I've got the 250 version and run it on my helmet. I believe for the conditions you described, the 350 would be a good light.

My system has evolved as I've done more night rides on the roads when we lose Daylight Saving Time. Currently, I run a MagicShine on the bar and the 250 on the helmet.

The 350 should work for you and will give you a reference point.

+2 to a backup light. I have a MagicShine as my main light, and a TerraLux flashlight as a backup.
If you only have 1 light, turn it off for a second on a dark road and see how un-fun it would be to ride with no light.

When I know I'll be riding in the dark, I'm often on my rain bike which has reflective tape front & back and on the crankarms for a little extra "be seen" visibility. Sometimes a reflective vest too. I'm a Fred at night. Better Fred than dead.

redundancy in lighting is a good idea particularly the rear light, if that goes out you might not even notice for several miles. 350 lumens is ok. My light switches between 200, 400, 800 and about 1200. I spend most time in the 800 setting which is plenty. 200 is a little lame and 400 is ok in lit up areas.

Love it

350 is nothing ... you need at least 400 Watt to be someone here on the 41.

thats probably bright enough. i ride with a 200 lumen minewt and its ok, but i wish i had a brighter light. i tried out a 3 beam serfas light today that was 1000 lumens and it was sweet!! no experience with the magicshine lights yet but im tempted.

200 lumen dinotte seems ok for me

This.

What really matters is not so much the total lumens but the combination of this with spectral distribution. A 350 lumen LED gives a lot of light but much of it is useless - a white LED is basically a blue LED with a yellow phosphor in front, so you get two distinct peaks. This gives a dazzling light when you are looking at the source, but it can give very poor surface illumination if the surface doesn't happen to respond to either blue or yellow light.

An equivalent incandescent or HID lamp will spread those lumens over the entire spectrum so no matter what the surface it will be well illuminated.

The tradeoffs are luminous efficacy and cost - a 350 lumen incandescent will chew around 15 watts, an HID will chew around 5 watts but cost an arm and a leg, an LED will chew as little as 3 watts but give crap illumination as explained.

The MiNewt @ 600 lumens is getting good reviews. Then get a cheap,bright, flashlight for the helmet. Lights at different angles show different "features" of the road. Go to mtbr.com if you want to read about lights. The 2012 shootout is in progress and you can see beamshots of many lights, including some of the lower power lights. The Magicshine gets good reviews, but from all the posts I've seen, quality may be an issue. I've rarely seen people complain about quality of the major bike light brands. I don't like external battery packs.

Whatever beamlight you choose ... make sure to back it up with a front and rear wide dispersion blinking light too.
Seeing is important just as being seen is.

I went from a Light and Motion traditional light with a separate battery rated @ an alleged 650 lumens to this new 500 lumen light by Serfas. I did the Pcad Shed Test®. That's where I stand by my garage and shine the light onto my shed, 150 feet away to compare the light pattern and brightness. The Serfas light seemed identical to the Light and Motion light on its highest setting, despite being rated 150 lumens lower. The Serfas light is also a self contained and very compact flashlight design with an internal battery. Superior in just about every respect, including the fact that a spare battery (which you can easily carry in your pocket) weighs about as much as 3 AA batteries and is relatively tiny. The Serfas light goes on top of my helmet which really does provide a superior lighting experience to having it on your handlebars for a number of reasons. Plus if you have a puncture or other issue, you have light wherever you turn your head. Sure it looks dopey, but who's going to see you in the dark @ 5AM?

That would make be a no one here. Apparently there are a plenty of someone with about a million Watts light on our MUPs cruising at a leisurely pace.

Hopefully every car that you come across on your ride.

NiteRider is the maker of the MiNewt 350 Cordless and is based in San Diego. Cygolite is in Santa Ana, CA. I would pick either one of these over MagicShine, based on servicing and maybe reliability.

If you buy at REI, they carry both NiteRider and Cygolite. That way if you don't feel that the 350 is sufficient, then return it.

Some of them flash their brights at me.

I also ride quite a bit at night and use a little over 1000 lumens and this works great for me at speed.. 350 lumens is for most but there are plenty of new lights built with x-ml leds that put out close to 1000 lumens on high.

You know you have enough light when you roll up behind a car and they shield there eyes and you see them mouth to themselves "art bell was right the grays have finally come for me"

Well, you either have enough light or you have your light pointed too high.

I have enough light, I do not point my lights up..

Just for the heck of it, here are our clubs night riding rules. One rule I would like to be added would be that the rear lights must be below the saddle. I hate following someone with a light on their camelback, thing blinds you when you are in a pace line.

When it comes to bike specific lights, mtbr forums take the cake. They have 2 sections, one for DIY lights and then the regular lights.

Now, the only way to blind a driver with a helmet light is A) You have it on your helmet all wrong (you would know this because when looking at the helmet setup, it looks terribly wrong from the get-go) or B) you strain your head enough and aim it at the driver. As for the others in your group ride, when riding you never turn 90 degrees and look them in the face because A) this is dangerous when riding when it is light out and B) just plain stupid.

Our group rides have all riders with pretty much a helmet mounted light, and nobody has been blinded yet. When we stop at a section and chill for a minute or 2, we tend to turn our helmet lights off so we don't blind each other.

I noticed you are riding a trail, and if there are any turns that can be somewhat sharp, a helmet mounted light is really nice to have in addition to a bar mounted light. This way you can look into the turn to see if there are any hazards. I don't care if you put 3000 lumens on your handlebars, it won't have enough spill to cover most turns. With that said, you want the lightest possible light you can afford, so that takes out the Serfas lights and the NiteRider MiNewts, however they have a mini-usb 300 that has an external battery at Performance for like $90 that fits this bill almost perfectly.

The CygoLite would be good for your bars no doubt as I use one on my bars when I ride at night. I like the flood on the bars and a spot on the helmet. If Lezyne had helmet mounts I would probably have a complete Lezyne rig going because I think they have the best bang-for-the-buck lights right now that I have seen in person.

I guess I could see some logic in that, but once you have 3+ people with strong lights you really don't need a helmet light.

Still, whomever is out front really needs a helmet light to look through the turn. I won't ride solo without a helmet light.

I pedaled with a friend this morning that showed up with a NiteRider MiNewt.600 lumen Cordless LED Headlight that he bought at Performance for $150.00. It was pretty awesome. I don't believe it was anywhere near three times as bright as my 200 lumens, but it was definitely brighter.

Are you doing tight switchbacks on your road bike? Also, ever been the front rider and look back to check traffic only to be blinded by another riders helmet light? I have, it sucks!

By the way, I've been riding lately with just the 200 lumens on the helmet. That's because we leave at 6:30 a.m. and only ride in the dark for about half an hour, before the sun comes up.

Next week, when the time changes, I'll slap another 200 lumens onto the bar.

Just to let you people know, Busch & Muller will come out with the new Classic N Plus in November, 2011 (this month, I think on the 19th). It's only 25 lux but apparently will have homogeneous lighting and a day and night mode. I can't wait to see reviews/prices.

https://www.bumm.de/produkte/dynamo-s...c-classic.html