How bright a headlight for daytime?
 

How bright a headlight is needed for daytime safety on rail to trail paths?

Have a Planet bike Spok, Catey orb, Cateye Amp 400, and a off brand 300 lum lights. Like the old Planet Bike Spok for small size and lightness. But it uses coin battery and is dim compared to the Cateye Amp 400.

So how bright of a daytime headlight and what model are you using and why?

not bright. I don't mind a blinker coming toward me. many ppl have issues with lights of any kind on a paved trail. we have a few near me, some are desolate, some are crowded. there are some bikers that ride VERY FAST so it's good to see them coming. night lites on bike trails gets even more tricky

I think it's more important to make certain the light is properly aimed. You don't want it pointing directly into the eyes of oncoming people (runners, walkers, cyclists) on the MUP. I've seen cyclist with lights aimed right into the eyes, and it's annoying at the least, dangerously blinding at the worst.

Cygolite Pro 950. And cell phone users, peds and motorheads, still don't see me. Yet, it's the best I can do.

Daytime, on Rail-to-Trail? I wouldn't even have my lights on.

I generally don't use lights on a trail like that (during the day) and would never ever under any circumstances recommend any sort of flashing, blinking or strobing for any reason unless I am in a dire emergency and need to let someone know I am in distress. Lights should be used for visibility and being able to see not for blinding others. In the end if I did need a light I would look at something with a cutoff at the top like any STvZO lights or something like the Kryptonite Incite lights on solid but I find lights unless dynamo powered to be kind of unneeded on a trail and the dynamo lights only because I am already generating the power for them. When it gets dark than good solid lights with a proper beam pattern are excellent.

I agree with TCS, on rail trails, my lights are off in daytime. I only use lights if there are motor vehicles to worry about. Or towards night to see with. Or, for dark tunnels.

This might be one of those "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" sort of questions.
Being seen on a trail requires that people quit looking at their phones, and then they need to be able to discern you from the background. The second part will depend a lot on the sunlight or other light sources, as well as what colors you are wearing, and the background that is behind you. This gets messy pretty fast, but you can make your own observations and draw your own conclusions.

Personally... I've got some small lights from Cateye that I think work well enough. Friends have seen me on the bike and commented that the light enhances my visibility without being annoying. I don't know how much difference they make on sunny days, but I think they might help in shady conditions or other adverse viewing conditions.
I have set up my bike and then walked some distance away to get an idea of just how visible the light is. This can be useful when trying to compare lights too.
Here's one of the photos that I took of a Cateye Rapid 3 tail light...

https://live.staticflickr.com/4101/3...969d5e_c_d.jpg

Again, the background makes a huge difference. Imagine this against a sea of auto headlights and tail lights in a completely dark environment.

Good luck in your search!

Steve in Peoria

Lights are always extra bright in a photo when you take the photo at sunset or sunrise.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...09fc58cadc.jpg

The camera compensates for the low light levels.

Whatever light you settle on, please don't be one of those obnoxious people who run bright lights aimed at eye level designed to blind people going in the opposite direction on a path.

yep... you have to plan the photo to evaluate the conditions you are interested in.
My photos were to compare beam patterns among a few lights, so the conditions were selected for that purpose.

Back in the early days of the Schmidt hub dynamo, both with the incandescent Lumotec and my early LED headlights, I'd often run them in the daytime. I'd cross paths with friends and chat, and often got a comment about how visible the light was from some distance. These were not bright lights, so this made an impression on me. I'm pretty confident that even a modest front light (like my little Cateyes) are more than enough for my routine riding.

FWIW, my Cateye Rapid 3 front light had a plastic part fail, so I replaced it with the Cateye Omni 3. It fits the same mounting brackets and is roughly the same brightness. It is powered by two AAA cells instead of the single AA that the Rapid 3 used, which I'm not happy about. On the plus side, it got rid of the plastic tab design that broke on my Rapid 3, so that's a plus. I think I paid $15 for it. Hard to complain about that.

Back to the matter of photos... they really don't convey just how visible the light is. This is probably due to the lower dynamic range of the camera compared to the human eye.

Steve in Peoria

Agree absolutely. Your freedom to run obnoxiously bright lights ends at my eyeball. (That goes for cars and bikes alike.)

^ This. Daylight visible lights are designed to attract the attention of motorists so they notice that you exist on the road with enough distance for the driver to hopefully plan how to safely go around you. On trails, bright flashing lights are typically unnecessary in the daytime and are quite annoying to other users of the trail.

That being said, I do turn on my daylight visible lights when riding trails in the Fall when shadows are long and/or towards dusk. On the trails near me, it's easy to "disappear" in the shadows of the many trees lining the trails and the closer it gets to dusk, the harder it gets to see me on the trail.

yup, a small daytime light like this isn't gonna hurt anyone
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ffa0924a2c.jpg

yeah, it's funny. I was on a trail a week or so ago & I saw someone in yellow w/ a bike light, nothing obnoxious, but I thought "well that's not necessary". but I have been on crowded trails w/ lots of pedestrians & when I'm scanning the trail in front of me, planning my passing, I don't mind knowing that one of the objects ahead is actually a bike coming toward me. it helps me plan my line

Some of the newer dyno powered B&M headlamps have a sensor so the light knows if it is light out or dark. The Luxos U (discontinued) was one of those lights. In daylight the light would light up some different LEDs to improve your daytime visibility. A friend of mine in the photo below had his Luxos U on.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8e1083c4cb.jpg

:thumb:

There's a local MUP that was a rail line decades ago. The semantically pedantic might say that's a rail trail, but it runs through highriseville and the riding experience is more like being on a boardwalk. Yeah, I'll have my steady be-seen lights on there as I carefully share the path.

With all the reply's I must say thank you for some good information. Even with a bright yellow/green jersey I often feel as if I go unseen by oncoming fast bikes who are either riding three across or trying to pass. Have twice in the past year had to go off the path to avoid oncoming traffic in my lane. I want to be seen not blind on coming riders. Just trying to figure out how to be seen from the front without causing issues

I love it when a group ride yells rider up. Always say thank you back. Most are very very very kind.

sounds terrible. did they leave the wooden rail ties? how much cycling traffic does it get? any pedestrians? got a photo? I like the primitive trails very much but one has to ride the right bike on it. we had one that's since been paved, but it used to be exposed rail ties & bush-whacking thru & over fallen trees. it was great fun

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...84bf78b670.png

A brighter light won't help when the club riders are riding three across with their matching jerseys, they think they are better than the rest of us, so of course we are expected to get out of their way by going off the trail to avoid a crash. Same with the e-bike riders that disabled their speed limiter, so they are passing others while they ride at 30 mph on a trial designed for half that speed. A brighter light won't make them slower or safer. They just pretend to not see us.

Ach! Not a boardwalk

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d9fb46a2bf.png

but a boardwalk

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0b4945df62.png

:)

Right.
We need headlights designed for bikes, not lights that look like flashlights!

The right question is how visible a light you need for daytime use - IMO a blinking light is going to be more noticeable than a solid, bright light. And blinking just needs to be seen at sufficient distance to make you visible to oncoming traffic.

As noted by others, if you're on a path without automobiles it's not clear you need any light, but certainly less bright than one you'd want for the road. I have a Bontrager ION light. It is plenty bright for visibility on the road. It also comes with a low power mode that blinks at much lower brightness. While I'm on the road I use bright, but on a trail might use the lower setting.

For what it's worth, I usually use a German style headlight. German law forbids blinking lights. It also requires shaped beams. You could argue that these requirements are silly, but the nice side effect for me is that the beam is very focused, and it makes the beam appear to be brighter than it is. I've received compliments from them. I notice that when I am crossing a crosswalk where there are pedestrians crossing against a red light -- a common occurrence in NYC --, I can point my headlight to show them my intention. My usual courtesy is to aim behind them so they can continue their trajectories without fearing I'll hit them. I often wiggle the handlebars to sway the light left and right. I suspect that people intuitively figure out the midpoint of my swaying motion, and it clarifies my true direction. Since I started doing this, I've noticed that pedestrians look less nervous when they see me.

The wiggling motion is also useful when the other person is a cyclist or driver. It shows my intention, and it may help motorists that I am there in the first place. I got the idea from a video on motorcycling safety. The wiggle is called the SMIDSY* Weave.

*SMIDSY stands for "Sorry, mate. I didn't see you."

I don't use my lights while riding during daylight hours on a trail. Primarily daytime lights, IMO, are for automobile drivers to see you from greater distances than pedestrians or other cyclists on a trail.