ot: new for me gearhead category - EDC (every day carry) flashlights

[avalonracing]

The EDC flashlight thing is another weird fetish. The guys that I know are all about EDC flashlights are also usually into their EDC knives, and of course their CC guns. They all want to be the guy who is "ready". Somehow most of us can make it through the day without needing the "good guy with a flashlight". That said, I do lots of night walking and I usually just take one of my Light & Motion Urban bike lights with me and they work as well off the bike as they do on the bike.

[zzy]

I'm a flashlight/LED nerd and there are a lot of great lights these days - some very powerful ones especially. I strongly recommend Hanklights if anyone wants a highly customizable option with the latest LED or driver.

Since this is a bike forum, I've started using a Sofrin bike light. To my great surprise, it fits a garmin mount perfectly. The LED is mounted on the top of the reflector, projecting down. It's a great combo of throw and flood, and the directional cutoff doesn't blind oncoming people with up to 2000 lumens. Charges at 2A via USBC too and can charge your phone. Got mine for a great price during black friday too. Sofirn is middle/low end but their stuff is decent, and with a battery preinstalled the price is unbeatable.

[BRad704]

Originally Posted by avalonracing

I usually just take one of my Light & Motion Urban bike lights with me and they work as well off the bike as they do on the bike.

That's funny, because my Bontrager bike lights get used around the house way more than they get used for night rides.

[benb]

Originally Posted by C40_guy

I think "tactical" became big at the same time preppers started advertising their end of the world wares on television.

Yes I came back to say this. They are marketing "tactical" to these guys like crazy and there's a whole cottage industry of random prepper tactical products.

Manufacturers are making thinly reskinned versions of all kinds of things and marketing them as "Tactical" with a price upcharge.

Garmin has done this with a bunch of their watches.

We also now use our relatively ancient Niterider lights as flashlights. Mostly just for stuff like Haloween. They do still get used for bike rides as well though.

"Overlanding" seems to also be in the Venn diagram of this stuff. $200k worth of random highly specialized stuff to do a glorified car camping trip. We watched the first episode of some Overlanding documentary on Amazon video and it was pretty hilarious. More stuff than an RVer takes on a trip but tons of talk of roughing it and good old American ingenuity and so on and so forth. Guy hears something and has to go tearing through the woods with guns to protect his camp group. Meanwhile they make slower progress than a bikepacking group.

For a while I was getting served lots of ads to buy MREs for when the world ends.

[bob_in_pa]

Marketing of "tactical" aside. There is a big difference when you compare the quality of flashlights.

My part-time job requires me to have a flashlight and after some trial and error I carry 3 while working. One is 1500 lumens with a wide beam that lives on my belt and is used for looking for stuff, one is a single AAA light, carried in a shirt pocket and used for reading stuff, the 3rd - let's just say it's ill-suited for general use.

The first and last are high quality, have a history of reliability and were, in my opinion, crazy expensive. They get tested before every shift, the batteries are charged or replaced before they're dead and they almost never get used. The little pen light, which is the one I use the most by far, is a cheapy.
I guess my point is, like most things, there's a wide range of quality and features and it might actually matter.

Oh, and for EDC (I hate that term) I choose to get by with the light on my phone and Garmin watch.

-Bob

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by avalonracing

...That said, I do lots of night walking and I usually just take one of my Light & Motion Urban bike lights with me and they work as well off the bike as they do on the bike.

Ha! My wife and I take out dog on nightly walks....in the dark this time of year. She is an elderly dog and now spends most the time in a stroller for these walks....my trusty L&M SecaComp 2000 is strapped to the stroller handle.

It works very well!

I carry a handheld flashlight for the close in work of "bagging her business" after we let her down to patrol her favorite corners...