By Steve Bush 30th August 2022
As an enthusiastic cyclist, driver and pedestrian, I feel the need once again to bang a drum that I need to pick up all to frequently: Bicycle lights should not dazzle anyone, while putting plenty of light where it is needed.
As an enthusiastic cyclist, driver and pedestrian, I feel the need once again to bang a drum that I need to pick up all to frequently: Bicycle lights should not dazzle anyone, while putting plenty of light where it is needed.
Lidl has proves this is possible, once again: this time with a set of rechargeable front and rear lamps that both manage light properly, all for under £13.
This is in a world where other companies, even well-known ‘specialist’ companies, charge far more – even hundreds of pounds more – for lights which spray lumens into the air, where the cyclist can’t uses them, and where other road users are dazzled by them.
In this case, the front light is one that Lidl has shipped before, which uses a top-fire (led pointing straight down) sculptured reflector (left) that makes a very nice flat-topped (like a car ‘dip’) beam which fills the road ahead well – this means the beam has very little above the horizontal, a bright bar just below the horizontal, then intensity tapering down below this – all with controlled width.
As an added bonus, the front light can be set to dim automatically from its 70 lux maximum to save battery life where there is street lighting
Despite its angled mounting, the top rear lamp emits light horizontally like the older bottom lamp
The back light is innovative.
It clips close onto the seat post (right, top lamp), in a position that many rear lights only illuminate the rear wheel as their light emerges at 90° to their mounting face and therefore downwards when mounted directly on a seat post.
However, Lidl’s light has a surface-mount led over which a shaped prism hovers (left) to push light out horizontally when the unit is mounted at the usual seatpost angle (~73°) – very clever.
It also has a Fresnel lens on the outside (below right) to spread the light wide, into the appropriate pattern for rear visibility.
I am not letting Lidl off the hook completely here: it is quite capable of stocking dazzling bicycle lights, and the front light in the above set is prone to sliding nose-down while riding if the handlebars are smooth – add a layer of tape to the bars first for grip.
Tagged with: EinW Engineer in Wonderland forward lighting lamps LED headlamps led lighting
It would be interesting to know if it cost any more to produce a light that had a good beam (i.e. complies with German standards) versus one that was just a basic round beam (like a flashlight/torch). I would guess that the difference is small. Here in the USA, there is nearly no awareness of what a good beam could/should be. Most lights are sold to be used in the daytime, as “be seen” lights, so a round beam is fine. Unfortunately, there is also the belief in some areas that brighter is always better. Not so bad in the middle of the day, but can indeed be dazzling in low light conditions. As far as Lidl, they are just starting to get into the market here. Haven’t seen one here myself.
Ah, Lidl, suppliers of a fine assortment of tools, some of which seem so fine I’ve bought them twice by mistake.
There’s boxes of them in here.
Morning zeitghost I also feel that urge, and have three boxes of unopened angle grinder discs, all the wrong size for my (non-standard*, it turns out) angle grinder
*Did Betamax do angle grinders?
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