Best lights, EU standard available in US

tomjasz

1 GW
Joined
Mar 29, 2014
Messages
5,212
Location
Out riding, MN USA
Yup I like the standards set by the EU. Sure there are bitches but IMO the concept is solid. What is your favorite setup?
 
I love the Lupine Betty helmet mounted running at a full and honest 4500 lumens. I like to have 70 lumens of red light out the back flashing. This way I actually feel safer around the little country roads as everything stops to see what is bearing down on them. Having it helmet mounted means I can always direct light away from drivers to avoid dazzling them.
 
The governments import duties have been responsible for the head mounted lights, a bicycle light incurs 4.2% import duty, put a head mount in their and call it a torch 0% import duty!
I had the triple Magicshine 1400 on my Bomber, awesome light!
 
I pretty much gave up riding at night. Easy for me, I tend to fall asleep before the sun goes down.

When I do ride in the dark, I like two bike headlights, but I have only the cheapies found at Wallmart. One points down at the glass about to impale my tires, the other is aimed higher so I can see that dumb mofo walking in the bike lane wearing black hat black coat, black pants black socks and black shoes.

Because of that mofo I hit one morning, if I was to ride all the time in the dark again, I'd go with a pair of 12v led offroad driving lights. A set is about $35. Again, one aimed different than the other.

For making sure cars about to pull out see you, I used to really like a helmet light. Give that car the evil eye as you approach. But then I decided since the car will be pulling out and overtaking you immediately, maybe blinding the driver was not so smart. But you could see them actually doing a full stop, when they clearly were about to pull out into your path. Just having more than a single pinpoint of light should work just as good. Two cheap lights on my bars seemed to get more attention. Two big ones should work too. But the really big thing is simply seeing that mofo wearing black in your path in time.

On the back, I have a couple pretty large reflectors, and a blinky. Amberwolf rides night all the time, and he does it right. His crazybike has full motorcycle lights and signals, as well as about a square yard of reflector tape facing back.
 
I like the German standard, but getting a system is either incredibly expensive or a total PIA! This may take more research. Thanks Andrew!

EDIT Done! found one with USB at a great price!
 
tomjasz said:
I like the German standard, but getting a system is either incredibly expensive or a total PIA! This may take more research. Thanks Andrew!

EDIT Done! found one with USB at a great price!

Generally off the shelf pricing is best from the zee Germans ... http://bike24.com for example. Don't forget to take off the VAT (19%) of the prices quoted or change your settings to USA at the website to get the price in Euros minus the tax.

Andrew
 
We get the s$/t beat out of us on EU purchases, with some exceptions. I found a USA reseller who will play nice.
 
tomjasz said:
Yup I like the standards set by the EU. Sure there are bitches but IMO the concept is solid. What is your favorite setup?

I like the Philips Saferide a lot. I use the 60lux "dynamo" version (6V AC, also works well on 7,2V DC) and the 80lux e-bike version (6V-48V DC). They use 2 LEDs each and make a very wide light beam.
 
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