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to think about when it gets dark earlier! :(
Hubby and I both work and it is after 5 p.m. before we can ride. I'm already dreading the day it gets dark at 5.
We have a nice safe Rails to Trails to ride on, so we don't have to worry about cars, but talk to me about LIGHTS for my bike.
Just an FYI...There's a wonderful search button at the top right side of the page...:) I know there are some good posts about lights from the past year..
C
Do a thread search for lights. There is some very good information here on lighting.
Sandra,
My DH and I buy things regularly from Peter White:
http://peterwhitecycles.com/index.html
He is a nice guy and he happens to specialize in lighting for bikes.
He probably doesn't sell the *cheapest* lights around, but he knows his stuff and if nothing else you could learn a few interesting facts about bike lighting from looking at his website. He sells lots of other cool stuff for bikes too. Most recently, I bought my big canvas Carradice Nelson touring saddle bag from him. :)
Oh, and don't overlook the importance of lots of reflective clothing, reflective tires, stickers, etc.
bikeforums.net has a discussion on both commuting - which has a lot of light threads and and discussion called electronics, lighting and gadgets - which also has a lot of light info.
DH went to some type of outdoor expo today with our son. He came home with two 18 LED headlights. $6.00 each. :eek: They can't be worth much, but he will use them for hunting too. I told him I was going to put mine on and go see if it was bright enough to take my bath. If it was not bright enough to bathe with, I know I won't ride with it. :D :cool:
I hesitate to post this because of his reputation, but we've become quite frustrated with Peter White Cycles and the sole reason I would recommend him now is that he's the only name in the business for generator lights in the US.
We now have 4 bikes with generator hubs (2 ordered from bike friday, 1 purchased from ebay and one purchased directly Peter White). The 2 from Bike Friday have halogen lights - no problem. The light that came from Peter White, and a replacement light for the Ebay bike (the original light was known to have burn out problems if ridden down hill) are both LED's. We hadn't done a lot of night riding, and hadn't had a chance to test them extensively, but have noticed massive computer interference. We called Peter White about it, and they asked us to do some testing, and stated they would contact the manufacturer if it couldn't be resolved. We did the requested testing (which took a considerable amount of time), and reported back. The response was that we should buy new computers because wireless ones aren't something something he recommends or that we should be using, and that he would not contact the manufacturer or exchange the lights or provide any additional assistance. He did update his webpage with incorrect information regarding the results of our test - he says we were able to get the problem to resolve. Not so.
So...If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Otherwise, I have the choice of buying 2 new computers (to replace the wireless ones that work great on my bikes except for the LED's, but that we "shouldn't be using") or 2 new lights from someone whose customer service I am already unhappy with (but who is the only US source that I know of).
To answer the original question, the hub generators are awesome if you're planning on doing night riding (except for this problem - which I see as more of a customer service issue). I would recommend the halogens because of the wonky problems we're seeing from the LED's. If you aren't sure you want to do a lot of riding, we've liked our Planet Bike Alias lights - very bright and can usually be found for about $100 each. The run time isn't great (~3 hours), but they are *bright*.
When it comes to headlights, I'd recommend quality over low price. Your life is worth it. I ride after dark on a regular basis, and a good light to see/be seen is a must.