I'm not an expert on lights. I really don't know enough about candlepower and lux and lumens and suchlike to comment on the technical ins and out. If you want to get into that sort of thing, you could do worse than start with these posts:

I just want lighting that works for me. And for urban commuting (and the occasional finish-after-dark brevet) I'm pretty happy with my 2010 lighting rig:

At the front

Ay Up

I don't want to sound like a cheerleader, but the Ay Up is a quality piece of kit (and so it should be for the price!) I've only had the V Twin Sports kit (intermediate beam) for about two months, so it hasn't done duty through a full winter yet but experience to date is pretty positive—sturdy yet lightweight, bright with pretty good battery life.

I have run the batteries dry once (discovering that I can't quite do a full week of commuting on one charge of the Half Epic battery) and when it died the fade-out was pretty rapid, although the light kept producing a visible beam. At a maximum of about three hours, recharging is pretty quick.

Even on low power, the beam from this light is actually painful when shone in the eyes at close range, so I've been very wary of dazzling other people, especially on the dark trails. The intermediate beam does have a pretty wide spread, which may mean that some of its power is wasted lighting up the sky when the light is focused at a distance down the trail. But for urban use, I keep it angled down pretty steeply and it still provides plenty of light beyond its focal point.

BBB Alloyhead

I think cyclists tend to view BBB as a bit of a cheapie, plain-label brand. Maybe so, but I've had no complaints about the Alloyhead: small, lightweight, bright, sturdy, and easy to operate. This light has done service as my second vision light but I now use it almost exclusively as my visibility flasher. The large soft rear button makes if very easy to operate, cycling through flash and static light modes. And with a relatively tough aluminium housing, it has outlasted several other similarly priced lights with plastic housings (all from more esteemed brands, I might add). Four AAA batteries are changed weekly for commuting.

From a field of comparable lights, I bought the Alloyhead for one main reason: the light mounts centrally over its bracket. This might sound like trivia but I'm sick and tired of otherwise quite reasonable lights failing simply because the light is designed so that the weight of the light is way out over the front of the bracket. With those 'unbalanced' lights I find it almost impossible to tighten the bracket enough to hold the light in place (double-sided tape does help here). But then the light rattles around on its bracket, and eventually fractures due to the constant leverage at the mounting point. This is not a problem with the Alloyhead, which is sitting as firm in its housing as the day I bought it.

Infini Amuse

Mounted onto the front of my helmet, the Infini Amuse is a handy supplementary light—good for visibility and as a helmet light it's not so bright that it dazzles other road and path users. I've also found it useful to have as a navigation 'reading light' (e.g. reading route sheet and road signs) while night riding on brevets. But it really is only a supplementary light—I wouldn't want to ride too far using only the beam from the Amuse to light my way.

While I like the Infini Amuse, it suffers from a basic design flaw: its clever mounting system is too easy to dislodge. A stretchy band extends from the back of the light, wraps around between the two LEDs and hooks onto a small hook on top of the light. As I said, it is clever. Unfortunately, it's also easy to unhook inadvertently. Mine is held in place with a zip tie, which isn't quite so elegant but is secure.

The light is operated by a hidden switch just in front of the mounting hook, which is responsive to a fairly soft press. Like the Alloyhead, it cycles through three states: static, flash and off.

As it's a supplementary light I'm not as diligent in changing the batteries, which is good because it uses those flat CR2032 batteries, which aren't cheap and don't usually come as rechargeables. However, I do get plenty of life out of those batteries so I've no real complaints in that regard.

At the rear

Blinky Super Flash

I've sung the praises of the Super Flash before. With its irregular flash pattern (including that extra bright flash), it is unavoidably eye catching. Even as a static light, it's brilliant. I have two fitted.

Two AAA batteries refreshed weekly keep this light flickering along nicely for commuting.

Generic single red LED

Mounted on the back of my helmet, the single LED is merely supplementary. It adds no weight and has the advantage of moving with my head, which may increase side visibility slightly. I wonder if this light really needs more than one flash mode—this would be a minor quibble except that it's operated by a hidden switch that needs a firm and accurate press, which is a bit awkward around the back of the skid lid.

Like the Infini Amuse, this is powered by those flat lithium batteries, and it seems to keep burning for weeks on end.


And that's my lighting rig. What do you think? Am I overdoing it? Not enough? What do you do differently with your lighting setup?

Comments

martin

Thanks for this post. Its just what I needed, I've been looking for a light.

Simon

I have the Ay-Up as well and can't speak highly enough of it. Leaving Bright at 5.30am on easter saturday was almost surreal, travelling in my own bubble of light brighter than some cars headlights with not a person or car to be seen was actually a little Blair Witch :)

The potenital for dazzling oncomers on the busy trails like the yarra is an issue, though i've heard that the circular mylar discs which you occasionally get with bottles of wine to stop drips can be used as a makeshift shield. Just cut the disc in half and wrap each half around one of the lamps with the long part at the top forming a peak. Any light heading upwards is reflected down onto the road. I've been looking out for the sheets since i got my set but haven't found one yet.

HYG

Sounds very much like my lighting rig....

Front - Ayup (cree) wide beam Rear - 2x Superflash and 1x Radbot 1000

Check it out :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XJ03UVnIE