So did you have your Dinotte mounted low on the blades? I guess you can with the way the light is designed.

-D

First off placing lights low on the blades DO NOT show road anomalies better if that's all your using; because the lower the light the longer shadows are cast from road problems and can actually fill in pot holes with shadows or cause odd effects in rain. BUT that's only if that is the only place you have your lights. If you combine fork blade low mounted lights with high mounted bar lights then that statement would be correct. Low mounted lights do give the effect that your lights will seem like they reach out further because you can aim them a bit higher and the spot part of the light will elongate out in front of you; this is how dynomo lights with their inferior brightness seem to work better.

yes, I had it mounted very low on the blades of the fork. In my experiences, this has not caused any problems such as those suggested by freako. In the rain, for instance, using my headlight actually hurts my vision as the light from the headlamp is reflected off of the wet surfaces (and atmospheric moisture/fog) and back to my eyes. The light mounted low seems to work best in this situation ( a la foglights).
Many other randonneurs use similar setups, but with generator powered lights, as freako suggested.

But as with all posts, your mileage may vary and I'm sure that untill you find out for yourself what works best, just as I and Freako have. Just wanted to put it out there as something to try.

In my experience in using my buddy's NiteRider lite (15/10/6 watt settings), 15 was about the bare minimum I felt comfortable with. I could get by with 10, but really never even dug that. One leg of my commute is on a road that's typically littered with your standard road-side debris, usually consisting of gravel, sometimes broken glass, recently 4 different sawsall blades (I probably ought to stop and toss them off the shoulder some time), etc. This fall/winter it'll be even MORE of a mess, and the more illumination I can get, the better. Besides, I want to keep my speed at daylight speed if at all possible. I hate slogging along at 15mph or slower.

I have a Team Issue that I have used for 20 years. The wife got it for me at nearly the same price they sell for now. All parts were replaceable. I first replaced the issue battery with one twice as large. Then the MR16 bulbs were replaced by 50 watt ones. Naturally I replaced the switches and wiring with heavier stuff to prevent a melt-down. I still track their web site at www.night-sun.com The Xenon strobe tail light is about the best stock tail light you can buy.

Now, if you do not mind carrying a battery heavier then most bike frames, I know where to get aircraft landing lights that are street-legal.

+1
I got one for me and one for the wife (200L) last April .. love them.. Some cops on bikes stopped me on the beach the other night to see what kind they were. said they could see me from far away.

Maybe we should get a dimmer switch for the sun.

I'll add that it's not always about seeing the ground either. In an urban setting, having a weak light is just plain dumb. You are competing with a thousand different light sources. You need something that gets noticed and not in the 'hi, I'm over here' way but in the 'Hey! Dipwad! I'm here!' way. I want cars to think that I'm a train that jumped the tracks! If they can't figure out what's coming at them, they just might wait to find out before they pull out in front of that train!

Today that doesn't sound like such a bad idea. 'Tis hot here.

Didn't have the original Ultra 5- I was using a 10W halogen prior to this one. From what I understand, there is less flood, and the beam is much more focused on the 200L than the 5..that and quite a few more lumens. I think the 5 had around 120 lumens, but the 200 has, well, 200.

I had the Dinotte 5 as a helmet light and had it upgraded. Way worth it and a large improvement in brightness.

I just placed an order in for a Dinotte 200L. I can't wait for the package to get here.

That's a jackashe of a response. We're talking about riding in the dark with NO sun. Too much light on a road surface will reflect that light back into your eyes causing glare and wet roads make the glare worse.

Lower the lights are the better they are in fog or snow, and while RAINING...YES I MISWROTE THAT, MY BAD, but not otherwise.

Low lights do cast strange shadows on pertruding objects that a direct light flattens more making it appear more realistic. Just as the sun does by being high up.

I tour, and even when not I don't ride at 25mph plus, thus a high wattage light for me is not necessary even though I'm old and my eyes have dimmed over the years. For a typical headlamp beam pattern, a motorist traveling at 60 mph needs a headlamp of about 10,000 candlepower to see well; a cyclist operating at 15 mph can see well enough with less than 600 candlepower which is about 12 Watt halogen power, and a cyclist operating at 7.5 mph can see far enough with less than 150 candlepower 3 Watt halogen. The light provided by a bicycle headlamp may be focused into a narrow beam for maximum range, or may be spread out for better peripheral vision; which is why the dual beam Cygolite is so usefull because it combines a spot with a flood. A three watt lamp could be focused into a beam suitable for high speed cycling on the darkest roads, but will not give much illumination of turns; this is why on curvey roads I use both beams-my spot and flood.

And of course any headlamp, even the cheapest clip-on battery kind, is much safer than none at all; you just need to ride slower to compensate for reduced range.

For the past six years I've been using a 25w halogen headlight, this year I switched to an LED headlight with the same lumen output as a 25w light. I have never experienced the problem of the light reflecting back at me causing glare. Have you actually used a 25w light and experienced this or is this just a theory of yours?

I'm no pro rider but I often go more than 25mph, because I go down hills. Some of those hills have pot holes that I might want to locate a 12w light won't help much with that. I might get a glimpse of the pot hole as I hit it but that won't help me much.

I find your assertion that "there is such a thing as too much light" silly and responded with a silly (jackashish) reply. If I could get a 50w light that was light enough to ride with I would. I want as much light as I can get.

I agree. I commute with a 20W spot on my helmet, a 12/20W dual beam head and another 20W spot on the bars. If you are counting that 72W. I get no glare whatsoever from the road and I doubt that you could unless you are riding on a white surface...oh! Wait! This whole winter left us with white roads everywhere in Colorado. Even then I got no glare from the road surface. Given the nature of light and reflective surfaces, I don't see glare from reflectance being a problem. Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. The majority of the light is going to reflect forward. There's absolutely no harm in having more light...not to the rider anyway.

I had (and loved) the TrailRat on my old (now stolen) MTB. If I wasn't planning on getting a generator hub built into the new wheels I need on my commuter I'd probably buy another. Dependable, reasonable size and price, decent charge time. I was a bike/metro/bike commuter in the SF bay area so had to leave super early (430) in the morning to get to work and rode through a few sections with absolutely no lights (near the docks in Alameda) and the TrailRat did the job.

I believe if you contact Dinotte (Rob) he can get you a better price sans the batteries and the charger to save you more money if you have the rechargeable batteries and a charger already.

Extra 4xAA battery holders can be aquired locally at Radio Shack or any electronics store for cheap so you can make quick swap battery packs so in case something happens and you need to take alonger route and the powers dimming you can swap out and keep going.

I am a little confused here. How many watts is the Dinotte 200L? It is 3W or 5W? I know the 200L is more a spot.

Thanks.

That is one of the things I have grown to love about this little light. I already owned a bunch of rechargable AA's for other things. So for relatively low expense I can get long runtimes with a couple AA packs. and when the batteries wear out they are cheap to replace.

-D

I use a planet bike Alias (the one that goes up to 15w) combined with a Cat Eye Blinkie as a back up / be seen light. I usually run it on 15W on the dark (unlit) parts of the MUP, down to 10 on roads and on the lit parts of the trail. I like that it's simple, has an open bottom and so casts light on the road right in front of you in addition to way ahead, and the battery can't be over-charged.