was a problem, because that path in particular is riddled with sharp bumps from tree roots that you need to watch out for, or they could potentially throw you.

I found if I put my light on high instead of just medium, and also tilted my head to block out some headlight glare with my helmet visor, vision was acceptable.

I was only on that mup last night because I took a different route than usual, for the sake of variety. I will avoid that route at night in the future

I apologise and have forgotten that you don't have dedicate infrastructure where you don't ride into on coming headlights like we do.

Thus, I'll rephrase, where people have adequate structure, minimum being segregated cycleways in the same direction of traffic, a proper StVZO-approved headlight is optimal.

If you're riding under less adequate conditions, blazing everything in front of you might be useful.

Also, you need to adjust your tone with me, should you ever want a response again.

There are lights that just straight up lie about their lumen ratings. It sound like that's what you are running into. A 4AA battery light typically gets you around 200 lumens. Frankly...I wish this wasn't the case, but no AA battery lights are going to be bright enough to overcome oncoming headlights with streetlights.

I bought my brother the Fenix BC30R ($130)
https://www.fenixlighting.com/produc...ix-bike-light/

If that's to expensive you could buy a niterider 1000 for $60:
https://www.amazon.com/NiteRider-Rec...dp/B07DG9MXFN/

That's the lowest I would recommend going. A "1500 lumen" light that runs off 3 AA's is simply lying about it's lumen capacity.

If you wanted to throw an endless amount of money at the problem a Lupine makes a 900 lumen shaped beam light with high mode and a very nice led for $600:
https://www.lupinenorthamerica.com/S...Bike_Light.asp

But that would be rediculous for your needs. You be able to see substantially better with a 1,000 lumen Niterider light compared you have now, for $60 or so.

Thanks for all the info! After giving this one a day in court (thanks Mom!) I think it's going to get relegated to duty on my weekend rec bike and my commuter will get one of these rechargeable options (or a dynamo someday!)

Obvious low information poster. I never said any such thing, read it again:

Then, educate yourself: ANSI FL1 Standard - LED-Resource

That's something that works both ways, and I'm one of the many many many many people here who've been annoyed by you. While you're right about somethings, I mainly read what you've posted for amusement.

I respect your opinion, but it sure contradicts the experiences I've had as well as others here. Are we all wrong for being able to see when we use more lumens to counteract more lumens?

I wish I could find the picture I saw here years ago of one of those polite lights still dimly blinking on the handlebars of a bike that was under a truck after a fatal right hook. Once again, the driver said he didn't see the bicycle until it was too late.

And I don't have a picture of the guy who got annoyed with me one night when I shined my bright light in his eyes to get his attention before he ran into me. It was warm enough for him to have the window down, and while he complained about my interupting his texting he didn't seem to be bothered by not seeing where he was going long enough to put me at risk.

I'm glad that you are amused.

You're not wrong and neither was anyone else. But more lumens are only one piece of the puzzle. Upgrading to a light that has 300 additional lumens is not going to benefit if those lumens are wasted as flood, as the lux at distance will be the same or less than the prior light with X-300 lumens. Basically if you upgrade just lumens it's possible all that's happening is a wider area is now being illuminated but since washout is due to another light source overriding the luminous flux of your light source a more concentrated beam is needed. If the OPs current light is distance measured as 50m to 0.25 lux and his next light is 300 lumens brighter but has the same 50m to 0.25 lux all he's done is increase the ouput and increased the candela measurement but not done anything to overpower being washed out.

What he should do is look for a light with higher lumens as well as a higher beam rating. A light with +300 lumens and distance measured as 100 meters to 0.25 lux is going to be significantly brighter, with more throw and will be more resistant to being washed out by other light sources.

The issue with bike lights, among many, is that they often do not follow the FL-1 standard and play loose and fast with what "lux" means as well as overstate brightness and battery life. So it can be hard to determine when an upgrade is actually and upgrade and not just a different beam pattern or proprietary battery pack.

This direct link to a PDF is more helpful than my earlier link: https://www.streamlight.com/docs/def.../ansi-pres.pdf

Sorry guys!

I'm bowing out of this thread as both the driver and cyclist behaviour is bewildering. People getting crushed by cars. Acceptance of blinding a driver as "distracting" them is OK.

All I can say is that I'm glad that I don't commute to work in the states any longer as it sounds quite lawless from both the cyclist and the motorist.

Or the light I posted costs under 10 bucks, includes a charger and a (likely terrible) 18650 battery. Add another $10-20 for 1 or 2 good quality, high capacity 18650 batteries (try batteryjunction.com) and a couple hose clamps, and you're good to go

I will PM you a time-lapse video of my commute one of these days; not all that bad and the whole commute is on either MUP or an actual bike lane. I am the OP and I do not condone blinding of anyone for any reason.

Yes, lumens are just one part of the puzzle but they are an important part. Most of us can actually see where our lights are going and have some clue as to what the effect of adding more lumens has. Additionally, most of the lights that are available are of about the same design and construction. Upgrading the lumens puts more light in about the same spot as a similar light with less output. The common comment of "you are just spraying light into the trees" is usually wrong because most of us aren't going to use lights with that wide of a beam. Please assume that we aren't stupid.

As for davei1980's light, if he could increase the output by 300 lumens on the same light​​​​​​​, the lux would increase as well as he would be using the same optics with more output. That's the way that lux works. It's lumens/area. Increase the lumens but don't change the area and you have a higher lux. To have the same lux as before with more lumens, the light would have to change the area of the beam. That's not going to happen.

​​​​​​​
First off, I really doubt that you could get a 0.25 lux at 100 meters with the light davei1980 is using. The beam...even shaped ones...increase in area with distance. Assuming a 25° reflector angle which is common for many floody LED lights, a cone would have an area of 1100 square meters at 100 m. To get a 0.25 lux at that distance, you would need a light source of over 4000 lumens. His light isn't putting out that kind of power. I suspect that his light is going to struggle to put out 0.25 lux at 10 m since the output isn't going to be anywhere close to 1200 lumens on a 3 AA light, especially considering that davei1980 is complaining light washout.

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I agree that lights play fast and loose with whatever rating they give. But, as long as you don't take their word for those values, you can still compare one light to another. The Cree Magicshine knock offs I use have an output of about 800 lumens which seems to be fairly standard for that kind of light. I have a Cygo light of known output that I can compare it to. I also have chosen lights that have a fairly narrow beam so that most of my light isn't "sprayed into the trees". I had early Magicshines and that was one of my problems with them. Not that the sprayed light into trees...it takes a significantly wider beam to do that...but that their beam was a bit too floody.

Who is talking about "blinding drivers". As I said above, I can actually see where my light is going. The chances of my "blinding" a driver is basically nonexistent. My beam doesn't spread over into the lane of on-coming traffic. I'm not riding at the center line of the road. I'm 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 m) away from the driver of a car. If...and that's a big "if"...my lights are focused on the ground 10 m (32") in front of me, the radius of my light is 0.5 m at the outside. I'd have to have super wide flood lights to "blind" a driver 10 meters away.

And even that would be a problem because the more "floody" a light is, the less it can "blind" someone. Lux, remember, is light intensity/area. So the more area, the less intensity.

There is a difference between trying to "blind" a driver and getting noticed. Lights on cars are there so that the driver can see the road but they are also there so that others can see the car. Should we cyclists ride invisibly so that we don't harm those poor drivers? I guarantee that they don't know or care what their lights do to us.

The first one was a reminder to be more visible, because people either aren't looking for you or can't see you. The second was too typical for drivers and another reminder of the first points.

That's why I wear a helmet light. Even then I'm not going "blind" a driver. My lights aren't so bright that a person can't actually see after I flash them across their face. They are "dazzled" by them but they can still see.

The point, however, is to make an idiot that isn't paying attention...well...pay attention. I've been hit by someone because they didn't see me (on a clear, bright, cloudless day). I'm not looking to repeat the experience and, if I cause a driver a little momentary pain, it sure beats a lifetime of pain and injury on my part.

Yep, it was my helmet light being shined into his car that got his attention as I went around the corner while he was drifting into my lane, the bright clothes and handlebar light that made me noticeable. This happened on the way home from work in the spring or fall when it was still light, and the effect of the helmet light was like flashing the high beams for attention.

You'll be lucky to get 300 lumens from a 3AA light. I purchased a couple of Chinese flashlights last year that claimed 1200 lumens - they are well drowned-out by my 600 lumen Niterider rechargeable. It's not even close. And the beam focus will matter - possibly even more than the lumen count (which varies from Mfr to mfr) Established brands, such as Niterider, Light & Motion, etc... will almost always give you a better light pattern and power. It's worth the investment if you commute. I have a Niterider 1500 I use for MTB riding, and on High, it is even a bit brighter than the headlight on my BMW street bike. After I got the 1500 headlight for my MTB, I added auxiliary lights to my BMW! It's only your life at stake - spend $100 - $150 and get a good name brand light with at least 800 lumens and you'll be good.