Newbie light advice
 

I am commuting to and from work and my shift ends at midnight. Can anyone recommend a really bright reliable light for me to use on my daily commute? Thanks

bgreen

What's your budget and how long will your commute be?

I'm a cygolite fanboy. Metro 550 on the handlebars, expilon 850 on the helmet.

Honestly the 850 is overkill, but gosh does it light up the road. The flashing functions are great too.

Bonrager Flare R is $60 and is daylight visible for 2 km. Also has night modes. Both day and night modes have steady and flash. Is good for 4+ hours in steady and over 23 for flash. Also has yellow side marker lights. The also make a Flare RT that can wirelessly be used as turn signals but of course you would need two and the controller unit.

I also like the NiteRider Sentinel ($32-$50[MSRP]). Also lasts over 4 hours in steady and over 20+ hours in Flash but it also has Lasers to create a virtual lane. It has great side visibility as well as straight back. The Cygolite's only weakness in the reviews is side visibility otherwise I would have grabbed one of them. It is a good light for straight back and up to 15 degrees of axis. Instead I ride with these two.

I have a Nitrider Lumina 700. AS for headlights, I feel the more watts, the better. You have it when you need it and most offer various brightness levels which will make them last longer. I get a few hours when I am in 400 watt mode and 1.5 hours in full power. Having the option to dim or a Strobe/Flasher mode is good also for those times when your ride ended up being longer than originally anticipated.

Both taillights have battery level indicators.

Here are some photos of the NiteRider Sentinel by itself. You can see even under a new LED streetlight, it is still very visible and even the laser lines are very visible.

I have the previous year which was only 30 lumens of the Sentinel. The current model has been upgraded to 40.

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Besides budget and required runtime, what's the environment? You'll need different lights for urban riding with streetlights than you will on pitch black country roads.

I've got a Metro 550 which I think might suffice for both situations (I'm hoping anyway) though I'm a little concerned about runtime. Up to now I've had nothing but generic two part (light and batteries separate) and they work great, I got the Metro for summertime flashing use just for the convenience of having one piece, but I'm going to see how it does in the winter with 50 minutes each way and see if it'll run full power for a whole day without recharging.

Whatever you end up doing, you'll be better off getting 2 lights for the front. One for the handlebar, and one for your helmet. This will give you redundancy for when you forget to charge the batteries as well as allowing you to illuminate your way when it turns goes up/down hills etc... Or when you realize that your lights aren't quite as bright as you thought they were going to be due to rain/snow/fog/daylight savings time ending.

Yup, easier for drivers to see you too.

I tried doing that, but it was a pain. In addition 2 lights, more weight on the helmet, 2 sets of batteries to charge and recharge. The biggest problem was just that when I tried to look behind me (often at a stoplight) I'd flash anyone in a next next to me right in the face. I stopped both because it was rude, and choosing between either not being able to look behind me or really pissing off the driver of a 2 ton vehicle right before we were both on the road seemed like a bad idea.

LED hub dynamo powered lights light reliably when the front wheel turns, and dont have the problems

of drained batteries going dim half way home.

but obviously battery light fans have adapted to their limitations.


biggest problem I had riding home Late at night, is the County Sheriff pulling me over to ask me
what I was doing on my bike at that hour. :notamused:

There's one intersection where I don't give a %*$# if the drivers are pissed, I just don't want them running me over (cross walk which links a MUP, walk sign is same time as green light at intersection). I've noted a marked difference when I do and when I don't have the helmet light on, I feel safer with the helmet light blazin.

And I don't ride for a long enough time in the dark for a dynamo to make a difference, I might sing a different tune if I did.

"Reliable" has a number of meanings. On the rear, I'll go with at least two AAA lights for redundancy -- Planet Bike superflash and a nice Cateye blinkie. Check nightly, and if one looks substantially dimmer, change the batteries. That way I'll usually have at least one working.

On the front, I like Cygolite and my LBS likes Light and Motion; so when the old battery gave up the ghost, I ordered one and bought the other so I could keep coming home from work. :)

Note the real problem is battery charging and reliability; anything with batteries will wear out, usually in half the time the specification says it will. So, like fietsbob, my commute bikes have dyno lights front and rear. They only give out when the rider does. I got the first one halfway through the winter I bought the two front lights, and I liked it so much I gought another wheel + light combination the next winter. (I still like the blinky + steady dyno light on the rear, and I've put the Cygolite on my helmet because my wife wants me to have something flashing, although I find it distracting.)

My shift ends at 11:30 so like the OP, I am a late night commuter. I have found that a Cygolite Dash 320 on the bars and a Cygolite Hotshot SL on the rear is a great setup. I ride a combination of city streets, neighborhoods and a pitch black MUP. On the city streets that are lit, the Dash 320 is on bright blink mode so I can be seen. As soon as I hit the neighborhoods it goes to the second brightest solid setting. For the MUP, the brightest solid setting which is ample light to see well ahead and to the sides into the brush and trees. Both are USB rechargeable and have held up extremely well so far through all kinds of weather conditions, especially the Dash 320.

Go to Amazon or Fleabay and search for "Cree bicycle light". You should get about 1000 hits. Pick one. This one is as good as any other. At less than $20 each, buy 2 (or even 3). You can mount one on your helmet which is a really useful light for both seeing and getting driver's attention. Mount the other two on the bars so you'll have back up. Problem solved for less than you can buy most "be seen" lights for.