daihard 

Hi.

So my simple (?) questtion, how bright should a helmet-mounted headlight be?

I currently have two headlights - the Cateye Volt 800 and Cateye AMPP 400. I'm thinking about getting a helmet mount to use the AMPP 400 with my helmet.

Is 400 lumen too bright? If so, how much lower should it be? I want my helmet light to make me more visible, but I don't want to blind the other road users.

Also, both lights have a "hyper-constant" mode, in which the light is always on while flashing. I always use the hyper-constant mode in the daylight, but I wonder if using this mode on both my handlebar and helmet lights would be too much?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Polaris OBark

I can't give you a number, but on-road, it is good not to over-do it.

I live in a rural area (Santa Cruz mountains), where it gets really dark at night. Last night, after dark, I was driving home and encountered several mountain bikers coming down the hill toward me, salmoning on thir left shoulder. The helmet lights were extremely bright and they pointed them directly at us, and I could see absolutely nothing apart from a constellation of four extremely bright lights coming at me. My brain interpreted this as a large truck that was in my lane and about to have a head-on with me, so I got further right onto the shoulder, which unfortunately was exactly where these riders were (again, they were going down the wrong side of the road). Fortunately, I didn't hit anyone, but it could have ended extremely badly for all of us. I'm still pretty freaked out by this. It was only afterwords I realized how close I probably came to a really serious accident.

Are you sure you want a helmet lamp for the road? They are great for off-road trails (where these morons were presumably headed), but it can be counter-productive on-road, which I almost discovered the hard way.

Even under the best of circumstances, a light that high up can confuse motorists. It might be best to use two if you are going to do it.

Don't blind oncoming traffic with it. Please.

Tourist in MSN

If you want to be seen at night, put your light on the bike, not your head. If you want drivers coming towards you to be able to estimate where you are (depth perception), then do not use a flashing light.

If you want a light on your helmet so you can see where you are going to make a turn better before you turn into it or to fix your bike if something needs fixing in the dark, you do not need a lot of lumens for that and a wider beam works well.

On the other hand, if you were a mountain biker going up and down and side to side at speed, then perhaps a brighter helmet mounted light might have a purpose.

Daniel4

I had a Petzl 250 on my helmet. In the dead of night, it lit up the park trails beautifully. Previously, I had a 90 lumen Black Diamond but it was so pitiful.

Now I have a 500 lumen helmet light (prices have really dropped) . Don't go for flashing or anything fancy. Just on-off, high, med and low. I got tired of Petzl's smart sensor changing my setting as I rode. Aim it low so that it lights where you are looking. So if you are approaching other cyclists and pedestrians, you can look away. But in car traffic, you can aim it at the driver. How many times have I seen drivers look my way and cut me off anyways? When I glare the light at them with the bright light, they actually stop ( not because I'm a cyclists but they have to think what the hell that is?)

Polaris OBark

Or you have blinded them, which can get you killed even if you don't give a ***** about anyone else.

Daniel4

Uh oh, here we go.

I had already explained that in my post.

daihard 

Thank you for your input, everyone.

To clarify, I intend to use a helmet light in addition to the handlebar light. I mostly ride in the urban areas and often have motorists cut me off, fail to stop for me, etc., in broad daylight. A friend suggested I add a helmet light to my configuration, saying he has successfully gotten drivers to notice him by looking at them, which points his helmet light directly at them. That's a similar story to what Daniel4 shared here.

I do occassionally ride at night, but since I've been working from home lately, I now ride mostly in the daytime.

Based on your feedback, I will use my AMPP 400 headlight as my helmet light, in low (200 lumens) steady mode. I plan to continue using the main headlight in hyper-constant (aka "steady-pulse") mode, to increase visibility duringi the day. For those interested, here's a video clip that shows what the hyper-constant mode looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkx2vV...Vsm2diqS3q7VpW

Polaris OBark

Here is a screenshot from my Garmin dashcam video:

Tourist in MSN

I used to commute to work on a motorcycle.

I learned over many years that in overcast or foggy days, I was invisible and assume that car drivers could not see me even if I had a bright headlamp. Thus, gave cars a lot of room, if approaching an intersection where a car might pull away from a stop sign, would tap my high beam button a few times. But on sunny days, I was quite visible, car drivers always acted like they saw me. I am not saying that they gave me a lot of room, they would cut me off just like they would a car, but at least they did not inadvertently try to directly run into me like they would on an overcast day.

My motorcycles were old enough that they had a headlamp switch, and did not have a very strong alternator, so my batteries were usually low. Thus, I often drove with the headlamp off to try to charge up the battery on sunny days because I felt that the extra light was not necessary. But on overcast days, made sure my headlamp was on.

I even added extra taillights to one of my motorcycles. One day I was approaching an intersection, the light went to amber, so I started braking to come to a stop for a red light. The car driver behind me was sure he could make it through the intersection on amber if he floored it, so when he slammed into the back of my motorcycle, he hit it hard enough that be bent the frame, his bumper rose up on top of my rear wheel and his car came down on top of me and my motorcycle. That was the bike with extra taillights that I had added, they did not help. A distracted driver that is in a hurry, the best you can do is wear a lot of high visibility clothing, etc.

On a bicycle, I almost always use a taillight flasher in daylight, even on a sunny day. I do not want it too bright, if it is too bright they might not notice anything else. I want the flasher to get their attention and then they can focus on my bright colored clothing and see me clearly.

Once that high visibility bright yellowish green clothing became available for bicyclists, I bought a vest that was big enough to fit over my leather jacket, wore that on my motorcycle for years.

Be extra careful in intermittent shade. If you are in shade and the driver behind you came out of shade into bright sun, their dirty windshield will make you invisible.

a1penguin

I have Cygolite Metro 850 for the bars. I generally use it in medium, but getting a big honking light gets you a bigger battery and longer run times. But I also wear a 1" diameter 18659 flashlight on my helmet about 200-300 lumens so that I can look where I am going to turn as well as provide better light to cars coming at me from right angles at intersections. I keep the helmet light pointed down fairly close to the bike. The handlebar light is for looking for road issues.

BikeLite

Which 18650 helmet light do you like?

daihard 

Follow up: I've bought a helmet mount for the AMPP 400.

Feels a bit heavy on my head right now. I guess I'll get used to it soon.

Thank again everyone for the help.


The Cateye AMPP 400 headlight mounted on my helmet

Russ Roth

Good luck with it, I'd assume having it set to 200l will allow you to see and be seen. I run my 950l helmet light at its 450l setting when in the woods but when on pavement I wouldn't even need it that high and have set it lower to make sure the battery would last.

a1penguin

FYI: I use a Convoy S2. This is the type of mount I use to strap to the helmet: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/22518...andl_shipto=US

John Valuk

I do not have personal experience with helmet-mounted lights, but if I needed one with a swappable battery, I would at least look at some of the offerings from Fenix.

I use one of their BC30 V2.0 lights (2x 18650 batteries) on the handlebar for road riding. For a supplemental helmet-mounted light, I would look at their BC21R V3.0 (18650 battery) or BC26R (21700 battery), in combination with their ALD-08 helmet mount.

rumrunn6

looks like a decent mount. let us know how you think it helps
fwiw, I don't use a helmet light during daylight, just at night
but I do use a light on the bars, to be seen
but I always thought that a higher light, might be helpful

Leisesturm

I don't know. Seems to me if mounting lights on helmets was such a bad idea there would not be any OEM helmet mounts available. Most light manufacturers so blatantly overstate their lumen ratings they are practically useless. Can you REALLY see or are you just trying to please cagers? I have used 800lm and now 1200lm in lower power mode as a helmet light and it allows me to see what I need to see. I don't use a helmet light to be seen. The bar lights do that very well. Drivers go out and buy 6,000lm HID lights and are not concerned that they are blinding anyone else.
Why are cyclists always so wrought over this issue? Ride with enough light to see at night. Some of us need more than others. Don't feel bad about it.

pdlamb

Good point. You probably don't want a headlight to die during a ride, and over-buying the light and running it at a lower power gets you a longer runtime.

Also, for a long time I've used headlights with rechargeable batteries. Actually, I've gone to dyno lights, but I'll often add a supplemental helmet light with rechargeable batteries. For the first few rides every fall, or after getting a new light, I'll see how many commutes the battery will last, then recharge after N-1 days' riding. Helmet lights are a good way to light up street signs in unfamiliar territory, or run flashing in high traffic areas to make sure cagers see me. Though that doesn't always work, one of the most frightening moments of the last 10 years' cycling was when an old geezer got confused and was going the wrong way. Right at me with my helmet light flashing in his face. I was glad the rest of the oncoming left-turning traffic was stopped in their lane so I had somewhere to go!

daihard 

The big reason I've decided to try a helmet light is because of its direction. Unlike a handlebar-mounted light, a helmet light will point directly where you look. A few people I know who bike in urban areas regularly have told me how helmet lights have saved them mutliple times. It's a cheap investment for me because I already had an extra light. All I had to buy was a helmet mount kit.

rumrunn6

redundancy w/ 2 lights keeps me from going blind, if one light dies. extra batteries, can get that dead light lit again