Riding with Lights?

[scrooge]

I got a chunk of change for Christmas and am trying to think of interesting ways to spend it (read: i want to buy something a little frivolous that i can enjoy and normally wouldn't buy) so the thought crossed my mind of a lighting system. I'm curious if folks here use lights to go on regular rides. I'm thinking that doing so could really expand the time I have to ride (the days have been pretty short in Denver since day light savings time) but am not sure if I would really enjoy it (Plus, I'd hate to disturb the sleep of the folks living along the bike path...). So, if you ride with lights, do you like it? or if you've ridden with lights but didn't enjoy it, why not?

Oh, and I know I could do a search, but if anyone wants to toss out some advise for what system to look at that would be great...

[djg]

I like it fine. My evening commute requires a light for a decent chunk of the year (around now, say), and I'll often-enough toss in an extra few miles if there's time. I'd much rather have sunshine and mild weather, but that's not always an option. With a good light I can see fine, and certain places (the MUT, a park loop that's popular around here) that have traffic on sunny spring afternoons are blessedly quiet on a December evening.

I did a post asking about new light options not too long ago. Folks liked various things, but whereas this and that got mixed reviews (here and elsewhere) everybody who had an L&M ARC HID light seemed to like it. znfndl actually had a spare that he lent me for a bit, and I was pretty easily sold. A 10w halogen is fine 90% of the time, but when the ambient light gets a little funky or the speed picks up, it gets hard to see the surface of the road. The HID tosses enough light that I can see the surface better--mostly I notice that I'm not noticing; because I don't have to concentrate on reading surface glitches in the pavement, I'm just more relaxed riding along. It's bright, but it has a lower setting (that's still plenty for most situations, and better than the halogen) and directing the beam just a bit down and to the right makes it easier on oncoming traffic. If you do a search, you'll find that thread and others.

BTW, I recommend performance for light purchases. Bike lights are one of those things that can get iffy (I'd had problems with two niterider purchases over the years) and the performance guarantee is something an LBS cannot reasonably match.

[dauwhe]

Randonneurs do a ton of night riding--this last year I rode all night twice, and well into the night on several other occasions. I much prefer a generator hub (Schmidt SON), which means I'm not dependent on batteries at all. I use an DLumotech LED primary and E6 secondary, and find it to be a wonderful combination, with good light at all speeds (and the optics are superior to any battery light system I've seen.

It's an expensive setup, but there's no fiddle factor, my lights are always there and available, which comes in handy if a late-afternoon ride goes longer than I thought, or even if I'm riding in fog or other visibility-compromising situations.

See http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm for a huge amount of information on all sorts of lighting systems.

Dave

[KevinK]

I rely on the Light & Motion Solo MV Logic system for my 11.5 mile commute. It is a well designed, light weight system with the LI-ion battery. You can find them for less than $200 with the trickle charger. I paid a little extra and got mine with the Turbo "smart" charger. It has 3 lighting levels, and will run about 2 hours on the brightest setting, which is bright enough for unlit roads and bike paths. It is a headlight system only, I use two Cateye LED rear lights for redundant visibility.

Kevin

[manet]

light + motion helmet mount. for road riding i mount it under my stem with the battery in a retro-fitted old water bottle. it's a few years old. i sent it in for work _ you have to charge the battery ever once and a while in the off season or the battery will stop accepting a charge. it has 3 candle power settings. i use low when looping around the park and usually crank it up full candle when the leaving park to ride home on the mean streets of JC.

all in all, it's fine. i would buy something similar again. though now the switch is acting up. i purchased it during a deep sale. you should be able to get twice the light for half the price nowadays. and like Kevin, i have the turbo-smart charger _ it's worth it.

A.L.Breguet rides with a nightrider single light helmet mount. basically just another company's version of mine. he also has a pretty cool bar mount flash-lite style light (planet bike?), takes normal rechargeable batteries and for the money it's pretty damn nice. we both have rear red blinky lites. when we ride together with both nicad lights a blazin' we scare motorists.

in my experience motorists (and pedestrians) have shown more respect when i ride with a powerful light. my luminated rides being done in the eve/nite hours, and generally are 1 1/2 to 2 hour rides.

these lights are definately geek material but kinda fun!

[manet]

stevep swears by 'em for frog hunting and collecting night-crawlers.

[Tom]

At a certain point it's necessary for the rides before work, I use the L&M Arc HID and it's great. I said I was going to do some midnight rides during the summer but never did. I definitely will next year. There's also an overnight century done by some of the local loonies. That sounds like fun. I met a bunch of them one night, I had no idea what was coming at me. One you can figure out pretty fast, a half a dozen is a weird shape to try and understand. I was on my bike and what threw me was they weren't making any noise. That was cool.

[woolly]

I like riding at night. While I'm curious about the HID's and newer LED's, my Turbocat lights just won't quit.

For headlights, I run a 2-light setup on the handlebar, and a spot on my head. For taillights, I have a red blinky in the end of my handlebar, a larger/brighter one on the chainstay, and one on my messenger bag (if I'm carrying it). The low beam on the handlebar is a 10w 20deg flood, and the high beam is a 12deg medium spot. The one on my head is a 10w 10deg medium spot.

For commuting, especially in an urban setting, I highly recommend a helmet-mount light. You can quickly move the light directly where you want to see (i.e. at that dog that's running at you from the side, or directly at that motorist who is behaving like they haven't noticed you yet). It helps to both see and be seen. It's also a big help when changing a flat or other repairs.

I also very much recommend more than one flasher in the rear. Make yourself visibile!

While I feel that the Turbocat products are very high quality, it's the extended run-times of the HID's and LED's that may turn my head when it's time for something new (but that won't be until one of my current batteries reaches the end of it's useful life).

[djg]

And just to follow-up on a couple of the posts--yep, a rear light is key too, if you're not riding solo in the wilderness. There are all sorts of options--one that I've got mounted on the commuter is a niterider blinkie that's inexpensive and pretty darn visible. znfndl swears by his dinotte, which apparently is sort of a torch, but it's pricey.

[Bradford]

I always liked riding with a light when commuting but hate it for normal rides. So if I'm not commuting, I have no interest in riding in the dark.

[znfdl]

djg: thanks for the compliments.

My spare L&M is making the rounds as Too Tall is now using it.

I also gave Too Tall a Dinotte tailight for Hanukah, Too Tall feels that it is too bright for the bike path so he turns it off. However, when I am riding on the road to get to the bike path, cars give me a 6 foot berth, as I have the rear light on blink, which is blinding.

The L&M HID on the front and the Dinotte on the rear is a great combination.

[Too Tall]

I've got two setups. For commuting nothing beats massive stupid overkill. My regular commuter setup is a niterider HID that has a fairly wide beam compared to ZNFNDLs loaner L&M which is one heck of a nice unit...my nitrider is out for repair...don't ask For everything else I've conccur with Dauwhe. If you *might have to change batteries on a long night ride...DON'T!!! Use the schmidt lumotech system with their light, it rawks! I made a bracket for the light that attaches to the front QR and the light is fabooo It is not massive overkill like an HID but hey! It was good enough for two fast PBPs.

[rdparadise]

I've done a regular Tuesday night ride year around now for about six years. We start at 5:30 and do approximately a 28 mile loop. As long as black ice is not a factor, our group pretty much rides. I like riding in the winter because it helps maintain my fitness level for summer cycling.

We typically ride 1-3mph slower than our summer pace for safety purposes. I use a $75 Cygolite that I bought from REI but can be had just about anywhere. It has two six watt beams and will last (advertised/not tested) up to six hours on a full charge and only one beam lit. I usually ride with the one beam and it's fine for seeing the road. Towards the end of the ride I go to double beams for about the last 10 miles. This light is reasonably priced and does the trick for night riding.

In the rear, I recently purchased a blackburn blinky light that is a killer on the eyes. Some of our clan has this very same light and it's so bright I can't stand riding directly behind them.

Take care and good luck. It's worth riding at night. I would encourage you to find a group to ride with however, just incase you do crash. It's good to have somebody around to call for help.

Happy New Year!

Bob

[Ginger]

L&M Arc Lion HID...yeah, what they said. Helmet mount for commuting.
Bar mount for riding with others unless you're VERY careful not to look at anyone when you're talking to them.
Why helmet mount for commuting? When cars come in from the sides and roll their stop sign I can fill their car with light. Gets their attention...they think I'm a UFO. And that's just fine with me. Still working on the rear blinkys...I usually run several on the bike and one on the helmet.
I'll have to check out the Dinotte.

A weird experience with lights: Riding a mtb trail backwards with lights and having 30 riders (with lights) coming the other way...Spooky in the woods like that! Woods lights up bright as day as everyone passes, then closes back down to your one light. Makes everything darker. Fun! (Of course, it really sucks because everyone looks at you...eeeg, helmet mount lights! Takes about five minutes to get any night vision back...)

[rbtmcardle]

Just purchased (1 month ago) the Dinotte 5w headlight and 3w taillight package. Perfect for my 14 mile commute, often I ride both ways in the dark and my niterider 15w wouldnt hold up for both directions, its nice and light and very well made. Of course I would like it brighter but its comparable to my niterider on the medium setting.
It also doesnt interfere with my wireless computer.