Light for commuting

Help.

I need a decent front light for commuting.

How hard can it be to find a light that is:

* Rechargeable

* Powerful - 12 W or more would be nice

* Robust

* A single unit that snaps onto a bracket and can easily be removed
when I park the bike - those bottle battery thingies are way too fiddly
for utility cycling. I don't care if it's bulky.

* WIDE ANGLE - directional lights are useless on lit roads. I don't
care about seing. I only want to be seen.

I've looked everywhere, but coudn't find anything even closely
fulfilling the above.
Do you know if such a light exists somewhere?

One of these days I'll build it myself...

Kinetic wrote:


* WIDE ANGLE - directional lights are useless on lit roads. I don't
care about seing. I only want to be seen.


If you only want to be seen on lit streets you don't need 12W. One of
the compact bright LED lights is more than enough and the batteries will
last for ages.

This one is great for being seen
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...x?ModelID=1389

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

On 2-Dec-2005, "Kinetic" wrote:

Help.

I need a decent front light for commuting.

How hard can it be to find a light that is:

* Rechargeable

* Powerful - 12 W or more would be nice

* Robust

* A single unit that snaps onto a bracket and can easily be removed
when I park the bike - those bottle battery thingies are way too fiddly
for utility cycling. I don't care if it's bulky.

* WIDE ANGLE - directional lights are useless on lit roads. I don't
care about seing. I only want to be seen.

I've looked everywhere, but coudn't find anything even closely
fulfilling the above.
Do you know if such a light exists somewhere?

One of these days I'll build it myself...


If you search on e-bay you can find the powerful cateye lamps from the USA
for about half the UK price (including the postage). They're bright.

Are you sure it's bright enough?

Basically, I want to make sure I'm at least as bright as a car
headlight so I stand out from
the rest of the motorised traffic. The type of model you're suggesting
is quite a lot weaker in my opinion. Also, they're a bit flimsy and
get damaged easily.

Kinetic wrote:
Are you sure it's bright enough?

Basically, I want to make sure I'm at least as bright as a car
headlight so I stand out from
the rest of the motorised traffic. The type of model you're suggesting
is quite a lot weaker in my opinion. Also, they're a bit flimsy and
get damaged easily.


You need to distinguish between brightness and power. That LED stands
out in motor traffic in a way that a halogen light can't. The
brightness and the colour hue set it apart from the mass of halogen
lights around you. I've not managed to damage one in two years of
commuting.

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

in message . com,
Kinetic ') wrote:

Are you sure it's bright enough?

Basically, I want to make sure I'm at least as bright as a car
headlight so I stand out from
the rest of the motorised traffic.

You aren't going to get that. The motor car has a tens of horsepower
engine continually maintaining the charge in a tens of amp-hour battery
weighing tens of kilogrammes. You don't have that engine, and you don't
have the carrying capacity for that battery, so you can't drive a light
of that intensity for any length of time - even very expensive
technology such as HID lamps and lithium ion batteries will only give
you 'the equivalent of 40 watts' when standard car headlamps are 55
watts and more and more upmarket cars are already using similar high
brightness technologies.

In any case it's not a solution. In the arms race of headlamp intensity
we all lose: a light for a light leaves everybody blind. What you need
to be is distinctive and recognisably different. In urban conditions on
well lit streets I would suggest this means a combination of the bright
flashing LED lights which have recently become legal and at least one
reasonably bright steady light - either an LED or a dynamo-powered
light.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; L'etat c'est moi -- Louis XVI
;; I... we... the Government -- Tony Blair

Kinetic wrote:
Are you sure it's bright enough?

I second Tony's recommendation for the Smart Polaris. I do have much much
more powerful lights in addition that I bought for unlit country roads but
I usually have them switched off when I'm on decently-lit roads to
conserve battery. Despite its diminutive dimensions, I'm that confident
that I can be seen with the Polaris.

However there are bigger brighter LED lights if you want one -- loads on
the market, flashing and steady ones (note most flashing ones have a
steady mode too). Certainly some sort of LED type will be best for you if
you don't want a light for seeing where you're going.

Basically, I want to make sure I'm at least as bright as a car
headlight so I stand out from
the rest of the motorised traffic. The type of model you're suggesting
is quite a lot weaker in my opinion.

I don't think you can't compete with car headlights in that way without
having the type of battery you don't like. As Tony says, a flashing light
makes you stand out. Actually I think just being resonably visible and
being careful is sufficient to be safe. Remember the "risk compensation"
factor. If you think you are extremely easy to see then you will take
more risks. Despite my best intentions, to be honest I find myself
speeding though junctions faster when I have my big "f*ck off" light on.
If I'm wrong and someone waiting to turn right doesn't see me afterall
then I'm in big trouble. Better to assume you're invisible until you get
some sort of indication that you've probably been seen.

Also, they're a bit flimsy and get damaged easily.

This particular one isn't. The bracket is nice and reliable and the light
survives being dropped on the road. It also makes a handy emergency torch
(that's when I've dropped mine). Ironically, more powerful lights can
easily be more flimsy.

~PB

Pete Biggs wrote:
Actually I think just being resonably visible and
being careful is sufficient to be safe.

I now have a small white LED light pointing backwards on the handlebars
to light up my body. On my theory from stopping helmet wearing that
emphasising you are a person on the bike, the backwards light changes
you from a headlight to a very visible person in traffic and seems to
make a big difference in drivers noticing you in the dark. As long as
it is shielded so it doesn't shine in your eyes it works a treat.
--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 23:12:37 +0000, Kinetic wrote
(in article .com):

Help.

I need a decent front light for commuting.

How hard can it be to find a light that is:

* Rechargeable

* Powerful - 12 W or more would be nice

* Robust

* A single unit that snaps onto a bracket and can easily be removed
when I park the bike - those bottle battery thingies are way too fiddly
for utility cycling. I don't care if it's bulky.

* WIDE ANGLE - directional lights are useless on lit roads. I don't
care about seing. I only want to be seen.

I've looked everywhere, but coudn't find anything even closely
fulfilling the above.
Do you know if such a light exists somewhere?

One of these days I'll build it myself...


A think you are only allowed a maximum of n-1, where n is the number of
requirements above.

I would strongly recommend the Light and Motion Vega as a commuter light.

Cheers,

Steve

--
The reply-to email address is a spam trap.
Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk

Tony Raven wrote:
Pete Biggs wrote:
Actually I think just being resonably visible and
being careful is sufficient to be safe.

I now have a small white LED light pointing backwards on the handlebars
to light up my body. On my theory from stopping helmet wearing that
emphasising you are a person on the bike, the backwards light changes
you from a headlight to a very visible person in traffic and seems to
make a big difference in drivers noticing you in the dark. As long as
it is shielded so it doesn't shine in your eyes it works a treat.

I can't see that being much brighter than the car headlights when it
comes to illuminating you.

And the sheilding would have to be very good indeed if you ride on
completely unlit roads.

...d