Bright As Day 3000 - First ride

> Text and visuals by Daniel Hughes

"It’s been quite a while since I last road at night, and that was on an mtb with a light setup which was actually quite scary! My main light would not give you any warning of a low battery and would just shutoff. Not great when you’re riding downhill on a single track in the woods!"

Super happy to to take my lighting and personal well-being more seriously and I got myself the Bright As Day 3000. My first ride, with a friend in Wales. A day light into night “mission” with the objective to try and ride a mix of terrains and environments.

First question, was where to put the headlamp? Next the battery. I initially thought I’d put the headlamp on the handlebar using the moonlight mount (I have round handlebars) and then the battery I was either going to put it in a bar bag or on the frame itself. The battery handily has rubber ends with different shapes to mould to the shape of your bike top tube. I was a bit sceptical of the strap so went for a test ride on a bumpy surface, but it worked perfectly. No rattling, like it was glued on.

The plan changed! Nick who I went riding with started showing me the route, and towards the end there was going to be some single track in the trees. From my experience of riding at night before i really wished that I had more vision exactly where I was looking (before I had a terrible head torch with maybe 50 lumens! And a handlebar light with 600 lumens).  This is especially helpful if you’re trying to look ahead of corners/obstacles to anticipate your line and your head is higher whIch also helps for branches etc too. 

New plan: Headlamp mounted on top of the helmet using a GoPro mount and adhesive (you will need to buy the adhesive) and as we weren’t riding with camelbaks/backpacks we ran the cable inside our gilets and then put the battery in our jersey pockets. The battery is not light, and is not small but was surprised that actually it made no difference to the ride. Unaware it was there, especially the headlamp, which is super light. Note: the battery might be too big for a race cut jersey.

Overall we were absolutely gobsmacked how powerful the light was. True to its word, bright as day! and on the non technical elements you really didn’t need all it’s power, so we had it on preset 2 most of the time which gives huge endurance if you’re going out for an evening ride, rather than a multi-day adventure. 

Did we choose correctly? Absolutely. If you’re running a single headlamp setup then having it mounted on your helmet is the way to go. Incredible brightness exactly where you need it.