Lighting Advice

[wildhawk]

We have twin LED lights on our bikes which work great at dusk when we are returning from the park, but the other night we were riding home later than usual and they were just not bright enough to light the path very far. Do any of you have recommendations on lights for night riding? Again, we searched the web and the prices were astounding - anywhere from $20 to $500+. We do have a limited budget and would like to keep the cost at $60 or below. Thanks!

[PscyclePath]

State law in most places requires that you have a white headlight in the front and a red tail light in the back -- both visible for at least 500 feet -- if you're going to be out riding during hours of darkness... which is usually defined as between half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. Some states will let you get away with only a red reflector in back, but it's best to run active lights. Lights have two purposes -- to help motorists and other road users see you, and to let you see where you're going. My experience is that if you take care of the latter, the former will take care of itself.

One headlight that I really like is the Cateye EL-520. This is an LED light that runs on 4 AA batteries (which you can get almost anywhere should they go out on you). It throws a nice wide beam of light that makes it easy to see where you're going. Building on a suggestion from another LCI, I strapped two of these things to my handlebars the week before last, and it was like riding with car headlights, pretty much as much light, and much cheaper than one of the more expensive Light & Motion or Cygo-Lite rigs.

I've run a Gygo-Lite NiteRider II for about two years now, and have been very happy with it. Again, excellent lighting on the trails and roads, and dual beams, one "high" and one "low." The only real drawback is the short life on the (rechargeable) batteries. -- a little over two hours, and about an hour if you run both beams simultaneously.

For tail lights, it's really hard to beat the Planet Bike Superflash.

The secret to safe riding at night is to obey all traffic laws and signals, ride defensively, and light yourself up like a Christmas tree.

Tom

[wildhawk]

Thanks Tom!
We already have twin flashing tailights on the rear rack with multiple light patterns. It was just our twin headlights that seemed too dim - they are o.k. for dusk riding. We were looking at some Cateye models, so thanks for your suggestions - we will definately check them out.

[luvmypwds]

Good (and brave of you) for you for venturing out even in the dark. It's going to be a while before I work up to that! I find biking in broad daylight scary, let alone night time. I am really quite intimidated by traffic I have to say.

[Becky]

Watch www.chainlove.com. They occasionally post some killer deals on bike lights there, like a Light & Motion Vega for $75 (normally ~$200)!

Good lights are, IME, a worthwhile investment. I love this bike light "shoot out": http://eddys.com/page.cfm?pageID=493. It really defined for me what I was getting by spending more, and what I could expect. The shootout pics show the Cateye EL-520 to be pretty darn bright- might be a really good choice!

Good luck shopping!

[Flur]

You should do a search of the forums for headlight, lights, lighting, etc. I found a lot of info from that when I was looking for a headlight for my bike.

[alpinerabbit]

Knog bullfrogs?

I'd love something with a rechargable module but the one I once bought lasted maybe a season of recharging before the battery was dead.

[wildhawk]

Thanks everyone! We are going to some LBS this afternoon and check out some lights. Nice day for it too since we have a 40% chance of rain today, but 10% on Sat. and Sun. We switched our bike ride until tomorrow.

[PscyclePath]

Knog bullfrogs?

I'd love something with a rechargable module but the one I once bought lasted maybe a season of recharging before the battery was dead.

I've tried the Bullfrog... It's more along the category of a "be seen" light than a "see where you're going" light. Now, you can ride home with the derned thing, but you need to go pretty slow so as not to out-ride the distance the light lets you see in front of you.

Those little blinky "frog" lights are pretty good... I use one on blinky mode as sort of a daylight running light, and as an added bit of visibility after dark. I've ridden home with one of those as the front headlight, too... and recommend a much bigger light for safety & peace of mind. That was another reason for strapping two of those Cateye 320s up front... if one goes out, you've still got a reliable light to get home by.

Tom

[sfa]

Good lights are, IME, a worthwhile investment. I love this bike light "shoot out": http://eddys.com/page.cfm?pageID=493. It really defined for me what I was getting by spending more, and what I could expect. The shootout pics show the Cateye EL-520 to be pretty darn bright- might be a really good choice!

Good luck shopping!

Great link--thanks!

[Becky]

The rechargeable LED L&M Vega is back up on chainlove.com. Only $75....get 'em while they last!

[TsPoet]

Dinotte are the best LED lights out there, and they are having one of their sales (~$100), these lights are small, easy to deal with AA batteries and the work great.
http://store.dinottelighting.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=dinotte&StoreType=BtoC&Count1=875576198&Count2=792716622

[Zen]

I like that Eddy's bike Shop page.

I just bought a light but may get one of these (http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/16609-225_NITUM7-2-Accessories-35-Lights/Niterider-UltraFazer-Max-LED-Alkaline/NiMH-Commuter-Light-offer?utm_source=MTBR&utm_medium=datafeed&utm_campaign=FTP&offer=IN080MTP.htm&zmam=3075515&zmas=1&zmac=17&zmap=225%20NITUM7)