Re: For those who believe in electricity

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 4/11/2025 5:52 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

 
A lot of people don't realize how vitally important the optics are in
bicycle lighting, especially in dynamo lights where you only have a few
watts of power to work with.
 

I’d of thought that the folks buying lights in the above price ranges would
do at least to some degree after all could just buy some cheap almost
disposable lights as some folks do! But they are choosing to buy expensive
lights.

 
Mr. Scharf's statement is correct. Optics are important, and not only
for dynamo lights. I've been saying that for many, many years. It makes
no sense to waste half of a headlight's output in directions that you
never need to see.
 

Which bike lights do ie the beam is shaped bar the very cheap coil cell/usb
stuff.

I think only a small percentage of cyclists are aware of the importance
of optics. I think almost all cyclists get their "education" (such as it
is) from product advertisements. And ever since white LEDs began their
rapid rise in lumen output, lumen counts have been the almost exclusive
message in advertisements

I believe most of the bike lights manufacturers have always used lenses to
greater or lesser degree, was a period when some of the Chinese led
lights/torches that where lumens only and not true figures!

 
That's led to nonsense like lights for road bikes that blind oncoming
road users, or otherwise waste lumens shooting them skyward. We've even
seen arguments in this discussion group, long and furious, that one
_must_ have a simplistic perfectly round headlight beam, because
otherwise a road rider would be sure to run into a low hanging branch
and injure his head.

A higher beam certainly can have its uses even in town, certainly as a high
beam mode, though certainly the MTB lights I use aren’t round beam but
shaped.

Again that’s older stuff at least a decade ago if not two! and even then
was the “cheap” stuff.

 
(Yes, really. And apparently those making that argument were not joking.
Go figure.)
 
 

Roger Merriman