LED Headlights: Just better and better

It seems to happen every year, just after the end of Daylight Savings Time. You're out for a bike ride, and the daylight runs out. You're in the dark without lights.

This happened to my wife and I this weekend. Fortunately, we were close to a bike shop in San Francisco. So I bought a Planet Bike Beamer 3(above) and attached it to her bike. I've since used it on several rides, and have been very impressed. In general, I like Planet Bike products; and I like their policy of donating 25 percent of profits to bicycle advocacy.

The development of Light Emitting Diode (LED) bike lights has been a great boon to bicyclists. I've tried many kinds of bike lights over the years, and today's LEDs are far better than the old battery-killing halogen lights available at the sub-$30 price point. These new LEDs--such as the Planet Bike Beamer 3 or another personal favorite, the CatEye Bike Head Light HL-EL410--are inexpensive, light-weight, long-lasting, and very bright for most urban riding. (For darkest rural night riding, I also have an exceptionally bright Light & Motion Solo Logic head light.)

These days, there's no excuse for bicycling at night without lights. Except stupidity.