This was me in my early 20's. I don't skate anymore, because in 2013, I had a catastrophic street crash in Seattle that left me with a permanent disability, so getting on skates at this point is a very bad idea.



In my aforementioned early 20s, I lived in Center City Philadelphia and skated everywhere with a backpack that most people would considered a suitable size for a "bug out bag" or "get home bag". IN all that time, I only ever had two falls, and only one of them resulted in any injury, at all, a small patch of torn skin under my jeans. The jeans themselves didn't even rip.

As of this past September, I use a Fenix PD36 TAC on a Fenix ALB-10 handlebar mount as my bicycle headlamp. It has a maximum output of 3000 lumens (really about 750 for any significant period of time), but more importantly, it will run for over 10 hours at 350 lumens or over 18 hours at 150 lumens.

Those are the two settings I use when riding at night. 150 lumens for most riding (also as daytime running light), and 350 lumens if I am on a fast downhill.

My bike is a 1990s era Trek 820 I got at my local charity shop for $25 a few years ago, with a milk crate zip-tied to a rear rack.

In most states, e-bikes are limited to 750 w motors and 28 mph operation, and generally *must* have operable pedals. Anything more than that, and it's legally considered a motorcycle.

Most e-bikes use battery packs made up of 18650 or 21700 cylindrical lithium-ion cells, and the packs can be rebuilt. Those cells aren't going away any time soon, since they are also commonly used in many other devices, most notably Tesla automobiles and household battery banks. Tesla has announced they will be moving to 46800 cells in the future, and there's no reason those can't be used on e-bikes, as well.

Don't use those lights in traffic, you basically blinding everybody facing you.

Get specific lights that have a cut off point, so you don't blind others.

My light is no more blinding to others than a car's headlamps. In fact, my light is far *less* bright than automotive headlamps.

https://www.nadaguides.com/Cars/Shopping-Guides/how-many-lumens-is-a-car-headlight

It's not about lumens. Its the beam pattern and lux.

It's the same as a high or low beam on a car. A regular flashlight is equal to a high beam. A proper bike light has a cut of to act like a low beam.

Put the bike in front of your car with the light on and sit in the car to see what the effect is.

The Germans even made a law regarding bike light needing to be a low beam; the StVZO standard. It's just the Germans that made it in to a law, but it doesn't beam blinding people else where is good.

Random google hit on StVZO: https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/stvzo-bike-lights/

A regular flashlight beam battern is however fine for mountain biking; as you don't have other traffic and allows you to see branches. Although i would recommend to have a headlight and handle bar mounted one, so you can see in to the corners.

Looking at the photographs on that site, they don't bear any resemblance whatsoever to the amount of light coming out of my flashlight on the 150 lumen or 350 lumen settings, which is all that I use, and again, I will note that even the higher of those two modes is still half the lumens of an average automotive halogen lamp. The Lupine SL AX in that article is a 2200 lumen light, about 15 times the output of what I typically use. its low beam setting is 1300 lumens, and its daytime running light is 180 lumens, brighter than what I typically use at night.

My flashlight it pointed at the ground no more than 3 metres in front of my tire. In no way does it illuminate to the distances shown in those photographs. And for the record, I went to university for Lighting Design. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. Thanks for the advice.

Also, one other thing. I was pretty impressed with the Nitecore BR25, which has a hood over the front that directs light downward to illuminate the bicycle itself and the ground immediately below it to make one more visible. I think this is an interesting idea, but the performance of the unit itself is not as good as my Fenix PD36 TAC. So, one of the things I'm looking at is fabricating a removable reflector hood out of black ABS and white PVC pipe fittings for my PD36 TAC do do more or less what the Nitecore BR25's non-removable hood does.

I am happy to say that more and more cyclists are visible with current lights in use. I have never been close to being "blinded." when commuting regularly on a bike, I always adjusted me light to illuminate the ground in front of me, rather than striving for distance.

Only thing I don't care for is the blinking lights. A light says "see me, I'm here" and blinking light says "I'm in distress, or I need help, or I'm signaling something"