Best/Smallest Light for Riding on Roads

I've been commuting to work for 3 1/2 years now. I ride as early as 5:00am, and as late as 10:30pm (shift work), rain or shine (I shy away from snow). I started with a weak ass LED light from some company that was sold through the LBS. This lead to a crash in the middle of the damned road because I was going too fast for the light levels and wasn't paying enough attention. Luckily there was no traffic to run me over, because I went down in the midlle of the damned road.

I got home and immediately bought a Nite Rider HID Light. That worked for me for about 3 years. I ended up replacing the bulb once to the tune of $125 with shipping, and I eventually replaced the battery pack with a home made LiPo pack (about another $100).

Now to get to the point: I recently spent $95 shipped on a MagicShine LED light from GeomanGear. I have not touched the Nite Rider since I got the MagicShine. It's smaller, lighter, brighter, and works fantastic. I have since bought 2 more light heads, a helmet mount, some extra connectors (Y cables, etc...) and bunch of Ebay 18650 LiPo cells, and made up two 2 cell battery packs. I now ride in daylight with a single light for visibility, and when riding in the dark, I run 2 light heads for incredible light.

You could buy 2 complete MagicShine light setups for less than $200, and have all the light you'll ever need. Have a look around here, there's tons of info about the MagicShines.

California L33 said:

A 200L pointed straight ahead (not angled down) will be blinding to oncoming drivers. You'll get high beams flashed, cursed by pedestrians and other cyclists on MUTs, and if you don't dim it for a cop, probably pulled over. When I first got them I had the first three things happen to me in short order. I though they were a bunch of wimps, so I got off the bike and walked down the road a couple of hundred feet to see what it was like. Maybe because of the height, narrow beam angle, or small reflector, looking straight into that 200L was worse than any car's high beam's I've seen, and car high beams are in the low thousands of lumens each, if I remember correctly. So it's not just the number of lumens, but how they're presented. Angled down like a car's headlight you've got no problems.

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...I think I see what you're saying. I have had people flash high beams at me before ( on my bike ) but then again people flash high beams at me when I'm in a car too. People are strange. I've had people wait at stop signs just to see what was coming up the road ( me and my bike lights ). I just think people are surprised and irritated that bikes ( which really do need to be seen..) now have lights that can rival motorcycles and cars.

I've never really thought about it before but I usually do point my lights downward when I'm on the road. A spot 200L has a usable reach of about 75ft.. Most of the places I ride are rural. I suppose in heavy traffic keeping the light pointed down could be more of an issue. Still, being able to SEE a cyclist on the road in my opinion is a good thing. I guess the cops out in Ca. must be somewhat anal. Out here in Md. people drive around with high beams on and no one seems to give a hoot. That's because so many people are upgrading to brighter head lights nowadays I suppose. Personally, I'm to the point where almost nothing fazes me anymore. I figure it this way, if the cars can do it a cyclist should be able to do it ( use bright lights ) as well.

Cat-man-do said:

...I think I see what you're saying. I have had people flash high beams at me before ( on my bike ) but then again people flash high beams at me when I'm in a car too. People are strange. I've had people wait at stop signs just to see what was coming up the road ( me and my bike lights ). I just think people are surprised and irritated that bikes ( which really do need to be seen..) now have lights that can rival motorcycles and cars.

I've never really thought about it before but I usually do point my lights downward when I'm on the road. A spot 200L has a usable reach of about 75ft.. Most of the places I ride are rural. I suppose in heavy traffic keeping the light pointed down could be more of an issue. Still, being able to SEE a cyclist on the road in my opinion is a good thing. I guess the cops out in Ca. must be somewhat anal. Out here in Md. people drive around with high beams on and no one seems to give a hoot. That's because so many people are upgrading to brighter head lights nowadays I suppose. Personally, I'm to the point where almost nothing fazes me anymore. I figure it this way, if the cars can do it a cyclist should be able to do it ( use bright lights ) as well.

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You don't have to angle down much to turn your light from blinding to bright, which is what you want. If you point it so the edge of the beam is 40 or so feet ahead, you can see the road, and be seen. With two (one high, one low) you get a great view of the road, and what's in the distance. You just have to 'hand dim' the high pointed light to be polite.

It seems that fewer people around here are driving with their highs on all the time, still enough to make you wonder how stupid people can be, "But I can see so much better. Who cares if I blind someone and they drift into my lane." Bright, HID type lights, are legal for low beam headlights in CA, but only if correctly adjusted like regular headlights- down and to the right. You can also use them for high beams, but are supposed to dim them for oncoming traffic. You can even have auxiliary lights (fog or driving lights), but for some reason you can never have more than 6 lights on the front of a car illuminated at once on a public road. Off road you can have as many as you want.