how many lumens would you recommend…

to ride off road at night?

if i get a helmet light and a bar light, is this the preferred set up?

if i get a helmet light and a bar light, is this the preferred set up?

Only if your enduro enough 🙂

I actually manage completely well rushing through the woods with a single solar storm on tje bars which is 5000. Anymore and I might bend space and time.

You only really need 100-120 genuine lumens on each light providing they have sufficient beam range and spread.

However, as you can get well over 300-500+ per light for decent money, knock yourself out and get as much as you can.

Regardless of lumens though, it is still hiding in the bushes, it will still stalk you and you will only ever see it out the corner of your eye until it’s too late.

Helmet and bar is the best combo if you can afford it.
Lumens is a tricky one because some of the lights are nowhere there claimed output.
Just get what you can afford and off you go.

A £50 light from Magicshine will be perfectly fine.

Have a search around the site for lights threads. There’s plenty of info.

I use an old Light and Motion set up .A Stella 120 for the helmet and a bar mount Urban 180 .They have done me for the last 4 years.

over 9000

I use a Troute Darkness Dominator (2600 real lumens) on the bars and I have just got a cateye volt 1200 to replace the Gemini Xera flashlight 850 (more like 750) on the helmet. You can of course get by with less but until your lights genuinely replicate a bright sunny day you can always have more so get the best you can afford.

Definitely get 2 lights, the Troute has probably one of the widest beams you can buy but it’s still doesn’t work round corners, you need a helmet light for that. Flood on bars and spot on helmet.

A couple of hundred more than the person behind you.

Lumicycle Explorer on the bars..love it!

Joystick on the lid

Solarstorm and ayups in the drawer for spares 🙂

Courtesy of Chris, I had use of a 2600lm Darkness Dominator (bars) and a 2600lm SpiderEye (helmet) for a few months, it was awesumz. His lights were actual real world measurement of Lumen and proper use of the light beams (or whatever the terminology is). I seem to recall Chris thought that somewhere beyond ‘real’ 5000lm in a single beam was the point where detail/definition started to be blinded/whited out by the lights. He might see this a confirm or correct me.

And like Jam Bo says, the person in front won’t thank you unless they have something better.

Hardly any if you ride by yourself – 500 would be fine. Absolutely loads if you ride with others to avoid the shadow issue of a megalumen light behind you – more than 1000.

As above. Riding alone a single light is plenty. Solarstorm x2 is plenty. In a group you really want matching lights or one if you gets horrible shadows. Having 2 lights helps here until you look straight at your mate and he can’t see a thing.

Managed a nice off-road ride on CX bike tonight with 400lumen joystick on bars and 400 lumen (mbuk subs freebie) Lezyne on helmet
Only when I got back did I realise the Lezyne was only on 1/2 power, even then it had a nicer beam and spread than my supposed 700 lumen Chinese light
Lumens isn’t everything

Nice wide bright flood light for the bars that will last a couple of hours at least and a nice bright spot for the helmet that will last for a couple of hours at least.

Often the lumens quoted refers to the highest setting which may drain the battery fast, so you are unlikely to be riding on that setting all night anyway. Depends on the lights. Some just have low and high, some low, medium and high.

And then comparing quoted lumens is useless. They are mostly rubbish figures, and if Chinese, just plain ludicrous. Anything like 5000, 9000 etc, just knock a zero off that and it’s more accurate.

Other than that, in a group, get whatever the other have or brighter 😉

Bikeray iv on the bars.. 1800 lumens. Runs for 3 hrs+ on full with the 6 cell battery..

Cheap chinese solarstorm x2 on your helmet.. advertised as 3000-5000 lumens but its probably closer to 1200-1500. It will run for 2+ hours on full with the 4 cell battery. I’ve used mine on medium and it lasts for 3hrs+

I have a couple of Hope Vision 1’s. Had one for years and picked up another cheap from eBay.
One on the bars and other on the helmet.
Work great together..
I like em cos you can use standard AA’s although I use 2450mah envelops!

I have 2 1000 lumen lights… however I normally run one on half output, one on a quarter… That’s plenty on the single track round tunnel hill etc

You need as many lumen as your mates have. I used to ride fine on my own with 400 lumens but mates have lights that are way more powerful and was casting shadows over my own lights so I had to upgrade or ride at the back.

Also people used to ride with a wide flood on the bars and spot on the head because the technology at the time didn’t produce enough light for both.

These days you can have your cake and eat it. Most lights with 2 XML LEDs will produce enough flood and distance to see well with one light.

If only one light I prefer a head torch as you can light up the trail round corners so you know what’s coming up.

Also the figures quoted on the ebay adverts are very misleading often they have 4000+ lumen but really a dual XML light like the Solar storm is producing around 1000 to 1600 lumens which is still plenty.

500+ lumens is a sensible starting point, 1000+ will allow you to ride fast safely. More speed needs more lumens. Start with a decent 500+ lumen helmet mounted light and go from there if it isn’t enough.

I run a helmet mounted Exposure Equinox with external battery on longer rides. It’s 2000 lumens on high but I only use full power on fast sketchy bits, 1000 lumen mode is plenty on group rides or faster solo rides and 500 lumen mode is enough on slower solo rides or the road. It’s very bright and has a huge hotspot so you don’t have to move your head around too much, not cheap though.

single solar storm on the bars which is 5000

😆