looking for link to best light

[Danneaux]

Have you ever seen one of those toplights compared to a 400r? I have a 400r so that's my point of reference.

Yes, by coincidence this very morning while on the bike.

The Dinotte 400R is an incredibly bright light, no doubt about it.

My B&M Toplight Line Plus is bright -- "bright" for a dyno-powered light.

In terms of sheer lumens, there's no comparison. The Dinotte 400R wins out *easily* for Brightest honors.

However -- and this is a personal-choice thing, so no one right or wrong answer -- I think I'd prefer not to go for the absolute brightest available 'cos of the problems that can arise compared to the Toplight Line Plus I'm running now, which is steady, wide, and gives motorists a point of reference for more accurately judging distance at night.

I still have my 1-watt LED blinkys (with solid-on option) for daytime conspicuity in heavy traffic or for nighttime augmentation of the Toplight Line Plus in some circumstances as need be.

I do know when I followed the Dinotte 400R (and it was on), it made me more than a little sick to my stomach -- it was just that bright. In daytime. I have seen them at night, but couldn't bear to look at them for more than a glance or two. The last one I saw when it was raining, and it was just overwhelming.

Some people (and me too in the past) have used a headlight with a red fresnel filter as a taillight. It sure was bright, but I received complaints, as I might expect if I used the Donotte 400R in some conditions.

Best,

Dan. (...who thinks causing night-blindness in a closing driver might not be ideal)

[Andre Jute]

There used to be a Dinotte demonstration -- it might even have been official -- on You Tube that showed the light turned down to the road, and the sidespill and reflection lighting up the bike, so that it rode in a cone of red warning light. I thought that very clever for city use. But on the open road it would cut into the distance at which the driver sees the cyclist, which is undesirable.

Andre Jute

[Slammin Sammy]

I've gone a different way with my commuter bike (a converted GT hard tail with Schwalbe Duremes, rear rack and mudguards). Fibre Flares (http://fibreflare.com/) on my fork legs (white shorties) and on my seat stays (red full size). They are fantastic for making the bike visible to cars from all angles without blinding others. You don't need four lights - I got carried away. But I love the way they look on the bike.

[Danneaux]

Fibre Flares...

Thanks for this, Sammy!

My, this surely illustrates the value of surface area for increased conspicuity. Yes, bright-spots of light surely aid visibility, but having a mass of non-blinding "glow" helps as well. FibreFlares appear neon-like in the video.

Best,

Dan. (...who is always fascinated by bright, shiny things...and if they blink, so much the better!)

[No]

Oh! Don't forget MonkeyLectric. Those lights are cool looking.

[No]

I've gone a different way with my commuter bike (a converted GT hard tail with Schwalbe Duremes, rear rack and mudguards). Fibre Flares (http://fibreflare.com/) on my fork legs (white shorties) and on my seat stays (red full size). They are fantastic for making the bike visible to cars from all angles without blinding others. You don't need four lights - I got carried away. But I love the way they look on the bike.

Have you tried that helmet version? I wonder what it feels like weight wise. I don't appreciate the weight of my helmet light that much so I'm curious

[peter jenkins]

I purchased a Dinotte 400R a couple of years ago.

In the beginning, they posted me a box containing lots of mounting hardware but no light, but some email correspondence sorted that out and the light duly arrived.

It was fantastic for daylight use, but the Audax crowd heaped opprobrium on me if I used it in the dark. It did have the advantage of allowing me to draft the pack on a permanent basis without complaints.

Then, sadly, I arrived at work one morning and it was no longer attached to my Thorn 

I just couldn't stump up the cash for another one and I now use Ayups with the red caps, which are more user friendly for following riders but still remarkably effective.

A major component of the expense was the postage to Australia from the Yewessay...  Ayup HQ is a kilometre from home so I can shop locally.
I think every second bike I see on my commute is fitted with Ayups on at least one end!

Cheers,

pj

[Andre Jute]

It was fantastic for daylight use, but the Audax crowd heaped opprobrium on me if I used it in the dark. It did have the advantage of allowing me to draft the pack on a permanent basis without complaints.

A most advantageous lamp!

Andre Jute

[triaesthete]

I think ultra bright tail lights are as offensive as undipped headlights and as dangerous.

I caught a chap going down hill with one of these super bright tail lights on. Trouble was, even at bicycle closing speeds it was impossible to judge his distance, or even his positioning on the road. Do you really want cars roaring up behind you dazzled, blinded or eyes shut?? and worse if they are looking through a wet screen  or if they look up from their phones

On night Audax they are truly nasty to follow as well 

One might say the lighting equivalent of shouting louder at folk who don't speak your language   

Toplight line plus gets my vote and gets me a wide berth from passing traffic. 

Happynights
Ian

[Danneaux]

Toplight line plus gets my vote and gets me a wide berth from passing traffic.

<nods> Seems to work well for me as my prime taillight also, Ian. I only use the 1-watt LED blinky when in need of daylight conspicuity in heavy car-commute traffic or in other special circumstances when I might otherwise be overlooked. One pair of AA Eneloops last a long time between rechargings in such infrequent use.

A major component of the expense was the postage to Australia from the Yewessay...  Ayup HQ is a kilometre from home so I can shop locally.
I think every second bike I see on my commute is fitted with Ayups on at least one end!

Peter, seeing the beamshots of the Ayup lights might just reverse the balance of trade. They look ideal for my occasional off-road night touring. Such a shame someone pinched your 400R while parked. Nasty thieves, stealing other people's things 

Best,

Dan.

[No]

I purchased a Dinotte 400R a couple of years ago.

In the beginning, they posted me a box containing lots of mounting hardware but no light, but some email correspondence sorted that out and the light duly arrived.

It was fantastic for daylight use, but the Audax crowd heaped opprobrium on me if I used it in the dark. It did have the advantage of allowing me to draft the pack on a permanent basis without complaints.

Then, sadly, I arrived at work one morning and it was no longer attached to my Thorn  

I just couldn't stump up the cash for another one and I now use Ayups with the red caps, which are more user friendly for following riders but still remarkably effective.

A major component of the expense was the postage to Australia from the Yewessay...  Ayup HQ is a kilometre from home so I can shop locally.
I think every second bike I see on my commute is fitted with Ayups on at least one end!

Cheers,

pj

On steady the 400R can be dimmed by a LOT, but that was too bright?

And triaesthete, what country do you live in? Cycling can be very different in different parts of the world.

[peter jenkins]

On steady the 400R can be dimmed by a LOT, but that was too bright?

I have no doubt you are correct, but I don't recall reading the instructions... that's one of my failings in life.

Sometimes I think it's a pity that Life itself doesn't have a manual. I would have done of things differently in the last 62 years.

Cheers,

pj

[triaesthete]

Hi No
cycling is indeed varied across the world, much like peoples opinions across this forum. Vive la difference!

One thing I've always enjoyed about the company of cyclists is the broad spectrum of educated and insightful opinions they collectively hold and a general willingness to discuss and on occasion modify them.  I can't think of much less exciting than loads of "like minded people" agreeing with each other and seeking to conform to group norms.

I reside in the Peoples Republic of Yorkshire 

Ian

[jags]

hah great post Peter i too lost that manual when i was around 5 never to be found again.
i've never  done a night audax ride must be fantastic as i love night cycling, but yeah sitting behind someone whoe's light is blindind must be terrible. i think i would have to kill that person  
the toplight recommended by hobbes (Andre n Dan ) is fantastic no glare whatsoever more like a motorbike or car light.
still haven't upgraded my headlight as yet happy enough with my set up but yeah i know the ore expensive BnM headlights are the way to go.

[Andre Jute]

The Toplight Line Plus is definitely the best rear bicycle lamp now available. I parked the bike and wandered off to sketch something, forgetting to switch off the lamps (which run off the same battery as my Bafang motor), and by the time I finished the sketch it was dark. As I walked towards the bike it came to me that a flashing light must be brighter than a steady lamp next to it to be seen at all. My flashing rear lamp, a Cateye TL LT-1100, made no impression until I was fewer than 20 paces from the bike. That's an impressive testimonial for the Toplight, because until it arrived I always said that the Cateye 1100 was the best rear lamp on general distribution, a pretty commonly held opinion.

But I'm not so sure of the BUMM front lamps any more. I'm fed up with BUMM taking extraordinary amounts of my money for lamps that they and their fellow-travellers declare the best, only to have them admit two or three years later that the lamp they sold as the answer to every cyclist's prayer is now inadequate and they want half the price of a perfectly adequate Trek mountain bike for the new lamp that's supposedly the answer to all cyclists' prayers. I'm just not an impressionable trendy. (In fact, I resent crudely visible persuaders trying to do to me what as a hidden persuader I did much more subtly to millions when I worked in advertising...)

The current Luxos, for instance, is not quite as good as a dipped (dimmed for the Americans) car headlamp. That's at full strength, the bike rolling at least 15kph. In effect, for the lamp to work, you must keep up 15kph under all condition, clearly impossible in traffic, the most dangerous condition. I run my lamps off a humongous 8.8Ah 42V battery, so I know precisely how strong a bike lamp can run. Previously, I ran my lamps off Shimano and SON hub dynamos (and found the Shimano superior in coming up to strength) so I have a good comparison of what most cyclists can expect from dynamo setups. A car headlight on low is not good enough for the open road or the lanes on a car. What isn't good enough for a car isn't good enough for a bike either. Yet BUMM, and their pet dynamo maker, Schmidt (makers of the SON), are wedded to this low beam philosophy. Their oft-repeated excuse is that German legislators have forced them into this stance. So we are expected to be hit in the face by low-flying branches, and not to see road signs higher than three feet off the ground on the sayso of a bunch of German legislators who have never been on a bike in their lives, and certainly not after dark, if the BUMM lights, which adhere faithfully to their laws, are anything to judge by.

No, I think not. The Toplight Line Plus is a fine rear lamp, credit where it is due, but I have a box full of unused, and mostly unusable, BUMM electronics and electrics to the extent of more than the price of a new Rohloff gearbox.

Time to draw a line in the sand. Before I splash out a quite extraordinary amount of money for a bicycle lamp (with an expected life of two to three years before its maker declares it inadequate!) on the Luxos, I want to see independent beamshots without a hotspot, and with enough light overhead to see low-flying branches in the lanes and road signs at normal height, and enough sidespill to see the ditch. The latter appears to be the only thing BUMM has fixed, at last. But by itself it's not enough to give BUMM my money, again. It weighs heavily with me that the reliable Dutch commentator at
http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/index_en.html#BM_luxos
says the hotspot is worse than it appears on his photographs, and that the light is so uneven as to make it useless in the wet, a common condition on my night rides.

Everyone knows I'm not cheap. I ride a bike that costs pre-loved BMW money, and spend what is necessary to put the best components on it. But I'm a Calvinist; I want to see the value in what I splash out good money on. The absolute price of a  Luxos lamp is worth a pause and some comment. Let's say that, being generous, a Luxos lamp lasts three years before BUMM declares it inadequate by bringing out a new lamp, presumably even more expensive. So now the Luxos has cost 60-70 euro per annum. I go for handful of night rides a year, and get caught out dawdling by the dusk say once or twice a year. That's 10 Euro a ride, a bit pricey when I already have a BUMM IQ lamp on the bike.  Nor is the case to buy a Luxos any more pressing for a commuter who already has an IQ lamp: he rides on familiar roads and is used to the lack of lateral vision of the Cyo/Fly generations of BUMM lamps.

On balance, I think I can put up with those who splashed out on the Luxos feeling sorry for poor old Andre. And in a couple of years, when BUMM comes out with a new lamp, I should hope someone will send a poor old pensioner a cast-off Luxos lamp. I can contain my curiosity until then.

There we are. Logic laid out, decision made.

Andre Jute