“informal: a person who likes to be seen in trendsetting clothes in fashionable bars, discos, etc ”
As a cyclist, we refer to a poser as someone with a full cycling kit (clothes) and the best bike but can’t ride to save their life. They can’t be the part so dresses like it trying to fool others into believing they are all that. :cowboy_hat_face: In a related way, as a group, we always joke about looking good at the finish line. No matter how ugly you look suffering during a run or ride, always smile and look fresh when there are cameras and strangers. LOL! Once a camera man followed me up a hill during a race. That was the hardest 5 mins of a 2 1/2 ride!!! :Sp
Well, BLF, I’m a poser. I have a 2200 lumen Warrior, a recently built a 5A, U2, XM-L2 mag, numerous C8s and a couple 800 lumen bike lights and have no real use for any of these monsters except for the bike light. Only rarely I’ll go for a long ride in the middle of nowhere at night but most times, a 1400mA EDC light is sufficient. :~ WRT running, a 1400mA, 3 mode XPG light is good for everything.
Hahhahah! Ok. So, the sad reality is that in an urban area with good street lighting and houses everywhere, I don’t have anywhere to justify my lights in the immediate environment. Sometimes when there’s dust in the air, I’ll shine the light up and drool over the ‘light saber’ effect but otherwise, I’ll have to go out of my way to find quality dark.
YES, as a flashaholic, owning, building or modifying lights is sometimes good enough but the emptiness of not being able to use the lights gets to me sometimes.
Anyone else feels like this?
Those of you who use high powered lights, can you cheer me up and say in what circumstances you use them? Thanks.
Im an amateur weekend cyclist too and I know what you mean…totally lol man
As for my flashlights, they get very regular use. I don’t own a lumens monster as I have absolutely no need for it. Maybe if the need arises, I will someday ….or if I get rich!!
the only lights of any honest use to me are my work edc’s, I just like playing, I’ll certainly be playing with my trj19 tonight as my feilong 32650 cells have shown up at last. 8)
Hmm, I think the word used to be tyro but I get your drift. Used to see many of those when skiing in the days when I still had a disc or two. No worries. If you can laugh about it then at least you know the truth. (Honor vs reputation: what you know about yourself vs what others think they know. Guard the one and let the other take care of itself since you have no control over what anyone else thinks.) Paraphrased courtesy of Lois McMaster Bujold.
Is it dark in the park or the bright lights is mostly for people?
I envy you for more than one reason. I love the outdoors and totally enjoy trail running/riding. The pollution free sky is also breathtaking! Last year, we had a trail race that started at 4:30 in the morning. Sadly, medium mode on the 1400mA headlamp was the most that I needed. 0:)
Almost never. I probably don’t qualify . . my highest powered and most expensive light is only a DST with replacement XML and 4A driver running on parallel 18650s. Also don’t have streetlights, but I do have 7+miles of pitch black nature out back when the moon cooperates.
I'm in this flashlight modding thing to build specific lights for practical uses, well at least 90% of the time :) . That/ 10% is just for fun, but I keep it very budget oriented because in the end I have no real use for them other than playing.
I came to BLF for a very practical reason (better lights for my underground co-workers). Then I bought lights that were practical for my week long biking/camping touring trips. Then there's my lawnmower headlight conversion/upgrade project. My next mod project is a very practical cheap neutral white XM-L headlamp. Practical because it will only be driven at 1.4A with only H-M-L modes and provide a smooth wide flood.
The only time I'm able to ride my bicycle is at night .
For a couple of years my favorite light has been my TrustFire F-15 with an E1320 five mode driver . It's a little floodier than the usual C8 style light .
While I'm here , and to go even further off topic , I realized this past Thursday night that an important function of the TwoFish style bar mounts has not been discussed .
When I'm riding in the street , I aim my hotspot about ten feet in front of my bike , in order to be car and pedestrian friendly . Once into the rural areas , I aim my hotspot out till It just touches the road surface , which is way on out there . When going down a hill at ~ 30 MPH , I need the throw or I'll outrun my light .
The point is , the Velcro mounts allow for easy up-and-down adjustment of the beam .
most of the time all my “super” lights are just sitting on the shelf,
every now and then at night i pick one by one and turn it on for few seconds
sometimes i wish we have a black out so i can “wow” the crowd hehe :bigsmile:
This is the reason I sell mine... Well, one of the reasons. Since I live in a city, there's not any good reason for bothering with a flashlight, especially a high powered one. I have never had a need to use one yet. I keep one of my Maglites with a T6 in it, but I never turn it on, there's just no need for it.
Sad, but that's the way it is. I pose as a flashlight guy, but I have no need to even own one. The only light I use is the Thrunite T10 that was given to me and I use it to go from the office to the bed every night, when all the lights are off. That's it!
We live in the country in a small town rural area. Cattle, wheat, maise, some years back there was cotton, lot of feed corn. Not a lot of lights. And we get power outages fairly regularly. Most don’t last long, but ya just never know!
Yesterday, we got some badly needed rain. We got about 3”, nearby area’s got as much as 10” in less than 12 hours. Our lakes and stock tanks needed that, bad! Well, what we didn’t need was the leak in our roof! Dripping right onto the coffee table in the middle of the living room. Called the roofer, climbed in the attic with my modded K3 putting out a wall of light that really made the attic easy to maneuver in. Found the spot, roofer wanted the light. Bang! Roofer hits brace under rafter with modded light. Dark! Light goes dim, flickers dim, I kill it. We’re in pitch blackness. Who needs a light?
Ahhh, but I have my custom made Titanium Texas Poker hanging around my neck! 3” long with output better than a 2D MagLight. The roofer figured I got it working, asked for the light…did a double take when he noticed that beam of light was coming from a finger sized little thing on a necklace!! K3 working, we got the job done on the roof. He went up top, I stayed in the attic. Might need to secure the ground in my K3.
When I walk the trash down to the road on Thursday nights, it’s a 267 yd walk in the dark one way. We have dogs that run in packs from people dumping their “pets” in the country. They aren’t afraid of people, given their origins, and have become feral out of necessity. They take down calves, whatever they can find. And we have coyotes, that are becoming the same way. Not so much afraid of people anymore. I want a thrower, with some decent spill. I want to SEE these critturs! I want them to KNOW they’re being SEEN! And sometimes it’s the 2 legged critturs, up to no good out in the country. I want them to feel like their soul is being searched, and be unable to identify who’s doing the searching cause they can’t see anything but BRIGHT! Am I armed? Don’t know, do ya
Perspective gives some yield to need vs want. Do I need 28 lights? No. 29 will do just fine….
Yeah, but there aren’t groups of predatory creatures who will tear you to bits the moment you are without light Have you seen Pitch Black? Now thats a real NEED for lights
But yes, I do actually have the kind of need you are talking about (not repelling bloodthirsty aliens) too, however I could get by with one or two, not 19 or so while I go on night hikes. I used to actually roam around in the dark without any light, and be one to hardly ever use them, but after an encounter with a dog walker with a hostile dog who could barely hold his dog blinded me at the same time, I realized I also need to be carrying a light. After finding out the one I got was crap I researched them and …then the addiction hit… and it opened up the world of night hiking on ANY night
So, if poser = person with lights and no practical use for them, then I have to ’fess up. Outside of a small 16340 light for work, none of my lights have any practical purpose. That doesn’t stop me from finding ways to play with use them. :bigsmile: Smaller lights get used around the house and the larger ones are used to inspect the tops of trees for dangerous flying monkeys during nightly walks.
Outside of a few occupational uses, I suspect relatively few of us have a real need for our many lights, high powered or not. But I don’t think that means you shouldn’t take pleasure from owning, modifying, collecting or simply showing them to friends.
I have a 2200 lumen Warrior, a recently built a 5A, U2, XM-L2 mag, numerous C8s and a couple 800 lumen bike lights and have no real use for any of these monsters except for the bike light. 
Only rarely I’ll go for a long ride in the middle of nowhere at night but most times, a 1400mA EDC light is sufficient. :~ WRT running, a 1400mA, 3 mode XPG light is good for everything.
Thanks.
The roofer figured I got it working, asked for the light…did a double take when he noticed that beam of light was coming from a finger sized little thing on a necklace!! K3 working, we got the job done on the roof. He went up top, I stayed in the attic. Might need to secure the ground in my K3. 