Bike light: Then and now

I have something of a relic here. My purchases of cycling accessories generally tend to be at the “affordable” end of the spectrum—not necessarily the cheapest and nastiest, but never what you’d call “state-of-the-art”. So I’m not claiming this particular relic is all that significant, but I did actually use this thing as a tail light about twenty years ago. I’ll put it beside my present day equivalent for comparison:

Model	Super Flash	Ultra Light
Current Super Flash beside the old Ultra Light.
Dimensions [H×W×D]	63mm×33mm×38mm	126mm×72mm×44mm
Weight [approx]	50g	420g
Light	1×0.4 watt LED plus 2×LED	1×1.1 watt incandescent bulb
Optics	Brightest LED focused by a conical lens; other LEDs behind a red Fresnel lens	Single light in conical reflector through rectangular Fresnel lens
Modes	Steady beam and flash	Steady beam
Power	2×AAA battery	2×D battery
Output*	“Ouch!” Retina-burningly bright	“Is that all you got?” Gentle glow
* Subjective lighting units—who the hell understands all of that lumens, footcandles and candlepower stuff anyway?
The Super Flash outshines the Ultra Light

So what’s my point? Nothing really profound, except to note that I’d much rather have the “affordable” lighting of today than the “affordable” lighting I had back then.

I would add that the Ultra Light came paired with a headlight, which was basically the same unit with a clear lens. I used them both front and back as my sole sources of light. I don’t know where the headlight has gone, so I won’t be able to compare it to the new Ay Up light I’ve just bought—but I think you can imagine how that comparison would turn out…