Helmet Light
 

Hi,
I'm seeking a 500+ Lumens (or close to it) white bike helmet light that flashes, is easily mounted/removed, and *doesn't* use rechargeable batteries. Can anyone recommend one?

Please don't!

That much power in a flashing light is just going to be disconcerting to everyone, including yourself.

That kind of brightness is for seeing by, and for that you need steady light.

A blinky to attract attention is far, far less light output.

A flashing helmet light in not very useful.

The single most important aspect of a head-mounted light is the ability to aim it and see objects or dangerous situations that are not directly in front of the bicycle. A focused "spot beam" is generally the best lighting strategy.

For many years I used "Coast" brand light that has an adjustable beam. I would leave it in spot mode - most of the time - and aim it at street signs or the edge of the road to detect animals or object from side streets.

You could be more specific in your request. Is this a daytime running light or used to illuminate your path at night. You don't need a 500 lumen light for a daytime running light.

The only helmet light I have seen up close and one that gets a lot of recommendations is the Lights and Motion Vis 360 ($100) or Vis+ ($180). They are 120 lumens with a 2 hour run time and 250 lumens with a 3 hour run time. That's more than I would want to pay for a running light but it certainly is effective on a fellow rider who uses one. Having a wire dangling from your head to a battery pack is a PIA in my opinion and the battery pack for a 500 lumen light with a decent run time may be heavier than what you would want mounted on a helmet

I don't find a flashing light "not useful". That's what I always use for a running light.

What batteries aren't rechargeable?

Hi VegasTriker,
I would be using the light to ride at night. I'm a bike commuter in an urban area and wish to avoid being run over. I want a blinking light because in my opinion they make one more visible. I'd been told 500 lumens was needed to really be visible but if I can do the job with less, then that would be fine. My budget for the light is under $80 US.

The problem with non-rechargeable batteries is nobody is developing better lights for AA or AAA batteries anymore. Not worth the hassle or weight and bulk.

The only good replaceable battery bike headlights I've seen are the Serfas SL-255 (discontinued but still available) and the Busch & Muller Ixon IQ Premium.

The Serfas SL-255 takes 2 AA batteries, isn't too heavy and bulky, has high and low steady and bright flashing modes. Maximum brightness is 255 lumens, as the model implies. But it's a spotlight beam, very narrow. With alkaline batteries it gradually dims so after a few hours the bright setting is barely visible. With NiMH rechargeables it stays brighter through most of the runtime but extinguishes suddenly. I use it only as a backup, sometimes as a loaner on casual group rides because invariably some ninja shows up for nighttime rides without lights.

The B&M lights are very good and adequately bright. But no flashing mode (it's prohibited in Germany where B&M are made, and they don't make a special model for the US). But with a payload of 4 AA batteries, even with lighter weight NiMH it would still be bulky and heavy for a helmet.

If you want to rig up a separate head and tail light system, check out the Cygolite Hotshot taillights, the lightest weight and brightest bang for the buck taillights. They are so piercingly bright when viewed from directly behind it helps nudge tailgating drivers to the side.The light aperture is very narrow, so it's not as visible from the sides. But it's a very effective day/night taillight.

We don't really need 500 lumens for a to-be-seen helmet light. I use small, lightweight USB rechargeable helmet lights that get attention just fine from drivers. Check out the Blackburn 2'Fer, and 2'Fer XL. The best buys are in pairs and often a little cheaper via Amazon. I've used a 2'Fer for going on 4 years now, no problems. Good light. Each unit has four modes: steady white and red, flashing white and red. Just push the button to reach the appropriate mode for head or tail mounting.

The Light & Motion VIS 360 may be the best dedicated, integrated helmet mounted head/tail light system for the money.

An AA powered zebralight would work OK. They have around 300lm.

H53Fw AA Headlamp Floody Neutral White
H53w AA Headlamp Neutral White

Blinking lights make it harder for other bikers/motorists to judge the distance between them and you. So unless you have neon yellow reflective clothing, i would strongly suggest you either use a second steady light or you look for a light with a pulsing function. But this is an issue of your own safety. 500 lm for blinking is overkill, especially at night. It might be useful during daylight, but if a motorist doesn't see you then, he is probably distracted and doesn't pay attention anyway.

Don't use super bright lights on your helmet on urban roads because it will definitely blind oncoming traffic. Using a light with a cutoff beam like stvzo may be better but mounting it so far up will make the beam shine into people's eyes, and these lights are meant to light up the road instead of just to be seen. If you want to see how it's like to be blinded, place the activated light on a window sill or table at eye level and stand maybe 10 to 20 meters away and look directly at the light while in the dark.

I made my own helmet light magnetic mounts.
https://www.bikeforums.net/21207410-post6.html
I used $5 lithium polymer lights that are meant to be seen that have an extremely wide beam so you can see it up to 120 degrees. There was some glare when looking at it directly so I added a translucent PVC privacy film to diffuse the light so it's not uncomfortable to look at in the night. The battery lasts around 3 to 4 hours on low output mode. I wouldn't use flashing mode because it's very distracting and also illegal where I ride.

I originally used topeak headlux lights but the button battery dies in cold weather in under 5 minutes. In warm weather it last a few hours.
https://www.bikeforums.net/21115901-post1.html

Also fixed attachments on helmets have a risk of causing injury in a crash, which was why I made my lights attach magnetically. They will slide off with around 300g pressed against them.

A very bright helmet mounted light had done more to increase passing space and decrease passing speed than anything else, when riding at night. I use a 1200 lumen Zebralight H600w Mk IV, with the temperature controlled brightness it is probably closer to 900 lumens sustained but still it works great. Blinding motorists is an issue created in the minds of Bikeforums posters.

You can use primary (non-rechargeable) CR123A lithium batteries and set the strobe level to 502 lumsn for that model of Zebralight. Runtime is impacted but the brightness should stay the same.

I am very confused by this post. I used to ride with high-lumen lights (bars and helmet). Have done it for years. One of my bar lights was so bright, motorists would flash their brights at me, unless it was basically pointed at the ground. That light was 1300 lumens. Pedestrians and other cyclists covered their eyes in discomfort, completely blinded. People flipped me off and yelled at me--routinely. I am pretty sure none of that was created in my mind. Pretty sure all that happened, like, a million times.

I now use the Outbound Lighting Road Edition, which has a cutoff, and this is just a non-issue now. Great light. Get one with a cutoff, that would be my counsel.

Why don't you want rechargeable batteries? Do you want to continually buy new batteries?

I use rechargeable batteries, so I don't have to continually replace them.

I think these experiences are not contradictory. I do imagine that a very bright light, especially if shone directly toward motorists, will both drive them away from the source and anger them. Of course, it might also endanger them and/or others, if the light is bright enough to temporarily dazzle them.

Note that I'm not really condemning any approach here. In a society that gives little respect to cyclists, we might have to sometimes take extreme measures to protect ourselves. I'm sure that 'taking the lane' irritates some motorists, but I do it regularly. (And if I'm traveling fast enough, it's perfectly legal.)

I don't think irritating people by shining bright lights in their eyes is useful for anything, even though it does get their attention. That's different from irritating them by taking the lane, because taking the lane is useful.

By and large, I agree. But it might be easier for me to agree, given that I live in a fairly small city and only go through a couple decent intersections on my commute...So the motorists have fewer opportunities to run me down.

Anecdotes about whether to use flashing lights, bright lights, helmet lights, etc., will be all over the place because our experiences are different.

I've actually had drivers and passengers roll down their windows and thank me for using extra lights, especially the helmet blinkies. Helps them to see me better. And it helps to judge distance, speed and relative orientations better. Same reason why motorcycles are generally easier to "see" despite being narrow -- the extra lights offer a better handle on quickly estimating distance, orientation, speed, etc. But on a bicycle it's easier to mount lights vertically separate rather than horizontally.

My lights are relatively dim, mainly useful in low light or at night. The helmet blinky tops out at 300 lumens. The rear red helmet light is less than 100 lumens. I have one non-directional blinky with a frantic strobing effect that seems very effective. The other is directional. I set it up so it aims where I look. I've seen drivers brake suddenly when they were about to leap out of a driveway or parking lot into my path, but stopped when my helmet light hit their eyes because I looked at them.

Regarding drivers flashing their lights or honking in annoyance, that only proves some drivers are jackwads. I've ridden with too many of 'em. Mostly guys who fume and cuss the entire time they're driving, nitpicking every single thing every other driver does: "Lookit at that brightlight m*****f****r!" while he has his own high beams and entire bank of illegal fog lights and roll bar lights bright enough to play a double header ball game. Or blasting the horn the split second the light changes. Their annoyance isn't my problem. As long as they don't physically harass or try to hit me, I don't care.

And I don't run those extra lights on the MUP. That's pointless and is dangerous.

Why would I shine my light directly at motorists or in their eyes? The light is mounted right side, slightly below the fork crown and aimed to project the hotspot ~75 meters ahead. From the front it appears visually similar to a LED or HiD car headlight. My helmet light projects about half as far and almost never ends up illuminating the passenger compartment of passing or oncoming cars. If it does it's incidental, same as HiD lights cresting a rise before the auto-leveling feature activates.

I've ridden around 150 hours per year at night, the past 7 years, and the only feedback I've ever received has been non-verbal (increased passing distance, decreased speed), or positive - "You're lights are great I saw you from way far away" & "I thought you were a motorcycle haha". In my experience, motorist anger is almost always directed at cyclists because of the activity itself, not the behavior of the participant. Fully half my negative interactions (all during daylight with no lights on) last year were unprovoked verbal assaults from motorists directed at me while riding along a separate bikeway.

As I said:

But as noted above, individual experience varies so greatly, mainly because the vast majority of cyclists night ride in limited circumstances. Stay bright, stay safe.

If you pass me with that- 500 lumens flashing at night, I will swear at you,

and probably others will as well.

The o.p. said they were a 'commuter'. My definition of a commuter is someone who is on the bike 3x/wk or more. I also assume that their one way trip from home to the worksite is 1mi - 3mi or more. I don't know of a high output headlight that wouldn't require fresh batteries every week and that just isn't environmentally condonable. I also agree that the top of helmet location is prime real estate for mounting a light to see with. It will have secondary benefit of making you seen but I really can't get down with all the fear of being hit. If that is your concern then take the bus! Nothing worse than a fearful cyclist working on their self fulfilling prophecy outcome. A cyclist is AS likely to hit something and be seriously injured or killed by that as they are of being hit and seriously injured or killed. Wouldn't it really suck to be so concerned about making yourself seen that you neglected the vital importance of being able to see well enough in the dark to avoid a deadly road hazard? I think so.

First point: Most bike headlights and taillights use integrated rechargeable batteries which are good for 400+ full discharge cycles.

Second point: So, if I am commuting on a bike, I should just hope for the best and not take reasonable actions to protect myself?

Third point: Protecting yourself against being hit, and effectively illuminating your path through the dark, are not mutually exclusive.

Look, the design of car headlights and the design of virtually all bike headlights is just completely different. They are not remotely comparable, really in any way. The only bike headlights that do somewhat resemble car lights are the German STVZO lights and the Outbound Lighting lights, the latter of which was designed by an automotive lighting designer. It is basically a well-designed, mini-car light for bicycles. Nothing at all like the average bike light.

The other thing that I personally feel is being missed here is the idea that you have to "aim" your light at oncoming traffic to blind them. If you are a using a legit 1000ish lumen, typical bike light--and I have five of them--those lights are so bright, if their claimed lumen output is actually accurate, that pointing them anywhere other than at the ground is going to irritate and blind people. If you have not experienced this, then I suggest that your light is not nearly as bright as you think it is or, you are just not aware of how others are experiencing your light.

You are not the o.p., the o.p. specifically requested lights that are not rechargeable. Next, you are deliberately taking my words out of context. Why? Lastly, you cannot protect yourself against being hit with lights or clothing. I am not going to debate it. I wear safety gear and mount the legal minimum of safety equipment so that in the unlikely event that I am hit I have complied with the law as it pertains to cyclists sharing the road with motorists. If a motorist sees you they will probably not hit you. Chances are good you drive. How much, how bright, and how extreme does a cyclists kit have to be for you to see them? Not very, right? Do you really need to see the cyclist a half mile away or will 200' (a city block) do the trick? In the worst case scenario a completely unlit cyclist will be seen at 50' and that is enough to avoid hitting them. The FEAR is unwarranted.

You are correct regarding the OP’s statement about batteries… I missed that and I apologize for the mistake. Though hopefully the OP will consider one of the many excellent lights with internal rechargeable batteries. However, even if the OP uses a light which requires new batteries each week, that is still better for the environment than driving a car – if it comes down to that trade off.

As for the rest of it, I do not think that I misunderstood your post, nor did I take anything out of context – to avoid that I did quote your entire post. The problem is that you made a pretty wild assertion without offering any evidence. You summarized it again, above: ”Lastly, you cannot protect yourself against being hit with lights or clothing. I am not going to debate it.” If you do have evidence to support this, I’d love to see it; but without such evidence, your assertion is not very convincing. In fact here is evidence to the contrary, and here is some more. These are just the first two articles that I found with a quick and easy Google search… But there’s plenty of other evidence to make the same point. Note that these are articles from peer reviewed journals – the gold standard.

It is myth (which unfortunately too many cyclists believe), that lights with a conical beam pattern (i.e. lights without a cut-off) do not blind motorists (or other cyclists or pedestrians). I guess you never gave your light-setup to a friend and made a self test with respect to blinding, haven't you? There is a very solid and good reason why passing beams/dipped beams in car lights have a cut-off. It is near on impossible to adjust a conical beam shaped light in such a way that you don't blind others. and if you do adjusted it non-blinding, the first 2-4 m in front of your bike are heavily overexposed, rendering the high power light useless...
If this is a conical light, it is inevitable that it blinds others. Unless the light has a very narrow beam angle (say <10°), but that'd make it mostly useless for cycling.

Did you mean that two lights make a cyclist better visible and help others to judge distance and speed? Or did you mean blinking lights helps others to judge the distance to the blinking light source? The latter is false. One needs a constant light source to be able to judge speed and distance. Blinkies only attract attention, but make it very hard for others to judge speed and distance of the blinking object.

That is usually true when trail-riding, but not necessarily when riding on streets, unless they are very curvy. A light for commuting on roads/bike paths is best mounted on the fork or bar and should have a cut-off.

List of possible cut-off lights with decent, usable output that helps to create respect from car drivers: Ravemen PR and CR series, Fenix BC25R and BC35R, Outbound Lighting Focal Road, Lupine SL, SL-F and the coming SL-X, Supernova M99 Series, B&M Ixon Space (Lezyne also has some pretty ok StVZO lights, but i don't know whether those are sold in the US/Canada)

Nah, that ain't the way it is in the real world. I'm not blinding motorists and they're not blinding me.

StVZO lights are essentially worthless for road riding.

This is a factually incorrect statement. STVZO lights are much safer and more pleasant for others approaching the rider, who are, in the actual, real world, frequently blinded by the very bright ones, such as those over 1000 lumens, commonplace now--everyone but yours, apparently--and far more considerate to others on the road or path. Unless your light is quite low-powered. Perhaps that is the explanation for your experience. Or perhaps, as I say, you are just completely unaware of your impact on others.

Then you live in a different world than i do. Any conical beam pattern lamp will blind motorists. Of course a motorist will not blind you, because cars and (motor)bikes are forced by law to have passing beams with a cut-off:
1) US based automotive lightning regulations: FMVSS 108, (you'd have to search the text for the actual requirements, i don't know where that is written)
2) UN ECE automotive lighting regulations: UN ECE R149 (on page 31 of the pdf you find requirements for a passing beam, and page 78 you find the measurement screen)

Contrary to you, I have tested all current high powered StVZO lights available on the market, and these a more than adequat for road riding. I do as well have typical "round beam shape" lights, they do more harm than good on a road, especially with oncoming traffic. You obviously haven't ever tried modern high powered StVZO lights.

Here's a bunch of exemplary (video)links for StVZO (or UN ECE R113) certified lights. Keep in mind that video/camera shots never really give justice to any lights, they are perceived even better in reality
a) Supernova: youtube.com/watch?v=RN_aGFhcnPo; review
b) Lupine 1) youtube.com/watch?v=bOCvVHNaZkw&t=4m25s 2) youtube.com/watch?v=LVVm4UTlkjg&t=2m00s 3) youtube.com/watch?v=sv0GLx7Z07A&t=13m25s
c) B&M Ixon Space youtube.com/watch?v=Uhv7WXj5xpA&t28m20s (dipped a bit low), beamshot on a MUP (optimum adjustment)
d) Outbound Lightning focal road (non StVZO certified but with suitable optics) youtube.com/watch?v=8hnms2k7Ti0

I've ridden in the country that requires stvzo lights. When riding on the bike path, there is a big difference when passing oncoming cyclists who are using compliant lights and those who buy imported non compliant lights from eBay or Amazon. Those who are using non compliant lights are extremely blinding and I have to stop and look away until they pass because I can't see anything in front of me.

Some of the compliant stvzo lights have surprisingly very wide beams. There are reviews on blogs making comparisons.

I know my Light & Motion Urban 500 appears brighter than it really is and has a lot of spill because I've heard drivers and pedestrians comment on how bright it is. Monday a guy loading his car trunk as I passed said he thought I was on a motorcycle because the light was so bright -- and that was on the medium setting, around 250 lumens, far dimmer than an actual motorcycle headlight. But he noticed the relative intensity of the center spotlight beam.

But in the US I'm more concerned about being noticed, not by being polite. Unless you've spent a lot of time cycling in the US, particularly in states where laws are very lax for drivers, you have no idea how indifferent and even hostile many drivers are toward pedestrians and cyclists.

Literally, the easiest way to get away with murder in the US is to run over a pedestrian or cyclist and claim "They came out of nowhere! I never saw them!" Unless there is contradictory evidence from witnesses, video, etc., most law enforcement agencies will accept driver statements at face value. If the news media report it at all, they'll mention whether the cyclist wore a helmet, or had functioning brakes. But they won't mention driver negligence or culpability.

I'll worry about my lights after the US changes from this paradigm that pits hostile and indifferent drivers against human lives.

And even with bright and flashing lights and hi-viz colors, that stuff works only if the drivers look or give a damn. I was nearly hit twice Monday, while running bright daytime lights, and wearing hi-viz colors. The first was an Amazon driver who never looked up while turning from a side road into my path. The second was a woman who looked directly at me, made eye contact, then pulled into my path anyway and shrugged indifferently when I yelled and cussed.

Same with the driver who struck me in 2018. She never even looked up from her phone when she turned into my path. The lights, etc., made zero difference. And even with a police witness she wasn't cited for recklessness or negligence.

That's pretty common here, and nothing will change until drivers are forced to change.

If anything, I'm inclined to get brighter and more annoying lights. I'll dim them and lower the beams for cyclists and pedestrians on the MUP. But not for drivers. Not until the laws change regarding training and personal liability for negligent drivers.