"Clive George" wrote in message
o.uk...
"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:10:07 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

What might be a problem with this lamp is dazzle to on coming
traffic. dipped car headlights have a definite cutoff. This lamp
won't have that and just angling in down a bit might not be
sufficient, some form of hood may also be required.

The purpose of a bicycle light these days is not to illuminate the
road ahead, but to make yourself visible to other traffic. Angle them
to be visible, but don't choose a beam light that might dazzle.

The purpose of my bike light is to illuminate the road ahead, something it
fortunately does quite well. Being a proper bike light from Germany, where
they have laws about this sort of thing, it's got a beam pattern designed
to illuminate well but not dazzle.

There's also a significant market for bike lights which illuminate the
entire area ahead, and do it very brightly - but these are aimed at
off-road use.

The advent of decent cheap LED torches like the one the OP mentioned has
provided another fairly popular route to bike lighting. There are
handlebar mounts for them - Fenix make one for example, though the OP's
route is obviously more suited to this NG :-)

As Laurence says, you just need to take a little care with aim - keep the
brightest spot away from driver's eye level, and you'll be fine.

I may be telling you things you already know but if you're masking the front
of the lens then counter intuitively you may need to mask the *bottom*
because that's the bit which shines up and dazzles. It all depends on the
optical arrangement. Try it against a wall.