I like my lights independent; I'm highly unlikely to have dead batteries in everything at once.

Bell Radian set always on the bike: enough to get by with if I'm caught out in the dark unexpectedly. No bombing hills and I'd be a bit nervous on the highway, but for back roads and side streets, I'm tons more visible than the ninjas.
Magicshine clone: I only put this one on if I'm planning to ride for a while in the dark and/or planning to take a major road for some distance.
RadBot 1000: mostly "stored" in its little bracket on the stay, so unless I've taken it for a walk and forgotten to put it back, it's on it's most obnoxious setting backing up the steady setting of the Radian taillight.
Cheapo rubber block flashlight holder: Holds most AA flashlights. I've got a couple of good ones in the 100+ lumen range, so this is the backup for the Magicshine when I'm using it, or a steady "see" light when I want to use the Radian headlight on blink for "be seen."
Helmet mounted headlamp: 3 settings. The lowest is enough to read the unlighted computer, the others are good for roadside repairs or the occasional "point it at the guy who's about to left hook." Chief advantage is having a handsfree light with me when I'm off the bike.

Of course, I use a ton of reflectives too, including retroreflective shoelaces, so I'm definitely taking a belt-and-suspenders approach to being visible at night.

P.S. While it's not about lighting, here's a recent thread where I suggested something the OP didn't even ask for and they came back and thanked me. His original post:

I replied with:

And went on to talk about my thoughts on the different groupsets. He didn't ask for different bike suggestions, other models, or anything like that. But just now he writes back:

Of course people can be annoying by suggesting things completely unrelated to what the OP asked for, but I find that suggesting things that may or may not be useful to the OP and leaving it up to them to decide whether it's useful or not themselves. There's been a number of times where someone hasn't written back having found the suggestion useful, and probably more than that where they didn't write back. Sometimes my advice was useless for the OP, but it took them less time to skip over it or read it and decide it wasn't useful, than it would have taken for me to ask questions and for them to explain that it wasn't useful.

I'm sure you will be able to find a better price than US$190, but anyway, this was the review which sold me on the Volt 1200 Cateye Volt 1200 front light review | road.cc particularly the comparison chart one is able to do against other lights.

This review was also good. Review: CatEye Volt 1200 - Mtbr.com

I doubt I would be riding it often at full 1200 lumens, but running the lower settings anywhere from 250 to 600 lumens, gives you plenty of hours of illumination on a single charge.

Those are very good reviews. It looks like a very high quality light, and at that price, it ought to be.

At that price it ought to be perfect. One of the items I noticed in the MTBR review was that the light overheats and steps down the output. It sounds like they have a heatsink problem.

The Cateye can be USB charged and has a shaped beam but I fail to see how that is worth the extra $140 over the Yinding light I linked to above. Outputs are similar and I can buy 4 or 5 of the Yinding for the same money. That way I have lights on the bars and lights on my head...with lights left over for my arms if I want But that would be silly.

[MENTION=21724]cyccommute[/MENTION], there are many people who prefer to pay a high price and feel they get their money's worth. In a sense, you do get what you pay for. While a person could buy 4 or 5 cheap lights and replace them as they fail, spending the same money, but some people don't want to do that. Plus there is a value in having a convenient self-contained package rather than a light with a mount and a separate battery with its own separate mount.

You're riding a Trek 8.3 DS?

8.3 DS - Trek Bicycle

That MSRP is like $659. I would imagine you want to stay in a budget. You're averaging somewhere in the 15 mph range in Charlotte NC. Unless you go further west, its mostly flat. Is that right so far?

Maybe later on, you might get a road bike or a cross bike. For myself, I chose a manufacturer that is right here in the U.S.A. Lucky for me there are several in California. So I narrowed it down from there. So as far as the German cutoff and such, its not the tipping point for me. What's important for me is the beam spread, since I ride where there is very little lamp posts on the inner roads.

As far as distance and time in the dark, I already chose to carry an extra battery. Lithium ion is what I have. I charge them frequently as an early morning ride is over one hour. And I always use the brightest settings for both front and back.

Wow, thanks for all the replies! Looks like there are many, many opinions on this.

So to answer the questions I can...

Yes, I am new to this sport. Just started riding maybe two months ago so I am a total newbie. My first 40 mile ride was last weekend, prompting my question about lights. I do not plan to ride at night but might end up coming home after dark or possibly even starting before daybreak once in a while.

Elevation where I ride is not that great, according to map my ride the Max is 745 feet so there are some hills, but nothing that you guys to the west of me would consider worthy of mention

I am riding the Trek hybrid in my signature but may move to a road bike if I still have the bug that I do now which is to go farther and farther. Time permitting I will do my first 50 mile ride this weekend on my hybrid

Average speed on my last few rides (mostly the same routes, distance is the only variable) has been as slow as 15.6 and as fast as 16 MPH. The 40 mile ride saw the 15.6 average (up hill on the ride back) and my lunch ride on Tuesday saw a 16 MPH average (1 hour, 10 seconds for 16 miles)

Hope that clears up the questions posed to me

Thanks all for the great insight into bike lights. When I started I never knew there was so much to learn. I appreciate it!

Those averages are outstanding. I've never hit an average speed that high, and I've been a "serious" rider for over 30 years. When you get a lightweight road bike, you'll be killing everyone else on the road.

It was unclear from the MTBR review how much the light steps down the output, but from the graph they present, it still stays above 1150 lumens.

So for people like me who would spend almost all of their time on 600 lumens or less, that wouldn't be an issue.

Well comparing the Volt 1200 to its all in one contemporaries, which models are better?

I wonder how this light compares?

Fenix BC30 LED Bike Lights

Review:

https://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-...l#post11428147

It lacks USB charging, batteries and a charger though.

Lifetime guarantee, the two fenix flashlights (pd32 & pd35) I use have been very dependable.

I'm guessing the cateye doesn't have a user replaceable battery, planned obsolescence by design?

That Fenix is a nice looking unit.

Often times it seems that good products from small makers, just don't get the publicity, as I had never heard of Fenix before.

Cateye do have a battery available on the Volt 1200 Cateye Volt 1200 Spare Battery

$95USD for a battery?

Thats a bit steep, 18650 batteries will never cost that much, you can use them in other lights and charge spares at the same time.

There is a wealth of information about flashlights and even bicycle lights here: CandlePowerForums

Surprised about the stratospheric prices quote for dynamo lighting. As I've delineated before, you can set up (and I did) a modern, quality dynamo light system for under $100US with a B&M IQ Fly + Dymotec6 or Axa Traction. Slick little system.


Better? Beats me. Here's what I've used for the past year, with a quality name brand high capacity 18650. 3+ hour run time on high, lights up reflective street signs over three blocks away. Seems competent, adequate.

Having own the Ixon Iq which was the battery version of the Fly ($70), I found it to dim to recommend. (It's very different than the Ixon Iq Premium that's available now).

The Cyo was the first light bright enough, in my opinion, to be used as a regular front light. The Eyc seems to be the latest equivalent, at $80 to the Cyo. However, if I was doing it myself, I think the $30 extra for the Cyo Premium is definitely worth it for the wider beam.

Are you thinking of a sidewall dynamo in your calculations? The cheapest decent dynamo hub I know of is the Sanyo h27, I think it's $60 just for the hub, and $135 for a rebuild wheel, though admittedly I feel like there must be cheaper sources.

Wow, 40 miles is very impressive then. By average speed, do you mean what you usually see at the end of the trip, or do you mean what your speedometer shows as the average speed? That's certainly possible, but very impressive if you're keeping that up for that long - being so new.

Yeah, it sounds like a dynamo probably isn't for you then. Because of the cost, it's usually for someone who either rides at night a lot, or just has a lot of money to throw at making sure they're never left without a light. :-)

Something like this would probably be fine for your needs for like $20 (as mentioned earlier) -
Robot Check

For battery lights, I prefer a light with a shaped beam, but I do ride at night. Either the Ixon Iq Premium, or the Phillips Saferide, but either one comes to around $150 total including everything, so most likely not worth it for your more "might occassionally end up riding in the dark and want to be safe" needs.

My Fly IQ was just $30, new, retail. "This light is bright enough for most any cyclist." Peter White

Gee, I guess since the Dymotec6 and Axa Traction I specified in my post are sidewall dynamos, I must be. I think my Axa HR Traction was $28, hmm, I seem to remember it was on sale?

Note: This isn't the sidewall dynamo system you ran back in the 60s. Chris Juden, technical officer of the CTC, measured the drag of these modern, quality sidewall dynamos and said it was like riding up a 1 in 500 slope. This isn't what I'd set up for a PBP ride, but my commute isn't such a close run adventure that drag at that level will be a factor. These dynamos have ribbed rubber or plastic drive wheels that mesh into the ribbed dynamo track of the tire and don't slip.

Great, killer, no compromise lighting system that's best for all riders? Duh! Of course not. A valid, useful lighting system that's worth consideration for some riders? Yeah.

I've used flashlights for years before going all out on dynamos on every bike that I own that I would ride at night. Still a superb cost effective solution. Plus once you retire them as bike lights, they're still useful as household utility lights, dynamo lights can't do that.

First, I have yet to have an Magicshine or Magicshine clone "fail". The batteries wear out but that is something that happens to Li-ion batteries. They don't last forever. On a positive note, 2S2P Li-ion batteries are cheap. But the lights themselves are rugged and basically idiot proof. That doesn't mean that I haven't gone through a lot of LED lights. I've replaced them as the technology advances.

The large problem with spending a large amount of money, especially on a light with a proprietary USB battery, is that when the technology changes as rapidly as it is changing, you are stuck with an inferior expensive light. Ask someone who paid $200 for a Niterider Minewt. When the propietary USB battery goes south, you are stuck with an expensive, inferior paperweight.

The other problem is that if you want to run multiple lights for whatever reason, it's far easier to afford 2 (or 3) $20 lights that you may replace next year with better versions, then dump $400 (or $600) in to something with a better case. The light's the same but the case is fancier.

[MENTION=21724]cyccommute[/MENTION], what you say is true, but people still have rational reasons for deciding as they do. You don't have to agree. Opposing arguments can be rational simultaneously.

I found cheap lights were fine in the city. There's plenty of street lamps to help out. Now I live in the sticks, the bike path I ride into town has no lights, it's up to my headlight. I immediately noticed the "laser beam" effect. My existing headlight beam was too narrow, rounding corners in the dark was exciting...That's when I bought my Phillips Saferide and discovered the joys of a shaped beam, the light is used efficiently and there's plenty of light across my front. I'm not interested in the cheapest solution that satisfies the cops, I want the lowest cost solution that works, $30 flashlights don't cut it, my $150 Saferide kit was a bargain.

Who pays $135 for spokes and labor for a wheel rebuild? $32~$36 for spokes and $50 labor is what it costs in Chicago and Denver. For $135 you could find a complete dynohub wheel. Compare that to a $100 battery pack, one lasts for 50k miles, the other lasts for a few years....

I looked up the Fly on Peter White's site, and he's selling them for $70 at least.

Lol, sorry, I see I did miss your mention of Dymotec6 and such.

Personally, I can see a use for someone wanting a cheaper tire sidewall dynamo system, but I have trouble recommending them because they remove a lot of the benefits you get from a dynamo of a always-with-you-no-maintenance-only-drawback-is-initial-cost system. You'll need a front tire that actually has a dynamo track, they may or may not work worse in the rain or inclement weather, they steal one of your two water bottle cages, you have a possible theft problem with the dynamo bottle that you don't have if you lock up your front wheel, I've heard the little wheel that goes around can wear out, and of course they do have more drag than a wheel dynamo. I know you said they don't slip, but I guess I'm not confident they don't slip if it's raining and the tire gets all wet. (No personal experience though).

Modern battery lights are pretty good - I'm having trouble seeing the advantage of a sidewall dynamo system over a battery light, except in some niche cases. The advantage of the hub dynamo is that while it's noticeably more expensive, it's otherwise without drawbacks and it's maintenance and worry free once you have it installed. It doesn't seem like that's true of the sidewall version.

A bottle dynamo doesn't go in a bottle cage. It is so named because it is bottle shaped. Have you seen them in the flesh? They bolt onto the frame or fork on the side. I run them without a special tire. They're not perfect, but they're not bad, either, and you can get the old ones cheap.

Could you explain how a bottle dynamo requires a water bottle cage? I had a sidewall generator decades ago and it didn't take up any water bottle space then.

Cheap or expensive have nothing to do with a light. I consider a the Planet Bike Blaze or the Princeton Tec Push (I own the latter) to be ineffective, relatively expensive lights when compared to the Magicshine clones out there for half of the Blaze and more then 1/3 the cost of Push.

I also have a CygoLite Expilion 850 which I consider to be a far more effective but way too expensive light compared to the Magicshine clones. It's output is far better than the Blaze or Push but it's 2 times the cost of the Princeton Tec light and and around 7 times the cost of the clones. I, too, am interested in the lowest cost solution that is effecitve. My current system of 3 clones that cost me about $30 each are better lights than the CygoLite and I can afford 3 of them.

$100 battery pack? Try $10 to $20.