Night Riders

[rocknrollgirl]

Hi,
Any night riders out there? I am looking to get a bike light to do some night mt biking, and the darn things are so $$$$$, I want to make sure I get it right the first time. What do you have, and do you like it. Head light or bike light???

Thanks,
Ruth

[pkq]

Nite Rider HID - it throws lots of bright, white light, which are great for my old eyes. It's pricey but well worth it.

[Veronica]

We've been looking at lights since I'll be doing some double centuries this year. At least one of which has a fairly gnarly descent in the dark, so I want lots of light and lots of battery life.

I think I'll be getting the Jet Starfire - lots of light and a six hour battery life. I want a handlebar mount. I don't like the idea of something on my helmet. They have the same light for the helmet. It's called the Phantom.

My advice, don't try to make something cheap work. We have a bunch of CatEyes collecting dust in our garage. My current light is a Light and Motion Vega. It's great for night time road riding, not sure if it has enough side spill for mountain biking. It's battery lasts two hours.

Veronica

[Embellina]

I only ride a road bike, but maybe this will be useful to you or others in my shoes. I work nights and started bike commuting earlier this year. I bought a Nite Rider Trail Rat (about $100, can be adapted to go on either the handlebars or the helmet) and I've been very satisfied with it. Some of the streets I ride home are pitch black and it produces enough light for me to stay at about 15 mph and see clearly. I decided on the handlebar mount because I'm using to car headlights with a forward-looking field of vision. My LBS owner loved the Nite Rider products and other riders who I talked to before buying also recommended them.

[SadieKate]

I have an L&M ARC HID. I only have the NiMH battery so run time is only 3.5 hours on the low setting. The biggest Lithium battery will give you 6 hours on low. One reason I bought it is because it can be a handlebar mount or a helmet light. Seems the overwhelming number of mountain bike riders say you have to put your main light source on your helmet so the beam is always pointed where your eyes are aimed. For really fast or technical riding, you need to put a light in both places. For the simple flatland riding we're doing around here, I added a Cateye EL400 to my hemet just for a backup. When I do any night time trail riding, I'll switch. My bike goes where my head goes so I want the light to do the same thing.

Hubby bought a NiteRider Dual Classic because it has two beams and puts out a ton of light. The newer version has scaled down the size of both the light and the battery so it could be out on a helmet. This light is not an HID and I have to say I prefer the HID bulb in mine. I see better detail with it.

[Veronica]

Here are a couple of sites you can use to compare various lights.

http://www.mtbr.com/spotlight/lightshootout/

http://eddys.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=493

Veronica

[SalsaMTB]

I ride with a Nite Rider Evolution for both road and mountain (~$130). It gives off enough light for me to be comfortable. I just couldn't fork over the cash for a HID without knowing how serious I would be about night riding (which I ended up loving). I've been really satisfied with it and def recommend it. It can be mounted on the handle bars or the helmet, I prefer the helmet mount. While on the trail, it's obvious when someone has a HID, they're super bright, but for me, the halogen gets the job done.

Also, in case you don't already have one, be sure to get a rear light. They're pretty cheap and worth the money. You def need it for road riding and for mountain biking I found that many of the parks with the trails are closed so I had to ride a little distance on the road. I felt much safer with the rear light on for the short ride to the trail. For rear lights, I have two different kinds. One is a Nite Rider and has 3 LEDs in a row. You can set it to blink, stay on, or each LED blink seperately. It's a surprisingly bright light that can be seen from a decent distance. I like this light a lot and highly recommend it. The other light I got from REI and I do not like it at all. It was late, the lbs was closed and I was about to go for a trail ride and wanted a taillight. It's a Blackburn Mars 2.0 and a total piece of crap. It's big and bulky and doesn't give off even close to what the other light does. Lesson learned on this....just because it's bigger, doens't mean it's better

[Melody]

I like my Light & Motion ARC HID and I've got the small Lithium Ion battery. It is _not_ inexpensive but since I commute via my bike and I routinely leave after 7pm it's worth every penny I spent.

The other thing you should consider when looking at lights is not if you can see ok when it's a nice night out, but can you see when the weather is not good, if you ride in such weather. Since I commute via bike, rain or shine, this was very important, especially since I have a little bit of night blindness. The L&M ARC HID fits the bill to a T.

For rear light I use a Cateye TL-1000. It uses 10 superbright LEDs in total, 5 on top and 5 on bottom. Four of these 10 are used to illuminate the side of the light so you end up with six rear facing super bright LEDs, two superbrights on the left and two on the right. Helps cars coming at you from the side see you.

Other lighting that's also on the bike are hokey spokes on the front wheel, for even more side make-the-car-see-you-in-the-darkness-with-colorful-patters lighting.

Mel
(Who's not quite completely gone but has been busy for months do to work)
[HI EVERYONE! ]

[jobob]

Well hello stranger, how 'ya been !?! Glad to see you haven't abandoned us completely

That's great that you commute by bike. I've done it a bit but I'm very indimidated by riding in the dark.

But some of these lamps you all have been talking about make it a bit less daunting. Thanks for the websites, v.

hmmmmm ....

[Selkie]

I like my Light & Motion ARC HID and I've got the small Lithium Ion battery. It is _not_ inexpensive but since I commute via my bike and I routinely leave after 7pm it's worth every penny I spent.

The other thing you should consider when looking at lights is not if you can see ok when it's a nice night out, but can you see when the weather is not good, if you ride in such weather. Since I commute via bike, rain or shine, this was very important, especially since I have a little bit of night blindness. The L&M ARC HID fits the bill to a T.

For rear light I use a Cateye TL-1000. It uses 10 superbright LEDs in total, 5 on top and 5 on bottom. Four of these 10 are used to illuminate the side of the light so you end up with six rear facing super bright LEDs, two superbrights on the left and two on the right. Helps cars coming at you from the side see you.

Mel
(Who's not quite completely gone but has been busy for months do to work)
[HI EVERYONE! ]

I have the same system as Mel on my after-dark bike. The L&M headlight is very bright and lights up the whole trail. I've had a lot of compliments on it from other bikers. I feel safe and seen when I have it on. I found it on sale at performancebike.com in the fall---saved about $100. Regardless, it was still an expensive light but I consider it an investment. The taillight is great, too, and not very expensive. In addition, I have some small, cheapo LED lights that I put on my bike and can hook onto my jacket. You also might consider putting reflective tape on your helmet and wheel rims.

You can't be lit up enough when riding after dark.

[Melody]

Well hello stranger, how 'ya been !?! Glad to see you haven't abandoned us completely

Hi jobob! Nope haven't abandoned y'all completely, just been super busy with work, life, etc. Still riding too I haven't been going out and about as much for fun rides though. :/ The Bianchi is just too heavy now that it has even more equipment on it. I've installed a new rack that sits on the front called a C.E.T.M.A. rack (found at http://cetmaracks.com/). It's 12" x 17" and 5 pounds or so, but it lets me take the weight off of my back.

Since the bike is so heavy and I don't enjoy pushing that much weight to go on a fun ride, hubby and I went looking at bicycles yesterday (woot!). Right now the Lightspeed Firenze is the leader. It's more than we really wanted to spend, but oh my is it fun to ride. The titanium just eats up the bumps but it's still very responsive.

Hope everyone is doing well I'm going to try to catch up on some of the posts on the boards since I'm at home at the moment. Stupid cold. O.O

Mel

[nicolezoie]

I commute year round, and the object of my game for night riding is others to be able to see ME.

I have:

Flashing white LED clipped to my helmet visor.
Flashing red LED light clipped to my backpack.
Flashing red LED light attached just below my saddle.
Bar-ends.
"Firefly" valve stem caps, they're Toys, but VERY effective.

I also have a 5w & 10w halogen pair clipped to my bars, one aimed at the road, one aimed at oncoming traffic The battery is made by Nightstick, but for the life of me I can't recall the rest. The battery lasts only about 1.5 hours but I bought it a couple years ago.

If you wait till the end of the season, alot of bike shops put night-riding light systems on special. I got a terrific deal on mine because of that.

There's a joke among some of my friends that I'm lit up like a Christmas tree, but I'd rather get bizzare looks than not be seen. And, at one point in time I actually had a set of battery-powered christmas lights clipped to my backpack, so the joke is half serious.

[rocknrollgirl]

Thanks for all of your feedback. Any other night riding mt bikers out there???

[tattiefritter]

I night ride offroad regularly, going out tonight in fact. I can't wait as its cold but dry here in my part of the UK, my favourite conditions (just got to watch out for the ice when it most likely freezes tonight!). I run a Solstice HID light (the lamp unit is actually made/sold in the US by Trailtech), it was a good price for a HID (£250 GBP) at least by UK prices.

I chose a HID after borrowing someone elses halogens for my first few night rides and hating the fact that you had to be careful which beam you had on when and for how long due to the paltry burn time (2 hours on lowish), our night rides often push the two hour mark and I don't like having to faff with things once we are underway - fit and forget for me. My HID has a five hour burn time on high (actually its only setting), this generally gets me a night ride and a commute (hour each way) without having to charge the battery in between. It also has a Lithium battery which is light and can be left on charge (for days - oops) without worrying if you are going to destroy it through overcharging. As it is ridiculously bright when I use it for commuting and it noticeably stops drivers pulling out on me, which is worth the price alone. I felt exposed commuting in the summer without it.

I have the light on the bars as our night riding is generally done on open moorland and rocky tracks, it does make getting round some corners interesting but that all adds to the fun. if I was regularly night riding on tight twisty trails, or trails with lots of hairpin bends etc then I would definitely want a helmet light as well (the HID lamp is a bit heavy for putting on my helmet) or as the main light.

[SalsaMTB]

I LOVE night time mountaing biking. It's addiction, too bad it's winter here and sort of warm so the trails are unrideable. I can't wait until it gets warm again.