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I don't see that, but I do see a fair bit of ultra-bright LEDs set to strobe mode because some study somewhere said that was the most visible to vehicles. Now I get blinded and dazzled by both oncoming and leading bikes.

I don't know why bike headlight manufacturers are so damn insistent on improving safety by blinding everybody else in the vicinity. Why do so few bike headlights have a "low beam" mode? Instead its 1,000,000 lumens in a 180 degree cone turning night into day but burning out the retinas of everyone else on the trail.






Because they cost more and people won't buy them. I commuted, year-round, by bike for 19 years. As I recall, my NiteRider Pro light cost around $300-$400. (The current NiteRider Pro Endurance is $449.99) It had high and low beams. There were also instructions on how to mount it properly to show the trail/road. Part of my commute was on roads/trails with no lights and I wanted good lights.

I knew plenty of people that thought a $15 light was fine, as well as a number who said they didn't need lights.


For many people, $15 lights are fine. My commute only has a very short unlit section and its a very wide and easy to follow path, so the lack of an adjustable beam setting is no big deal.

Of course, that means that I absolutely must adjust the fitting to "permanently low beam" rather than "permanently blinding", if for no other reason that I don't want to get flattened by an oncoming car I've just dazzled...


I was so frustrated trying to find a headlight that not only lit up the road/path sufficiently but also didn't blind people or cost an arm and a leg that I had to build my own. There were literally no suitable options on the market when I looked, even though it seems like it shouldn't be a hard problem. Automobile manufacturers figured this out over a century ago.



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