Been lurking the forums for some while, then stumbled here. Haven't really touched a bike for some years. I used to do a lot of mountain biking when I was younger. So now I got a new bike, and am gonna be doing some bike commuting. Although, my shifts can sometimes go late, and I end up in the dark. I read about guys getting killed cause they don't have good lighting. I read about the Planetbike Superflash. I picked up a pair of those and am going to be using those for a tail light. I also found out that I couldn't really use these for a front light. They don't come in a white colour. Is it illegal to use a red and white combination cause it looks too much like a cop light?

Anyways, back on topic. I was wondering what sort of light would be good for a front headlight? I realize there are the "to-see" lights and the "to be seen" lights. I am really interested more in the former, "to-see" lights that way I can actually see the road hazards, wood planks, bottles, deep pot holes, garbage, debris, so that I can avoid them and not get injured, break my arm, smash my jaw, knock out teeth, crack my nose open, etc...

I have read a lot about this Cygolite DualCross 300. Is it any good? What is better to get? The Ni-MH, or the Li-Ion version which is a little more money?

They call it "High-Intensity LED". Is that HID? So is this thing BRIGHT? I wanna see through darkness and light my way, cause I had an almost nasty spill last time when I part-way went over a bottle on the bike path. I also want to do some night riding on trails.

Also, is it good to buy off eBay? Or better to go from the sites like beyond or pricepoint?
I can seem to get things cheaper off eBay.

Half my riding is at night. I use niterider dual minewts and they work great. Try doing a search on minewts, it should turn up more info on them if your interested.

cygolite is good, dualcross for use high-intensity LED much brighter than MinEwt

only for TriNewt or MineWT .X2 for 2008 for brighter than dualcross
mineWt dualX1 and minewt X1 old tech for LED tecnology

Cygolite for 200$.00
TrinEwt for 400$.00 is for LED for compare HID highintesnity discharge 500lumens!
HID dies for use, for use 500X (2 years, need replace bulb 1x100$.00)
Trinewt not for replace! LED forever use 50 000 hours for 120 000 hours!!!

~True dat~ The newest niterider LED lights are twice as bright as their old. I would pay the premium for the newer models if you don't know how to solder.

Wow, those are pretty pricey lights. These days, I wonder how necessary it is to spend so much money on lights. Here is another idea. I bought a couple of headlights from Nashbar in December 2006. Each light has 7 LED lights. Price including the headlight and a tail light blinkie is $29.00, but they often go on-sale for $20.00. They run about 25 hours on three AAA batteries. The light is pretty powerful - MUCH brighter than the 6 C-cell battery powered halogen Nighthawk.

Why not use two of these lights instead of one "bright" light. Remember that each of the Nashbar lights has SEVEN LED lights - so with two, you would be using 14 LED lights. By doing so, you could adjust one for high beam and one for low beam - and aim for two distances. The total cost would be about $40 to $60 and the batteries are cheap to replace, plus the lights are self contained with no external wires. Not enought light? Get a handlebar perch and rig up three or four of these lights. You would have enough light to land an airplane and the total cost would still be less than one of the more expensive lights.

Maybe I am naive about lighting hardware, and if I am, please educate me.

Try poking around in candlepower forums. LEDs have made massive leaps in light output in the last year. The latest highest grade LEDs could easily be used in clusters as headlights for cars.

I run a Cygolite DualCross 300 up front and a single Planet Bike SuperFlash for a tailight. Both are excellent lights. The Cygolite DualCross 300 beam tends to get washed out on brightly lit city streets. That's not a problem as the streetlights provide the light to see by. On poorly lit streets, the Cygolite DualCross 300 provides plenty of clean bright light to see by. The Planet Bike SuperFlash replaced my Cateye LD 1000. I prefer it for its compact size and extremely bright flashing led.

Be seen:
- Front "see" light, front blinkie (any bright one) on bike, rear (ditto) on bike, rear (lightweight) on helmet
- Reflectors on bike, wheels, pedals
- Reflective vest

See:
- Many options. Look in the Electronics forum. Tradeoff between weight, convenience, cost, brightness, battery life. Think of how long your commute is (time), how well lit the roads are.
- Fenix L2CD or P3CD make fine helmet lights (bright flashlights).
- I use a front Cateye E500 (I think) and a Fenix L2CD on the helmet. This is enough for bike paths and poorly lit roads. Would not be enough at high speeds or off-road. The flashlight is brighter than the Cateye light but the battery life is shorter (2h. cf 10h.)
- I've gone off my bottle-battery halogens (10W + 10W) due to the weight and inconvenience taking it off and on the bike. I might add a second helmet light to bump up the illumination.

I found some DualCross's on eBay. I figure it would be a good deal as it would be cheaper than buying it from one of those retailers.

Is eBay safe to use? I always read about scams on eBay. How do I tell if this is one of them?
https://cgi.ebay.ca/Cygolite-DualCros...QQcmdZViewItem
https://cgi.ebay.ca/Cygolite-Dualcros...QQcmdZViewItem

It's caveat emptor on eBay. Check the Seller's Feedback. That usually gives a good indication if the deal is a scam or not.

The thing is the guy has a ton of greens, and only one red. Everything else was like, "Great seller, fast shipping," etc. Could that one red just be a fluke? Like a bad apple just retaliating? Doesn't seem right if he had so many good sales before that? Seems like a good guy to me.

I'd go for it.

Yes, this for good report/feedback. One red is for minor thing. Against compare the many green positives. (positive feeback). Sometimes mistake accidnets. Other time bad buyer cause the red for no good reasons.
it is sufer for sellers in such case

Somteim gut feeling is write. seem good, because seller is good, just bad buyer give negative to realiate.
not true red negative, but for reatliate

oops

Looks like a nice light to light the road or path. This should make you quite visible too.
The Dual Cross 300 is a high powered LED light. These are fairly bright and much more efficient than older style halogens, however there are more powerful halogens available. The brightest bicycle lights available are HID lights. HID lights are as efficient or more efficient than LED lights and come in more powerful versions. Most HID lights on the market are 10W or 13W and are about as bright as car headlights.
AA or AAA powered LED headlights will improve your visibility on the road but these will not provide much light to see by and will be washed out by brighter traffic and street lights in busy areas. The 1W and 3W LED head lights and 5-10W halogen headlights are bright enough to be seen in busier environments and can light a road or trail for moderate speeds.
I use a combination of a 1W and a 4W LED headlights for my urban commute.

Craig

dudes

if you are not blasting trails all night, a Minewt X2 is plenty light and worth the bux

I also have an HID system that stomps all others, but when that croaks I will
switch to a TriNewt

You need a good front light to see as much as be seen. Riding in the dark makes you very vulnerable to obstacles on the road such as potholes, sticks and gravel.

I've got a Cygolite NiteRover and it is a very good, reliable light for not much money. You can buy one for about $70 including dual lights, NiMH battery, and a charger. You can use the low beam only for visibility, the high beam for illumination, or both for maximum light. Charge times are good, particularly on low beam.

Some of the new LEDs look pretty nice, but I don't have personal experience with them. If considering LED, the Fennix lights seem to get a lot of good reviews. They can be used as a flashlight as well.

Read my CygoLite DualCross review.

The only difference between the DualCross 200 and 300 is the charger. The 200 has an overnight charger and the 300 has a 4-hr charger. The Li-Lion (or whatever it's called) has a battery approx 50% the size but with comperable run times. You're not paying for a brighter light itself for any of the three DualCross models. Just the charger for the 200 and 300, or the smaller battery on the other.

Since that review I did take it out on a late-night ride and it lit up the path/road in front of me better than I could've ever expected it to. I could see a solid 50+ feet down the trail while still seeing directly in front of my front wheel. Granted, the trail/road surface was dry, but even when wet it's a far cry brighter than the 15W NiteRider I'd borrowed from a buddy earlier this year. The light pattern spreads side-to-side more as well, which to the best of my knowledge can't be said about even the new NiteRider lights, much less the 3yr old one I'd borrowed from my buddy.

The DualCross 200 is (or at least was) $130 at Pricepoint.com. $160 at Performancebike.com.

I have a pannier set up on my bike, which allows me to carry a 12 volt, 6 amp-hour sealed lead acid battery (it is smaller than you might think). This powers my homemade FIFTY WATT HALOGEN HEADLIGHT.

It is more powerful than my mom's '00 Honda Accord's headlights (we recently sold that car - *cry*).

Yeah. It boils water, so watch out.

Ebay tip: If their approval ratio is above 95% or so, they're probably fine. Otherwise, tread carefully.

If you're making a large/expensive purchase, than you should be more careful than when you're just grabbing something for $10-$20.

I just bought a Fenix L2D-CE. It has 135 lumens output for 2.4 hours, which is soo much better than a Surefire, let alone the average flashlight. It uses AA batts, although Fenix makes C123 batt models as well. Check them out:https://www.fenixlight.com/
https://www.fenix-store.com/

Their prices are great as well, I might add. Just pick up a few Twofish Lockblock handlebar mounts from their online store when you buy lights, so you can mount 'em on the bars.

I might buy a second one, just for kicks.