Looking for a commute light that actually lites up the road. Them chinese cheap cree lights are rubbish and just blind car drivers.

I have 5 mile of unlit country roads during my 9 mile work commute.

B&M Ixon Premium here. Ze Germans know a thing or two about effective commuting lights.

I use an exposure strata 1200, works well but not cheap.

Exposure Strada is the obvious answer.

Budget?

I’m a huge fan of Exposure lights and they do a specific road light called the Strada that has a “…wide and flat beam pattern to light the verges and give exceptional side visibility while avoiding dazzling oncoming road users“

If you can’t stretch to the Strada, I think the Diablo is more than adequate for road duty, but is still 7 or 8 times more than a cheap Chinese cree light.

What I love about these lights is the all-in-one design, which means no faffing attaching batteries to your frame and also you can use them as everyday torches. My Diablo is money very well spent and its 1100 lumens is easily a match for the claimed 10,000 lumens of my cheapo cree light.

Go for any light which is German road (TUV?) approved like the B&M ones are. They are designed to light up the road and help you to be seen. Which is what you want on the roads, not some stupid bright pinhole LED which does neither of those things, just blinds drivers and makes them annoyed.

B&M Ixon Premium here. Ze Germans know a thing or two about effective commuting lights.

+1. I do a fair amount of overnight road riding, and this light works a treat. 5 hours on full beam, plus it uses AA batteries so easy to take a spare set with you.

ETA: the only problem with it is on unlit shared paths – because all of the beam is on the path/ road, it can be difficult to see ninja pedestrians.

The latest B&M lights are pretty good, and it’s handy to be able to run them from AA batteries (I use lithiums on longer rides).

The cut-off beam is much wider than previous generations of German lights (which I didn’t get on with).

However, when riding fast on dark lanes I like having a ‘high’ beam if possible. It needs to be switchable to allow you to turn it off when there’s oncoming traffic.

If battery life isn’t an issue, I find an over-volted 12V halogen lamp is fantastic at lighting up the road.

However, when riding fast on dark lanes I like having a ‘high’ beam if possible. It needs to be switchable to allow you to turn it off when there’s oncoming traffic.

The Ixon premium has a high/ low beam. I switch it to low when riding under streetlights, but there’s no need to for oncoming traffic as the beam isn’t in the drivers’ eyes.

im exposures biggest fan for sure but their road lights need work.

im using b + m IXQ and lumotec iqx luxos on 2 of my road orientated bikes to good effect. Need much less lumens when the beams sent to the right place the IQX is an insane level of light.

plus the dynamo hub takes

which means no faffing attaching batteries to your frame

to new levels.

You have to remember as well though at this time of year, with the roads often being wet, a considerable portion of the beams from most lights are going to bounce forward off the tarmac rather than back towards you. Then its dry, there is far more light that bounce back to you. Even more so with the blue-er white light from most bike LED’s compared to old skool yellower halogen bulbs.

Them chinese cheap cree lights are rubbish and just blind car drivers.

Mine aren’t, done many many dark road miles.

You just need sufficient lumens and a non-dazzling beam battern. I’m currently using a Lezyne Macro 800XL.

+1 for something German. You want something with a sharp cut-off, and the brightest part of the beam immediately below the cut-off as that’s the bit that hits the road furthest from you. This gives nice even illumination of a long patch of road, rather than over-illuminating the road nearest you.

I’ve not tried a strada in the flesh, but from the beam pattern photos it doesn’t look nearly as good as the German stuff. It may be a bit wider and flatter, but there’s no sharp cut-off or brightness gradient.

Don’t be too swayed by lumens. You can get away with a lot less if you focus all your lumens onto the road rather than scattering into the tree tops, hedges and drivers’ eyes.

Pretty pleased with my Exposure Strada 1200.
Initially it doesn’t feel as bright as other lights (beam pattern doesn’t throw as far as other lights) but it produces a fantastic wide/flat beam which works really well on unlit roads.
I’ve also paired it with a joystick on my lid for really dark lanes/paths. This is perfect.

Moon seem to make decent commute lights – my xpower 300 has a great beam pattern for road riding, and a nice cut off to avoid dazzle. Into it’s 5th winter now, battery life starting to drop a bit but as it’s USB chargeable that’s not really a problem.

This looks good:

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/371269/products/moon-meteor-x-auto-pro-front-bike-light.aspx

wheres the side visibility ……

same issue with the revo !

edit

seems they fixed the strada after a while….

I have some nice flexible thin shiny alu sheet. I think I will experiment with a reflecive hood design.

The German lights work much like the dipped beam car headlights. The LED either points backwards, or is reflected backwards, towards a large reflector that illuminates the road.

The Exposure Strada and the Lezyne 800XL don’t do that, they just have a lens in front of the LED to make the spread of light wider. It’s still a very dazzling small light source.

You’d be better off getting a B&M light, and a normal Exposure light with a remote switch so you can use it like a full beam on car.

I cycle toward peoples using these things on a dark shared use cycle path, and get dazzled every day.

I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure I read in a review that the Cateye Volt 700 is a good road cycling light with a beam that doesn’t dazzle too much.

I fancy getting one of the B&M ones but have seen mixed reviews about how bright they actually are.

Ding lights. Literally light up the road. Good forward spread too.
Lenses direct the light towards the road, without dazzling drivers coming the other way.
Quite happy batting along at 20mph on the unlit sections of my commute with this.

The Ixon premium has a high/ low beam. I switch it to low when riding under streetlights, but there’s no need to for oncoming traffic as the beam isn’t in the drivers’ eyes.

By ‘high’ beam I meant a spot lamp (such as a car’s high beam) rather than the Ixon’s switchable low/high power. The German lights are more like riding with dipped car headlamps, so they light up the road, but they don’t allow you to see down the road, so it’s not always easy to see which way the road goes etc.

As others have said, something that complies with German requirements – B&M are good value, I’ve got a dynamo light on my commuter and it’s good enough to see by, whilst the beam pattern avoids dazzling people.

Edit:

By ‘high’ beam I meant a spot lamp (such as a car’s high beam) rather than the Ixon’s switchable low/high power. The German lights are more like riding with dipped car headlamps, so they light up the road, but they don’t allow you to see down the road, so it’s not always easy to see which way the road goes etc.

This can be an issue if you’re going down particularly swoopy roads, but isn’t an issue on my commute – I agree that a proper main beam would be nice. (Eyes up soldering iron. Realises he’s got kids so has no time for such frivolities. Sighs.)

thetallpaul – Member

Ding lights. Literally light up the road. Good forward spread too.
Lenses direct the light towards the road, without dazzling drivers coming the other way.
Quite happy batting along at 20mph on the unlit sections of my commute with this.

Argh that looks so annoying! I get irritated by the tiny spill of light back from the holes in the back of my dynamo light, nevermind shining a light directly on my feet 😆

By ‘high’ beam I meant a spot lamp (such as a car’s high beam) rather than the Ixon’s switchable low/high power. The German lights are more like riding with dipped car headlamps, so they light up the road, but they don’t allow you to see down the road, so it’s not always easy to see which way the road goes etc.

I see what you mean. I find the B&M has enough forward throw for most situations, but a fast descent on an unfamiliar road could be a problem. I think you’d be better off having a separate torch and toggle that on and off for what you’re describing.

im exposures biggest fan for sure but their road lights need work.

In terms of what? Seems to be pretty much perfect for my needs.

In terms of side visibility the strada 1200 lights up my hands on the hoods so there seems to be enough light spill to make me visibly from the side. But I would never depend on a bar light for side visibility anyway as if your hands are on the hoods it blocks the light anyway.

Best road usage I had was one of those cheap chinese single LED jobs with the fresnel replacement lens. Makes a really bizarre wide letterbox beam, but when you get the angle just right it lights up the road and verge superbly with no wastage and a sharp cut-off for no dazzling drivers.

“fresnel replacement lens.”

which is why the b + Ms work so well…..

case in point mostly made right there gary.

if you mounted it not on the bars then your hands wouldnt be blocking the side visibility

I can’t resist linking to my old threads on this. Modified Phillips Saferide coupled with a hacked together old Lumicycle as a “full beam” light with switch integrated into STI levers.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/compulsive-bike-light-fettling-ultimate-road-set-up

Shame you still can’t buy anything like this off the shelf, although I think if you throw enough money at Di2 levers and adapters you can now get ANT+ control from the built-in switches.

I have the original See Sense light – I only have to glance down to make sure it’s working as it puts a good red pool of light on the road.
I also have one of those lights that shines 2 lazer lines on the road. That was good, but haven’t felt the need for it since I got the See.Sense.

Try the B&M Ixon Core

German optics, rechargeable from a micro USB

I have one combined with a Cateye Volt 300 on the front. Usually use the Volt on pulse but stick the B&M on when I need to actually see the road

Lezyne Macro Duo on my lid

Its very small and neat

I do find the Road optics a bit weird, you can see in front great, but round corners/turns less so, no problem combined with a helmet light though. It’s also useful to have the helmet light to look up at people etc if you’re on a path

It’s also useful to have the helmet light to look up at people etc if you’re on a path

So you can blind them? 🙂

Since I started using the strada I have absolutely no ned for a helmet light for riding. I do have a joystick on my lid but its for emergencies only.

As usual: +1 for German beams, +1 for dyno power, +1 for the fact that a horizontal diffuser in front of a forward-facing LED is largely just a cheap but marketable non-feature and it doesn’t mitigate the dazzling, and +1 for can we have a German light with an additional main beam please. Yada yada.

@ trail_rat

the IQX is an insane level of light

Can you give a fairly detailed comparison to the Luxos? I got the impression from beam shots, when compared to the Luxos and the Cyo Premium, that the IQ-X beam is very wide and (problematically) very bright in the nearfield, whilst not actually being much (if at all) brighter in the distance. But beam shots are usually pretty misleading. So, how do you find it compared to the Luxos? Does the broader expanse of light distract at high speed? Is the far central region noticeably better than the Luxos/Cyo?

Edit: hmm, I see Peter White is happy with it (obviously unlike the Dutch guy whose name I forget, who reviews loads of lights and always hates anything that B&M make).

“I’ve now ridden with the IQ-X, and compared it with the Cyo Premium headlight. The beam is noticeably brighter at moderate speeds, it’s also wider, and has better concentration of light at the top of the beam, making it a bit better for fast descents. It’s a wonderful headlight. I can’t say if the beam is noticeably brighter overall at high speeds, as I haven’t yet been able to do a high speed comparison. But I can say that I don’t think the major reason for choosing the IQ-X over the Cyo or Luxos B should be the higher lux rating, but rather the better distribution of light. I’ll have more to say about this once I’ve spent more time riding with it.”

Part of the problem with the perception of German lights like the B&M is that we have got spoiled by 1200 lumen off road floodlights, so the more carefully targeted light from my Ixon looks a bit weak, but it’s perfectly fine for going downhill at 20-25mph. Gets a bit squirrelly at speeds above that, but that’s because I’m a wimp.

So you can blind them?

Sometimes a bit of blinding is a good thing, depending on who’s on the path.

It’s also useful to have the helmet light to look up at people etc if you’re on a path

So you can blind them?

Since I started using the strada I have absolutely no ned for a helmet light for riding. I do have a joystick on my lid but its for emergencies only.[/quote]

The B&M light is freakishly designed. You see the road great, and the part in front of you great, but anything not in that beam feels like a blind spot

I think the Strada beam is pretty different to a German Optic

I was close to buying a Strada in Evans recently, but realised that my Cateye Volt and B&M light are good enough, and more importantly I leave them on the bike when I’m doing errands etc. Having to take a light on and off all the time would be a bit annoying (and defeat the convenience aspect of cycling to do the errands)

Busch + Muller ixon IQ.

cheap, AA batteries, bright enough for a bit of light offroad bimbling, decent battery life, proper german beam pattern, 2 modes: high or low, sturdy clamp, weather proof.

bloody great.

I should also add that I use the ‘blind them’ approach on purpose sometimes, I cycle commute in London, I can raise my head and shine it at drivers to make them aware I’m there – e.g. 90 degree turns, heavy traffic with people making odd moves, people trying to pull out of parking spaces etc

Can you give a fairly detailed comparison to the Luxos?

I’ve got a Luxos U (with USB charging) and an IQX

The Luxos has a wider beam. It’s fine for commuting, plenty of light just where you need it, and due to the cache battery it stays on brighter when you stop.
The IQX has a longer, narrower beam. That’s not to say it’s too narrow, it’s not, just that the Luxos beam is wider
On a faster bike you’d see the benefit of the longer beam though.
When riding at a decent speed both beams are very even. The Luxos has a ‘pattern’ to the beam though 2-3 triangles of light I guess.
For road use either would be absolutely perfect, it just depends if you need the USB charging or not. IQX is a lot smaller and neater with no wires on the bars.
The only issue was the IQX came with a plastic bracket which was a bit wobbly and hard to aim perfectly. I replaced it with the SS bracket as found on the Luxos and it’s a lot better