Biasing the 200L
 

Does anyone have any idea on how to somewhat mount the 200L on an angle so that it's not pointed straight? It seems to be really inconsiderate to be blinding/dazzling motorists on the roadway.

I think angling your bar light downward and looking slightly off to the side so that your helmet light does not shine directly at motorists is about all you can do until they start building bicycle lights like car headlamps. At least that is the easiest to do. You might be able to shim the bar light but it only a slight movement of the bars changes the light beam's direction many degrees.

Pointing it downwards is your best bet. It's not very directional (most LEDs really aren't, anyway; not when compared to a halogen with a glare shield, reflector & lens), so the most you can do is give motorists less direct light.

If you're on a MUP with oncoming walkers, joggers, and cyclists, the best thing to do, IMO, is to point it down somewhat and block some of its light with one hand. That's much easier to do when it's on the handlebars.

I don't understand why so many people are so timid about using their lights to their maximum ability to minimize the possibility of getting run over by a motor vehicle. A 200L isn't going to hurt a motorist's eyes any more than the headlights of other cars that they see all the time.

I don't ever want to be laying in an ambulance (or worse, a grave) thinking "Maybe I shouldn't have crippled my light by pointing it at the ground" -- that's why I run my 600L on full strobe mode during the day and full steady mode at night whenever I'm riding on roads around motor vehicles. Same thing for my 140R taillight -- full strobe mode pointing straight back, day and night, whenever I'm on the road.

Actually LED beams are a lot more intense than halogen headlight beams. Set up your 600L, taillight, and a cars headlight and look into them all like a driver would. You'll be surprised.

Are you saying that that 500 lumens from a LED is brighter than 500 lumens from halogen?

One thing to keep in mind that bike lights and car lights operate differently. A bike light is symmetrical/omnidirectional, whereas a car's light is designed so that the beam won't blind oncoming drivers.

It's the difference between a point source of light and and more diffused source. An LED will look brighter than a headlight if you are looking directly at it because the the LED is more "intense", even if the illumination they provide is the same.

Exactly. And the color of the light is a lot harsher as well.

That's a good point. You'd only get the full effect of a car headlight if you crouch down to bumper height or lower.

Does this mean that a pair of car headlamps on medium/regular are putting out 500 lumens each? If so, it seems like you could more than match that with a pair of P7s - or one, if you wanted to put out a motorcycle profile.

+1. My 140L is not going to burn out anyone's retinas, and the object is to "be noticed". I turn mine off if I'm on a MUP, but out on the road, they're aimed "right between the eyes" (I even bias it a little to the left to account for the fact that my bike is on the right edge of the roadway).

I have yet to hear of a single complaint from a driver. But, last winter I had several that caught up to me at traffic lights and complimented me for being so visible.

Since the light is round, you might try making a custom mount from a pair of reflector mounting bands or whatnot. Here's my 140 taillight hard-mounted with a pair of old computer-mounting bands:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...band_mount.jpg

That said... I really don't think you need to worry about biasing the aim of a floody-beamed 200-lumen headlight, not when it's aimed at a person behind a tinted windshield with 2000 lumens of their own to see by. Besides, if the road curves in the direction you biased it...? Yeah.

I guess there's places where the roads are all straight and the terrain is all flat, but in my area, it would be futile to try to correct headlight aim like that. That's one of the nice things about the DiNotte 600L, however... you can swing it to aim sideways about 30° in either direction, effortlessly, if you want to avoid blinding someone. I sometimes do that if I encounter a pedestrian on the side of the road in the dark (if I see them in time, anyway).

I do sometimes dim my 600L for oncoming traffic in no-light situations on country highways, but it's more of a negotiating measure to get them to dim their high beams on their car or motorcycle.

I sure wish DiNotte offered a hard-mounted bracket like that for their lights. When I take the bike out for shopping/errands, I always worry about leaving the 140L on the bike held on by just a rubber band!

I've thought of cobbling together some sort of mount like you've got for the rear rack...ideally with the battery encased in some sort of plastic container underneath the rack. I wouldn't leave it on the bike in high crime areas, but it would be better than the current mounting hardware. As it is, anybody could walk off with the light and the battery with just a couple of seconds of effort. And it's a PITA to have to remove the light every time I run into a store for 5 minutes.

I've contacted DiNotte about this, but they don't seem very interested. Like most lighting engineers (going back to the NightSun* days), they seem arrogant when it comes to ideas from outside.


* I have an old NightSun Team Issue set that I recently tried to mount up for a friend. But, the brackets wouldn't fit the now-common "oversized" handlebars. I contacted NightSun and asked if they had a newer bracket that would fit this common bar size. The answer was No...and they had no plans to make one available either. :rolleyes: