Best bike light for night riding on unlit roads

Im wrong. I meant those watch battery strap lights that barely weigh that of a coin. Not really useful on dark roads if viewing is required.
I always ride with a set because at $1 per delivered light, the budget wasn't stretched and they basically easy. Note. I rode off creek paths a lot during full moon night because they ain't primary purpose as seek reads. Great spare light though.

I have BikeHut 'Cats Eyes' (I think they're called) that are so bright on their brightest setting that I get flashed by cars! Great for lighting my way on early and late ride to and from work. The front light has a rechargable battery bank that straps to the frame.

I have the Volt 1200 for a 7 mile commute on unlit road and it is great light. The only thing that annoys me is that I generally have it on the 2nd brightest setting until i get onto cycle paths away from roads where i need it on the brightest setting, to do that you have to go through the sequence of lower brightness/flashing setting to get to brightest. Not great when on poorly made tracks!

I have 12 miles of unlit commute and use 2 lezyne super drive lights. One is 1200 luman and the older one is about 700. I run two due to the risk of failure mid ride, with the added benefit of having more light available. I normally run them both on economy mode so maybe 500 & 300 lumen, switching to full power on downhill bits or on stretches where there are potholes. Obviously the faster you go the further ahead you need to be able to see.

More thought needs to go into the design of bike lights. There are times when I would rather have the light pointing further forward to see further ahead but don't as it would blind oncoming cars. A circular beam pattern is a bit of a blunt weapon.

I run mine for ~2hrs. If you want 4-6 hrs I would definitely take 2 lights. I think my older one is 3/4 years old and still going well. They are quite heavy but equally are pretty bomb proof having been dropped a few times.

Bought "1200 lumen" light off fleabay for £25 it's almost as bright as a car dipped headlight with a run time of about 90 mins and will fully recharge in about 4 hours. I use it on 2 miles of unlit cycle paths that don't have any light spill from street lights and can see well ahead for 20-25 meters.

Don't know if spending 3 or 4 times as much would be any better and if it gets stolen or busted its only the price of a takeaway for 2.

I have a Lezyne 600xl on my bars set to full / dip at a touch of the button. Also have a Chinese torch with 18650 battery on my helmet which is like a full beam headlight. Any oncoming traffic I switch it off and the Lezyne is sufficient till they have passed. Headtorch would last about 4 hours but you can easily swap batteries. Lezyne about the same on dim setting. Have a look at BangGood or Gearbest. Very good flashlights for very little money. I think mine was about £8 on offer Inc. Battery. Had it for a year now and it is still fine.

I've got a Mk3 Cirius and it's had daily use for the last two years with no major issue, pnly problem was the stormport cap not being secure but after two years that was expected but a quick email to USE and a new one was on the post. Nearly bought a newer USE light but the current one does it's job perfectly with only 300 lumens.

I’ve used Ay up lights, and found them very good. They do come with multiple battery packs.  I switched to an exposure Sirius, as it was smaller and lighter, which I’ve had for the past couple of winters and found fine for riding on unlit roads, but I’m not sure that it would have the endurance you’d need.

Niterider 750 or above.

This gets great reviews

Ravemen PR1200 USB Rechargeable DuaLens Front Light With Remote

Specifically tailored lens for commuting too.

Forget all that, can't find the PAVA light anymore, best light I've found for high speed night time runs.

There are very few road-specific battery lights on the market. If you have deep pockets then consider USE Exposure models such as the Strada, which they say is "tailored for tarmac ". I find 400 lumens is plenty on country lanes, providing the beam spread is wide enough, which has always been a weak point of Cateye lights.

Reviews and beam comparison via http://road.cc/category/review-section/accessories/lights-front

Cygolite Metro Pro 1100 looks good value. Lezyne claim the Macro 1100 will run for 4½ hours at 450L - is that long enough? http://www.lezyne.com/products-led.php

Another beam comparison page - https://www.tredz.co.uk/lights-comparison-test

Buy a multi-led xml-l2 light with 18650 batteries or battery pack from ebay and lower its beam as much as it is needed not to blind oncoming traffic.

I have a Cateye Volt 800 that is just fine for cycling on unlit country lanes. I'm not sure it would last 6 hours on full power though. My other half has a Cateye Volt 1200 which is even better, but ridiculously, blindingly bright.

You missed the massive sale retailers were having on lights like the Moon Meteor Vortex Pro. They are normally around £80 or just under it but we're selling for as low as £35 in some places. You can also pick up a spare battery for £15 to give you from dawn to dusk battery life so long as you're not going at full bore all the time.  For the dunwich dynamo ive used lights like the fluxient u2 mini, magicshine 858 and 872. Both of them are superb and very bright.  i tend to run either on the lowest or medium setting and have them angled down at the road a little more to avoid blinding other road users, you can do this with pretty much any light 

I have a Fluxient F3 which is great, puts all the light on the road, not up in the tree tops.  Not as much absolute output as some other lights but all the light it does produce is pointed where you need it.  Have a look at http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/bike-light-database.html for some good beam comparisons.

I came across an interesting side to the brighter is better argument last week. Oncoming cyclist was probably indicating to turn right when faced with oncoming traffic, I couldn't see due to the 20,000 lumen (or whatever the cockfest says you must have) light they were using. Fortunately I'm a considerate twat when driving and didn't mow them down. Rider must have assumed that I'd seen the indication as they pulled right across me, like I said, I'm a considerate twat when it comes to fragile cyclists.

Battery or dynamo? Dynamo, pretty much any of the Gerrman lights will work tolerably well- I've had problems with the Luxos U, but the Supernova road specific light is ok. Battery - the Ixon IQ Premium, essentially the battery version of some dynamo light or other, is usable, although the battery compartment isn't wonderfully built.

To my mind, although these lights are generally ok, the beams are too narrow for some situations - on some bends one effectively has to ride into darkness - bit scary at times.

Petsonally on dark roads I still prefer the Lumicycle 3si (now the Freeway) - the beam is less controlled, but (or therefore) mote generally usable on dark roads.

Cateye Volt 1200 worth a look. 

The reviews section on here has loads of front lights reviewed with a beam pattern comparator.