Using a mtb batteries xml 1000 lumen + 200 lumen Knog road blinder on a night ride tonight – which one should I put on the bars and which one on the helmet ?

Idealy the heaviest and brightest on the bars.

ok great, thanks.

Depends a bit on the light tbh- beam pattern’s important, a narrow beam’s less useful on the bars than on the head and the XMLs are quite often tight beamed. I’ve not used your knog but I suspect I’d end up with the XML helmet mounted and doing almost all the work and the knog doing some filling in on the bars.

Best give both combinations a go and see which works best. Reckon Northwind is probably right though.

+1 Northwind.

About the same power on bars and helmet, but more spot on helmet and flood on bars.

Tight beam on helmet. Flood on bars.

So which worked best?

After a couple of years of having my stronger light on the bars I’ve recently switched… I won’t be switching back!!

It defiantly makes sense to have the stronger one on your head so you can see where you are going through twisty singletrack.

I run just a helmet light (gloworm X2), don’t ever feel the need for a bar light as well. even snagged a DH KoM segment on strava with that setup the other day.

I run my wide beam lens cree on the bars and spotlight lens cree on the noggin.

I remember being told that it’s illegal for cyclists to ride on the road with a light on their helmet, which makes sense as it doesn’t have a fixed position and can shine in drivers’ eyes.

Does anyone know if this is allowed?

I’ve ridden past/alongside/behind many a police car with my helmet light on and never been stopped.

I try not to look directly into drivers eye’s though!

Big light on helmet with battery in back pack. I prefer my bar light to be focused on what is about to happen to my front wheel and have the advantage of being able to keep my head up to see further down the trail.

number18

I remember being told that it’s illegal for cyclists to ride on the road with a light on their helmet, which makes sense as it doesn’t have a fixed position and can shine in drivers’ eyes.

Does anyone know if this is allowed?

It simply states that the light shouldn’t dazzle other road users. This is pretty subjective though, as it states you should use your handbrake in a car to avoid dazzling the driver behind with your brake light.

As far as I am aware there is nothing specific about light placement. Any car not dipping could quite easily be accused of dazzling, then again so could the flashing lights on a police car.

When commuting I like a light on the bars and one on my helmet so when I’m approaching junctions/roundabouts etc I know when I look in the direction of traffic they’ll see me whereas my bar light may be invisible to them. Also helps if someones about to pull into your path, lets them see you.

For mountainbiking though, one good light on the helmet is sufficient. Anything around 1000lms or more negates the need for a bar light, other than for adding depth. brightest light on the bars makes me nauseous.

i prefer the ‘biggest’ light on my bars, because: my eyesight is a bit crap, and i find the low beam creates shadows with the lumps and bumps on the ground – which makes it all much easier to make sense of.

using a ‘smaller’ light on my helmet, these shadows don’t get filled-in with light.

a bit like this:

the shadows help you see what’s going on – with the biggest light on your helmet, there will be no shadows.

isn’t that clever though? – our brains can happily and quickly, extract 3D information from a 2D image, all with shadows.

if both your eyes work properly, don’t worry about this so much.

On road rules – http://www.ctc.org.uk/cyclists-library/regulations/lighting-regulations

Doesn’t mention about on a helmet other than shouldn’t be dazzling wherever you put it. Pretty sure there used to be a rule that you can’t have your lights only worn on the body or head, that you must have main lights fixed in place on the bike itself, but others worn are optional so long as not dazzling and white front and red rear.

Anyway, a decent helmet mount allows you to twist the light angle so if off roading but you hit some road for a bit, you can just angle the light to the left. Likewise with bar mount lights. In the old days it wasn’t much of an issue but the power of off road lights is immense. I’ve had drivers flash at me when I forgot I had them on medium power, so turned them to low and twisted a little to the left. They’re still strong even at low.

Oh, and the law also says on road you should have reflectors, minimum of rear and pedal. Yeah, like that’s going to happen with off road bikes 😉 (except if just been bought from a shop).

And biggest/smallest, it’s far more important that it’s a spot on the helmet and flood on the bars. Very bright spot is fine, but a flood on the helmet usually has a diffuser lens which results in a softer light which isn’t so good for where you’re looking. Flood on the bars keeps peripheral vision and distance lit up.