wiggydiggy
Legendary Member
I've just bought one of those, and a SeeMee 200 rear. Just be mindful it doesn't come with a bolt to attach it to the Garmin mount as standard, you need to order that seperate.
front light (to see by)
- Thread starter gbs
- Start date
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I've just bought one of those, and a SeeMee 200 rear. Just be mindful it doesn't come with a bolt to attach it to the Garmin mount as standard, you need to order that seperate.
froze
Veteran
- Location
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
I disagree with 400 lumen recommendation, you need between 800 to 900 lumens with a high capacity of 1100 to 1200 lumens or so. Why? because 400 lumens is not enough to see a lot of road imperfections, plus the high lumens project further down the road. Also the higher lumen capacity generally means you get a larger battery which means longer run times; if you only get a 400 lumen light the runtime will be around an hour, but if you get a 1200 lumen light the runtime will generally around 1 hour on 1200, but it will be roughly 4 hours on 400 to around 2 hours on 800.
There are a lot of good lights on the market. My experience has been that Lezyne lights are NOT any good, their batteries only last about 3 years before they will no longer accept a charge, and this goes for both their headlights and taillights. I have nothing against Lezyne, they make fantastic pumps, but I will never buy another light from them. The other issue that bugs me about lights is that most of them do not have replaceable batteries, so the LED might be good for 30,000 hours but the battery is only good for 3,000 hours, so now you throw away a perfectly good light because of the battery. That battery issue led me to buy Niterider Lumina Boost 1200, for about $35 plus postage to them, they will replace the battery, check all the electronics, seal it up and send it back.
Then I also use an old Philips Saferide 80 light because the more lights you have the more visibility you have. That light has a 400 lumen output but it is a cutoff beam so the effective beam is around 800 lumens on high, but I run it on low because it runs off of 4 AA rechargeable bats and on high it will only run for about an hour and 45 minutes, but on low for about 4 hours.
As far as I know no one makes a taillight that the battery can be replaced, but Niterider did mention that I can send it back and for $30 they'll replace the whole light, not sure how accurate that is because it seemed strange to me.
I also bought Niterider Omega 300 taillight, which is now called a 330, this is a very bright light that is highly visible even in broad daylight, I have it mounted to seat post; then I also have their Aero Sentry 260, this one is mounted to my helmet, this thing is fantastic at night both the rear and the sides of the light light-up, but because it's a cobb LED the light gets washed out during the day. I put the Aero Sentry on alternating flash, and the 300 on steady
Lastly use reflective stuff, including wide reflective ankle bands, and a nerdy safety vest with wide reflective strips that you can buy at any home improvement store.
Optionally you can buy a few tires that have reflective sidewalls, but those are tough to find in certain sizes.
There are a lot of good lights on the market. My experience has been that Lezyne lights are NOT any good, their batteries only last about 3 years before they will no longer accept a charge, and this goes for both their headlights and taillights. I have nothing against Lezyne, they make fantastic pumps, but I will never buy another light from them. The other issue that bugs me about lights is that most of them do not have replaceable batteries, so the LED might be good for 30,000 hours but the battery is only good for 3,000 hours, so now you throw away a perfectly good light because of the battery. That battery issue led me to buy Niterider Lumina Boost 1200, for about $35 plus postage to them, they will replace the battery, check all the electronics, seal it up and send it back.
Then I also use an old Philips Saferide 80 light because the more lights you have the more visibility you have. That light has a 400 lumen output but it is a cutoff beam so the effective beam is around 800 lumens on high, but I run it on low because it runs off of 4 AA rechargeable bats and on high it will only run for about an hour and 45 minutes, but on low for about 4 hours.
As far as I know no one makes a taillight that the battery can be replaced, but Niterider did mention that I can send it back and for $30 they'll replace the whole light, not sure how accurate that is because it seemed strange to me.
I also bought Niterider Omega 300 taillight, which is now called a 330, this is a very bright light that is highly visible even in broad daylight, I have it mounted to seat post; then I also have their Aero Sentry 260, this one is mounted to my helmet, this thing is fantastic at night both the rear and the sides of the light light-up, but because it's a cobb LED the light gets washed out during the day. I put the Aero Sentry on alternating flash, and the 300 on steady
Lastly use reflective stuff, including wide reflective ankle bands, and a nerdy safety vest with wide reflective strips that you can buy at any home improvement store.
Optionally you can buy a few tires that have reflective sidewalls, but those are tough to find in certain sizes.
This - I have a Fenix headtorch which is very good; if I wanted a dedicated on-bike light this is the only one I'd consider thanks to its replaceable battery and decent specs.
Everything with an integral battery is just landfill in waiting...
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Cateye Omni 5.
https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cateye-Omni-5-LED-Rear-Light_68134.htm
Slap a couple of those on, one flashing one solid, and you're good to go.
LucretiaMyReflection
Über Member
- Location
- The Flatlands
I suggest another consideration is beam shape. With a Cateye, the oval/round beam, it mimicked tunnel vision and made me nauseous. Probably something to do with my astigmatism. Not terribly helpful for a rural road commute in darkness, feeling wobbly!
The rectangular beam of the Ravemen 1600 suits me better, though now upgraded to a 2400.
Road.cc have a useful beam comparison tool https://road.cc/content/feature/roadcc-front-bike-lights-beam-test-310999
The rectangular beam of the Ravemen 1600 suits me better, though now upgraded to a 2400.
Road.cc have a useful beam comparison tool https://road.cc/content/feature/roadcc-front-bike-lights-beam-test-310999
LucretiaMyReflection
Über Member
- Location
- The Flatlands
E.g. about beam shape, from the link above, Ravemen vs Cateye
sevenfourate
Devotee of OCD
- Location
- Lowestoft, Suffolk
CatEye Aamp 900 suffices my needs. I’m sure there’s twice as good out there; but quite frankly I’m wondering when it’s needed - and if you do a few road miles like me; how you’d actually utilise it to full effect without pi55ing off every other road user ?
*Both pics below are on one of the lower to mid power settings and light is pointed fairly well down.
*Both pics below are on one of the lower to mid power settings and light is pointed fairly well down.
Lumens is pretty much useless for choosing a front light. It's the total light emitted and takes no account of the beam shape. Especially with a torch style beam, a bright light pointing low enough not to dazzle other road users might be a vision-destroying extremely bright patch just in front of the wheel whilst if you point it up enough to light the way ahead then most of those lumens could be lighting up the trees and dazzling any road user in front of you.
Lights complying with the German StVZO regs tend to have more useful beam shapes, with the light put on the road ahead without dazzling other road users. These lights tend to be rated by "lux" which measures the light at a particular spot - on the road 10m ahead of the lamp and is the usual way for rating such lights. This is much more useful but even then, some lights will use a lower output led and focus almost all the light at that 10m spot with very little long throw or side light.
A good StVZO front lamp will outperform a poorly designed torch style lamp with double the total lumens output.
The only battery/rechargeable StVZO front lamps I have experience of are the Aldi/Lidl ones, and I found them to be good. Their 40lux lights were ample for urban riding (even where street lights are turned off). My bikes now have dynamo StVZO front lights, most of them being Busch & Muller rated at 80 lux and they are very good for all night-time road riding I have done (and I've done quite a bit of it down winding single track country lanes); I also have a budget Buchel and a SON Ladelux - both very good - if you can find a Buchel rechargeable StVZO light (I don't know if they exist) then I would give it a go. Busch & Muller, Lezyne and Cateye all make recheargable/battery front StVZO lights but I have no personal experience of them.
Lights complying with the German StVZO regs tend to have more useful beam shapes, with the light put on the road ahead without dazzling other road users. These lights tend to be rated by "lux" which measures the light at a particular spot - on the road 10m ahead of the lamp and is the usual way for rating such lights. This is much more useful but even then, some lights will use a lower output led and focus almost all the light at that 10m spot with very little long throw or side light.
A good StVZO front lamp will outperform a poorly designed torch style lamp with double the total lumens output.
The only battery/rechargeable StVZO front lamps I have experience of are the Aldi/Lidl ones, and I found them to be good. Their 40lux lights were ample for urban riding (even where street lights are turned off). My bikes now have dynamo StVZO front lights, most of them being Busch & Muller rated at 80 lux and they are very good for all night-time road riding I have done (and I've done quite a bit of it down winding single track country lanes); I also have a budget Buchel and a SON Ladelux - both very good - if you can find a Buchel rechargeable StVZO light (I don't know if they exist) then I would give it a go. Busch & Muller, Lezyne and Cateye all make recheargable/battery front StVZO lights but I have no personal experience of them.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I usually go with two lights as I want to go a decent pace and have a degree of redundancy and I'll add a third light in the pitch black. The two lights which see most use both have built in straps so I can easily move them to another bike quickly.
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/a...-light/niterider-swift-500-front-light-review
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/accessories/lights/front-light/lezyne-micro-drive-800
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/a...-light/niterider-swift-500-front-light-review
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/accessories/lights/front-light/lezyne-micro-drive-800
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Nonsense. About 20 years ago my halogen off road light was 300 lumens and more than sufficient in the pitch black of woods.
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
I agree
50 years ago I had an ever ready with a leaky battery and I survived. But it was crap.
10 years ago (less, in fact as I only replaced it last year) I was riding with a Hope Vision One which was I think 250 lumens or thereabouts and that was just fine.
Now I have a Magicshine thingummy with a Knog Binder doodah as backup and I must say they are better. Both put out zillions of lumens, I don't know how much.
But if I had to dig out my HV1 and use that, it would be perfectly OK. It's far from inadequate.
Gwylan
Guru
- Location
- All at sea⛵
Listen, well at least read @freiston.
Lumens are just how much light pisses out of the bulb
It's a matter of how the optics, reflector and lense deal with the lumens.
Most of the optics are nicked design or just rubbish. Few makers publish their light distribution curves or the neglect to include any values.
If you want something decent then look out for the German norm. Not just some DIN or EC stamp.
Lumens are just how much light pisses out of the bulb
It's a matter of how the optics, reflector and lense deal with the lumens.
Most of the optics are nicked design or just rubbish. Few makers publish their light distribution curves or the neglect to include any values.
If you want something decent then look out for the German norm. Not just some DIN or EC stamp.
