knonist said:
I got a cateye EL530 last year and it it was fine for road use.
However, I have extended my commute from 5miles per day to 20miles per day (return), which included a stretch of 4 miles of un-lilted country lane each way.
I’m considering if I should purchase 2 tesco 3W to replace the EL530 or buy a fenix LD20 in conjunction with the EL530.
My concern is not being seen by drivers(as I’m sure I can be seen), but to have the light which is bright enough for me to see the road, I just don’t want to ran over an animal / their body or a pothole in the dark.
I've got an EL530 on the front, with a smaller Cateye model (320, I think) that has a flash mode alongside it. On lit roads, I use the main one on steady and the smaller one on flash: the idea being that the flashing one draws attention and the steady one gives a fixed reference point for others.
On unlit roads, I used to use both on steady and that's good enough for my speeds.
I did find a slight issue on the short sections of off road on my way home in that the bar-mounted lights only point where the bars are pointing (no, really) and I like to look "through" the corners before I get to them .. due to the twisty nature of the bridleway I found there was a time when I was staring into darkness just before I got to the corner.
I experimented with positioning and angling of the Cateyes but couldn't really get it how I wanted, so I just bought one of those £8 Tesco torches and bodged it onto my helmet* with a couple of bits of old inner tube. It only gets used off-road and on the drop down the little lane into my village, 'cos that is narrow, tree-lined, unlit, dark and bumpy as a very bumpy thing.
The three together provide adequate light to give me confidence for 20+ mph down the lane and still avoid the craters. I just have to remember not to look anyone I met in the face when using the Tesco torch 'cos it tends to dazzle them a bit.
So you could get one (or two) of the Tesco jobs and use them to supplement, not replace, your existing Cateye.
* yep, I do worry a tiny bit what the implications would be should I come off and smack my head, but I kid myself that the torch would probably get torn off. Or not.