YIKES!! And to think I was complaining to myself for having $45(battery/charger/light) in my 20w Halogen with 4.5 hour run time.:eek: I feel better now. Thanks.:o

I don't know if the lumen figures for car lights are low beam only but as a former driver I can tell you the motorists in the know put even more lumens on the front of their vehicles via aftermarket 'driving lights'. These are less common now that HID systems are available for standard headlights and the design of many newer cars makes mounting aftermarket light sources difficult but the object lesson here is: more is better. Just as you shouldn't drive around town on your high beams you also shouldn't blast down country lanes late at night without them! Why shouldn't cyclists have availability to multiple hundreds of lumens, even thousands to use as needed and not use when not needed just like the cagers?

H

As a motorist ( which most of us are anyway) I am not too sure its any particular headlight that attracts attention any more or less than the high visability clothing worn by the cyclist. I dont even like to run over traffic cones knocked into the road let alone a cyclist...I have no great problem seeing their reflection.

What is annoying is the habbit of some cyclists taking the right of way at speed on pedestrian crossings t junctions etc etc...... OK it might be their Right of Way but they dont want an epitaph I Was Right.... rather a safe journey.

Also in my experiance it's a brighter rear light or bigger red reflector that would provide more safety. I do think the little flashing lights get noticed more...

With urban lighting most of the time there is so much light polution some motorists dont even know if their lights are switched on or off.... Unfortunately this applies to indicators too..... But hey who indicates for a lowley bicycle ???

So wise up on headlights by all means but first get the clothing that gets seen... next the pedestrians will be wearing headlights... lets see I could run to work reaching speeds of 18kph.... I need 5000 candle power etc etc.

Now come on which realy is the best lamp without taking out a bank loan

Yep OK I can see a lighthouse too but my point isn’t only about who is brighter than you.... you aint gonna blow a bulb or flatten the batteries on reflective clothing. Fixing a puncture or whatever your bike may be upside down or god help you might fall orf it on an oily road or whatever. Now if I haven’t seen an HID on the road they cant be very popular cause (maybe not on a bicycle) I spend an awful lot of time driving at night..... maybe I am confusing them with UFOs ???

I must be getting old at 57 I use headlights to see where I am driving... I thought sidelights were for identifying the edges of my vehicle after all I don’t park with my headlights on but quite often leave my sidelights on in an area I think a car might side swipe me...... I dont leave my four ways on unless my car has to be stopped in a bad location in an emergency.

I do travel at horrendous speed on my bike…… well 20 to 30 kph so maybe one of those HID lamps might be useful for my fading eyesight ( yes half the car drivers are blind Smidsy’s…sorry mate I didn’t see you) but I need to keep an eye on the wallet too

Is your helmet reflective or don’t you wear one of those either

Now I am goin to have to do a search to find out what a HID is and wot they cost unless you enlighten me…. Pun intended

Huh might have guessed the lights cost more than my entire bike.....

But in my search for understaning I read some of your other posts.

Yep I am gonna stickwith my reflective clothing and cheap bike lamp and leave you spotter types alone

Sorry I am incoherant to you.... your fault not mine.... I am also pleased you are so noticeable in your none reflective clothing duhhh

$$$
 

Just the cost

You must be rich and clever to aford these...... I bet you have the toppest model

No need to be rude to one another, I kind of like a bit of verbiage around the information. Who says every sentence has to be in terse, efficient, prose? Discus, debate even but please, stop sniping.

H

But fairplay does have a good point. Clothing also makes a big difference in getting noticed. I can remember the one time I saw a bike all decked out with reflective tires, clothing, helmet. It was so out of the ordinary that I had to notice. Then I slowed down and passed him with care.

But back to the original post.

What is the best Halogen system for a night commute? We all know that trail riding is a different ball game.

I'd say that my priorities would be:

- Decent focused spot light.. probably 10-15 watts is fine for seeing things in time to avoid them.

- Another on the helmet so you can look at things your not riding towards.

- A long battery life so you don't have to charge it every night (depends on your commute length).

- Water resistant.

- Easy removal (if you lock the bike in unsecure areas) so you can take it with.

But just so the point doesn't get lost, reflective clothing does wonders for the "don't run me over" attention getter requirement. Save some of that $300 for the HID system and get some reflective clothing, some rear blinkers, some reflective tape for the bike, and then just spend the rest on a good halogen light.

FOr the record. I use a 35watt (15watt spot/20 watt flood) Night Pro Elite System for night commuting AND trail riding. The 15watt 12º spot is pretty much all I use for both. It lights up well at a distance and has enough spread to make trail riding manageable when it's on my helmet. I'd love to get a HID system for trail riding, but I spent that money on reflective clothing and blinkers for my bike.

You don't know what an HID is? Here's a comparison of my 13W HID against a 1W Luxeon Star
headlight (Viewpoint Gen3) and two Cateye EL300s on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIn3OWG6YK0

You get an idea of the kind of light capability this way at least.

Regular halogen car headlights are normally 55 watts on low and 65 watts on high. Assuming ~25 lumens/watt, a car's headlight will put out 1,210 lumen on low and 1,430 on high.

Arc HID lamps, good for ~ 50 lumens/watts, are typcially powered at 35 watts. Each light puts put out >1,750 lumens on low. I haven't figured out yet how highbeams work with HIDs as you can't just switch filaments like you can with halogen lamps.

Putting the ridiculous debate about whether a bike light can be TOO BRIGHT aside, has anyone answered the OP's question? What is the best Halogen system available for a night commute? (preverably under $200)

Just go to a car parts store and get two halogen driving lights (they usually come as a pair - sell one to a friend!) They'll probably be 50W, though sometimes you can find 35W. If it's 35W you can probably keep it like that, otherwise you'll have to go out and get a 12V MR16 bulb in the 20W range. Combine this with a nice 12V NiMH or Li-Ion battery pack and waterproof switch from batteryspace.com, and you're all set! The whole rig will easily cost less than $200, will look good, perform well, and it'll be totally waterproof.

Performance is selling this system for $149 lately:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...estore_ID=1330

This setup has two halogen lamps that allows 5, 15 and 25 watt operation (with up to
two hour burntime, a little weaky weaky if you ask me but....it's halogen as requested).

Any better deals out there? Any better lights? What about bright LEDs that aren't
as expensive as HID?

I would lean toward Turbocat for the best halogen system around $200, specifically the S15 or S25 model (see link):

http://www.turbocatusa.com/config.html

Marwi is also good in that price range:

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/162...=20&zmap=16258

http://www.blueskycycling.com/view_product.php?pid=2788

http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesom...bestbikebuys=1

Edit: Forgot one more, Light and Motion Solo Logic:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?sku=15862

Thanks for the suggestion aliensporebomb.

I know that LED's have made a big jump this year and will do so again next year as the Seoul P4 LED starts showing up in some bike applications.

Here are a few possibilities in the Halogen group:

- NITERIDER CYCLOPS PREMIUM 15 Watt HEADLIGHT
- NIGHTSUN TRAIL BLAZER HELMET LIGHT SYSTEM
- VISTALITE VL-520 LIGHT SYSTEM
- LIGHT AND MOTION SOLO LOGIC

And some general manufacturers you can look up on your own
- TURBOCAT
- CATEYE
- SERFAS
- CYGOLITE

I've had good luck with the Marwi Nightpro Pro-Elite.

I'm mainly researching this for my wife. We've got a Performance Bike credit in the
neighborhood of $60 that I'd like to apply towards a real light for her.

The only reason I was able to afford an HID was my father-and-brother-in-law
basically gave me $ for my birthday so I went nuts and did that...

She's commuting with my old setup of two Cateye EL300s and one
TL-LD120-II rear blinky plus a free blinky she got from metro transit.

I rode ahead about half a mile to see how visible she was and let's just
say that from behind she was okay but from the front you had to look
for her.

Which really means motorists wouldn't see her until it was too late.

I've been commuting with her and by the time I get to my turnaround
point the sun is up enough to not need lighting but prior to that we
might as well be riding with blindfolds on if you don't have lights.
Thanks for the suggestions....

If anyone is aware if systems sold thru performance that you recommend that
would be great too - that credit would really help the pain in the wallet.

I always though the Niterider classic double was a good deal in lighting. 25 watts is about as much light as a Trail Tech HID puts out, so you'll be seen. The downside is the Trail Tech HID will last twice as long between charges

At performance bike you have a few decent options for halogen:

NiteRider HeadTrip
CygoLite Nitro XMP
NiteRider Trail Rat II
NiteRider TrailRat Select 15w

There are also several options for LED lights under 200 that use the newer generation of high intensity LED's. But you'll get more light out of the halogens for less money.

Ok, looking at just what's available from performance, I'm liking the Cygolite DualCross 300. I've heard good things about this system, including runtime and the ability to blind motorists, etc. ;) However, this is a LED-based system and you said you wanted halogen. BTW, why is that? Just curious because I actually prefer halogen too; I find that the blue-white light of LEDs and HIDs damages my night vision whereas yellow-white light does not.

If not the Cygolite, I would then go with the Niterider Classic.

BTW a great place for these and other light reviews can be found here:
http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/lights/

Edt: I just realized it was Grun who preferred the halogen, so nevermind ;)

Thinking.....
 

Yeah the OP was the one who requested halogen. I'll check out the options, we're
ordering whatever it is tonight so we can have it soon before commuting gets too
cold/snowy/awful.

Does the L2D CE work well as a helmet beam light? Is it enough to get home if your primary light fails? Width of beam if it were your only light working?

Since I have reviewed the Fenix light thread I was considering a L2D CE or L2D Premium 100 (new since you purchased yours?) or L2T V2.0 (brand new). Which would you recommend?

Bike Nashbar has the Light and Motion Solo MV Li-ion on sale for $189 with free shipping. Read all the Solo reviews on Roadbikereview.com. The only difference between the models is the battery type/burn time.

I would recommend the L2D Premium 100. I just got it a couple of days ago, and haven't tried it yet on the road, but with 2 hrs of battery life in turbo mode, and 175 lumens, it compares well in terms of light output to a pt Switchback 3(I compared the two side by side). The SB has more spill and a softer spot than the L2D, but the L2D is definitely a good enough light to get home on. One thing is that the L2d is definitely more of a spot light.