[Closed] How many lumens on head how many lumens on bars?

Brighter flood on bars, lesser spot on helmet. For me at least.

Exposure Race (1900?) on bars, Joystick (1000?) on helmet.

I'd argue beam patterns more important

Wide on the bars.spot on the head

Yes, focussed beam on head and flood on bars. I've got an exposure joystick on my helmet and Bikehut 1600 on my bars, was out with it last night and it's more than sufficient.

I’d say they’ve got to be ballpark similar (within say 25%) otherwise the brighter one will just dominate.

But I don’t think it matters which is brightest.

Flood light will need to be brighter than the spot, otherwise the spot will be too bright and will affect your vision

(think about light intensity over the area of light)

Six Pack on the bars and a Diablo on the head. Tend to run the Six Pack on the middle setting for most things and then just cycle the Diablo between low, medium and high. The Diablo could do with a more focused beam though, it’s an early model so might be better on later ones. Might even go back to the Joystick as that has a much more pronounced spot.

Amazon special Chinese lumen on head.
Amazon special Chinese lumen on bars.
Sorted.

More about weight for me. Smaller light on my helmet, bigger one on the bars.

Also if you don't wear a pack a self contained helmet light might be better.

I use a torch on my head (quite spotty) and a mtb batteries luminator on the bars. Setting up from scratch I'd go with the same bar mount and get the small luminator (as a package) for my helmet.

I've spent the last few years with a 4600 lumen Four4th Holy Moses on the bars and 1200 lumen Four4th Exodus on my helmet. The Exodus was designed as a helmet light and has a fantastic long narrow spot beam which manages to compete well with the much more powerful Holy Moses. As a pair they are great.

I use an exposure axis (1100lm on full) helmet mounted for the descents, nothing on the bars. I have a mount on the bars for it so I tend to move it the bars and turn it down for climbing/traversing.

I just have 4600lumens on my bars no helmet light as of yet, haven't felt the need for one.

Solarstorm Jonny-5 on the head, Bastid on bars. Perfect.

Rode last night in some right tight wet rooty trails with the Bikehut 1600 on my bars and the Lezyne 1000 on my lid and worked a treat

Just my troutie light on my bars. Hate lid lights for my night riding

Still run my pair of Troutie lights.

Spider Eyes on my helmet (up to 2600 lumens) and a Liberator on the bars, which Chris had upgraded to ~2300 lumens iirc

They provide very different beam patterns with the Spider Eyes producing a long Spot mode.

Rarely use them both on max settings though, perhaps techy or super fast sections on an event where I can summons “daylight mode”.

Most lumens stated are bollocks tbh.

I get that NBitF, but the late, great Chris Hadaway (Troutie) was always diligent in his “real world lumens” output claims.
And a real testament to the quality of his workmanship that they’re still out there being used - great lights.
RIP Chris

Rip troutie

I've been using a Gemini Titan on the bars for 5 years & found that mostly adequate.
This year I added a 500Lm Lezyne to the helmet just for the down hills.

I just have 4600lumens on my bars no helmet light as of yet, haven’t felt the need for one.

Fine, until you ride somewhere unfamiliar, or with lots of tight turns. Even 4600lm don’t illuminate hairpin bends.

Just my troutie light on my bars. Hate lid lights for my night riding

Just for balance I can't ride with just a bar light and I can't ride with a bar light brighter than the head torch either. The local trails are in trees and twisty so with a too bright light you just see bright trees and no trail. And with a bar light you just see the outside of the corner and not where you need to go.

I can't run a spot head torch either as the beam is too focussed and you get fixated on the spot area only. Most cheap lights I've tried are crap. Nothing is floody enough. I've a pile of cheap lights I don't use.

My fave light is my old homemade trout light kit thing on my lid. Happy to run that without a bar light but I do have a halfrauds 1600 that I run at half power on the bars.

I got a chilli tech pod head torch thing I need to try. Seems quite a nice pattern in the garden - we will see.

IMO, "spotlight on head and flood on beam" is years out of date now, it used to be a good idea when lights were basically crap but the only reason to do it now is if you want a really small self-enclosed light on your head. Otherwise, 2 floods is better at everything with no real downsides.

As soon as we got affordable floodlights that could also throw a decent way down the trail-which happened in about 2014- that was a gamechanger, and it's still pretty much where the sweet spot of price, peformance and size is- 1500-2000 lumens on head, same on bars, same or very similar beam, same colour temp, in fact the same light generally. Keeps your peripheral vision good, stops the spotlight from dictating your eyes' night response, avoids weird shadows and artifacts, and still punches as far as the next thing you have to react to.

IMO of course 😉

We regularly ride Inners, Golfie etc at night so IME you need the brightest on the helmet (because I want to see).

I run an Exposure Toro on the bars and a (Chinese) 2-beam CREE on my helmet with the battery in my pack.

I tried just a single light, but can't see 'shadows'.

Brighter beam on the bars - preferably with quite a wide flood. Helmet to be more spotty - it’s more about seeing round corners as you loom h to at way before the light on the bars lights it up.

In the interest of battery life I’d have a less powerful light on the helmet so it’s nice and compact and something brighter on the bars that’s a bit bulkier with batteries.

For me I have a maxx d mk13 on the bars which one flex mode goes up to 4000 lumens peak, and a moon vortex pro on the helmet at the moment - 700 lumens on high. That works pretty well and you can see the 700 lumen spot despite being a lot lower on power than the bar light. I’m getting an exposure axis for the helmet for my birthday for a bit more power on the helmet just because!

I have my trusty and still brilliant Troute Lumen Liberator (RIP Chris) on the bars with a new battery Mark at MTBB.

To support that I have just gone for a lid mounted Four4th Scorch.

I was drawn to Exposure but felt the cost was just a bit too much.

Toro on the bars .... Joystick on the lid.

I use a dayblazer (800) on my helmet and solar storm on the bars. The solar storm is probably a bit brighter (but who knows; it’s certainly not the lumens claimed). Bright and diffuse on the bars works for me though, especially as most of my routes from home are on shared paths where I avoid using the helmet light as it’s hard not to be antisocial when you encounter someone and it’s on, whereas the bar light can easily be tilted down (I don’t have a remote for the helmet light).

Ive tried loads of head/bar combo's and believe a good flood light on the head is the way forward to the point ive sacked the bar light ! Problem is you need a good light. Im using a lupine blika with 2100 true lumins.

joebristol
Full Member

Brighter beam on the bars – preferably with quite a wide flood. Helmet to be more spotty – it’s more about seeing round corners as you loom h to at way before the light on the bars lights it up.

That's kind of my point though, with modern lights, there's no reason to compromise and accept a spotty beam for that, even a budget light can have a good spread filling in the peripheral vision and keeping good eye response etc, and can throw all the light you need to the next thing you're dealing with. Especially with corners and tech features.

TBH I used to have a spot style helmet light and the only time it'd ever actually have more useful range than a good flood, was looking across the other side of car parks etc, or lighting up a cloud for a laugh. For riding bikes, it never once did.

To your original point, they will only cancel each other out if you're riding straight trails, and have the two of them set up to illuminate the same area.

Get the bar light pointed nearer to the front wheel, and the lid light pointed well ahead, where you should be looking.