I’ve recently picked up a road bike and find myself commuting during the hours of darkness, so I’m on the hunt for a front bike light/lights and some rear reds too.
I’m after a good close up light for dealing with the immediate risks (a pothole that’ll spoil my day) and something that’ll do a bit further ahead so I can see drain covers etc and move out with plenty of time. I’m not averse to using a torch bike mount to cover the throw with the right light (I’ve got a Manker T01, think that’d work) if need be and to supplement the ‘main’ light. My main desire is that the whole setup be as light as possible - I don’t need something that’ll take 4 x 18650’s as my commute should rarely last longer than 2 hours, so I’m hoping to cut weight there. And I’d also like a simple blinky white light for being seen. I’d rather go li-ion as a power source for the main light, and anything light and rechargeable for the blinky.
Frame of reference - my current front setup is a BLF A6 in a mount and that’s more than floody enough for the close stuff, but I’d like a bit more distance on the long stuff. And the mount is a bit rubbish - it clicks rather than freespins so you can have too far to the left or too far to the right.
Rears wise I’d like something like the Lezyne Femto - a simple clip on light - but which’ll take a single AA/AAA (or better still 14500/10440) for convenience of recharging.
Everything I’ve looked at so far looks rather chunky and heavy for the fronts, and I’ve not seen anything from a company I recognise for the rears. I am pretty open minded - on the face of it there seems several ways to get what I want - but any suggestions on which would be the best?
Just to add that I’m not averse to mounting the throwy light to my bike helmet with the right adapter if that’s an option or beneficial. Using something like the T01 that’d be more than light enough.
The only thing I can really recommend for road use is a hub dynamo and a decent set of dynamo lights (eg: SON Edelux or B+M IQ cyo premium)!
I do own 6 bikes and maybe 25 flashlights, but they never go together. Simply because it doesn’t work!
What you need is a very specialized projection, which distributes the Lumens evenly over distance. Otherwise you will not be able to see far AND near obstacles.
Sorry, that’s just my experience…
I’m talking solely about ROAD use here, off road is a very different matter of course.
I’m using Fenix BT20 and it’s a great bike light.
I’ve been using it for about 3 years and few days ago my bike was stolen. Fortunately, the bike light wasn’t on the bike at that time.
I am using the ThorFire BL01, great light! Had the BL02 before but gave that one away as a gift. The BL01 is reliable and robust, no mode changes on my MTB bike, even when riding rough downhill trails.
Dynamo lights and the Fenix out of budget. The Thorfire is faaaaar to heavy (half a kilo!)
And I’m not really looking for a big beam that’ll go far to near, I’m looking to do it more cheaply by running two lights (or one light with two outputs/reflectors) that’ll do both near and far WolfA.
I have an Ituo wiz20 that I love for commuting. Changeable optics, nw, replaceable 18650 batteries, USB charging. It’s a nice light, definitely not a cheap pos. Can be had for $80 without batteries or $95 with 3200ma pannys.
you have to get a bike light, not some strap-on flashlight
i tried that
the real ones mount to the handlebars and have 4 18650 cells for about $40 at most
they are all VERY bright
1400 lumens
you do need at least 500 to see well while riding
most AA lights can manage 100 at most
lame
Fenix bike lights have a horizontal cut off which is very practical for road riding as it keeps the core intensity of the beam out of other driver’s eyes, although the BT30 is somewhat older and uses an out of date led. ITUO wiz20 has a very good rep among mountain bikers, however with round optics you’re going to piss off other drivers for road use. I’ve tried replacing those optics with varying others but couldn’t get a beam profile as useful as my fenix bc30 for road use. The fenix BC21r can be had for around $70 and is a later model than the BT30, updated with an xml2, neutral white, self contained and has the same horizontal cutoff.