Hi, I work graveyards starting at 12:00am so I am thinking of doing my weekday cycling at night before work while im still fresh. I figure I could probably find some decent paved trails and with it being dark there will probably be very little cars and other bikes to worry about.
All that said, is there any lights that are better then others? Do any exist with generators so I don't have to worry as much about changing batteries? As far as brightness, I would like to have the whole path illuminated in front of me to a good distance so other people could see me coming, and so I can see where I am going.
Hi, I work graveyards starting at 12:00am so I am thinking of doing my weekday cycling at night before work while im still fresh. I figure I could probably find some decent paved trails and with it being dark there will probably be very little cars and other bikes to worry about.
All that said, is there any lights that are better then others? Do any exist with generators so I don't have to worry as much about changing batteries? As far as brightness, I would like to have the whole path illuminated in front of me to a good distance so other people could see me coming, and so I can see where I am going.
Any advice on the subject?
James
There have been lots of threads on this topic, try doing a search.
I use a helmet mounted trailtech HID with a smalll led light as an emergency backup.
There is a lot of information on this in previous threads. However, a lot of it is old and mixed in with new. I found it difficult to distinguish what was still relevant and what wasn't when researching. http://www.mtbr.com/reviews have a lot of reviews on lights.
Buying a light depends on how much you want to spend. There are cheap LED lights which will let you be seen to expensive LED lights light the Dinotte or Cateye which will let you see where you are going.
There are lots of Halogen lights which seem to fill the middle of the range lights. With about 10w starting to give you the ability to see where you are going (opinions will differ widely on this).
The more expensive lights are the HID lights they are the brightest by far and are the most expensive.
I personally use the Dinotte 5w LED light. I can use AA batteries with it, it is very light & sturdy and I can see where I'm going with it. I ordered directly from their site http://www.dinottelighting.com . I am not a veteran when it comes to lights though, this is my first reasonable set of lights. I am happy with them and get compliments from other cyclists. Cars even wait for me now at intersections!
FWIW, I rode briefly with a NiteRider Flight so that I could train last winter after work (i.e., well after dark), and it's an awesome light. The only down side is that it's very pricy (I paid 450, I think) but it uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery which doesn't weigh much and gives a good couple hours at high intensity, and the HID lamp illuminates the road far enough ahead to ride a road bike at full speed, after dark, downhill, in the rain, with no streetlamps to help out (you can maybe understand why my girlfriend asked me return it...). If you've got the dough, you won't be sorry you got one.
