I need a new front light - 2 modes only will do , nothing fancy.

[Ming the Merciless]

LEDs IME don't really dim like that as the battery power drops. And you aren't usually looking at the rear one anyhow

If you’d done many decades of cycle commuting you’d notice and yes you would. They do dim, you just haven’t got enough experience to have noticed these things. You need to get in habit of looking at your rear lights properly. Which if you regularly cycle commuted in the dark would have become a habit.

 

[Alex321]

If you’d done many decades of cycle commuting you’d notice and yes you would. They do dim, you just haven’t got enough experience to have noticed these things.

I have not ridden with a front light that does so for many years - and while the rear light may well be doing so, you are not going to n otice that until you stop.

The front lights I have had for several years now have all had multiple modes, and not only have some form of indicator which lets you know well before the battery power would be low enough for that to happen, but most of them automatically switch to a much lower power mode if it gets down to just a few minutes left on the current one. I can only recall one occasion when I have allowed one to get low enough for it to do that auto switch.

It is just possible that in that final autoswitched mode, the light will go even dimmer in the last few minutes before the battery gives out, but fortunately, I've never found that out.

And "decades of cycle commuting" will make little difference to my knowledge of this, given that I would never buy a light that couldn't easily cope with a full one-way journey, and be easily recharged in the office between going in and leaving. My current light would usually manage the round trip, even in December/January, but only because about a third of each direction is under street lights when I put it into "day flash" mode.

When I commuted by bike regularly for about a decade previously, that was in the days of the old Eveready D-Cell lights, but the whole of my route then had street lights, so I didn't need the light to see with, only to be seen by.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

And "decades of cycle commuting" will make little difference to my knowledge of this

Of course it would, you’d develop superior habits and knowledge and you wouldn’t get surprised your light has run out of battery when it’s been telling you for some time. Experience of day after day of riding at night thousands of times, you develop knowledge you won’t get from riding once in a blue moon at night. Not quite sure why you don’t get this.

What you are saying is a bit like saying someone who has just completed a programming course has as much knowledge as someone who’s done it for decades.

 

[Alex321]

Of course it would, you’d develop superior habits and knowledge and you wouldn’t get surprised your light has run out of battery when it’s been telling you for some time. Experience of day after day of riding at night thousands of times, you develop knowledge you won’t get from riding once in a blue moon at night. Not quite sure why you don’t get this.

What you are saying is a bit like saying someone who has just completed a programming course has as much knowledge as someone who’s done it for decades.

No it isn't.

I'm not talking about somebody riding "once in a blue moon at night", that is your idea. And while that idea does fit the concept of not having been cycle commuting for decades, so does commuting regularly for several years.

I have a decent amount of experience of riding at night, including commuting. Not "decades" using LED lights (though they haven't been available as front light for more than about 15 years), but several years of riding quite frequently after dark, including commuting twice a week, and normally out on the bike at least two of the other week nights, after work. With about 2/3 of my commute and most of my non-commute cycling being on unlit roads.

And I have never been "surprised your light has run out of battery when it’s been telling you for some time" because the front lights I have had have always indeed told me - but not by getting gradually dimmer as the charge runs down, rather by more visible indicators on the body of the light.

 

[MontyVeda]

they are good lights , i manage with 2 on unlit lanes but as i said i cant change modes with gloves which is a pita

...and unless you want high beam, you have to change mode!

I reckon the reason the battery of the Moon lasts so much less than the Aldi one is because the Moon starts on high and needs be scrolled down to low beam, whereas the Aldi light starts on low beam and only goes to power zapping high beam if I opt for it. The specs for both lights are about the same; 90mins on high and 8hrs on low IIRC.

 

[Alex321]

Look you’ve already admitted you don’t look at / check your rear lights properly. You can’t tell they dim noticeably before they run out of charge, when they do. Led lights have been around somewhat more than 15 years and longer than you’ve been riding. Why not just admit your “knowledge” isn’t as sound as you think it is?

NOBODY checks their rear lights enough to be able to notice if they are dimming slightly in the middle of a ride.

LED tail lights have indeed been around since the 90's. But LED front lights bright enough to see with have only been around since about 2010.

You are arguing that certain things can’t be detected earlier when clearly they can.

I'm not arguing any such thing.

My initial post on this did say that LED lights don't get dimmer as the battery runs out. I have accepted that tail lights certainly may do, and it is just possible that even the "seeing with" front lights I am familiar with would do so if really run down to the limit - but I never let that happen, and have plenty of warning well before they would reach that situation.

 

[Alex321]

they are good lights , i manage with 2 on unlit lanes but as i said i cant change modes with gloves which is a pita

That is one of the benefits of the light I have now - it has a remote wireless switch that I can easily operate with gloves, that has two buttons. The small button just rotates through the various modes, but the larger button, when you have the light on high, toggles between full and "dipped" just like a car headlight.

But it was rather more expensive than the sort of thing the OP is looking for, at close to £100.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

NOBODY checks their rear lights enough to be able to notice if they are dimming slightly in the middle of a ride.

I do and a few friends do, check our lights each ride, so that’s already wrong. What you mean is YOU don’t check your lights, and have expolated that to every one else.

 

[Alex321]

I do and a few friends do, check our lights each ride, so that’s already wrong.

Really? I know you ride a recumbent, but even on that, I would have thought looking behind you enough to be sure of just how bright your rear light is would be rather counterproductive in terms of overall safety. Unless you ride very slowly, so you can afford to not look ahead as much.

A quick glance every now and then will tell you if it is going much dimmer than usual, but not if it is only reducing a bit.

I can see my rear light by looking down between my legs, and I will certainly check it pretty frequently to be sure it is still working, but I'm not going to see enough when doing that to detect a small reduction in brightness.

Just notice you edited to add "check our lights each ride", and I'm sure we all do that. I was talking about checking the brightness while you are actually riding (i.e. while in motion).

And now you have added even more, while I was typing

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Really? I know you ride a recumbent, but even on that, I would have thought looking behind you enough to be sure of just how bright your rear light is would be rather counterproductive in terms of overall safety. Unless you ride very slowly, so you can afford to not look ahead as much.

A quick glance every now and then will tell you if it is going much dimmer than usual, but not if it is only reducing a bit.

I can see my rear light by looking down between my legs, and I will certainly check it pretty frequently to be sure it is still working, but I'm not going to see enough when doing that to detect a small reduction in brightness.

Just notice you edited to add "check our lights each ride", and I'm sure we all do that. I was talking about checking the brightness while you are actually riding (i.e. while in motion).

And now you have added even more, while I was typing

I ride both recumbent and upright. It’s not hard to do the checks. I suggest you do it on your back to back commutes. I added the missing word “the”, no more 🙄 You added the bit about checking when in motion not I. I check them when stationary. I’m checking their brightness, not if they are just on, the former you can’t realistically do when in motion, and you need a properly dark section of road / track, the latter is trivial.

 

[cyberknight]

...and unless you want high beam, you have to change mode!

I reckon the reason the battery of the Moon lasts so much less than the Aldi one is because the Moon starts on high and needs be scrolled down to low beam, whereas the Aldi light starts on low beam and only goes to power zapping high beam if I opt for it. The specs for both lights are about the same; 90mins on high and 8hrs on low IIRC.

need the high beam for maybe 50% of the commute but other times its a bit overkill

 

[Alex321]

I ride both recumbent and upright. It’s not hard to do the checks. I suggest you do it on your back to back commutes. I added the missing word “the”, no more 🙄 You added the bit about checking when in motion not I. I check them when stationary. I’m checking their brightness, not if they are just on, the former you can’t realistically do when in motion, and you need a properly dark section of road / track, the latter is trivial.

Well when I said "in the middle of the ride", I kind of thought that implied in motion.

I don't tend to stop when I'm commuting, except for things like traffic lights (of which there are none on the unlit portion), and on other rides, I mainly only stop to take photos, which I tend not to do much in the dark.

I don't believe many people are going to stop every few minutes just to check their rear lights aren't starting to dim.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I don't believe many people are going to stop every few minutes just to check their rear lights aren't starting to dim.

Now you are moving your goal posts again by stopping every few minutes. Has anyone else suggested that on this thread?

 

[Alex321]

Now you are moving your goal posts again by stopping every few minutes. Has anyone else suggested that on this thread?

Well please tell me just what you did mean then, if it wasn't that.

How long does it take for your rear lights to go from noticeably dimmer to being no use? Because you have to be checking at lesser intervals than that if there is any point stopping to check.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Well please tell me just what you did mean then, if it wasn't that.

How long does it take for your rear lights to go from noticeably dimmer to being no use? Because you have to be checking at lesser intervals than that if there is any point stopping to check.

More than an hour, often a couple. Which is enough time to complete a commute, or replace batteries with charged up ones. If I’m doing a particularly long remote overnight ride, I’ll carry spare batteries and can replace straight away.