Bicycle Lights?

[Nubo]

The Light and Motion ARC Li-Ion is the most powerful light I own. It can run for around 3 hours, and the light output is incredible. The regular Surefire 6P puts out 65 lumens. The Li-Ion puts out 675 lumens. It's HID so it takes about 30 seconds to warm up, during which it seems to pop red and blue flashes as it gets brighter. At this level it will run 3-3.5hrs, or go to the lower level, 550 lumens, and get 3.5-4hrs. I can see the difference is brightness, but both are still very bright. I can't see normally using the 550 mode as the extra 30 minutes just won't make any difference to my short ride.

Agreed, the "low" setting is of questionable use. By the time you realize you need to "stretch" your light, the added runtime is minimal. And "planning" a ride long enough to need the extended runtime is questionable also, unless you ride with military precision. They've got a double-size battery, iirc, which would be the way to go for extra-long rides.

Low power is also not the best thing for the bulb. And THAT ties in with why they simply don't choose a much lower level that would seriously extend your runtime. As the bulb is run below its rated power, the electrodes don't get hot enough. This leads to something called "cathode fall", which is very hard on the electrodes. It's nice of L&M to try, but the technology really limits them to "high" and "medium-high", instead of Hi and Lo.

I can't say it's the best ever or anything, as it's the only light in this class I've used. I CAN say that there's nothing about this light I don't like or would improve upon.

My only complaint is the straight power cord. Makes it difficult to route the cord in such a way that there's enough slack, without being too floppy. Without enough slack, turning the handlebars sharply could ruin the light. A coiled cord (at least at the lamp end) would reduce that risk, and make cord routing much easier in my opinion. But that's a minor nit. I'm glad you're enjoying your light.

 

[drmaxx]

I do commute 10 miles a day - mostly streets. And in my experience nothing beats a hub dynamo and a good halogen front light. It's not the cheapest set up but very reliable. Snow, heavy rain no problem - no batteries needed and the light ist plenty for normal streets even uphill.
Not good enough for off road though.