Helmet Lights

I started wearing a forward-facing helmet light around a year ago, after a couple winters of having just a rear red LED there. The upper picture shows that first version, a true prototype. I built the bracket myself, based on a home-machined aluminum plate. Over that year I found two major benefits of a forward helmet light. Its height off the road makes it far more visible than my handlebar-mounted light (which I still use) over obstacles like road construction barrels and some shrubs. More important is I can turn it toward any oncoming drivers including those approaching from side roads. In fact, it amplifies my attempts to make eye contact, grabbing the attention of drivers and pulling their eyes to mine. Nice.

Now I wear this helmet for all commutes and I miss the light when I use a lighter helmet for long rides. So I decided to rebuild the helmet light to upgrade its LED light to a far brighter model, and fix the mount. The lower picture shows the new version, based on a Planet Bike Beamer 3 light which is around an order of magnitude brighter than the original. This light comes with a nice handlebar mount, but luckily for me it's made of two separable parts connected with a screw. Removing that screw left me with a flat mount which I built a helmet plate around. (It makes me wonder whether Planet Bike offers a helmet mount, but the bike shop didn't offer one.)

While we're on the topic, here's why I built that first mount. The last time I was hit by a car (Jan 18, 2006 in Acton) I was going home from work under a pitch dark sky. I had my very powerful headlight on, nearly as powerful as a car's low beam headlight (11W HID ~= 40W Halogen). A minivan stopped at a stop sign, and the driver must not have looked much for oncoming traffic before pulling out just as I rode in front of him. I saw what was happening, turned my head to look at the driver and even took my right hand off the bar to wave at him to try to get his attention. No luck. In that moment I felt rather helpless, and I still think about it sometimes. After a while I realized that a helmet light is the best solution for my inability to get the driver's attention. And I make the helmet light blink (as I do all my LED lights) because I believe that's the most eye-catching mode.