I do most of my weekday riding between 5-6:30 am and looking to up my light game so I can venture outside during the time of year where it is pitch black. Most of the time I would be on a paved biking/running trail.
I feel fine with what I have going on with my reflection and rear light. But this fall I decided there is probably room for improvement with the front setup. I currently have a Planet Bike Blaze 2W. It’s pretty weak (150 lumens I think) so I had been supplementing it with my running headlamp (a Black Diamond Spot - which has 500 lumens) stretched out over my helmet.
I figure almost anything out there is better than what I have. But I’ve got a couple ones in mind and wondered if anyone has experience with them:
looks like this could be run on either the helmet or the bars
Not sure if there is a benefit to having a helmet mounted light if the one on the bars is strong enough (other than when doing singletrack). Or if it would be better to do bars or helmet (I suppose the latter could be an issue if you were riding with others and were looking in their direction). There are also some decently powerful ones from Lezyne (including a helmet mounded one with 1000 lumens) that look decent as well
I haven’t used a larger Exposure light in many years, I have one of their smaller ones that I use during the day some. Their stuff has always seemed very well made.
From Outbound I have an older model, the Hangover, it’s a nice light, can be a bit overkill for the road but it does dim down.
I prefer just a handlebar light on the road usually, if I mount something on the helmet it might be something smaller and lighter used more like a headlamp when needed.
Another option I like a lot is a flashlight from Fenix lights mounted on the handlebars with a rubber mount. Their flashlights are plenty bright enough for even a lot of MTB’ing and have good run times. And I like that the flashlight is more useful if you end up needing a light for something besides riding while you’re out. The mounts are light so if I want to have a backup I’ll sometimes run the Outbound light and put the flashlight in my pocket if I need it. One of their smaller flashlights usually goes with me when I do one of my loops here that goes through an old railway tunnel that’s now part of the highway but only has room for traffic from one direction at a time.
I have had the top end Exposure light from around 10 years ago, it was an absolute beast and loved it but the cost prevented me from getting a new one when the battery eventually became worthless. The mount is a total pain too, it was very hard to get it in and out of the mount. The light is also pretty heavy and eventually the mount breaks due to the weight on it. Change it out every couple of years even if it looks ok. My Exposure took forever to charge. Hours. Maybe it’s different now.
I now have the Outbound combo of the MTB light and the helmet light and maaaan, it is some great stuff. The bar light is really bright, the pattern is broad and useful, and the mount is absolutely fantastic. The battery lasts a long time, and recharges fast via USB-C. It’s supremely well made.
The helmet light is also excellent, and for riding in the dark on trails, the combo is A+. Even for riding on the road, a helmet light is very useful. You’re much more visible, you can light where you intend to turn, and look at cars if you think the driver is about to do something dumb.
So my recommendation is the Outbound combo, with zero reservations.
I have the Detour light. It’s amazing. There are probably brighter lights but the spread on the beam really makes it great.
Instead of being a flashlight/spotlight beam pattern it’s much wider. So you don’t get that weird feeling of biking but you can only see what’s directly in front of you. You can actually see the width of the road. It makes things seem much less perilous at speed.
Then it’s got a cut off that doesn’t blind other trail/road users while still letting the light go far down the road.
Also, except on high speed descents you don’t need it on high. If I was just cruising on a straight, flat rail trail then I could definitely get away with low (maybe medium if there were some occasional obstacle that i thought I’d encounter)
That’s interesting that you mention it. Is there a name for that feature? I’m asking because I think a lot of drivers don’t like my current front light (see.sense Beam+, which puts out up to 1,500 lumens), people flash their highbeams at me with some regularity.
Another option, albeit not cheap, is Lupine. I have the SL AF 7, which has wireless remote to control the high beam. Low beam (can toggle between 650 and 1,000 Lumen) has really nice cutoff (has to conform to German laws), high beam is 1,300 Lumen. It’s literally like having a nice car headlight on your bike. With the 6.6 Ah battery, you get 6 hours from the 650 Lumen low beam setting, and 3 hours from the 1,000 Lumen and high beam setting, which is plenty for my needs. If you need more, there’s a 10 Ah battery, too.
That’s another can of worms, because it also limits the light output of lights (at least rear lights) to unusable levels. I happen to live in Germany now and got my Garmin Varia 515 (≠ the StVZO-compliant 516) from Amazon France. (Since I was living in Austria at the time, I don’t think I broke any laws )
+1 for Flashlight with mount. You can get a good one cheap. I used one from amazon for 10 years, 4am road rides in pitch black, plenty bright enough. That one is no longer available, but I just got this one and it’s better.
I actually really like the Trek / Bontrager lights - and I usually bag on tr*k.
But the issue with the Commuter Pro for me (when I was looking at a front light) is that I actually mount it inverted using the Blendr to gopro mount and the cutoff would be opposite of what you want:
The bike computer mount on the Factor Ostro has a GoPro-style action mount and I’ve been hunting for something that can fit there for the early morning hours of a double century.
Lots of lights have the option to buy a go-pro style mount for them (some aftermarket or 3D printed and others from the company).
Outbound sells a clip that attaches to the mount that you then attach the light. It does make it hard to see the battery indicator (your computer is in the way) so if you’re on a long ride then you have to remember to keep an eye on it.
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