I have an old vistalight 5w headlight that barely cuts it when I ride home in the dark through the woods. Does anyone have any experience with a bright high quality headlight?
I bought a Light & Motion product +/- $150 last year to use while training at night. I love it. It certainly was not the most expensive but it fit my budget.
For riding in the parks I found that the niterider trail rat was fine as long as I wasn't hammering. That was two years ago and it's still available. Now there are newer lighter and brighter products available in L.E.D. versions. I would recommend the N.R. mininewt X2. You'll need to buy the additional helmet mount.
If you'll be on roads with cars or riding with other riders with lights then you'll want something stronger then the trailrat. Washout will be a big problem and can cause accidents as the offending brighter light will cause your body to throw a shadow over your previously lit path. Pupils don't adjust fast enough so all of a sudden your in the dark again. This logic caused my wife to agree that I needed something stronger and now I'm the proud owner of the trinewt wirele$$.
Do your research and consider your budget. There is a "shootout" done annually by one of the cycling rags like bikemag.com. Or try one of the mtbing websites. My favorite is bikemojo.com.Your local bikeshop can order almost any lamp or you can try ordering direct from the manufacturer. Failing that feel free to private message me and I'll see what I can order for you from my shop or any further questions. You'll need to consider shipping if that is the case.
Nite Rider makes some great systems. I have a Digital Pro 12 which I got about 4 years ago. Unfortunately, they don't make it anymore. It has a dual bulb system (12 or 20 watts or you can run both bulbs at 32 watts). I like the dual bulb system because if one bulb blows out during your ride, you still have one bulb left to get you home. Check out www.universalcycles.com. They carry the NiteRider line and several other manufacturers as well so you can check out a lot of different systems and compare. Be warned though, most of the high-end systems are on the expensive side.
Hi, I have a Petzel MYO XP head lamp, it is a little diffcult to wear under a helmet but it can be done, also it can be attached to a cycling helmet with a little magic and velcro!
On the whole though it is an awesome headlamp with 3 light levels (and blink mode) and boost. It has a filter which can splay the light with a depth of field in optimum level of 35m when the batteries are fresh, but will degrade to 25m after around 10 hours and then down to 15m after a further 15 hours or so, the spot beam can shine out to 45m and can be boosted for around 20 seconds to 60m aprox. Uses 3 x AA batteries which will last for around 90hours on optimum.
rather than splashing out on a large battery munching light, try doubling up. i use 2 mid range cateye leds and point one close to the front wheel and one just off horizontal. provide great visability over a large range, last for ever, don't break the bank and you don't need too bright a light for road sections. have even used them for some fairly technical dh in the woods without too much bother.