Bicycle Lights: To See and Be Seen By
This post about bicycle lights is the second in a series about basic equipment and skills.
In October, as this post is published, hours of daylight grow shorter where most of our readers live and ride. My previous post explains how to check out your bicycle and determine that it is safe to ride.
But, is it safe to ride during hours of darkness?
Laws require lights for night riding, and lights are crucial for safety. Even if you don’t think you’re going to ride at night, it’s a good idea to have lights. Someday you may get caught out after dark unprepared. Besides, night riding can be quite enjoyable with the proper bicycle lights. There is often less traffic, so it can be very relaxing, if you can be confident that people can see you.
There are too many different lights to get into in much detail here, but I’ll try to help you make a choice.
How Bright the Light?
Any taillight sold at a bike shop will do. Many bicycle lights are sold in packs of one headlight and one taillight.
Bicycle headlights come in a wide range of brightness. If you will be riding only in town with streetlights, you can get by with a headlight just bright enough to alert people to your approach. But, on rural roads or on trails at night, much brighter headlights are necessary — and available.
The better bright headlights have a shaped beam pattern like that of a car headlight to spare input power and avoid blinding people. You can identify the beam pattern quickly by shining the light at a wall. Brightness is most often measured in lumens — total light output. But many very bright headlights (up to 1000 lumens) have a round beam pattern. These lights are preferable only for riding off road, or for additional visibility in daytime.
For many years, the most common taillight in the USA was the “blinky,” pioneered by Vistalite. It attaches to the standard US two-hole reflector bracket.
A common type of taillight these days attaches in a variety of locations with a stretchy rubber strap. Unlike the Vistalite, these lights do not include retroreflective panels.
Reflectors: useful, but no substitute for lights
Why should you use lights in town with streetlights? Because without your own lights, you are surprisingly invisible whenever you are not directly under a streetlight. And car headlights do not necessarily reveal you.
Now, your bicycle probably has — or had, when new — reflectors, those plastic, jewel-like pieces attached at the rear, the front, to the pedals and the spokes. Some bicycle tires have retroreflective strips on the sidewalls, and you can buy retroreflective stick-on tape and clothing.
Reflectors use optical trickery to send light back in a narrow beam in the direction it came from. When the headlights of a car point at a reflector, it will shine brightly for the driver.
But, more often than you may realize:
- A motorist is planning to cross in front of you: worse yet if the car is backing out of a driveway!
- A motorist opposite you at an intersection is preparing to turn left, and you are all the way over on the other side of the road from the light source;
- You are approaching someone who has no headlight — pedestrians, especially.
Rear- and side-facing reflectors can help make you visible. Laws sometimes require them too, but they don’t substitute for bicycle lights. Though the headlights of a vehicle approaching from behind point toward you, drivers of some large vehicles sit high above the headlights. Fog, rain, dust, or water on a bicycle reflector’s surface can reduce its effectiveness. Also, the standard rear-facing reflector is rather small. Still, your taillight could go out without your noticing, and you wouldn’t want to be without rear-facing reflectors then. Even if your taillight includes reflector panels, it’s smart to use additional rear-facing reflective items. Many people run two taillights, in case one fails.
How Bicycle Lights Are Powered
Bicycle lights have any of three sources of electrical power:
Power Source | Brightness | Run Time | Price |
Replaceable alkaline batteries | Least bright (some only to alert people, not to see by) | Longest (50-100 hours) | Cheapest (under $50) |
Integrated rechargeable batteries (by wall plug or USB) | Moderately to blindingly bright | 2-6 hours; longer for taillights | Moderate to expensive (up to $200) |
Generator | Moderate to bright (may go dark at a stop but not all do) | Unlimited :-) | Moderate to expensive ($20-$800) |
Most battery-powered bicycle lights are easy to install and remove. Generator lights are permanently attached to the bicycle. The generator may be of the old “bottle” variety, mounted near the wheel and driven by the tire when engaged. Newer generators are built into the hub of the wheel. We strongly recommend purpose-built bicycle lights, as opposed to jury-rigged flashlights, or lights attached to clothing or backpacks. Bicycle lights attached to the bicycle stay attached and aligned better.
Bicycle Light Settings and Modes
Many lights have different power settings and modes, which can also affect the run time. Modes include steady, blinking, or other kinds of fancier blink patterns. Many cyclists use a blink pattern to get people’s attention better, but blinking makes it harder to track motion, and may also induce seizures in some people. My personal preference is for a steady light front and back after dark, but blinking when there is still some daylight: dawn/dusk, rain, fog, heavy cloud cover.
Generators supply power only when the bicycle is moving, but many generator lights have “standlight” energy storage, and shine at reduced brightness for a few minutes when the bicycle has stopped.
Also see my original FreeBikeHelp post.
Next: use a rear-view mirror?
Fantastic info and article John!
As we know in law enforcement, another reason to choose a “steady” mode on your taillight at night — especially late or early morning hours — is that DUI drivers are attracted to flashing lights. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of cyclists killed by DUI drivers late at night.
If you do off-road night rides, having an additional headlight on your helmet IS A MUST! This allows a light source to shine where you’re looking and eventually going.
Good points, thank you.
Names. We need names. ;-)
I’m talking about beam shape. I understand the value of beam shape and have read about it many times, in almost exactly the words used here, sometimes in more detail. But which brands have the shaped beam? Most have the round beam, even expensive ones. This means I don’t have the luxury of picking up a few from a store shelf and shining them against a wall to evaluate. And headlight specs for the well known brands do not mention beam shape.
sheldonbrown.com lists the LT1421 IXON Core IQ2 (pictured in this posting but not identified) as having a shaped beam. Peter White also sells IXON lights but not the late model IQ2. It appears that no one else in the US carries it — not Amazon, not Nashbar, not Performance. (It’s made in Germany.) So this light cannot be considered widely available in the US.
Furthermore, the specs on this IXON unit are invariably given in lux, WITHOUT specifying the distance, rendering the spec meaningless. Most bike lights are spec-ed in lumens, which is a poor description because the effectiveness depends on that unspecified beam shape, but at least you can compare one light with another.
So how do we find that kind of headlight? Especially a bright one with a large capacity battery. How do we persuade the light makers to make shaped beams and then include the beam shape in their specs? Continuing to recommend a shaped beam without telling us how to get it is less than useful. Preach to the makers instead of to the users.
Edward
My main audience with this article is beginners. You ask good questions about a technical issue, but I don’t have ready answers. Maybe others reading this may have some thoughts.
For beginners, I think omitting the stuff about beam shape is better. That’s an advanced choice. The IXON lights cost about $100; beginners aren’t going to pay that anyway.
Author John Brooking, and I as editor, didn’t want to get into brand and model recommendations in the article, but your comment calls out for them. So, here goes. There are WAY less expensive shaped-beam headlights. I have seen the Taiwan-made DoSun SF300, rechargeable and with a shaped beam, packaged with a taillight for under $6.00! (That model is new to me — I just checked on the Internet.) The DoSun AF500 rechargeable battery-powered headlight sells at $55 retail and is very rugged. I’ve used one for several years. It also can serve as an auxiliary battery for a cell phone or GPS. Certainly, for riding in areas with streetlights, a low-powered headlight will suffice, and its beam pattern doesn’t matter much. But the big problem these days is with headlights that blind people, and the article had to address that issue.
The shaped-beam lights are basically only available in Germany because German law requires them. My understanding is that the requirement also includes mounting the light such that the sharp cutoff of the beam is at a certain distance. With that as a given, the beam pattern is such that the illumination (in lux) throughout the beam is consistent.
I did finally shell out for the Ixon Space, from Bike24 in Dresden. Total including shipping and currency conversion was close to $150. For comparison, I set up the light so that the cutoff was more or less “at infinity” (i.e. close to level but not really pointing up much above the road.) At full blast (90 minute runtime) it was substantially brigher than my L&M Urban 700; for equivalent usable light, the setting on the Space was about 2:30 runtime. It is also a much bigger light than the L&M. Overall I’m really happy with the quality of the output and do think it’s worth it.
Manufacturers aren’t going to respond to John asking for a shaped beam. They’ll respond to regulation (as in Germany) or market demand. We need to be asking for them. In the meantime, the best advice for beginners is to mount the headlight as low as practical and angled slightly down so the brightest part of the beam pattern illuminates the road. This still leaves some “spillover” above the road surface, but you do your best.
Thanks for the info. That’s far more details about the situation than I’ve seen anywhere else, and far more useful. In particular, I was not aware of the German regulation.
Minnesota has similar regulations to that in Germany. The Germans require no more than 200 candela above horizontal while Minnesota requires lights show no more than 250 candela above horizontal.
Minnesota’s bicycle light regulations are mostly unknown and almost universally ignored.
Correct, an important feature of shaped-beam headlights is that the brightness tapers down from top to bottom of the beam, producing even illumination far and near. And also, you are correct that a shaped-beam headlight produces way more usable light for a given power input than a round-beam one. But why you ordered a headlight from a German shop, paying for international shipping of an individual item, beats me. Sources in the good ol’ USA carry these lights. To name just three of which I happen to know. Peter White Cycles, mentioned in another comment, sells them at its shop Near Keene, New hampshire and by mail order. So does Harris Cyclery, in the Boston area (acknowledgement: I am technical writer for sheldonbrown.com, affiliated with Harris Cyclery). René Herse Cycles in Seattle sells these lights over the Internet. And check out DoSun brand for lower-priced shaped-beam lights. If you don’t live near a brick-and-mortar shop that carries these lights, grab your credit card, hit the Internet or pick up the phone and dial.
I do hope that the US Federal Government will develop regulations for bicycle lights, but don’t hold your breath. There is at present no policy on them whatever. The reasons for that are a tangled tale too long to tell here. Maybe in another post. You are on your own in deciding to buy a shaped-beam headlamp and yes, let’s create some market demand.
Mounting a dim, incandescent-bulb headlamp as low as practical used to make sense, but I wouldn’t mount a shaped-beam headlamp as low as practical. The beam pattern is designed to illuminate evenly when mounted a the fork crown or handlebar. Follow manufacturer’s instructions. If you buy from an American source, instructions will be in English :-)
The German law is known as StVZO. An interesting page about this (in English) is here: https://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting_analyse/verkeersregels/de_stvzo/index_en.html , and includes
The US distributor (and retailer) for several products that comply with the StVZO law is Peter White Cycles.
I urge anyone who will be facing oncoming traffic (e.g. shared-use path etc.) to use a headlight that does not blind the oncomers, and headlights compliant with StVZO are the best solution.
I’ve named some brands in other replies, but here in one place: Busch & Müller, Schmidt, René Herse Cycles, Peter White, Harris Cyclery, Shutter Precision, Dosun — the price leader, from what I have seen, though there may be some even cheaper Chinese copies. Copy and paste, you’ll find plenty of product out there. I’m sure that I have missed some sources, so feel free to mention them.
“Copy and paste, you’ll find plenty of product out there.”
I’ve done that. I have not found “plenty of product”. And especially, nothing readily available to beginners. (In the US.)
Your list is a mix of manufacturers and suppliers, which makes it look like more than it really is.
I rule out lights to be used with hub generators. The high cost, and the need to get the hub installed, make these non-choices for any but the most specialized riders. These are for the 0.1%, or less. With modern battery and LED technology, there’s just no need for the vast majority of riders. So scratch Schmidt . Also scratch René Herse, which only carries the Schmidt Edelux.
Shutter Precision (sp-dynamo.com) is also a dynamo system. Scratch that.
Peter White has a few brands other than B&M IXON, but nothing that appears to be of any additional interest. He does not have online ordering, which most online users expect. His website looks like it was designed in 2001. (I approve, but the vast majority of 2020 users expect something closer to Amazon.) If someone were to ask their LBS for a specific brand and model and tell the LBS they can get it from Peter White, the LBS would be able to help them. This is going around your elbow to get to your mouth. Scratch Peter White for any ordinary cyclist.
I exclude Amazon because it’s hard to tell from their B&M listings exactly what you are getting, and the only DoSun they list is at a much higher price than from mr-ride/eBay.
That leaves two brands (IXON and DoSun) and two suppliers of any real use (Harris and mr-ride/eBay).
Harris has the IXON IQ2 (the Li-ion version). That does look like a good choice. (I have paid more for inferior lights.) This is probably the best choice to recommend for cyclists who need to-see-by lights and who are not comfortable ordering from an unknown source on eBay.
User mr-ride, on eBay, has the DoSun SF300 ($31) and AF500 ($54). I have ordered the AF500. (I certainly do not find the SF300 for “under $6”, and you did not say where you saw that.) The AF500 has a much larger battery capacity, and appears to have a better mount — I assume the latter is particularly important for shaped-beam lights. I also like the ability to use it as a power bank. They have a new AF800 model but I haven’t found specs other than in Chinese, nor any place to buy it except on their website — in Chinese.
But you might actually get beginners to buy the DoSun SF300 at that price. Only I don’t know whether the eBay link is stable. And worse, the website dosun.us is almost entirely in Chinese despite the .us ccTLD. This does not inspire confidence! I’m willing to gamble $50 (mr-ride has extremely good eBay ratings), but many users will be put off. eBay was mainstream online shopping 20 years ago, but no longer.
Your statement that “it’s easy, just search” does not help anyone. Acquiring a shaped beam headlight in the US requires skipping our LBS for most of us, bucking the flow, searching on various unfamiliar terms and brand names, going through non-mainstream shopping sites, and researching what is for most people an unfamiliar topic. (And maybe reading Chinese.) I don’t have a solution for making it easy, but claiming it’s easy when it’s not doesn’t help anyone.
First line in above was an attempt to quote “copy and paste, your find plenty of product out there”, and this forum won’t let me modify.
Being the editor here, I can edit. Let me know whether I have corrected your message as you like :-)
Please let me know how the AF500 works out. I may have mistaken another similar-looking light for the DoSun SF300, my apologies. I searched today for on the Web and found them in all price ranges, and vendors in the USA too. I also searched on eBay, and found several more brands — most in this search have the scoop-shaped internal reflector: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=STVZO+bicycle+headlights&_sacat=
I agree with your sentiments. I also tried to find the DoSun stuff and found what you found (but not the eBay seller). It seems like not all the DoSun offerings are shaped beam, but again their website is inscrutable. Maybe John has trained Google or whatever search engine he uses, to feed him esoteric things. It’s a shame there’s so little attention to the lack of shaped beam lights. It really used to irk me when I was commuting daily (nightly) on the Minuteman Bikeway and was constantly getting blinded by stupid-bright oncoming lights. I’ve relaxed a little about it since then, and mostly just avert my eyes behind a visor or something. Plus not using the bikepath at night anymore helps too.
Thanks for the edit.
John, did you exclude ebike lights? You did not give your web search, but your eBay results consist primarily of ebike lights. (Meaning of course that they use the ebike main battery rather than including one, and thus are useless for non-e bikes.)
I find the first 30 hits in your eBay search to be inapplicable. 17 are ebike lights. 5 are hub dynamo lights. 5 are unbranded; I don’t trust their conformance claim. 4 are miscellaneous — shipped from abroad, unknown brand names, and an odd listing for Cateye AMPP which doesn’t claim to be StVZO. The Cateye listing is not Cateye’s fault; I can’t figure out why the search picked it, but this is one more reason a non-expert can’t just search and buy.
Then comes a listing for an Acebeam BK10. Acebeam lists a lot of products on their website, but this is the only light that claims to be for bicycles. Though it mentions StVZO in the description, I have serious doubts. It touts 2000 lumens but does not mention lux. It also pushes mountain bike use, and includes a helmet mount. The mention of STVZO [sic] is buried deep. The company is in China, thus shielded from any false advertising claims. No thanks.
Ironically, based on this search, I learned that both Lezyne and Cateye have extensive StVZO battery headlights. The Lezyne line have STVZO in the name; the Cateye line is GVOLT. But from hits on those names, it’s clear that the companies do not distribute them in North America.
Finally, down around #32 on the eBay results, I find something interesting: a Sigma Roadster light. It is $33, shipped free from Texas, from a seller with 99.6% positive feedback and almost half a million ratings. Sigma Sport is an actual German company, so I believe their StVZO claims. In addition to the Roadster, they have a line of Aura lights. I might have ordered this light instead of the DoSun AF500 if I’d seen it first. Hey, maybe I need both. I can never have too many lights, right? Right?
But other than that one eBay listing, Sigma lights do not appear to be available in the US.
It’s still clear to me that buying a shaped beam headlight in the US is hard. The fact that I was able to find some doesn’t make it easy — in fact, the discussion above, I think, proves that it’s hard.
It shouldn’t be hard. How can we make it easier? Nobody on this forum is running a mail order business AFAIK. We have one reasonable, stable online US source, Harris. (By stable, I mean that I can post an URL and expect it not to change.) Suppose we could say
“Look for a light labeled StVZO on Harris Cyclery, Adventure Cycling, Performance, Nashbar, Jenson USA, (???)”.
where the names are linked. And if we could add “your local LBS” … my LBS is open to my suggestions but it will take a lot of change to get even a quarter of LBSs in the US to carry shaped beam lights. And an LBS has to find a distributor, and the distributors most US LBSs use probably do not carry StVZO lights. Yes, there’s Peter White, but for most LBSs that’s a specialty thing.
Links related to the above:
Acebeam light on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acebeam-BK10-Rechargeable-Mountain-Bike-Headlight-Helmet-Light-2000-Lums-NEW/254559683162?epid=2256322830&hash=item3b44f0825a:g:e~4AAOSwtixeh6GY
on their own website: https://www.acebeam.com/bk10
A website review that says a particular StVZO claim is false — that is, caveat emptor: http://www.light-test.info/en/faq-en/169-stvzo-bike-lamps-regulations
Sigma Roadster on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sigma-Roadster-USB-Front-Bicycle-LED-Light/292487037980?hash=item441996041c:g:tcUAAOSwmoVarCli
Sigma Roadster: https://www.sigmasport.com/en/produkte/licht-systeme/frontleuchten/stvzo/roadster-usb
Lezyne: https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-lights-stvzo?sort_by=manual
Another off brand I don’t trust: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Owleye-HighbredLux-40-Bicycle-Light-White-color/271345699259?hash=item3f2d76c9bb:g:K1kAAOxyRhBSqhkY
Cateye: https://www.cateye.com/intl/products/headlights/#sec03
FWIW, apparently introduced just this week, Planet Bike has something they call “Clean Beam”
The video says “Sometimes this lens design is referred to as a German beam or a horizontal cutoff beam”
https://youtu.be/-69d1hX08Q0?t=20
I received the DoSun AF500 light. Instructions are absolutely minimal. At first I thought it was defective, because when I pushed the power button, it would flash briefly and not stay on. Eventually a friend figured out that you have to push the power button very hard to get it to click. Not a problem once you know, but that’s why instructions help.
I may not get a chance to test it at night for a few days, so I’ll report again later.
The specs do not indicate water resistance. From the appearance, I can easily believe that it’s at least IPx4 (splash resistant). If it fails after riding in the rain, I’ll scratch it off the list.
Here’s my photo of the beam shape. I’m no expert on what the beam shape should look like on a wall, but this appears to compare favorably to the photo in the article.
http://paleo.org/private/AF500beamshape.jpg
It has three steady levels and a flash mode. I can’t evaluate the steady modes until I have a chance to ride in the dark. The flash mode is about 3 Hz, which makes me jittery — I’d rather have about 1 Hz. That’s a downside, as I think flash mode can be useful in the daytime and extends the battery run time enormously.
Edward
I got a chance to photograph the beam of the AF500 hitting the ground. Conditions were less than ideal, but here are two photos. Since I’m not familiar with the known-good beams, I’m interested in hearing how these compare.
http://paleo.org/private/AF500onpavement.jpg
http://paleo.org/private/AF500ongrass.jpg
Since what I know about the StVZO standard is only what’s been posted here, I don’t know exactly what it says to expect. Should the apparent brightness of the ground surface be uniform over a certain area? Or should I expect only that the amount of light hitting the surface be uniform, meaning more distant parts will appear darker?
My naive impression is that the light is too bright up close compared with far out, and also that there’s a dimmer spot in between near and far. But it definitely appears better than a round beam.
I recommend 2 more things. Especially for regular night pedalcycle travel like commuting or for long delta-t at night. Have 2 front lights available. One can be an inexpensive AAA powered light that is turned off for most trips. (And which can also make a handy flashlight when off the bicycle). Also have 2 rear lights available. One can be run in blink mode, one can be run always on. While high quality front lights can fade or go completely off rather suddenly, you’ll be in a better position to notice. Rear lights can fade, fade, fade, . . . Hence reasons for 2 of each.
Yep, always good to have a backup.
It should be noted that batteries lose their charge with use, and battery-powered headlights tend to get gradually dimmer, rather than fail to illuminate completely, over time. When the battery charge is largely depleted, a bike light may still appear fairly bright when initially turned on and then grow dimmer rapidly.
Thus, it’s important for ones conspicuity to proactively recharge rechargeable batteries and replace disposable batteries before the headlights or taillights have gotten noticeably dim. Carrying spare batteries and/or redundant lighting for emergency use is also a good idea.
Good points. In my experience, replaceable alkaline battery lights do get dimmer gradually, but towards the end, can look brighter for the first minute or two before dimming again.
Integrated rechargeable lights, on the other hand, seem to go from regular strength to zero quite rapidly, so they require more foresight. Newer ones I’ve noticed will have a “low power mode” that switches on when necessary, but even that might only last another 10-15 minutes. Since I have a traditional office job, I use USB rechargeable lights and plug them into my computer first thing every morning when I arrive.
A small helmet-mounted headlight (a small flashlight could be used) is also useful when cycling on streets–both to read street signs and to communicate ones presence to other road users who may be about to cross ones path.
There is a newer US manufacturer that will be making stZVO-type lights. They look promising. The current version (Road Edition) has an external battery pack, but they are hoping to have an all-in-one unit and a lower price point ($125-ish) some time soon, per some Internet comment. DISCLAIMER: I have not tried them, am not a customer, and have no personal experience with the company. I just hope that they are successful with their endeavor, because I have been struggling to find a light as good as the old Philips Saferide (which, alas, had poor battery management):
https://www.outboundlighting.com/products/road-edition