Victagen VTG8 light kit

[handlebar]

Tree has one, so I  had to have one, too.

Victagen advertises it as their 8,000 Lumen light. That's just the model name. With both beams at maximum intensity, it probably produces 800 lumens. Each beam probably produces 400 lumens on high. The spotlight concentrates it in a cone of about 11 degrees. That would be great for spotting a fox at 300 yards but nasty in a driver's eyes.

I tried it out right after sundown. The only way to see where the beam was going was to point the bike at a wall 20 feet away. At the lowest intensity, I rode around the block, about a mile.  I met three drivers, each of whom steered along the opposite edge of the pavement. I hadn't seen a car do that before. I still couldn't see where my beam was going. When it got dark, I found that the light was aimed too low, lighting the pavement a few yards in front of the bike. That light is an attention-getter even when aimed well below a driver's eyes in daylight.

The floodlight spreads the bright part of the beam 5 times farther horizontally (53 degrees) and 50% farther vertically (17 degrees). Hitting a driver's eyes would be more forgivable. In the 1970s, I read that in town, 90% of the threats to a motorcycle come from the sides. The low beam would probably make the bicycle more visible to a threat from the side, such as somebody backing out a driveway, at a stop sign, or turning left... or a pedestrian.

The rubbery clamp can slip on the handlebar, allowing me to lower the elevation when there's oncoming traffic.

Both beams have an SOS mode. I've never read of anyone who survived because he had a pocket light that would flash S O S.

I took the photos on a sunny day. I guess the brightness of the lights caused the software to make the day look dark. The second shot shows the spotlight. In the third shot, the tail light is the horizontal strip abour 4" below the seat. (I could slide it on as a vertical strip.) It's very bright, like a car's LED brake light. (The OEM Radmission tail light doesn't even reflect headlights!) To shut it off, you have to cycle through other modes, including S O S, blue, and alternating blue and red. (What's the penalty for impersonating a cop?)

The fourth shot is the headlight in floodlight mode.

[Tree]

Tree has one, so I  had to have one, too.

Victagen advertises it as their 8,000 Lumen light. That's just the model name. With both beams at maximum intensity, it probably produces 800 lumens. Each beam probably produces 400 lumens on high. The spotlight concentrates it in a cone of about 11 degrees. That would be great for spotting a fox at 300 yards but nasty in a driver's eyes.

I tried it out right after sundown. The only way to see where the beam was going was to point the bike at a wall 20 feet away. At the lowest intensity, I rode around the block, about a mile.  I met three drivers, each of whom steered along the opposite edge of the pavement. I hadn't seen a car do that before. I still couldn't see where my beam was going. When it got dark, I found that the light was aimed too low, lighting the pavement a few yards in front of the bike. That light is an attention-getter even when aimed well below a driver's eyes in daylight.

The floodlight spreads the bright part of the beam 5 times farther horizontally (53 degrees) and 50% farther vertically (17 degrees). Hitting a driver's eyes would be more forgivable. In the 1970s, I read that in town, 90% of the threats to a motorcycle come from the sides. The low beam would probably make the bicycle more visible to a threat from the side, such as somebody backing out a driveway, at a stop sign, or turning left... or a pedestrian.

The rubbery clamp can slip on the handlebar, allowing me to lower the elevation when there's oncoming traffic.

Both beams have an SOS mode. I've never read of anyone who survived because he had a pocket light that would flash S O S.

I took the photos on a sunny day. I guess the brightness of the lights caused the software to make the day look dark. The second shot shows the spotlight. In the third shot, the tail light is the horizontal strip abour 4" below the seat. (I could slide it on as a vertical strip.) It's very bright, like a car's LED brake light. (The OEM Radmission tail light doesn't even reflect headlights!) To shut it off, you have to cycle through other modes, including S O S, blue, and alternating blue and red. (What's the penalty for impersonating a cop?)

The fourth shot is the headlight in floodlight mode.

lol, i think that was a positive review.

i don't remember how i ended up settling on that particular light, but i'm an obsessive researcher when making a purchase - it makes my wife crazy, and conversely, when she announced "i bought a washer and dryer!" a few weeks ago without researching them, it made me cringe

re the SOS mode - it's not so much for cars, but for oncoming cyclists on trails to increase my visibility to them....

[handlebar]

SOS is one of two flash modes. It needs only one.

I can hardly see the difference between high and medium. A headlamp might be used to avoid walking into a branch 5 feet away or to look for a hat you dropped 50 yards away. With the same beam pattern, equal illumination would require 900 times more lumens. That explains why headlamps generally offer three levels. Bicycle lights don't need such a range of brightness. "High" and "Low" would be plenty. This light offers 13 combinations. It would be easier to operate with just six. One button would be for spot, flood, and flash flood. The other would be for high or low.

The light says 5800 mah @ 3.7 volts. That's 21.46 watt  hours. Good lights get about 100 lumens per watt, so the lumen levels are approximately 537, 268, and 143. That's a far cry from 8,000.