I've seen many arguments about front lights. My personal experience and opinions include but are not limited to: Any front light needs to
-give off enough light to be useable to ride at night (probably 200 lumens would be my minimum for locations where you are only occasionally going to go out of streetlight zone), and
-have a strobe or some kind of automatic variance to the light output to catch attention in full daylight, [backsplash from a strong strobe can be distracting or even cause headaches to the rider let alone other road users.] and
-be mounted at or near the bottom bracket for our bikes so that you are not getting light shining in alternating flashes off the top of your knees and shoes (you already know that you are there it is others you want aware of you
), and
-be easy to mount (or a tinkerer owner), and
-only require one mode that never needs to be changed after the first setting and ideally be super obvious to use.
-be aim-able.
-be easily removable and
-be easily rechargeable, and
-last 2 hours on full use,
I like the Cygolite (cygolite.com product section gives the models) versions that are in the 500 lumen range. They all have the difficulty of mounting to a boom that is perpendicular to their "normal" mounting on a handlebar. They have a function where the light shines full time but also give a bit of a flicker of extra bright light so that you can see fully at night without too much distraction (such as with a strobe) from the flicker, but there is extra to catch the attention of drivers. (If you get one that allows for a little pivot right/left then put a drop of blue locktite on the bolt/nut that acts as the pivot otherwise it will work itself loose.)
A single car or motorcycle
low-beam headlight is about
700 lumens, and
typical single
high-beam headlight is
1200 lumens.
[from
https://www.bikeshophub.com/product-category/bike-lights]
And if you are touring, always have a backup plan.
Well there you have it, two cents worth of my opinion.
