This is correct. 400 lumens is plenty light for the average rider, the average rider pedals along at 14mph. I use to cruise in the old days at 20 plus mph with the old 2 c battery halogen bulb bike lights! Later I graduated to a 13 watt halogen and rode down mountain roads at over 30. Neither of those lights were even close to 400 lumens! Today because technology is so cheap it's not a big deal to pay $100 for a 600 lumen light like the Cygolite ExpiliOn 600 which you can see the comparison of it here: http://www.performancebike.com/bikes...ghtBuyersGuide

Most car headlights brights are 1200 lumens, but that level of brightness is made for a car traveling at 70 mph or more, and people think they need that level of lighting on a bicycle? Oh my god give me a break.

I use two headlights when I ride, a Cygolite Mitycross 480 on the helmet, and a Phillips Saferide on the bar, I never use the bright mode of either when I'm riding on lit city streets, and on pitch dark nights I rarely turn the Phillips on high though I may turn the Cygolite on high, but it's not as bright as the Phillips and it has a flood beam.

The average cager is looking into around 3,000 lumens at night. 70 mph?? Try 25. Most people don't get out onto the Interstate where they can overdrive their 3,000 lumen visibility. Smart drivers who do a lot of high speed night driving upgrade to HID lights and look into 6,000 lumens. So back to low speed night activities. I crashed and severely injured my face with one MagicShine (900 lumens) because I couldn't see the roads edge. I might be more night blind than the average cyclist but I am not the worst there is. Many drivers would fail their vision tests if they had to take them again. The DOT doesn't **** around with who can do what with what and who doesn't need what. They publish a standard that encompasses a wide range of human ability. My MagicShine is completley unable to give me much information about objects that do not have a reflective aspect. People walking in the dark are completely invisible until I am practically on top of them. Unless they have reflective stripes on their shoes or jackets. That isn't the case when I am driving. My eyesight didn't change because I got in a car. But I can SEE..... imagine that.

I have done my commute with no light at all. It isn't fun, it probably isn't safe, but it can be done. Some people realizing that and finding out that a MagicShine is going to set them back $85 all up, are going to balk. I now have three of the things and believe me, I am not overwhelmed. I certainly don't need all three escept for tricky spots like the one where I went down because there is no transition from the road surface to the shoulder and I am on the wrong side of the fog stripe to start with. The MagicShine is so beamy that if I put it on the right side of the handle bar so I can see the ditch then the fog stripe will not be illuminated. Vice versa for the other placement. With two MagicShines the fog stripe is very clearly visible and so is the ditch to my right. I'm liking that. Liking it a lot. And I have a helmet mount light now that I can put on anything that needs special attention.

Maybe a tenth of a percent of riders are clocking as much as 10 miles in mixed suburban and rural riding, I mean there aren't many nights when I see another rider on my commute. But occasionaly I do see one.... or hear one. That's right, some of them don't have any lights whatsoever. They probably aren't going more than a 1/4 to 1/2 mile though. But the bottom line is: since the technology to obtain superlumens is so cheap and since every flamethrower that I know about provides a way of limiting the output... why not the big light?? Why not two MagicShines run on whatever power setting gives you enough light to SEE?? You do know that cyclists are out there getting hurt because they cannot see or be seen? I've crashed with a NiteRider Classic and with a MagicShine because I couldn't SEE. Despite the fact that cars carry around the equivalent of six MagicShines pedestrians and bicyclists still need to have as much reflective gear as they can afford. Anything that is placed on or near a road had better be abundantly reflective. There is no such thing as too much light (aimed forward!) or too much passive reflectivity. Every little bit helps.

H