Lee Hill
Riding and commuting are some of the best ways to spend quality time during weekends and summer vacations. On the other hand, if you are a professional rider, you would love to have the best equipment to make your ride as smooth as possible. One such element which can make your ride awesome is bike lights. If you are searching for where to buy bike lights, you have to ensure that you understand vital features that can help you during selection.
According to recent research, nine out of 10 bike accidents occur in the day; hence you can use the bike lights to prevent injuries. Bike lights are much different from car lights; therefore, you have to select the right to enjoy a smooth ride. There are also other types of bike lights; hence, you can search where to buy cheap bike lights? Figure out what makes a bike light perfect. You should select bike lights that match the style of your ride.
#1. Difference Between to See and to Be Seen
First, you will have to understand the basic principle of bike lights, which will make your purchase efficient. If you want lights to improve your visibility, you will have to select the lights with high brightness and a narrow beam. Whereas, if you need a light to be seen, you will have to choose the one with broader illumination. Lights that riders use to be seen have smaller batteries as they don’t need increased brightness as it can affect the sight of the person coming from the opposite direction.
#2. Understanding Light and Technical Terms
All the readers need to break down the principles of light to ensure that you can understand them in the best way. You might come across technical terms like Lux, Lumen, Beam, Beam angle, and burn time to help you categorize your purchase. Now, let us understand every single word to make you a light-geek.
Lumen
You can relate lumen to the quantity, which describes the total amount of light emitted from a particular source.
Lux
Lux is the intensity of the light or the amount of light eliminated on a particular surface. Generally, the lumen is the total number of light eliminated from a source, and it tends to remain constant. Whereas lux is not a constant, it varies, and its value depends on beam angle and the size of the source.
What Is Beam Angle?
A bean angle, in the end, decides the amount of intensity which light will emit. For example, if the beam angle is wide, then lux gets separated, and if it is less, then lux or intensity of the light significantly increases.
Impact of a Specific Type of a Beam
There are different types of beam-like flash, pulse, low, high, complete, and standard. The type of beam describes the amount of run time of light. Flash mode beams have the least run time, and complete and high types of rays have increased run time as they add to the light’s durability.
Burn Time
The distance covered by the light to hit the flat beam or different types of light settings is burning time.
#3. Factors to Consider While Shopping for Bike Lights
Brightness of the Light
As mentioned above, the lumen is the ultimate brightness deciding factor of the bike light. You will have to select a lamp with high lumen if you drive through the fog and dense mountains. One has to ensure that you don’t choose high-intensity lights if you love going in pavements as the higher intensity of light can blind the oncoming traffic. Select the best bike lights that are recommended for your ride. Some riders also love to have flash modes as it makes oncoming traffic understand that you are different from the street lights, which can prevent major accidents.
Placement of the Light Is the Key
Most of the bike lights will easily mount on the handlebars of the bike. Riders who have aero bars can find difficulty in mounting the lights on their handlebars as they are designed so that you cannot mount anything on the handle’s surface. Select the bike light which is compatible with your bike.
Battery
Most of the bike lights come with chargers that are compatible with essential USB-type ports. Shop for the ones which have higher battery capacity as it can support your long-rides. We recommend selecting the proper battery capacity because you cannot stay blind as your battery isn’t charged. Moreover, a more significant size of the battery means greater weight; hence shop wisely.
#4. Three Secrets Which Can Help You in Shopping Best Bike Lights
Prefer LED
The old days of halogen lights are gone, and you have to stay with the trend of LEDs. It is evident that LEDs are pretty efficient and affordable when compared with conventional halogen bulbs. In recent years, HID bulbs have also marked their presence in the industry, but LEDs stand well-ahead and in the race.
Easy To Install
Riders love to respect time; hence you don’t want to waste a lot of time during the installation and maintenance of the light. An easy-to-install light will make your job relatively easy as you can easily handle it in adverse conditions. You can also go for water-proof options to ensure that your expensive headlights stay safe during adverse conditions.
Versatility of the Head Light
You must love to select a light that you can use in multiple ways. Whether the ride is in harsh mountain conditions or a long ride around the hills, your headlight must ensure that you are never out of vision.
#5. Where to Buy Bike Lights
There are several good options to buy bike lights, both offline and online.
If you love to get the human touch, feel the product, and then decide, I would suggest visiting the nearest REI, Bike Source or TREK. You can also find good quality and reasonably priced collection at your local Walmart.
If you prefer buying online after reading the reviews and checking out the ratings, there is nothing better than Amazon. Of course, there are many other sites as well, such as Probikekits and Outboundlighting.
Conclusion
Your purchase of a headlight can be easy if you follow the shopping as mentioned above guide. Have a budget in mind and shop for the best options in the market. We hope you enjoyed the ride to the best headlights for the bike. Also, mention your favorite headlight brands for bikes and what makes them best in the comments.
