Got some new night riding goodies!

[p2rider426]

So I finally got some lights!
Expilion 350: Amazon.com: Cygolite Expilion 350-Lumen USB Rechargeable Headlight: Sports & Outdoors

Serfas USL-R USB https://www.serfas.com/products/view...-lights|page:2

The Cygolite is obviously more than adequately bright with its 350lm for riding around downtown San Jose at night, but the Serfas was a big surprise. It's pretty darn bright and a very handy little tail light! We'll see how it holds up on a 2 hour cold, bumpy ride tonight. I will update this thread probably later tonight when I take my first ride with them. Just stoked on all the gear I got for my birthday!

I included the picture with flash to show the reflective materials in the backpack. Camelbak even puts attention to detail in on their cheapo packs. Right on!

[p2rider426]

Sorry it took so long to update, but I finally have time to write about my impressions of the first ride with the new equipment. It was about 48F outside and lightly sprinkling for most of the ride, so not exactly pristine conditions. It was a 2 hour ride of 50/50 dirt and street on my old steel road bike.

So the only complaint about the headlight I had would be that you have to scroll through strobe to flip between high/medium/low which is quite annoying. I had the light on high for about 50% of the time, medium for 30%, and boost for about 20% of the ride. I do think it was noticeably dimmer on the boost setting at the end of the ride, but still very adequately bright. The taillight on blink setting wasn't noticeably dimmer at the end than when I started though. I wasn't super impressed with the mounts for either light. The headlight rotated on its mount a little too easily. Also, even with the provided spacers the diameter of the headlight mount wouldn't go small enough to mount on my old bars. I fixed this by adding a few revolutions of electrical tape to the bar where i wanted to mount my light which turned out to work great. The Serfas strap would not go to a small enough diameter to attach to anything but my seatpost which would get bumped by my inner thigh on a pretty regular basis while pedaling. It wouldn't get thrown out of whack by the nudges, just a little annoying.

So all in all, they function great, just need some fine tuning on the mounts to be perfected. I also know why riding at night is so popular. It's freaking fun!

[Ethan The Bike Man]

I was thinking about buying this light and this information helps, thanks! Also, Happy Birthday!