Short: cateye 500lm aimed too high, blinding road users. How can I solve this?
Long:
I'm fairly new to Brompton but not new to cycling. I love my Brompton C line so far BUT I recently bought the Brompton cateye 500lm and I don't want to use it. With the bracket It comes with, the light is aimed too high. Cars flashing at me, other cyclists and pedestrians get annoyed as well because they are all blinded by the light. The light would be great for off road use but in its current bracket it is unusable for the city. I don't want to blind anyone as it is not safe and I also hate if someone rides towards me with a badly adjusted 500lm lights. I also wish it had a 100lm setting…
The question is: did anyone find a way to aim it downwards? The bracket is sooo stiff and there is not much room anyway to point it more downwards. Or what other lights can you recommend that is similar, where it is mounted. I don't want it nor have space on my handlebars.
Addition: I also think tbh that the light is awefully design in the way it spreads the light.
Link to the product:
by Ok-Paramedic7661
5 Comments
Disclaimer: I don’t own this light.
If it’s mounted correctly and the bracket isn’t bent, you can try putting a piece of electrical tape across the top 1/4~1/3 of the light to create a DIY StVZO line.
There is also a low light mode. Turn it on and click the button to switch modes.
If cars are honking at you that means you are being seen. When I ride at night I use the strobe mode to be extra visible. On bike trails I use the low light mode.
I have to push the bracket down a bit occasionally to get it aimed more at the road, but that’s not enough. Especially at the height the light is at and the round light pattern, nearly half of it will be lighting above where you need it and blinding others. I put a piece of opaque tape on the top half of all my lights to limit the light to mostly the center and below of where I’m aiming. It doesn’t cut the light output in half, it just seems to work well to limit the light going high. Test it by aiming your light at the ground and a wall at a distance in front of you. Can you see the ground but not light up 3-4 feet off the ground on the wall? Adjust until you’re happy
I don’t own the Brompton branded one, I have a cateye ampp 900 and use this approach from brilliant bikes https://youtu.be/dAyoW8qHmnA?si=EbYNYfw92nGhlkSw
The solution is quite clean, you get to be able to aim the light quite accurately