Lighting systems

Thomps said:

Experience on standard/HID light systems?
I'm interested in a system sufficiently bright for riding roads and
established trails (no bushwhacking, or other sorts of whacking).

Better explain what you mean by "established trails." Are you talking
about single track trails in the woods, or are you talking about nice
smooth "bike paths" or rail-trails?

For anything paved (including rail-trails) I find a generator set to be
most suitable, since it is always on the bike and ready. All of my
battery systems have let me down at one time or another. A generator's
lamp almost always has much better optics than a battery lamp, and puts
its light into a more useful beam. Unfortunately, it takes some
knowledge and effort to a) find, and b) install a good generator.

But if you're talking single track woods trails, generators are rarely
useful. The extreme case is slowing down to 2 mph to "clean" a very
sharp turn around some obstacles. The generator won't generate much,
and the relatively narrow headlight beam wouldn't help even if it did.

For tricky off-road, you need a rechargeable set, and in my view, that's
the only time the unfocused hardware store lamps they use makes sense,
because you might actually need the wide fog of light they produce.
(On-road, that's a big waste.)

As to HID - I don't have experience with those systems, but I fail to
see how the average person could justify the cost. Unless you're
planning on VERY fast off-road riding, they seem like overkill.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Thomps said:

Experience on standard/HID light systems?
I'm interested in a system sufficiently bright for riding roads and
established trails (no bushwhacking, or other sorts of whacking).

If you go halogen, you will need _at least_ 15 watts, probably more like 25.
Any HID system is likely to be bright enough. LED's are never going to cut
it off a well-lit road.

Austin