Bicycle lights for beginners??

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si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
I will probably be riding on a mixture of both? Would this mean I would need a different type of bicycle light depending on what sort of roads I would be cycling on?

Riding on lit vs unlit roads is the difference between getting lights to be see, or getting lights to see by. I find that anything over 200lumens, with a properly focused beam, allows you to do both adequately. If you are planning on riding down steep descents or twisty off road tracks, then you need more light.

Cheaper lights often have extremely poor optics, as well as vastly overrated lumen counts. Optics are important as they spread the light out evenly over a usable area, and better optics don't cause oncoming traffic (human powered or otherwise) to be dazzled. Cheaper ebay lights put out a lot of light focused on a very small point, which means that they are less useful.

Getting a reputable brand such as Lezyne, Exposure or the like means you can trust that the light you get will be useful, at the advertised level, and likely to get runtimes that approach the values quoted.

Getting a higher powered light doesn't mean that you have to use all that power, Mrs C uses a Lezyne 300 and finds it extremely good for getting around on unlit roads as it lets her see where she is going, and when around town on lit roads, she just uses the flash mode, which uses less power.

I use a 1200lumen front light, but rarely put it above 200 lumens except upon the worst road surfaces, I usually get a full weeks commute out of it on that setting before it needs recharging.

I'm not going to suggest a particular option for you to get, rather the above is more to give you some food for thought before buying. But it boils down to, for the most part, more money gets you a more powerful front light, which gives you more options for different road surfaces, desired run time and brightness.

Rear lights are perhaps less important to worry about in terms of options, I tend to run 2, one which runs on AAA batteries (a £10 own brand unit from Evans) as well as a USB charged rear for around £20, both give out about 15 lumens of light, I have one on flash, one steady. Both are quite visible from a distance, you don't need to go for the nuclear option in terms of brightness with a rear light, as you are not hoping to illuminate the road, just highlight your presence.

In addition to lights you may want to look at reflectives as from the rear these can be more effective than lights, especially in traffic. I have some on my rucksack, as well as strips on the backs of my shoes, and Mrs C has tires which have reflective sidewalls meaning she's very visible from the side.

Apologies for the long response, but hopefully it'll give you something think about.
 

r04DiE

300km a week through London on a road bike.
I will probably be riding on a mixture of both? Would this mean I would need a different type of bicycle light depending on what sort of roads I would be cycling on?
What @si_c says, above in his excellent and comprehensive post.
 

Heltor Chasca

Out-riding the Black Dog
I found a Fenix BTR 20 on eBay for 50% off. So £50 posted. It's an awesome light. I've used it on two 20km off road night rides. You will need a rear light as well.

(I have posted this in answer to your question over on another forum, for the benefit of forumites here, because I like the light so much)
 

KnackeredBike

I do my own stunts
I will probably be riding on a mixture of both? Would this mean I would need a different type of bicycle light depending on what sort of roads I would be cycling on?
You need brighter lights on unlit roads because you need to illuminate the road in front of you. On areas with good lighting you can rely on street lights and just need lights so cars can see you.

In general bright lights tend to have a dim or flashing setting to save battery in lit areas.

My advice would be

Get lights that are well built as well as bright. I bought an Aldi special which was very bright but had a bracket made of cheese which had to be rebuilt with sellotape and hairbands.

Get lights that you can get on and off your bike easily because again it will be tedious doing it hundreds of times if they are a PITA. And if they are easy you are more likely to use them on murky "I could get away without them" mornings.

Get lights that are rechargeable using a standard phone charger (so you don't need to cart special chargers around with you). It quickly gets tedious putting batteries in and out and if they're easy to charge they're easy to keep charged when you want to take a detour/unexpected trip/forget to put them on charge.

As others have said be aware that beam pattern is important. There is no point illuminating the tree canopy or oncoming driver's eyes.

I really like the Knog lights which are inexpensive but I would only use them on unlit roads I know well.
 

Bazzer

Setting the controls for the heart of the sun.
Part of the problem you face is that lights are frequently sealed when on the shelves in a bike shop and even if they not, unless you can find a dark backroom, the light pattern you will experience on a bike on a dark ride isn't clearly visible.
Also more leds doesn't mean more light. I have a Catseye with 5 leds. It has an odd light pattern, but that aside it is adequate for lit roads, but not one for speeding along unlit roads. By contrast my Torchy light which has a single led, illumiminates unlit roads excellently. The downside is the shorter battery life with the brighter beam.
 

RoubaixCube

~Tribanese~
Location
London, UK
Smart Luna R1 for rear

If you can increase your budget a little more you can buy a Fluxient U2 Mini from Torchy on ebay - its a complete package, comes with 2x3400mAh batteries and a little charger where you can recharge the batteries from a USB port.

I own and use the same light. -- Its a lot of light for your money. for unlit or dimly lit country roads it should be more than enough, It throws out plenty of light
 

Jody

Stubborn git
If you can increase your budget a little more you can buy a Fluxient U2 Mini from Torchy on ebay - its a complete package, comes with 2x3400mAh batteries and a little charger where you can recharge the batteries from a USB port.

If you're going down the LED torch route I would highly recommend one of these. Bought one to use on my lid along side the X2 when off road. Not stupid bright but it lights up really well, weighs nothing and costs very little. £1.99 delivered although you do need to source a battery/charger

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SKYWOLFEY...920907?hash=item58f08d674b:g:xqIAAOSwcUBYGaiW
 

Darren Gregory

Rides a Pinnacle Arkose 3 and a Trek Emonda SL6
I too have the Fluxient U2 and have been very impressed. I use it as a "be seen light" as I am often on flat country roads so going relatively quickly and it is not quite bright enough to see. I use this inconjunction with another brighter light that helps with the country lanes. In the short stints I cycle with street lights the U2 is sufficient. At lower speeds it might be okay to use on the country lanes but slow is dull.

I use it for five hours per week and then charge it at the weekend, I'm not sure how long it actually runs before it runs dead though.

The U2 gets the thumbs up from me and Torchy's website seems very thorough and informative. I caveat that with the fact that I am no expert in lights.
 

Sham69

Über Member
One advantage of a very bright front light when cycling country lanes at night is that on-coming motorists tend to see our lights before they get line of sight of us and dip their headlights early, i.e. before blinding us. Before I switched to a double Cree XM-L U2 light, I used a 10W halogen (which I considered reasonably bright) but on-coming motorists were often annoyingly late to dip - if at all.

Now I'm using high powered lights, on-coming traffic tends to be much more courteous in that they frequently give way to me on narrow roads. Motorists probably think I'm a motor vehicle because this rarely happens in daylight. Of course, we cyclists have a responsibility to dip (or reduce power of) our very bright front lights when necessary too.

Agree that Torchy's website is a useful resource.
 
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