im happy enough with my cateye and lezyne lights but if there better out there then why not.
jags.
Well matey, it's bloody expensive for one thing - about $100 more than my B&M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos U, which works well for me. He'll it's almost as expensive as the SON dyno hub!
I need to be able to see and be seen, not singe the wings off a moth at 50 metres
. (That's how the Lightforce spotties I put on my 4wd are advertised, and they do the trick! But they haven't prevented me from hitting kangaroos on two separate occasions, with expensive results.)
Believe me, I like bike lights as much as the next guy (besides the B&Ms front and rear, I have four Fiberflare lights and two amber sidelights, a Fly6 video camera/rear flasher on the helmet plus 3M spoke reflectors on board. I know... It's overkill, but I can't help myself
), but given the speed bikes travel, their narrow travel path, and the exposure of the rider to all of his other sensory inputs, I think there is a practical limit in usefulness to the power and range of modern headlights. If a $250 headlight allows you to see something a few seconds sooner than a $50 lamp, you have to ask is it worth the extra dosh?
And then there's the propensity of cyclists to want to make use of all of those photons by aiming them as far forward as possible, which means right into the eyes of every approaching driver and rider. Nothing annoys me more than meeting a newbie with a blowtorch on the Fernleigh Track after dark. It destroys your vision for a quarter hour afterwards, and significantly degrades the experience of night riding. Then you meet another one...
These things are great for industrial and law enforcement purposes, but I agree with snoogly - where's the real world setting which effectively means you only have to recharge once a week or less?
I find that in town, being seen is the predominant requirement for my headlight, and out past the street lights, my eyes adjust best to lower, more even light levels. Maybe it's cuz I ate my carrots when mom told me to...
I agree it's exciting to see where the technology is heading, especially in LiOn batteries, now that we appear to have nailed high brightness, cool running, low power LEDs.
Sam
