Right on Flyer, congrats for the Betty
I did a couple of long rides this weekend and got the same feeling from my Wilma - it´s growing on me with every ride. It´s brighter and smoother than the ARC, though the ARC is indeed wider. I also noticed a significant difference: the ARC´s easily visible hot spot allows for perfect "aiming" right from the go, whereas the Wilma´s smoother beam makes it harder to find the perfect tilt at first. But once you get used to after a little while, it really gets you.
But running them both together is rather amazing!! This time I rode some very familiar trails and was finally able to compare them and get a better feel for the Wilma. The beams complement each other perfectly!! I did a long ride yesterday with lots of long downhills with fast curves. for the most part I had the Wilma on 60% (9 watts) + the ARC on low (10 watts), and I never ever felt I needed more. Like that, it´s a lot of light, it mest be seen to be believed. I reached 60km/h at some places and felt 100% confident.
I turned them both to max a few times and was stunned at the light ahead of me! Like you, I stopped at times just to look at the surroundings, and I thought "OMG it´s like I´m driving a car instead of a bike!". Others felt the same too, it seems. The weather was perfect here and there were lots of people everywhere, on the roads leading to the trails and also on the trails. I was getting their attention from far, far away. I could hear them "wooow-ing" when I came across 10 times out of 10. Some broke in laughter when they saw I was riding a bike, not a jeep with faulty lights.
I came across a group of riders and they thought I was a MXer. I stopped at a bar to fill the bottles and the guy said he started praying and thought I was an UFO coming with two bright, white lights on top of each other - no kidding here
After that I came across a group of MXers, and they stopped me to ask wtf I was using. They could not believe that much of light from such compact setups, and for how long the batteries could run them. I had more light than the 4 of them together, though they had rather weak halogens (or maybe I´m getting too demanding?
).
I used the Wilma on 3 rides straight, and I was most of the time on 60% or 100%. I easily got 5+ hours like that. Plus what I used playing with it on my backyard, comparing with the ARC and all. And it still has 50% of the charge, enough for perhaps a couple of hours. Pretty impressive. There´s a guy here wanting to buy my ARC, I asked good $$$ and if he keeps it I´ll order me a Betty next week. If it´s as good as it seems, adding it to the Wilma... I won´t be wishing for other lights for some looooong time