Maizie
Guru
- Location
- NE Hertfordshire
Yes, I know there are a gazillion topics on lights already. I’ve been reading them. I’m still at a loss of what to buy…
Commute is about 1 hour each way, probably about half street-lit (villages) and half non-lit (the bits in between the villages). Half busy A road, little bit of country lane, rest fairly quiet B road.
I am very concerned about being seen on the A road in particular (well, everywhere really, but the A road has more cars on it, going at a faster speed), and obviously I want to be able to see for all those bits without street lights.
This is new to me, as my previous commute was street-lights all the way so puny lights did me fine.
Front lighting.
Is having two Hope Vision 1s complete overkill? I have good quality batteries and charger already, so going for something like this seemed like a good plan. Then I thought for the price of two of these, I could nearly get Ay-ups. But then one Ay-up unit is only one thing, and out of paranoia I’d want a second completely independent thing just in case – and I can’t run to two sets of Ay-ups!
I know two front lights runs the risk of people thinking you are a car far-away, but one would be angled for seeing the road surface and the other for the cars seeing me. Are there lights better suited to each of these tasks?
Rear lighting.
Cheaper, much less discussed, and just as confusing.
I currently have a Cateye LD 1100, on the back plate of my rack. I want something else to go on seatpost/pannier/personage, again because I like having two independent lights just in case. I hunted around in the garage and it turns out that I also have a Smart 1/2 Watt light but is that good enough? I thinks Mars 4.0 and “Smart 1W something” are ones I’ve seen mentioned as worth getting but just wanted to know what anyone else thought was good.
I tend to think that you can’t be too visible, especially if you can mount the lights a different heights (so you don’t have two at the same height = distant car). I'd rather be overlit than underlit, anyway
Commute is about 1 hour each way, probably about half street-lit (villages) and half non-lit (the bits in between the villages). Half busy A road, little bit of country lane, rest fairly quiet B road.
I am very concerned about being seen on the A road in particular (well, everywhere really, but the A road has more cars on it, going at a faster speed), and obviously I want to be able to see for all those bits without street lights.
This is new to me, as my previous commute was street-lights all the way so puny lights did me fine.
Front lighting.
Is having two Hope Vision 1s complete overkill? I have good quality batteries and charger already, so going for something like this seemed like a good plan. Then I thought for the price of two of these, I could nearly get Ay-ups. But then one Ay-up unit is only one thing, and out of paranoia I’d want a second completely independent thing just in case – and I can’t run to two sets of Ay-ups!
I know two front lights runs the risk of people thinking you are a car far-away, but one would be angled for seeing the road surface and the other for the cars seeing me. Are there lights better suited to each of these tasks?
Rear lighting.
Cheaper, much less discussed, and just as confusing.
I currently have a Cateye LD 1100, on the back plate of my rack. I want something else to go on seatpost/pannier/personage, again because I like having two independent lights just in case. I hunted around in the garage and it turns out that I also have a Smart 1/2 Watt light but is that good enough? I thinks Mars 4.0 and “Smart 1W something” are ones I’ve seen mentioned as worth getting but just wanted to know what anyone else thought was good.
I tend to think that you can’t be too visible, especially if you can mount the lights a different heights (so you don’t have two at the same height = distant car). I'd rather be overlit than underlit, anyway