I want to vouch for Whistler, TodM and Glowbike on the glories of high wattage bike lights, ditto on the need to set up the right bike lights for the job. I don't own any of the the nice high-end models yet, but I've seen them in action and bow in their general direction, eyes shaded.
More feedback on bike lighting can be found at
www.mtbreview.com/reviews/Lights/, and I'm hoping we can bring some of that discussion onto this forum. For that purpose, here is a list of bike light makers taken from that site:
Bell Vista, BLT, CatEye, Jet Lites, Lupine, Marwi, Nitesun, NiteRider, Performance, Turbocat, Light and Motion
I'm hoping we can bring the kind of good insightful reviews found elsewhere on this forum to bear on these brands. Because, as you'll see on
www.mtbreview, the above lights and their makers over the years have had "issues."
Also I want to correct my assertion above that there are little or no bike lights in the $50-$200 range. It seems they're out there, I just hadn't come across them until now on mtbreview.
On TodM's second post regarding helmets, I'm square with everything he says. Yes, the helmet will largely take the hit instead of your cranium! The trouble is those situations on the margin where something, the terrain usually, is able to get a purchase on your helmet and snap your head around. It's not a theoretical problem. I had an occasion to experience this in an over-the-bars situation where the ground, in this case river rock, came up and snatched my head back, turning what would have been an ordinary break-fall into a near paralyzing event. The helmet in this case was an up to date Specialized with a smooth plastic shell, no "problem" with it. I myself have had plenty of experience with breakfalls, having learned firstly on the streets skateboarding since 1977, and practicing aikido, karate and kung-fu since 1988, and never taken a hard hit to the head--at least not from the ground. Until helmets are built less thick but capable of taking the the same knocks, the chance that a given crash situation will take your head places it doesn't want to go remains a real and irreducible risk.
Yo, GlowBike. I will get some pictures up on my handlebar headlights pretty soon I hope so check back here next week. Hey, are those Specialized Afterburner tail-lights awesome or what? Did you get the larger, more powerful one? However, I thought the "universal" bracket was poor design: it was either too loose, potentially getting knocked sideways, or too tight, overstressing the eyelet and hook. I replaced it with a conventional C-bracket.
A couple specs on my headlights above (Nerd take note): since it sports 4 InReTech Luxeon Stars on lithiums, that's 4 watts, plus whatever wattage you get with a NexStar on lithiums; since I'm not as schooled on electronics as others here, does that get me 5 watts? The entire apparatus including harness weighs abought 23 ozs. Let's hear it for lithiums, light but expensive little turds.
Lastly, does anyone know where you can get AA lithiums for cheaper than $9.99/four at Fred Meyer?