I love my Ay-up lights. http://www.ayup-lights.com/ Bright, lightweight, fast charging time, multiple mounting options, and they come with red caps that go over the lights to be rear-facing. I have the front facing medium beam on the bar pointed forward and the narrow beam on my helmet with the red caps pointed backwards. When I go mountain biking in the dark, I just flip the helmet lights around and take the caps off.

I also like the Planet Bike Superflash. One of my neighbors told me and I quote "dude, it looks like an ambulance when you ride up the street..." (okay, I say he's exaggerating a little...) but it is pretty bright when it's in the flash mode.

I also have the Planet Bike 1 watt front light too.

I'm pleased with both, and I think I paid about $60.00 for both. I know there are better ones, but it works for me.

For $15 more, I think the Minewt 350 is a better deal from Amazon. You are right about the strobe though, it's crazy bright and fast. The only reason I'd ever use it would be for fog which is worse than riding in the dark. I made the mistake of using the strobe at night once. I couldn't ride more than about block with the strobe bouncing light off the ground. I had the Minewt 250 for a few months but found it wasn't really bright enough -- two of them would have been awesome though.

The strobe looks like this video:

Right now I'm running a LED flashlight instead that is rated at over 500 Lumens. The cost of the light, batteries, and charger were right around $100 which is pretty decent. As an added bonus, I can carry an extra battery for run time.

I have a Cygolite Pace 310 and a Magicshine. I like the Cygolite in almost all ways: Beam pattern & evenness, mounting, charging, blink pattern, battery mounting & size. The only thing better about the MS is brightness.

I hear you. Used a generator bottle for a couple years; didn't mind the friction at first; then I did. Now I recharge my NIMHs at work. Pretty sure "Dynohub" is an S-A trademark. If I were touring, it would be my first choice.

I use the Cygolite TridenX Extra. A little pricey, but it is a great system. Super bright, long lasting and a super wide beam. It is somewhat large, but light. I can mount it on my mountain bike helmet. For commuting I have it mounted on the bars with the battery mounted in a waterbottle.

All of the Supernova dynamo lights have a built in capacitor "stand light" feature that sends a little power to the headlight and tail light (perhaps 20% brightness) for 5-7 minutes when the bike is at a standstill.

My E3 Pro achieves full brightness at about 3-4 MPH with the Alfine dynamo hub.

I had heard that comment in reviews for it before I purchased it, and assumed it was an exaggeration. So I bought one last month. A week ago I pulled into my apartment complex and a neighbor pulled in after me in his car (it's a long driveway), and when we reached the parking lot, he said "Jesus Christ, I thought you were the cops!".

So... I believe it.

I had a Superflash but returned it because of a couple shortcomings. I hate the "button" on the Superflash because of how difficult it was to activate and the lack of positive feedback. The other thing I did not like was that it seemed the output was very narrow. The light is bright, I won't deny that, but it seems that's only true for a narrow field.

I'm currently running a Portland Design Dangerzone which I like a lot more. The button is much easier to operate and there is a noticeable click after depressing it. The Dangerzone also seems to be more visible from the side.

Cost would be a huge deterrent. A generator hub is anywhere from $100 to $150 and rebuilding a wheel costs about $60 which comes out to $160 to $210 and that doesn't include the lights yet.

Conversely, two 18650 batteries plus charger cost me about $55 and then my front light, P-Rocket flashlight with XM-L, was about $42. My rear light was about $25. Eneloop AAA 4 pack, $10; charger $20. That comes out to $150 and change and I have lights and the power source to run them.

Nevermind that my front light operates at about 5.2W which exceeds the 3W output from most hubs. The ongoing cost to charge said batteries is in the range of 0.25 cents a week for me.

I was riding with three Cateye HL-EL010 Uno's, two on my handlebars and one on my helmet. Today I bought a Light & Motion Stella 150L (150 Lumens). So I've moved the third Uno to my fork. And three Cateye blinkies one TL-LD150-R and two TL-LD130-R. I have the TL-LD150-R mounted right up under the back of my pannier rack, the two TL-LD130-R taillights are mounted via the belt/waistband clip to my pannier bags. And a Planet Bike Superflash mounted to my helmet. Add to that a big orange safety vest. It has LEDs, but sadly the battery pack shorted out, and I think that it took out the LEDs as well. Do I need to say that I want to pick up a fourth HL-EL010 to the right side of my fork.

The sad thing is that even with all of those lights on my bike and helmet is that come the time that I get hit, the driver will still say that they didn't "see me." :(

The Uno's I run in blink mode, except for the one that used to be on my helmet. I had that one mounted to my "old" Nightpro helmet mount and that one was in steady mode. All four taillights are also in blink mode. The Stella 150L will be in steady mode, all three Uno's will now be in blink mode, as will the fourth one when I get it.

I've switched from regular alkaline batteries in my Cateye lights to Duracell rechargeables. The nice thing with the Uno's is that they use one AA battery, so I only need a total of six batteries to swap in and out (until I get the fourth Uno) and I need a total of 16 AAA batteries for all of the taillights. As each taillight uses just two AAA each. And of course the Stella 150L has it's own power pack.

Uh, what happens when you stop? Does it have a rechargeable battery or capacitor to keep the light on when you stop?

On models with a "stand light" function, a capacitor keeps the lights illuminated (at lower "be seen" levels). On my E3 it is about 5-7 minutes.

I've had several co-workers tell me "you left your lights on..."

I realized that what I thought was sufficient (250 lumen Cygolite) wasn't yesterday when I had to go to someplace I've never ridden before. It was okay at about 15mph. Around 20mph+, I had barely any reaction time for pot holes, etc. I would imagine I would need somewhere around 350+ for less tense of ride.

I have about the same threshold - my current light is rated at just under 400, and it is sufficient for most of my riding up to about 22-23 mph. However, If I was riding on rougher terrain, I'd opt for 800-1000 lumens.

That's good as it'd suck to be stopped at a red light only to get hit by a car for not seeing you, or to have a LEO pull up alongside of you and issue you a ticket for not having lights.

I am using the Light & Motion Urban 300 for the front and their VIS180 for the rear. The VIS180 is awesome for the rear tail light, very bright, has 180 degree visibility, rechargeable and the angle of the light can be adjusted. The 300 has plenty of light for me as 80% of my commute is lighted bike lanes. I am thinking of adding a second front light that I would put in flash mode.

I use a MiNewt 600 Cordless and a MiNewt 200 on the front at night, with two Planet Bike Superflash lights on the rear. During the daytime I leave the superflash lights off, but I run the MiNewt 600 in flash mode on the front, and the MiNewt 200 in flash mode facing to the rear.

Talking with a friend of mine who works security at The Pier in downtown St. Pete he told me he could see me from a 1/4 of a mile off. That's as I've said three Cateye Uno's and one Motion and Light Stella 150L headlight. The Uno's are mounted on the bike two on the handlebars and one of the left side of the front fork and the Stella on my helmet.

And he knew who it was that was coming down the road based on the light pattern.

That's not good dude. White lights to the front...red to the rear.

Red to the front is bad - but white flashing to the rear in daylight is good.

Yeah, no doubt. I had looked at the specs on all the Mi-Newt series lights, though and decided on the 150 as it has the longest run time vs. cost. Brightness isn't that much of an issue where I use it. Never checked Amazon, though once I discovered the Nashbar deal. They were offering free shipping over a cost threshhold and as I needed a few other things decided to order everything at once.

Dinotte makes terrific lights. I believe the 800L as been replaced by the XML-3 (or something like that). It's a great light and Dinotte has great customer service. Another great light available these days is the Lupine Piko 3 -750 lumens, very bright and very tiny. This would be an excellent light for either helmet or bar use.

As for tail lights for commuting - they might be more important than the head light for safety. Any of the AA or AAA blinky lights are inadequate. They look great in your hand, but get even 50' away from them and they are not bright unless you are on the right axis (no spread) and they look like tiny pinpoints of light. You'll get no respect from drivers with that.

Another light that is important for safety is to have some sort of helmet mounted light. The more direct the beam the better. As you approach an intersection and if there is a car there that could cross you, aim the helmet light to light up the driver's side door to help get their attention. I've done this many times and it works very well. Even a very bright light (like the Piko or equivalent) won't blind the driver at the crossing distance, but they will definitely know you are there.

OTOH, if you step up to the Dinotte 140R as a minimum and even better to the 300R, you'll find that cars slow down when the approach you and then will go wide around you. This has been documented by many riders (do a google search). These lights will get you respect because a car is not entirely sure that you aren't something big and important like a police car or hazard.

J.

I use 2 lights front and 2 lights on the back, 1 steady and 1 blinky. I prefer AA, AAA powered lights and carry spare batteries. On the back 1 of them is the cateye LD1100. As I'm on well lit streets/roads the other lights aren't particulary high powered certainly not powerful enough to ride at speed on unlit roads. So far I 've been visible from behind, and from the front approaching junctions.