Ok, so there's quite a bit of uncertainty with just how "bright" lights are on the road. It can be a little dizzying for someone trying to pick a light without buying up everything in sight and trying it for themselves. So to try to clear things up a little, I whipped up a little comparo of some lights I had on-hand.


The test rig (not shown, the Blackburn Quadrant. Yes, this means I had to go out and replace my lost Coleman light)


Your average run of the mill residential road. Lit by scattered streetlights. For reference, the stop sign is about 100' in front of the camera. The car on the right is parked just in front of the stop sign. The patch in the pavement is about 20' ahead, and was about where I aimed the individual lights. All shots were done on manual, daylight white balance, ISO 400, f2.7, 1 second shutter.


Blackburn Quadrant - (4) 5mm LED's, this is probably close to what you'll likely get with the average "cluster" LED light. Not so hot for seeing the road except at slow speeds or in really dark conditions when you don't have oncoming headlights. But still great for being seen.


Inova Bolt 2AA - about 60-70 lumens, roughly comparable to last year's top line LED models.


Coleman MAX 2AA - about 90-100 lumens, about typical for what you'll find for most current CREE-based lights, particularly in this size.


Task Force 2C - about 130 lumens, much tighter focus than you'll typically get with most smaller flashlights.

So as you can see, power makes a difference, but so does the inherent beam pattern of the light. The Task Force and Coleman are similar in power, but the difference in focus changes how useful the light is under certain condtions. The tight spot on the Task Force is great for long distances, but you get such a narrow view that it's not as useful for general illumination, and it can be a little distracting when you're wiggling the handlebars with how much the spot moves around.


Here you can see why I favor multiple lights vs one really bright one. Being able to point the lights separately gives you more control over your pattern. Here, I have two spread into a wider shallow pattern, giving a good view of the road ahead at moderate speeds


And the triple setup I ran the other night, with the lights aimed into a narrow long pattern for straight high speed bombing runs in the darkness.

Hope that helps!

Thats pretty cool; nice work. I've been thinking about upgrading my front light to one I can use to see the road with so this gives me an idea of what to look for.

Need I say more






And if you want it in motion


The video is of only 2 lights (3100 lumen).

Here. New for this summer, I've added a 10W MR16 with which I can get 6 hours of run time (another 700 lumens for a total of 5400)

Was wondering when you'd get here. Nice yardshot. Shot it at noon, didya?

For those who are riding w/ bright setups (i.e. anything above a cluster-LED) - please be mindful of how much stray light you're getting into oncoming traffic (if you're riding someplace there is traffic). Even my lowly triple is pretty capable of blinding an oncoming cyclist for a couple seconds. Bear in mind some of us when doing these kinds of beamshots are often aiming a little higher than normal to show off the lights. Do as we say, not as we do.

Seeing the road rules, but too much into the other cyclist's face and they can't.

Great review! I am waiting for my Fenix L2D to come in. This will give me 180 lumens in turbo mode. My commute is only 15-20 mins. so this will work perfect for me.

What lights are these you are running? Very nice.

Edit: never mind I found it. =)

Click his link at the bottom, it's a sweet running homebrew setup.

It's seldom an issue since there are few people in on my route that ride at night. My beams are pointed down and I aim my helmet light away from anybody that I come upon in the MUP I use. However, we aren't supposed to be on the path at that time of night anyway In a pinch, I can cover the lamps with my hand.

On the road, I really don't care about what the motorists think. If they are flashing their lights at me, they are seeing me

It was really meant for others, since it's easy to go "hot damn! I gotta do that!" and put some big ol' lights onto their rig and point them straight ahead just because our pictures look like that.

As far as motor vehicle traffic goes, I'd just try to be sure to keep down the "above bumper" light intensity, similar to low beams on a car. Shouldn't be too much of a concern, since most bike lights are well below the brightness of a 55w halogen, but given enough light, it makes it hard to see much else on the road (like other bikes)

Like I said, you're fine w/ lights pointed how you normally ride. Just telling the others don't point them straight just cuz we did for the photo op.

Is that Task Force 2C the Cree X-Lamp variant or the previous, Luxeon-equipped one?

It's the XR-E variant. The Luxeon III model will probably run around 45-60 lumens, closer in brightness to the Inova (with a smaller hotspot if it uses the same optics as the newer Cree, I can't remember if it did or not)

One thing to bear in mind w/ the Task Force 2C - it's fairly heavy, and the batteries rattle around in the body (you can shim it up with some paper) This makes it somewhat difficult to aim w/ something like a Lockblock (mine stayed in place, but it pretty much could only be aimed straight ahead) and it may be prone to flickering if you run it on rough terrain.

However, the head easily unscrews from the body, opening up the opportunity to mod the light into two pieces - a lightweight head unit (needs a back and a mount) and the battery pack. With a little ingenuity, you could set yourself up with a fine bike light for a fraction of the cost of a retail unit of the same brightness.

Yeah, I had the Luxeon-based model, and actually used it as a helmet light, so I agree, that's one hefty light, it does rattle, and it can flicker. I gave it to my folks to replace their decrepit 2D Eveready plastic incandescent flashlight, and now my helmet sports the ubiquitous Fenix L2D Q5. Not enough throw for my tastes, but I haven't found any great 2AA throwers yet. Maybe I should just jump to 18650 and get one of the current crop of throw monsters...