Anyway, he had a set of lights that made my Fenix look like a dim candle. I Googled the make a moment ago, and this was the shock that greeted me!
http://www.ayup-lights.com/lighting-kits?product_id=3 Crazy money.
I've come across the ayup lights before, and they are likely real lumens rather than inflated figures to sell more. Some people have used the metal chassis to make more powerful lights too.
But consider this.... Having dazzlingly bright lighting is fine until you meet yourself coming the other way.... Especially on the towpath.
All too true. "Power is nothing without control", as someone once said. For singletrack or trails a bright symmetrical beam (torch-style) can be fine and will illuminate stray branches at head height too. But for more heavily-trafficked areas, and especially the road, it is irresponsible and dangerous to blind everyone else.
Here is a link to the build thread of the bike lights I made which have a dipped-beam design. I'm running two XM-L emitters but only driving them at 2.5A as the gain in perceived brightness to 3A isn't much. They are therefore putting out a combined total of 1,710 lumens at the emitter in dipped beam. For comparison a standard H4 car headlight bulb is approximately 1,000 lumens dipped beam (1,650 main beam) so a normal car with halogen bulbs is putting out 2,000 emitter lumens on dipped beam.
Michael
