timtak

Nice. I don't want to glare car drivers and do want to light myself up. I will look out for some aluminium.

SylvainG

Home Hardware or Lowe's should have aluminum sheets made for bending (like for fascia) sold by the foot. It's 2 feet wide so just buy a 1'x2'. Should be pretty cheap. Sheet metal scissors would be the most expensive item if you don't have a pair. Another option if you're good with an X-Acto knife is aluminum is easy to cut by bending it once you've scratched it enough. Be careful not to cut yourself though!

timtak

Thanks. I am in Japan so a long way from Lowes but they have that sort of store here. To just it I will probably trash some 100 yen scissors, or use a knife and bending like you say.

About one in four car leave their main beam on when they approach so I am beginning to wonder if it is in retaliation.

SylvainG

Are other cars flashing their lights? If not, those with high beam probably think they aren't bothering you.

SethAZ 

I like a helmet-mounted light and a handlebar-mounted light both on and off road. I agree that turning your headlamp into oncoming traffic is a bad idea, but since I don't like actually looking into the headlights of oncoming traffic I've developed the habit of tilting my head so that my headlamp isn't shining in their eyes, seeing what I need to without looking directly into their lights. I like the head lamp because it allows me to see things that the handlebar lamp isn't directly shining on.

I am not currently using my helmet-mounted light for my night rides because the one I used before was a cheap Chinese LED unit with a separate battery pack, all lashed to the helmet with 100mph tape and zip ties. I want to get a smaller and lighter all-in-one unit and get back to having a helmet light again. It's too useful not to have it.

SethAZ 

I don't mean to sound critical here, but I am curious: why do you need to be able to see your brifter needle? Do you not usually have a pretty good idea what gear you're in? I ask only because on my bike the only way to see what gear I'm in is to look down and back at the cassette, and I pretty much never do that because I simply don't need to. I had a bike with a Shimano flight deck thing that showed me what gear I was in, and I thought that was cool, but that went away eventually, and I didn't notice any difference in my riding not seeing my current gear.

I prefer to keep my near field dark for the same reasons everyone else says, with the sole exception being that I like to be able to see my Garmin without having to reach up and click on the backlight. I've got the light and Garmin positioned so that it picks up just enough stray light to be somewhat readable, without creating a blinding near field.

SylvainG

No offense taken. While stopping, I like to know which gear I'm in so I can set it up to the correct gear to start up again. I switch gear quite regularly to keep cadence and power somewhat constant. I once fell sideway (while stopped and clipped on my left foot) because I was in too high gear without noticing it and the bike tilted left instead of moving forward when I pushed on my left pedal. Same thing while going uphill, don't want to crosschain while applying torque on the chain.

Like I mention, my night vision is ruined anyway by car headlights. Most of my route is on bike lane or bike path adjacent to a road. So I often of headlights shinning toward me. Lighting the ground below my front wheel is also a safety benefit as well I believe. I'm probably more visible to motorist because of that white patch of ground that's moving, especially to motorist perpendicular to me.

SethAZ 

Fair enough. I usually just downshift two or three gears as I roll up to a stop, and it's good to go when I start again. The nearfield thing is mostly about not having things in my field of view that are much brighter than the illuminated patch of road ahead of me. If I've got my light on bright so I can see 20 meters down the road, anything that light shines on a few centimeters away from it is way brighter, and it's distracting. Anyhow I'm glad you've got a solution you like. I'm currently riding with just a light on my handlebar, but I want to get back to also having a helmet-mounted light. It definitely helps a lot being able to illuminate things that aren't straight ahead of the bike, and it helps particularly when turning onto a different road, and the handlebar light isn't illuminating what I'm turning into.

SylvainG

When I look ahead, the light near the bike is not really in my field of view so it really doesn't bother me. I understand what you mean while turning. I slow down for an emergency movement in case something suddenly appears in the lighted area in front of me while turning.

SethAZ 

I'm really liking the look of that. I have dedicated "night helmet" with a cheap Chinese Cree LED lashed to it, with a large and bulky external battery pack lashed to the rear of it. The cabling was way too long and so it's coiled up, lashed down the side of the helmet, etc. The batteries are just the relatively soft and vulnerable lipo packs stuffed into a nylon pouch. It's very ghetto, and I got nervous about leaving those batteries plugged in in the garage when I wasn't around. I've stopped using that ghetto night helmet for now. I'll have to save up and get something like this L&M VIS PRO. It's a much more compact and capable, and safe, solution for what I want in a night helmet light. Since I do quite a few night rides it's worth it to invest a little in good visibility (both me seeing things, and being seen). I've currently got a bright handlebar light and bright red blinking LED mounted to the rear of my seat post, but I would love to have additional rear and front-facing lights as well. The better I can see and make it more likely that I'm seen, the safer I'll be.