What works best for you? I have at my mercy Gloworm Xs 2200 lumen, and a Hope R4 1000 lumen me thinks.Is there a rule of thumb or does the generated power matter where it is.

I prefer most light on the bars. That tends to show up the trail better as it will cast a visible shadow over any rough ground/boulders/roots etc.

I always go more light on bars. More fixed spread of light in the direction of travel of your bike.

Bar.

If you have too much on your head, you end up with no shadows – so the trail looks flattened out – which is proper weird.

How do you cope on a sunny day?

How do you cope on a sunny day?

By not having the sun attached directly to your helmet?

Surely it depends more on beam pattern and throw rather than out and out brightness?
Spot on the helmet, flood on the bars.

Simon – Member
Spot on the helmet, flood on the bars.

^ This.

As for brightness, if you group ride you need to be brighter than everyone else 😉 . Seriously though, you don’t want to be in a shadow created by bright lights from the others. It gets competitive with group night rides 😀

By not having the sun attached directly to your helmet?

ahh best take my portable sun off my helmet then.

what they ^ said.

(more light on your bars)

look at this:

it’s a 2D image, but your brain can instantly 3D-ify it thanks to the shadows.

Simon – Member
Surely it depends more on beam pattern and throw rather than out and out brightness?
Spot on the helmet, flood on the bars.

What this man said.

But usually a flood wide beem is brighter than a spot as it throws the light further making it look less bright.

It’s all about the inverse square law in lighting. With 2 lights of equal brightness, 1 as a flood and 1 as spot. The spot will have a greater intensity on any area it covers, whereas the flood light has a lower intensity on any given area as it is spread over more area. So a flood light would need to be more powerful to look as bright.

TBH it depends a lot on just how bright they are, and how different they are. Assuming they’re both decent lights, then forget about brightness initially- if one’s a spot and one’s a flood, get the spot on your head whether it’s brighter or not.

If one’s weak, put that one on your bars- that’s not so much “the brighter light should go on your head” as “don’t put a weak light on your head”.

The heavier one on the bars.

I prefer more light on my head, so when I’m watching the trail I can see what’s coming up, not what’s right under my front wheel when it’s too late to react.

Don’t get hung up about lumens, all about optics.

Flood light on the bars with a nice wide spread for climbing and technical stuff and a powerful spotlight with good throw on your head for when speeds are higher and looking through corners etc.

For me whilst flat light isn’t great a bigger problem with a powerful light low down is that it exaggerates any shadows cast by drops/rocks etc making easily rollable stuff look like drops of doom. If however you only ride trails you know in the dark this is less of an problem.

I’d happily ride with just the spot and think it’s a good way of forcing you too look further down the trail and improving body/head position but wouldn’t like to ride with just a bar mounted light.

Guys who run the Four4th lights have also moved to green LEDs in preference to the white ones. They find it’s less harsh and better for detail, apparently (I didn’t know any better so got their white lights, though does me fine).

jamesfts – Member

making easily rollable stuff look like drops of doom.

this is (partly) why there’s a light on my helmet – i can see what’s in the shadows, but they’re not ‘filled in’ with light.

i’m trying out a new helmet light at the moment, it’s much more of a flood than before, and i think i like it – there’s a useful amount of light everywhere i look, but no hotspots.

(it should be said that my eyesight is awful, probably why i ‘need’ the shadows to see what’s going on)

i prefer more on the bars and less on the helmet…. expecially in the rain… too much light, from a helmet mount, reflects off the raindrops and its distracting