Lights... the ultimate upgrade?

Let's face it. We tend to spend a lot on our bikes... including sometimes silly amounts on individual parts that may or may not have a noticeable effect on our riding. Like shelling out the extra money for that top end part because it's got a certain name attached to it, or it saves us a few hundred grams (which we think is a better idea than losing a few pounds around the gut!), or it's simply something that's more expensive than what the other person has on his/her bike.

One area of bike gear that strangely seems to miss out on a lot of attention is one of the most practical, smartest upgrades out there: a high performance lighting setup. What other bike gear can you buy that will essentially let you ride ANY time you like, increase your safety ten-fold when riding on the trails or mingling with traffic during low-light periods, let you enter an entirely new world of night riding, and can even be used for applications that don't involve biking at all? Try doing that with a titanium headset!

Night riding is a BLAST! It can turn your ordinary, local trail which you know like the back of your hand, into a speeding tunnel of light twisting through the darkness! More exhilarating, trickier, and surprisingly, it makes you feel like you’re on a whole new trail! And for the truly demented out there, there’s nothing like the feeling you get in your gut during the run-up to that gap jump, drop, skinny or A-frame (which you can do oh-so-easily during the day), when it’s emerging from the darkness into the beam of your light and you’ve committed to it!

The cool air and quietness of the night. The feeling that you and your friends own the trail during these twilight hours. The relaxation in knowing that you don’t HAVE to rush to the trails anymore to squeeze in your ride before nightfall. Night riding is THE BOMB! And with us now in the winter months, it’s the only time a lot of us poor working stiffs will get a chance to ride during the week!

During the next few weeks, Farkin.net will be covering the whole range of topics, issues and reviews about riding at night. We’ll start with the kinds of light systems out there and what you’re paying for, followed up by reviews of light systems and then cover night riding tips and concepts. And we DEFINITELY encourage questions and discussions about the topics we cover.

So crack open that piggy bank, grab the money you’ve been saving for that carbon-fibre-wrapped-titanium-widget-thingy for your bike, and let’s put some light on the situation!

What kind of lights do I need?

If you want to do any kind of serious night riding… by which, I don’t mean racing, but being able to ride close to your normal speed and/or style during the day without risking life and limb, then you’ll have to get a system that can pump out as much light as possible.

Although this is a highly subjective area, you shouldn’t consider anything under “5 watts” of power. This generally means that any little self-contained, alkaline (Duracell, Energizer, etc…) battery powered light just ain’t gonna cut it. If you have a small, cheap light then by all means, bring it with you! In fact, if you don’t have one already, consider buying one (small and lightweight is preferable, because it’s always good to have a backup emergency light source if your main system runs out of juice or gets damaged. But using these inexpensive little lights will only provide you with enough light to “survive” and hopefully get you through the trail and out of trouble.

That said, small, cheap lights are great for letting motorists, cyclists and pedestrians know you’re coming, and are better than nothing. I myself have a small, self-contained headlamp attached to the front of my helmet for when I’m riding along the streets or I have to ride through an occasional dark area. It’s also gotten me out of trouble when I’ve run out of battery power in my main system sooner than I expected.

Instead, try to get the brightest light system you can afford, and if possible, a dual light set-up. These will probably start over the $100AUD mark, and can go sky-high from there (There are some light systems for bicycles out there that are more than $1000AUD! That is just ONE light and ONE battery!).

You may hesitate at the price at first, but think about this, you can spend several hundred dollars on bike parts that won’t greatly affect your riding at all while a good light system that lets you ride at night, at a speed that makes it enjoyable and keeps you from running into a stump and wrecking yourself will be most of the most solid investments in bike gear you’ll ever make.

What am I paying for?

As you’ll find out when you do some research, the costs of high performance light systems can rocket up pretty quickly, but what are you getting for the money? Generally, spending more money means any or all of these features will increase: the brightness and/or efficiency (uses less power for the same amount of light) of the lamp, the energy density of the battery (how much power can it store in a small package), the number of lamps, the better the charger, and other possible little perks (which can range from terrific carry-case solutions like NiteFlux provides, or beautiful craftsmanship and appearance like Lume Lighting has). Over the rest of this series we’ll be giving you all the ammunition you need to go out and look at batteries and bulbs and make an educated decision about the right lighting system for you.

Coming next: Light and battery comparisons…

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