Yes, a lot of would reasonably balk at shelling out $350-400 U.S. for bike lighting. If you're such a person, fair enough. Read no further.

If you want lighting that permits full daytime speeds on poor roads in the black of night, lighting that also brings parity in the Road Wars, t>3 hours run time, and a battery that can charge completely in 3.5 hours, you might want to read on.

Roads I ride regularly include all combinations possible from the following factors: lightly trafficked, heavily trafficked, 25mph speed, 35mph speed, 55+mph speed, appallingly maintained, ok maintained, unlit, well lit, risks of debris and animals, and clean and clear. Snow, rain, and fog all occur here. I wanted a light that would provide the highest possible security in these conditions, that could also used offroad in most conditions by itself.

I wouldn't normally have thought of such a high end solution, but a bunch of reviews at mtbreview.com of the Light and Motion ARC HID handlebar light piqued my curiosity. Thinking that a significant increase in safety on the road as well as the prospect of not buying another light again for some years was worth the coin, I took the hit in the wallet (ouch) and ordered one of these curiosities.

"Wow" is really the most apt expression. I have never seen bike lights this effective. The single light is amazingly bright. It appears brighter than my motorcycle headlamp. Its center core stands out against the center of an automobile's headlight beam. You can see the light's spot on the road clearly under streetlights. A partner in some informal testing thought that the most apt comparison is to a train's light, though this just might be a bit of an exaggeration. Just a bit, though; this light is bright.

I was able to travel at well over 20 mph on completely unlit, poorly maintained rural roads without being surprised by a single pothole, piece of debris, or stone. I could see these items clearly far down the road. I have never been able to do this with any other lights-- fast travel has always involved some guesswork as to the roadway ahead. In time I'll try a faster speed downhill somewhere and find the light's limits, but I've not found it yet.

Even in traffic at night, even with a pair of bright headlights behind you, you will be seen with this light. You will not only be seen, you will attract attenion compared to the background. In fact, on dark roads with little traffic you might think about turning the light away when being passed by oncoming cars-- at 20 yards or so it is uncomfortable to look directly at the light.

The reflector system in the lamp is very well designed. There is a very bright central core of light, with a bright penumbra that covers nearly all of my peripheral vision. I rode some twisty offroad trails with the light without a helmet light with perfect comfort; this is the first handlebar light alone with which I felt comfortable riding this trail. Unless the trail's especially demanding and you're going especially fast you can use this light alone.

The mount on this system is terrific, too. It swivels in both dimensions so you can scan the side of the road/trail for animals or anything that catches your eye.

HID, for those who don't yet know, stands for high intensity discharge. The lights get more out of a given power supply because of expensive xenon bulbs. The lights burn brighter, and their apparent brightness is greater because they produce much more light in the blue spectrum than standard lights, making them more like pure white lights. The blue-tinted headllights you see on more expensive newer cars are this sort.

Light and Motion says that this 13.5 watt system is the equivalent of 30-40 watt halogen systems. They're not lying. As I said, the light is brighter than my motorcycle headlamp, and it stands out against automotive headlights.

As I hinted above, the ARC system comes with a smart charger that pumps the NiMh battery to full in only 3.5 hours from a drained charge. The light shuts itself off when riding after a 15 minute warning signal when the battery's low, too, to prevent a full battery drain.

I'll be testing the light in various ways in coming rides, and report back for whoever's curious.

In the meantime, if you're the sort of hardcore bike geek who doesn't balk at $300 panniers and who is willing to break on through to the other side of automobile-level light, you already know who you are. If you're someone on the fence, let me say that $400 for this bike light is not crazy, believe it or not. If you're the sort who thinks it is simply out of the question to blow this kind of a wad on a bike light, but for some reason you've read all this, I can't say I feel like you're being unreasonable. But if lighting means enough to you, and it does to me, you wouldn't be throwing your money away on this system.

Cheers,

Forget the Cateye EL300 or my 15W Vistalite, now I know exactly what I need...$400.

Steele-- are you being sarcastic? If so, that's funny.



I don't say it's a shrewd deal to drop this kind of money on a bike light. For half the price you can get a really good set of lights.

But G*d, this thing is amazing. More testing:

I went out last night into the cold, dark night. I went a few miles on a paved path out in the boondocks. No lights, and heavily wooded. Even with the full moon it was dark under the canopy. The path is strewn with sticks, leaves, debris, raccoons, bunnies, and sometimes deer. Nearly my entire field of view was lit up. Tilting the light just right lights up the path a long way ahead-- I would say conservatively I had about 50 yards of crystal clear, wide-awake visibility on a path about 9-10 feet wide. Every twig, every leaf, everything. I didn't have to do any shadow-guessing except in the case of a few odd looking low-lying objects, and even these were fully illuminated when they got closer to the bike. I rode 18mph with no more concern than in the daytime. I could have gone faster.

The periphery of the light is very bright, as well. The woods, and brush were all around were clear; with guesstimation you can make everything out. There are no dark patches with this light. Nearly your entire field of vision is usefully illuminated.

The bluish tint of the light makes the shadows less harsh and surreal looking than with halogen bulbs. The whole scene makes more intuitive sense right away than with a standard bulb.

On the roadways, again, you've got a long stretch of road illuminated in front of you. Signs are illuminated far, far ahead, maybe a quarter-mile or more(?) out in the sticks, on both sides of the road.

With my older 12W halogen lights I would often have drivers coming in the opposite direction turn on their high beams some distance away. They saw my light, but they weren't exactly sure whether there was a vehicle ahead, or a guy with a flashlight, or what. That was always annoying.

I've been out only a couple of times, but so far this hasn't happend with the new lights. Every car coming the other way knows there's a vehicle ahead; they're puzzled as to just what it is, though. They don't aim the high beams, but they look intently as they pass, even through their door windows. I have thought some might shine the high beams because the light is too bright, and up higher on the handlebars than a car's light- so far, not yet. With my panniers, they might think I'm a cop or something.

The mount on this light swivels left and right easily. If there is motion off to the side into the woods, a flick of the wrist trains the light on whatever it is. That's nice, providing a lot of the benefit of a helmet light without a helmet mount. (As I said above, though, on a lot of wooded trails the side lighting is good enough to permit riding without a helmet light, even without moving the light on the handlebar mount.)

The light has two power settings, but they're nearly identical, so I just go ahead and use the higher setting. With one bulb, that's all they can do with Xenon these days.

The cord isn't curled, so you have to wrap it around the battery or something. I wrap mine around the top tube. I prefer this, actually, to a curled cable, but you might not.

I'll try doing some more quantitative testing when I get a chance. Anyone interested in looking at these things might go to www.bikelights.com My comments above are about the ARC light.

And no, as if I had to make this clear, I don't have any association with this company. I think they have made the best bike light than can be mass-produced with present technology.

Cheers.

Curse you, Merriwether! I thought I had maxed out when I paid $125 for a two light Vistalite system about 1.5 years ago. Since they are no longer in business I have been wondering what to do when I start needing new batteries. Now, God help me, you've got me thinking about spending $400!

I ride to work in the dark EVERY morning. Daylight savings time doesn't do anything for me. I long ago sold my second car so I can usually justify spending money that will make my commute safer. This light sounds great. Guess I'd better start checking pay phones and under sofa cushions for loose change.

Thanks a LOT.
Rainman

Just to add my two cents. Live in Monterey where L&M is based, and I have some friends who work there. These guys do things like night-time mountain bike rides. They build their lights to work in settings like that. They want a light that keeps them from running into trees at 20 mph, and one that will hold together if they accidentally do hit something. They make serious products for serious cyclists. I have their commuter light, a relative steal at $120, and I'm very happy with it, although I wouldn't mind a longer-lasting battery. If you want a bright, dependable bike light (and if you use your bike as a vehicle at night, you should), take a look at the L&M offerings.

andy

I had been using 2/3 watt lights for years, and then a couple of years ago I bought my 15W. I was amazed at the brightness and never thought anything could possibly be brighter. I am glad to hear that there are lights out there that are even better. Even though it will be a while before I can afford a $400 light, I will keep wishing.

Just to put spending $400 on a bike light in perspective consider my situation. Although I have a nice Vistalite setup with 10W and 15W lights, I got tired of charging the battery every day. For a few months I had been riding with a little 3 LED headlight, not the nice bright Cateye 3-LED bike light; this is a light you wear on your head primarily for close work. It will sort of light the area immediately in front of your wheel and seemed brighter to me than the 2.5W Cateye Micro Halogen. Since most of my early morning commute is reasonably well lighted by street lights, and I pretty much know where all the bumps are now, I figured the little light was adequate.

The morning after Labor Day I was on my usual early morning commute in the dark I hit a fresh diesel spill that I didn't see in time and went down hard right on the point of my left hip. I wound up with such a huge hematoma it required surgery to clean and drain, but not before I passed out once from the loss of 1 to 2 pints of blood into it. Even just my share of all the hospital, doctor, xray, lab, anaesthesia, etc., after insurance cost more than $400, not to mention that I couldn't ride my bike for over 3 weeks! Considering that it wouldn't have taken much more pressure to actually have broken the hip bone, requiring several months of rehab, I consider myself very lucky.
FWIW,
Raymond

Good point Ray - saving nickels and dimes sometimes costs big dollars! Have you ordered the $400 light yet??
I think I'll wait a bit. It sounds great but... how will battery life hold out?, how long will bulbs last?, etc. If I'm spending $400 on a lighting system, I want it to last forever!!

Compared even to good halogen lights, I suspect the new, extravagantly expensive light reduces my chance of accident caused by either of two things: hard-to-see road hazards and automobiles. That the light would do this was an important fact in my deciding to spend so much. I certainly feel more secure. When I thought about riding twelve miles to Wal-Mart in falling snow in X-mastime traffic I thought that my headlamp was something I simply didn't want to worry about at all. With my old 12W light, I felt reasonably safe, with occasional questions. Now, I don't worry at all.

How much the light reduces my chances of accident I'm not sure, and whether it was worth buying for that amount of contribution to safety is something else, too. (Then there are complications, like the fact that you can always ride a bit slower with other lights, too, at no cost.) Like Raymond, though, when I thought about the cost of a crash I felt reasonable in thinking that strong lighting is a good place to avoid scrimping.

So far I'm very satisfied. I see the pitch black roads and their attendant hazards much more clearly, and so far I get more respect from drivers. I can ride at daytime speeds on pitch black roads. I just got the light, though, so I'll learn more as I use it.

Of course, "reduction in risk" has to be understood prior to my change in riding habits. Now I'll ride more at night, bringing my overall risk closer to what it was. So maybe it's better to say that I've increased my freedom for a given level of risk.

Apart from road safety, I liked the prospect of doing more off-road riding without having to go home and get a helmet light. I liked the turbo charger. I just like powering the light up, too, and seeing the pleasing blue light flood everything in sight. It's cool.

You can get the light I've been discussing for around $350 if you look, but whether $350 or $400 you're talking about a huge wad to blow on a bike light. There's no denying it.

You can also get good lights, lights that are more than minimally adequate, for much less. You might spend less now and see what's available in a couple of years if you feel like upgrading, too. That's not an unreasonable thing to do. I would say, too, that you might find the ARC overkill in well-lit areas. If you can already see the road then the visibility increase from the light is probably not worth the money.

Anyway, if someone else gets this light I'd be very interested to hear the response to it.

Cheers.

L&M make claims about the life of the bulb and battery here:

www.bikelights.com

Cheers.

Future developments:

https://www.fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCel...1,1930,00.html


If the above link doesn't work try just going to www.fuelcelltoday.com and looking for the story about fuel cells and laptops.

Whether hydrogen fuel cells are going to revolutionize driving, what with the cost of acquiring the hydrogen fuel, they may well provide a breatkthrough in battery technology. Ten hours of bike lighting!

Pinerider,
I haven't yet, but I'm sure I will. The only thing stopping me right now is that I am trying to convince my wife that I need a little motorscooter. Once I settled into bicycle commuting we sold our second car. I don't want another car, but every now and then there are little errands that the bike just doesn't work well for either because I don't want to get sweaty, like for a dr. appt., or the bike is just not practical due to time, distance or other constraints. I figure a little scooter like a Honda Elite 80 would be perfect and fun for little outings together either both on the scooter or her on the scooter and me on the bike. Anyway, I am keeping a little stash set aside so the day she slips up and agrees I can get a deposit down before she can change her mind! Meanwhile I will use the Vistalite until
1. It becomes obvious the scooter just ain't gonna happen or
2. I get the scooter and scrape together another stash.
Regards,
Raymond

Raymond:

I was out last night for a bit and I thought about you and your crash. Ouch. I'm glad you've recovered so well.

I didn't come across any wet spills but I did find I could detect regular oil stains on the road ahead with about 4 seconds of lead time at 16mph. That's on completely dark roads in rural areas, roads with no lights, no marking, and no shoulders. Just pavement. Something of a relief given your story. I'm hoping it will make ice patches clear, too. We'll have to wait and see.

Another note: I found that cars passing me from the opposite direction, those coming head on, slowed down to make their pass. They couldn't figure out what I was until they were right on top of me. As I said, I was on very dark, narrow rural roads. Drivers were concerned, I think, that I was some kind of tractor taking up a large part of the road width.

Yeah, I've been going on and on about the light. Bike lighting, though, is like crack cocaine. You get a hit of the good stuff and you can't go back. You're also willing to do whatever it takes to keep your high. Don't try an HID light, Rainmain, unless you have the willpower to resist robbing the CircleK to get your instant fix.

Cheers

I will second everything that Merriwether says. I have had my light for about 3 months now and it is the best money I have spent. I used to run a 8/12 Niterider system and some other systems I do not remember names of. This is by far the best and brightest of the bunch. It has a great pattern that no other bike light I have seen has. I do two night rides a month for most of the year and I am not allowed to have my light on during those rides. It blinds the people next to me if they are slightly ahead.

The neat thing is they send a crash repair kit with the light. The light mounts on these plastic swivel parts that are made to break away during and accident. So if you do crash, your expensive light will be okay.

Another great feature is how easy it is to adjust while riding. The left/right movement is as easy as turning a doorknob. I have not found it to move during off road riding even though it does seem easy to adjust it does not move unless you want it too. The up/down adjustment is a screw with a 5 spoke thing on the end to make it simple to loosen (no allen heads here). Just loosen it up a bit and adjust the light then tighten.

I have used my light about 30-40 times this year and it is great.

I feel I have rambled on about this light, but it is such a great product that any commuter that rides in dark or high traffic areas should have.

I bought mine on ebay for just over $300. Took a few months of searching though.

Styk33,

I noticed that your name showed up in the feedback for "federalpublicsafety" for just such a unit, which sold yesterday. What condition was it in? Did it come with a receipt and a warranty card? I assume you need the former to make a claim, right? Is this guy a legitimate dealer? My concern with spending this much cash on a light is that I find myself SOL when it comes to making a warranty claim.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

You dog. I saw that light on Ebay-- sold by someone called federal safety company or something?

The price seemed great, $300 as you say, but I was too hesitant. I feared an ebay scam: an expensive light, the guy didn't have any pictures or information about the light other than on L&M's web page. He even had an 800 number. I called it and it was disconnected.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, though. If you got that light, good buy. You saved a bundle-- if I had had some confirmation about the light I might have bid you up.

As goes without saying, I agree about the light. The best I've ever seen.

One note-- you said you haven't noticed the light moving left or right when you rode. If the mount comes loose, there's a phillips screw on the underside of the section of the mount permanently attached to the lamp. You can just tighten that screw. If you remove the lamp from the handlebar mount, and turn the lamp upside down you'll see the screw.

Cheers.

Where can I order spare xenon bulbs?

I've found plenty of companies selling the entire light kits. And, halogen spare bulbs are easy to find. But with the spare xenon bulbs seem harder to locate. To be clear, I want the one-piece bulb, reflector, and cover glass with the double pin in the back. Know where I can order one?

Thanks!

Speaking of a good lighting system, I have been using the NightSun Tri-lites. They brighten every thing from the sides of the roads to about 100 yards in front. And they turn the darkest single track into bright as day, lighting up every obstacle.
They have 3 independent lights that you can angle in different directions. They are on pricy side at 390USD.
The nice thing on the road, cars see me coming from around turns and and turn off their brights.

Slainte

Does anyone know how the L&M light compares to the Cateye Stadium 3 HID? Cateye claims that it's equivalant to an 80 watt halogen light. Has anyone seen both?

Sorry for the slow response guys. Yes, I bought it from Federal Public Safety. I got an invoice and a warrantee card with my unit. It was brand new in the box. We had an issue with shipping, but it was just a minor problem. FPS was having it dropped shipped to me (since L&M is in my state) and L&M I guess stopped drop shipping things. So it took an extra week to ship it to the other side of the country and then back again.

FPS has been in business for a few years (10+) and others on ebay have had good experiences with them. The bidding on the light was at $260 5 minutes before the auction ended, someone bidded against me to bring it up over $300.

Merriwether, thanks for the tip on tighten up the light. If it becomes loose I will do that. It is great that it is adjust on the fly. I can turn it way from cars or oncoming persons if need be.

Oooo, HID... mmmm! Is it submersible? I wonder how the output, waterproofing and controls stack up to a NiteRider Blowtorch. Chances are slim that anyone here has spent $800 to get one of each, but if anyone's had a direct light-to-light comparison on a night ride with a friend, I'd really like to hear your impressions!

(not that I have any money to spend on this type of thing... thank goodness my 5-year-old NiteRider Nitehawk simply won't quit working)

Thanks for the firsthand report, Merriweather!

As soon as it starts raining I will test it in the water. Right now it is 70F and not to many clouds in the sky.

Sometimes Sacramento is such a bore

Some more observations of this light:

Observation 1: the light is plainly visible-- distractingly visible-- 3/4 away on totally dark road from an observation point under bright streetlights inside town.

My observing partner said, "that light is brighter than car headlights I compared it to, that were closer to me. There's no way that light would get lost in a sea of lights on a busy street at night. It was almost annoyingly bright at 3/4 a mile away."

'And as you approached, I thought you were right there when you were far away"

We switched positions, and I agreed with her assessment.

The light is only rated at 13W, and even with the HID boost the light is not putting out the lumens of a car headlight. Nevertheless, the small size of the lamp, the color, and the position up on the bar make the lamp's apparent brightness significantly greater than an auto's headlights. Truth.

Observation 2: When approaching a bike with the light, the light is bright enough that I, the cyclist, cannot be directly observed behind it until I am very close. Even under a streetlight this is the case.

The result is that on narrow roads oncoming automobiles slow to assure themselves that the oncoming vehicle isn't something sticking into their lane, like a piece of farm equipment.

For example, an unauthorized vehicle found its way onto the testing grounds, and it slowed noticeably as it was oncoming. I've observed this behavior with other cars out on dark roads. Drivers are not sure what they're heading toward, and so slow down a bit. I've had cars at cross streets wait several seconds to let me pass the intersection before they pulled out behind me. They didn't know I was on a bike until I was past them. Respect!

Observation 3: the HID light lit ground up noticeably even with the ground bathed in halogen car headlights immediately behind the cyclist.

Again, this is function of the focus and color of the beam. The car headlights obviously put out more light.

The headlamp, again, will be visible on the road at least as far away as car headlights. Miles in open country.

Then, as I've mentioned before, it's possible to ride at 20+mph on the road at night with this light, and still _see_ the road clearly. That's a tremendous benefit.

By the way, for the curious, a small LED red blinky was not visible after about about 1/2 a mile from the rear. A Trek bright blinky was visible, but not prominent, to 3/4 of a mile, and probably would have remained so out to a mile or so if you really looked for it. Reflective material disappeared from view after about 1/3 to 1/2 a mile or so.

The weather was cold and clear.

Having someone look at our own bike lights is a very important thing that too many people forget, I'm afraid.

Compared to car lights and even motorcycle lights, I would say:

- Many bike lights (including this one) are less precisely aimed (or focussed?) than car lights. Even U.S.-approved car lights are more poorly aimed than European lights. The good point is that it allows car lights to be brighter without blinding people who come the other way. The bad point is that car lights are less effective, say, to see that deer coming out from the forest on your left. And an incidental effect is that car lights seem less bright than bike lights 1 or 2 km away.

- The most effective way one uses to assess the distance and speed of uncoming vehicle is to look at spacing between both headlights. When one sees a car, one sees two headlights getting further and further apart... which means that the car is approaching. Motorcycle headlights and bike headlights don't have that advantage, which means people think they are far away. Problem is more severe with bike headlights which tend to be small.
Single spot, small diametre and less bright (for most 5-15 W) equal far away.

Regards,