Killer lights

[andrew_s]

Cunobelin, aren't the B&M lights along those lines (the Ixon IQ, and Ixon Speed are the ones I'm thinking of in particular). Looking at the design of the reflector, it seems to me that they'd throw a beam more like a car's.

All the B+M IQ lights have a shaped beam with a sharp cut-off at the top. There's also (if you can afford it) the B+M Big Bang, which is a halide light with a similarly shaped beam.

German lighting law is that bike lights used on the road can't emit more than 2 lux (at 10m, so 200 candelas) further than 3.5 degrees above the brightest point in the beam.
So if you've got AyUps, and go to Germany, don't ride at night or you'll be booked.

 

[dmb]

I use a hope single LED on flash and lupine HID as main, as long as you angle them to the left side of the road I have had no problems.

 

[Bollo]

Cunobelin, aren't the B&M lights along those lines (the Ixon IQ, and Ixon Speed are the ones I'm thinking of in particular). Looking at the design of the reflector, it seems to me that they'd throw a beam more like a car's.

I think C+ did a review about 6 months ago and talked about this. They marked the Bettys down quite hard for the scatter-gun approach to lighting the road. I think the ones they chose as 'editors biggest backhander' were B&Ms with angled beams.
Its horses for courses though. Most of my serious (not by bonj's definition) night riding is on very minor, usually single-track roads with virtually no traffic. I hate that cycling-down-a-tunnel feeling you get with most road setups that have narrower, directed beams. The compromise is that I have to be able to dim the buggers quickly before approaching drivers' eyeballs melt.

 

[fatblokish]

I've got an old fireball light which I've equipped with two blue halogen 40watt bulbs. Drivers positively shrink when I arrive, refrain from passing close and await me at areas where the road narrows. No adverse comments from plod either.

 

[Chuffy]

I've got an old fireball light which I've equipped with two blue halogen 40watt bulbs. Drivers positively shrink when I arrive, refrain from passing close and await me at areas where the road narrows. No adverse comments from plod either.

That's not a light, that's a weapon!
I bet you can measure the runtime with a small eggtimer too...

 

[RedBike]

I used to use a cateye stadium. Apparently it was 1600lumens, (To put this into perspective the ayups are only about 350 lumens.)

It never seemed as bright to look at as some of the modern LED lights though, and it didn't flash. It still used to get negative reactions from some drivers though, even when angled down.

The whole road used to be illuminated in this wonderful blue tinted glow.

 

[HJ]

Another Ayup-er here. Learnt pretty quickly that they make a splash and now keep them strongly angled down about town. Had a few incidents prior to that with drivers either flashing me, undipping headlights, and one case where someone turned his lights off altogether to make the point. They also drive peds nuts on the section of the commute which is shared use cycle path, even if they are angled down. It's tempting to have a backup weaker light on the bars for about town tbh.

Will keep at least 1 angled up tho if riding out of town, but really wish they could be dipped.

That is one of the downsides of using AyUps, they only have one light setting, most of the other bright LEDs you can set to a lower level when needed (or to save the battery).

 

[yello]

I thought B&M lights had some sort of reflectory gizmo thing to cut down the top half of the beam but I was flashed a couple of times when I first set my Cyo up. I've since angled it down a touch but I would have prefered to throw the light further forward.