More light, please!

As I've noted, my current commute includes a stretch of road that is quite dark at night. I've been on dark country roads at night--I used to commute on Aiken Road going east from Middletown to near the Shelby County line, and with SOTA 1995 headlights (Vista Light VL-430, two lamps at 6VDC/10 watts with 4- or 5 AH lead-acid rechargeable battery), and was more-or-less happy with the light output (one almost cannot have too much light for night cycling). The newer Vista Light NiMH NightStick set (bought circa 2000), originally a five and a ten-watt light, but eventually upgraded to have two ten-watt lights, is no better, albeit lighter in weight.

When I was in my teens, I discovered car headlights made by a French firm, Cibie (said, SI-bee-a, I think). By my early twenties, I had installed 85-watt low beams and four (yes, 4) 100-watt high beam headlights in my '72 Cutlass. I could see two full seconds at 70 mph without blinding oncoming traffic (the lenses were that good) on low beam, and could tell where there was a reflective license plate more than a mile away on high beam. I miss those lights.

In other words, I like to see what I'm doing when I'm operating a vehicle. Call me crazy, but, well...

I decided a couple weeks ago that my weak, lame, twenty watts of halogen light was not enough, so I bought a new handlebar-mounted headlight: a CygoLight Dual Cross Pro model, found on sale at one of the bike shop's suppliers. This is a $250 light, and while perhaps not state of the art (SOTA), it's far better than what I've had for the last several years. I opted for the NiMH version, as it's a) cheaper and b) offers more run time. I suppose the LiIon version is probably lighter, but since the bike weighed over thirty pounds BEFORE I mounted the fenders, rack, bottle cages, kickstand, panniers, rack trunk, and lights, a couple ounces of battery weight won't be a big deal.

I've had the lights on for one trip home so far. My first impression was that I was going to have to rework the mounting system. This was not the fault of the light set--the light bar on my Vanguard is a Chromium-plated section of steel handlebar, cribbed from some wrecked junker bike over a dozen years ago. The plating is thick, chip-resistant, and SLICK. Most bar-mounted lights I've had would pitch over with little provocation, and an end-heavy light like the Dual Cross re-aimed itself by thirty or forty degrees going over a rail road crossing.

Once home that night, I rummaged around in my toy, er, tool box for solutions, and found that I had some double-stick black stuff in a thickness that seemed appropriate. I cut a piece of it to roughly the length equal to the circumference of the bar stock, applied it, and re-attached the light. I took it out on a short test hop in the 'hood, and was happy with my results. I will see how things go on the homeward trip Thursday--I have a rail crossing to navigate early in the route (Pewee Valley), and a couple rough spots closer to home (Westport Road under I-264) that will test my reworked mount thouroughly.

As for brightness, though...WOW. I've had Quartz Iodine car headlights long before they were the norm--the new stuff isn't quite as good as the lights in my old Cutlass, frankly, even some of the radically high-output stuff I see on upper-tier imports is pale by comparison (but, then, I DID have 400 watts of high beam available--and could scorch paper at a foot from the headlight. I'm talking bordering on airplane lights). Even with that benchmark, these things are bright for road use.

I have noticed that my halogen lamps get "washed out" by other road users at times--usually when I most need their illumination to get around pot holes in the road, of course. I haven't yet been in similar circumstances with these lights, so I'm curious about how they'll fare. Otherwise, I'm quite happy with the amount of light and the beam pattern given by this set. I'm sure there are better options--more lumens, lighter weight, easier to attach battery, whatever, but these will do well for me.

I mentioned to Jenn that I want her to have more light for her night riding, especially with Westport Road so fouled up with construction for the coming year. We'll have to rearrange some of the stuff on her handlebar to make room for this light, but it would be worth it. I have some other upgrades I want to make to her lighting, anyway, as I think we could improve on how easy it would be to see her from behind and from the sides. She leaves the house before I do, and while she could ride a mile or so and catch the bus, it's almost quicker for her to ride straight to work instead (it's something like six miles each way), so it makes sense to have her lights do as well as mine.

Now to pay for this stuff...