Night Riding

[LyndaW]

Another +1 for Ay Ups. They are small, light, bright and reliable. The batteries especially are the smallest, lightest and easiest to manage out of all the lights I have. If you have a 24 hour solo race on your radar Ay Ups will work nicely for that.

[Aggie_Ama]

After pricing other options I really am wanting the Ay-Ups. They are insane how bright they are and the people I know that have them have used other brands. So now I need to save or hit the lottery, the pack I want is about $450.

[MyRubyE]

I have the niterider as well. For road riding it's great and friends who use it for trail riding also mention it works well for them. They prefer the helmet mounts. I purchased the 150 lumens bar mount. For trail riding I woul go with higher lumens. The Cateye also makes trail lights.

[oz rider]

I rode a few hours a night through winter with AyUps. Awesome. Could you start with the smaller kit and add to it as funds permit? There's a sale on at the moment too. ;-)

[Purehoney]

Led lights are the way to go. Just make sure you are serious about night riding because it is somewhat expensive and you can always ride in the day without lights =)

[TsPoet]

Just a warning - inexpensive lights don't do it! I wasted a lot of money trying not to spend a lot of money. I ended up with Dinottes, which I really like. If I had it to do over, I'd probably get Ay-ups.

[tangentgirl]

I'm a fan of the planet bike lights. I have one of these on the front: http://www.teamestrogen.com/prodPB_3029.html -I like it because it slides off easily so I don't always have to have a light on my bike. I have this on the back: http://www.teamestrogen.com/prodPB_2008.html. I've had people tell me they can see be from waaaaaay back at night with that. Woohoo!

[Catrin]

I have the niterider as well. For road riding it's great and friends who use it for trail riding also mention it works well for them. They prefer the helmet mounts. I purchased the 150 lumens bar mount. For trail riding I would go with higher lumens. The Cateye also makes trail lights.

I am debating this very thing - would a helmet light be better for my country roads - or a handlebar mount? Both? My primary concern is being able to see where I am going - though of course it helps to BE seen - but I know that a lot of bike lights being sold are to help you to be seen by others - not necessarily for riding unlit country roads. I need to see potholes far enough away to do something about it...

[Becky]

I am debating this very thing - would a helmet light be better for my country roads - or a handlebar mount? Both? My primary concern is being able to see where I am going - though of course it helps to BE seen - but I know that a lot of bike lights being sold are to help you to be seen by others - not necessarily for riding unlit country roads. I need to see potholes far enough away to do something about it...

On-road, I find that a high-output bar-mount light is enough to see where I'm going. I don't fuss with a helmet-mount light unless I'm in singletrack.

Right now, I'm still using my ~500 lumen light for commuting. I won't switch to the ~100 lumen light until it's at least twilight or lighter when I leave in the morning. One of the downsides to being underlit is that I have to slow down in order to see things in time to react, and I don't like that option when I'm trying to get to work on time

Check out MTBR for lots of good light info: http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/category/lights-shootout/

[sundial]

Aggie, I have been very pleased with my NiteRider MiNewt and MiNewt mini helmet light as well. The newer bike lights that are hitting the market now are cordless and are very bright. I don't know what your preference is regarding helmet lights but you may or may not need one with the new gen lights.

[Catrin]

Would you say a Stella 150 light would be more for "being seen" rather than for use on unlit roads? I don't want to find out the hard way that it isn't bright enough so figured this would be the best place to ask. Am considering selling it to help fund something more powerful.

Thank you for the links, I will explore the reviews tonight once the snow starts falling