UP TO SPEED
You never want to over-ride the
potential of your lights. Brighter lights
let you see farther ahead, but if you
don’t have time to adjust or stop in time
for an obstacle or hazard, you’re going
too fast. More familiar routes let you go
faster, because you know mostly what
to expect. New routes or trails require
more caution, especially off-road or in
high-traffic areas.
BATTERY LIFE
If you regularly go on multi-hour
night rides, you’ll want something
with plenty of power and battery life.
It’s not a bad idea to pick something
rated higher than you need, both
because you can use it on lower-than-max power for longer battery life, and
because you’ll be able to go on longer
rides any time you’d like. Also, as time
goes by, as with any rechargeable battery, capacity will diminish with time.
Big, bright lights are not cheap, but
your safety is worth it. Resist the urge
to buy something that specs out as
powerful, high capacity and cheap from
eBay or other online retailers. You may
at best be disappointed by the output
and quality of the light, and at worst
you may burn down your house. Brand
names offer quality and reliability and
back up their products with good ser-
vice.
FLY THE COLORS
For being seen, almost any white
light will do. Its purpose is to get attention. For seeing, you need not only a
bright-enough light, but also one that
lets your eyes see the most details and
depth.
LED lights come in a variety of colors. There are two things to consider
with this—color temperature and CRI,
or Color Rendering Index.
CRI can be important, because the
closer it is to 100 percent, the better
your eyes can see details. If parts of the
color spectrum are missing, your eyes
can miss important details, and things
look a little odd, which can be harder
on your eyes. If you’ve ever spent a
lot of time in an office with fluorescent
lighting, you may be used to the odd
green coloring everything has. This is
because those lights are missing part
of the magenta (green’s complementary
color) spectrum, among others.
That’s the most important part, but
then the overall color also factors in.
Car manufacturers have been making
cooler (more blue) lights, especially in
higher-end cars. Some have Xenon
lights, which makes them shine blue
or bluer than daylight. We’ve come to
think of this as better, but it actually
isn’t. Let’s look at color.
Here’s a quick primer on light color:
color temperature is measured in
degrees of kelvin. Soft white is around
2700K degrees, which is very reddish,
close to that of a candle light. Warm
white is around 3200–3500K, which
is what most incandescent household
bulbs are. Cool white is 4100K, natural
white is 5000K and daylight is closer to
6000K
The best part of the visual spec-
trum lends itself to warm white or cool
Being out with
several friends
lights up the trail
even brighter so
you can all see
better.
“You never want to over-ride the potential of your lights. Brighter lights let you see farther ahead, but if you don’t have time to adjust or stop in time for an
obstacle or hazard, you’re going too fast.”
{ LIGHTS }
