Wishlist for a bike light set
 

Hey
I was just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what features are necessary and useful to have on their bike light set. The features can be purely for safety or simply for novelty, I'm just interested in whatever people look for in their lights. This is a front and back full set that is purely for your visibility to cars (not lighting your way). Also what would you typically be willing to spend for such features.

Andy

First, I read your subject heading for the thread. I laughed because, I couldn't pronounce the first word. I pronounce 'wishlist', but not 'wishlish'.:roflmao2:

Now to the serious side of the thread(I have regained my composure from laughing). I feel the key elements in lights are, to at least have an optional blinking mode, and to have multiple lights. Not multiple lights in front, but multiple lights in back. I have:

This one on my helmet:http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3010.html

This one on my waist:http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3034.html

This one on the seatpost:http://hudsontrail.com/viewItem/10/515/13134/

what you talkin' 'bout bevis? (haha, mod joke)

I'm moving this to the lights forum

On the subject of the thread, I really am not interested in lights that aren't bright enough to see your way. The way I see it, "be-seen" lights really aren't bright enough to be seen with.
As far as rear lights go, I like the features on the radbot 1000, namely it's bright enough to be seen, and also has a reflector that meets Pennsylvania (and other) state minimums for rear reflectors. I hope never to use the reflector, but I figure I should meet state law.

The original subject heading had 'Wishlish' in it, instead of 'Wishlist'.

Nooooo......it has always been Wishlist. OP cannot change it once it's posted...

I'm a big fan of having rechargeable lights, and a battery powered backup.

The more I monkey around with various lights, the more I find dynamo lights fit the bill in my case. That means a relatively steep initial investment (if you want quality stuff), but very little costs after that. I'm looking into replacing my summer utility bike's front wheel right now, depending on the dynohub it can be up to 250-300EUR. Maybe less if I build the wheel myself.

For rear I use blinkies such as the Planet Bike superflash.

I agree with Juha, I like my lights to be worry-free and always available, so I'm converting all my bikes over to dynohubs. It was a little tricky on my commuter, because I want my commuter to be cheap, but I found an inexpensive front wheel with a dynohub. On my main road bike I have a dyno rear light.

Depends on whether you are doing night riding or just riding at night..... Urban riding is completely different than commuting or dedicated night riding on trails or secluded country roads. I do mostly trail riding with a cross bike so there are roads involved too. I prefer at least two tail lights - PB Superflash or similar, one blinking, one steady. On the front it's a bar light with at least 500 lumens (in my case a Baja Designs Stykr at 700 lumens) and a torch of near equal intensity for the bar or on the helmet if there's any twisty trails involved. I prefer the bar to be a flood and the torch to be a thrower. This setup would also work very well for commuting.

A bar light is definitely the largest investment if you go with a quality light. For throw/backup, 18650 Torches are becoming ridiculously bright and have respectable run times. I have three - a P7, A C8 and an XM-L T6. Each could be used as a light by itself and would do a respectable job lighting the way home. At $23 to $30 each direct from China, they are the best lighting value out there. And you just can't find these types of lights at retail or from any U.S. sources that I'm aware of.

If you are doing urban riding with lots of city lights, the torches mentioned above or a self contained bar light is probably the way to go. Nightrider, Catey, Serfas, Lezyne all have nice (if pricey) options. The advantage of torches though is they can be used off the bike and have multiple light settings, plus you can carry spare batteries around with you. People's eyes are different in terms of night vision, but I would recommend 300 lumens as the minimimum. Again rear visibility is probably more important in this type of riding, so get one really bright taill light or go with multiples of the SuperFlash clones or similar.

My ideal light setup:
1) There are two aspects to lighting, being seen, and allowing you to see. The system should do both, but be able to switch between modes.
2) The system should always be there, without having to worry about recharging batteries, or changing batteries
3) To be seen, lights need to be bright, and to flash - this may be different in different parts of the world, but here in the US, flashing lights are needed.

My ideal:
A system which has a small, rechargeable battery which stores energy for the lighting system, and gets it charge from any of three sources: dynamo hub, solar panel, wall plug.
Will be able to sustain bright 'be seen' flashing lights from just the generator hub power (this is the minimum, always there system), while still allowing the hub to charge the battery in this mode.
Automatically adjust the front light pattern with speed - as you pick up speed, move the beam up, and make it brighter.

FWIW, my current lighting setup consists of a dynamo powered light set (Supernova E3 headlight, supernova tail light, schmidt hub), and a battery powered light setup - Dinotte headlight and tail-light. I wish that someone made a quality, generator powered headlight/taillight combo that had a flashing mode, but as far as I know- this doesn't exist.

got it .. almost... Schmidt dyno hub, and an E6 headlight, halogen ,
have a 3w bulb in the one without a taillight , [and a battery blinkie taillight, on the seatpost]

and, a 2.4w bulb when I had the tail-light wired in. [0.6w load]

Super-Novas or an Edelux LED healight can be considered,
which I may up tick a bit to, improvement.

yes, German lighting does not blink, due to their regulations at home..

only exception is the senso mode in the B&M topmount rack taillight,
in a tunnel situation, going from daylight to dark and back,
it will blink in a slower repetition. in the dark.
and for a while in the dark after you stop.. a movement detector is in there.

standlight modes, include a capacitor rather than a rechargeable battery