Light Advice
 

I have searched the forums for light advice, but I think I just need someone to tell me what to do.

I have been commuting with a Cateye EL-220 and a Blackburn Voyager 3.3. I'm not a super fast rider - after dark I would say I ride around 15 mph. I ride in a suburban area, so sometimes I have streetlights and sometimes I don't. However, occasionally there are man-swallowing pot holes I have to avoid, which are my biggest concern.

The lighting combo I currently have doesn't sufficiently light up the road surface to avoid man-swallowing pot holes or woman-flipping cracks. I'd like to get a new lighting set up. I've looked at the lights on Peter White Cycles, and it seems like all of them would be better than what I've got. I'm thinking battery, because I have two commuting bikes (one for 3 seasons, one for winter).

What would be your ideal lighting set up? What would be your semi-ideal lighting setup for $150 or less? Can anyone make the case that I should really go dynamo over battery?

Sadly I can't offer any real advice being a relative newbie myself but looking at some of these lights makes me think I might just find a way to adapt a 12w LED dive light that I have for cycling use.

My Ideal is a Schmidt dyno hub in the front wheel..

OTOH, consider one of the new 2w planet bike battery lights, or perhaps a helmet light with a remote battery pack.
in the cold of winter you can wear the battery under your jacket as it will work better when it's warm.

another kit I use is a 6v 10w Nightrider Halogen lamp and a frame mounted battery pack.

bigger battery adds to amp/hr, brighter , higher watt light draws it down again faster.

so It's a balancing act.. :twitchy:

For $150, a lot of people will point you to the Magicshine rechargeable headlight, the nominal-900-lumen version that's around $90. The remaining $60 will buy you the optional Magicshine high-output taillight (connects to the headlight's battery with included Y-cable) AND quite a bit of pizza :D You can get those at Geomangear.com, other than the pizza.

I was given a dynamo hub recently, and did build it up into a nice wheel and get a Supernova E3 Pro headlight, the asymetrical one. It's nice to not have to worry about batteries, but the light output isn't as high as I'd like, which is a nice way of saying "it gets its butt kicked by my $25 tactical flashlight." Given the expense of having your wheel rebuilt, I don't think dynamo is for everyone, not on an upfront-cost basis anyway. For pothole-spotting, I'd take my $25 flashlight over the E3 Pro.

How far do you have to go is another question? If it's less than 15 miles (or about an hour ride at your mph) non-stop, I would seriously consider a flashlight with rechargeable batteries. I recently bought the one below advertised at 900 lumens, but even if the output is much less (i.e., 500 lumens) is still excellent compared to most cycling lights out there. This flashlight is small and it has 5 modes: Hi > Mid > Low > Strobe > SOS. That's a really neat feature because you can switch to strobe or low in the city where there's ample street lighting or to high in suburban or rural areas. It is spec'd. to last 70 mins. (on high!) on just one battery. I haven't tried that, yet. I would carry the extra small battery (a little larger than a AA battery) on longer rides since it's not too much of an inconvenience to change it. For extra precaution I would carry an extra small light (i.e., your Cateye actually works great!) that you can keep in strobe mode all the time. The cool thing is that just two weeks ago I paid close to $35 bucks. Now it's down to less than $25. You still need to get the rechargeable batteries, charger and flashlight holder. You will still be running way below your budget of $150. For tail light, I don't think there's anything better than Planet Bike's Superflash rear light at $25 bucks. Voila! My 2 cents.

http://www.lightake.com/detail.do/sk...x18650)_-32582

You might check out the "lights under $50" thread in the Electronics forum here.

And while I'm not qualified to offer any lighting advice per se, I'd say get two tactical flashlights- one on the bars and one on the helmet.

Go for the Magicshine headlight and battery and a couple of planetbike superflash blinkies in the back. I nearly blinded the security guard at the gate with mine the other morning. She said she had never seen such a bright light on a bicycle. She thought I was a motorcycle when I rounded the corner about a half mile away.

I'm happy with my magicshine. I get complaints and compliments on how bright it is. Every day I ride 25 miles for 1.5 hours in the dark and I wouldn't want to use tactical flashlights on the bars and mess with replacing batteries mid ride.

Magicshine indeed. If you want to actually light up your path so you can see, there is nothing under $100 that beats Magicshine. There is no light under $50 that will provide enough light to actually see in the darkness when going above walking speed, they're only meant as "bee seen" lights.

i bought a niterider minewt x2 2 years ago and now drool over the magichine. 3x the power, 1/3 the price, 2x the battery life.

http://www.geomangear.com/index.php?...ujtv7cnhbu85j2

I have a Cygolite Rover II. Happy with it. At a reported 255 lumens, fine for normal commuter speed. If going very fast (downhill or tailwind) would be more comforable with a brighter light. Seems tough & rugged. Homebuilt a spare battery pack from 4-AA NiMHs. This has enough power to run it for about two hours.

http://www.amazon.com/CygoLite-Rover.../dp/B001P9H0ZS

Bought the Rover II when the Magicshine was new. The Magicshine was reported to have sloppy build quality & questionable longevity. It may have improved since those reports on the early units.

I have been using the Night Rider Tri Newt Select LED headlight that I bought earlier in the year. Provides three modes bright, dim and flashing. It was pricey at around $250, but well worth the money. I have over an hour and a half commute and use dim and flashing modes. No trouble with the battery being drained so far. I rate my headlight systems by how much they annoy oncoming drivers. On a scale of 1-10, I rate it at a 9. For an LED system, it really kicks it out. Good luck.

My bike is my primary form of transportation, but I rarely ride more than 10 miles after dark. So up to 1.5 hours round trip would be my minimum run time requirement.

I already have a superflash for the back. Sounds like the Magicshine is what I am looking for.

I use 2 MTE P7's from dealextreme. I attach them with them with 2 flashlight holders for each bike. That way I can interchange them.

For the rear I have a number of lights. A Niterider Cherrybomb, PB Superflash, PB rack blinky, a Mars 3.0, and a red Ultrafire 501b ( all on different bikes). The Radbot 1000 now has my attention and would be my next purchase.

If your commute is more than an hour then the Magicshine offers a good bang for the buck.

Shimano has some cheaper Dyno hubs , if the wheels are the same for various bikes you can swap that wheel around

If not , just pick one bike to make your winter commuter , kit it out.
a 3w generator and a 3w halogen bulb headlight will be a straight wire from one to the other..

I don't own a car, so my commute bike gets ridden in all sorts of conditions, day and night. My lighting setup consists primarily of a Schmidt dynohub driving a Supernova 161 headlight which is mounted mid-fork, and a 161T taillight. These are on the bike all the time, and are on all the time (if I am rolling, they are on). The headlight gives me plenty of light to see the road in front of me at the speeds that I ride at night (~15ish). In the winter, when I am riding in the dark more often than not, I add to that a Dinotte tail light. In blinking mode, I have to recharge the tail light once a week.

Dynamos are great for situations where you'll be riding after dark quite often but don't necessarily know just when or for how long. The dynamo is always there, never needs charging, and will go all night if necessary. But for a regular commute I'd give the edge to battery-powered lights. Pick one that will run long enough per charge for your needs (incl. an ample margin) and you can get a much brighter light for less expense than would be possible with a dynamo. Your $150 price point seems perfect for the MagicShine headlight and taillight combination. Plenty of light, designed for the bumps and long run times common for bicycling (unlike some of the flashlights).

I agree with you in part; however, nothing beats not being tethered to a battery. That is one of the down sides of battery driven lights is once you use them you going to have to put them on the charger lest you wind up out longer than anticipated and wind up with dimming lights. The beauty of dynolights is they make the bike "Grab and go"

I agree with Sirrus Rider on this but you cannot buy a complete hub dynamo system for $150. About as cheap as possible is the following I believe if you can do your own wheel rebuild.

Sanyo Hub Dynamo from Peter White Cycles $40 + shipping. More if you need a disc brake compatible dynamo hub.
$30 for a set of spokes of the proper length to rebuild your front wheel.
$60 for the Planet Bike Dynamo LED headlight.

I would personally prefer an IQ Cyo headlight which is going to be more like $100 or so. Also Peter White does carry a bottom bracket dynamo from Sanyo for about $44 + shipping if it will fit your frame. This can eliminate the wheel rebuild cost.

I figure that I should pay for what I want in the first place, because I won't remember what I did with the little bit of money I saved.

I have a small batch of Dinotte lights that are just sitting around because I always reach for the dynohub bike to ride around town when it's dark. I got tired of waking up and realizing that I had forgotten to put the batteries in a charger the night before, then having my light go into low-power mode halfway through my short, ten-minute commute (never mind an hour like some people do).

Dynohub all the way. I want one for my road bike, too, and maybe even one for my MTB. The only practical drawbacks I can think of are 1) it's a bit harder to move from bike to bike, and 2) it won't help you see what you're doing if you need to fix the bike in the dark.

Ive been using the Shimano disc dynohub for 3 winters with a Lumotec Fly LED lamp. It is bright enough for any riding and outshines many battery lamps. In winter I usually ride 1 hr /day with the light on and sometimes more. I really like the grab and go ness with no battery management issues. Also when you lock the bike up there are no bits to remove. Most of my battery lamps have broken due to dropping. If you want to use an additional battery lamp go ahead, its useful for repairs as well.
The dynohub is far superior to other kinds of dynamo for regular use. My touring bike has a bottle dynamo but I dont use it much.

Right, and that's primarily because the leverage against its drag works in the rider's favor. A dynamo is going to get its power one way or another, and dragging against the tire -- at higher RPM within the dynamo, mind you -- slows down a wheel more than when it's in the center of the hub.

Plus, a dynohub never slips in wet or icy weather like a tire-driven dynamo can (if it's out of adjustment, anyway).

Thanks for the opinions. A dynohub is certainly an option if I can decide on a winter bike. However, this is the first winter I'm hoping to keep riding after it snows, and I'm honestly not sure how that's going to go. My main commuter/go everywhere bike has 27 inch wheels that I can't put studded snow tires on. I'm hesitant to commit to something like a dynohub before this first snowy winter. On the other hand, I hate buying gear and then later having to buy new gear because I change my mind.

I've always found bottle generators adequate. They're cheaper and don't require a new wheel. For what it's worth.

No one has said it yet so I will throw Dinotte into the mix. I have been running the 200 lumen lithium ion for 3 years and have had no complaints. And I just picked up the tail light for a member here. My commute is allmost all country roads with no street lights and i want to bee seen.