johnridley | Bike lights

I started out riding at night about 4 years ago with a homemade halogen light with a 12V SLA battery. It cost about $30, put out a lot of light, but weighed a ton (well, 12 pounds or so). The next year I went to a HID light with a NiMH bottle cage battery, and a homemade voltage regulator. The whole thing was homemade, a HID fixture here, a battery there, a charger there. It worked very well for about 3 years, but in the last week it got very dim for a couple of rides (bad enough that I was using my LED flashlight to supplement it) and then one morning it wouldn't strike at all. I put the halogen back on for a few days, but decided after 4 years, it was probably time to buy a proper bike light.

After checking out reviews and beam comparisons online, I wound up going with a Dinotte 200L. This thing is a TANK, it's unbelievably tiny and light, the whole thing cost less than just the HID fixture did 3 years ago ($130), it has wonderful flash modes, and while it's not quite as bright as the halogen in the photos, it's really close and it has a whiter light so it seems about as bright in person. It runs about 2/3 as long on 4 AA cells as the HID does on 12 C cells (2 hours in high mode versus 3.25 hours for the HID), and it's light enough to mount the whole light+battery combo on a helmet if I wanted to.

200L stands for 200 lumens. They also make a 140L taillight, which as you might guess, puts out 140 lumens of red light. I have historically had an amber xenon strobe on the back for adverse conditions, but A) they don't last long; I just broke my 3rd one, and B) it ran on 12 volts and I don't have a 12V battery on my bike anymore. I do have two Planet Bike SuperFlash units on the back of my bike (I do not trust running only one taillight) but though they're outstanding little blinkies (they throw a decent red beam) and I think totally sufficient for clear conditions, they're no match for what the strobe put out. I had no worries with the strobe even in fog and rain. I think I'll probably have a Dinotte 140L on the way soon, once I do a couple of actual rides with the 200L and confirm that it's a winner. I'll probably watch for sales, I read on BF that they put these on sale for $99 every couple of months.

They also make a 600L, which, yes, is 600 lumens. It's basically three 200Ls in one package. Apparently it smokes HIDs, and at $399 is the same to a little cheaper than a full-up commercial HID headlight. If I were doing offroad night rides, I'd definitely pick one up, but I think the 200L will do for me.

Sorry, I built a nice page with Javascript rollover links to make this comparison really nice, compact and easy to see, and LiveJournal refused the script.