Bike lights in the dark

[jack]

The internet says that they made low beam bike lights sometimes (maybe from germany). Any experience having a bike light which is bright enough to cycle on completely unlit roads/paths without having to slow down a lot, without dazzling oncomers? Is any decent bike light likely to do it or do I need to look for something specific?

I've slowly expanded my comfort zone cycling, but it would open more options if I could reliably cycle on dark ways. I used to have a decent light but it was a bit of a trade-off between "being able to see far enough" and "not dazzling people", and now I have a cheap light that's suffices for urban cycling but doesn't light things up much.

I might have asked this before, I can't remember.

Comments

[anais_pf]

I don't know why you're so concerned with dazzling people. About 10% of car headlights completely blind me these days, so you might as well join them. As for your specific question, I have no idea.

[jack]

About 10% of car headlights completely blind me these days, so you might as well join them.

Oh! I did get that feeling, but I thought it was just the sort of roads I drove on that made the lights more intense. I retrospect it makes sense but I hadn't thought that it got worse...

But that doesn't seem any better reason to be unsafe myself -- dazzling someone else just makes it more likely they might crash into *me*. (And I don't know if that's clear, but it's not just to cars, I think whizzing past in the other direction at 60 cars might find a too-high beam a problem for little enough time, but the other place it would be really useful is the unlit busway cyclepath, where the oncoming traffic is all similar bikes.)

[hilarita]

There are some regs or recommendations about how you can set your bike likes so that you don't dazzle people. I suggest talking to/emailing bjh21 about this.

[jack]

Ooh, thank you. That would make sense. For that matter, I tried to just, prop the bike against a wall and walk N meters away and look at it, and it wasn't quite clear but I could try that again. Except that, that works for adjusting the angle, but not for deciding which light to buy if there's a choice :)

[hilarita]

However, for *any* light you buy, you should adjust it thusly. Especially if it's going to be bright enough to illuminate ill-lit bike paths/roads.

[jack]

Right, yes.

[emperor]

I have a very bright front light, driven off my hub dynamo. It's Bright Enough (e.g. for the unlit ford Rd between Sanger campus & Whittlesford Parkway station), and the instructions tell you how to set it up (IIRC, arrange for the mid-beam to be at ground level 10m ahead) so that it shouldn't dazzle on-comers.

[jack]

> It's Bright Enough (e.g. for the unlit ford Rd between Sanger campus & Whittlesford Parkway station)

Oh, thank you. Yeah, I hope that would be good enough for me, that's good to know.

[mair_in_grenderich]

i used to have a lovely hub dynamo light which i bought, indeed, from Germany, long before i ever learnt German or came here, and it was a revelation when i switched to it from my normal "quite good" light. it was approximately this https://supernova-lights.com/en/products/dynamo-lights/e3-pro-2/ but in 2008, and I am sad that i can no longer use it since i don't have my hub dynamo any more.

i am not sure that this is helpful information, particularly since I don't know really about dazzling oncomers, nobody ever squeaked at me or anything, and it was definitely well worth the money for cycling outside lit areas. at the time i bought it i was in southampton and cycling regularly to bellringing in a village several miles away on an unlit tree-lined country road and it was so much better. also an immediate huge improvement on the rate of oncoming traffic dipping for me.

i found the recommendation from people looking for good lights for audaxes, so i guess you could look to see what audaxers recommend in 2022?

[jack]

Oh, cool. Thanks

[damerell]

Pretty well any German dynamo headlight not explicitly sold as high beam (for offroad) will be fine. https://www.bumm.de/en/products/dynamo-scheinwerfer.html have a pretty wide range (I and C have Cyos IIRC, although I runs it off an alarming battery pack because that's how he is); I would definitely check yacf.co.uk to see what people who've been outside the county more than once a year recommend.

[jack]

Thank you!

[gareth_rees]

Not wanting to dazzle other cyclists is properly public-spirited! "Do unto others" etc.

As everyone else has said, you need a light that conforms to German regulation. For some years now, I've used the Busch + Müller IXON IQ, but anything from bike-discount.de would be better than what's available in the UK.

[jack]

Thank you! That's really helpful (and really helpfully specific)

Not wanting to dazzle other cyclists is properly public-spirited

I mean, it kind of feels like a minimum amount of helpfulness to not deliberately cause other people to potentially crash :) But also, even if I had 0% care for others, I still wouldn't want to be crashed into or shouted at :)

PS. I didn't realise you still had a dreamwidth, I don't know if you still use it I've added you to the access list, let me know if it didn't work :)