Two Wheel Blogs

As you may have seen recently, 2old2goslow and I went on a night ride. We tried to capture some decent video wow!! is that ever some lousy filming. Anyway, we had a great time hammering out some single track on the monkeys (Surly Karate Monkey SS 29ers).

I thought a nice comparison was in order however. You may have noticed one thing from that video...there appears to be no light source near the camera, and there is a light as bright as a solar flare forming an ora around my brother. That has got to be the only thing we can learn from that video!

Here are the facts. I was riding with a nice light that cost about 100 bucks, and he was using an HID (that costs about 4 times as much) that I borrowed from a good friend. I dont want to start pontificating about lights and what is best, because I dont really know that much about the new technologies (new battery technology, the new LEDs are getting much better, and "projector" lenses are trickling into the scene). I will say that while a good HID costs 3 to 4 times what my light costs, any observer will conclude quickly why it costs more.

I felt as if I was getting a sunburn from his light when he was behind me. If he rode close to me, I could not see the trail ahead due to the shadow I was creating in his light beam. My light is great, but its like holding a lit match up on the day light when that HID is near.

One final observation, battery technology. There is a lot being done here (take a look at you cell phone for example). The battery with the HID has a burn time of like 3.5 hours, while my light only lasted about 1.5 hours before I was struggling to see (even more than usual).

I can't say what is right for you, but if you ride at night much at all, you may want to shell out a bit more on a good light.