The headlight on my recumbent trike is a Philips SafeRide LED light. I bought this lamp because of its sensible beam pattern. As with motor vehicle headlights, it throws a beam that is more-or-less rectangular, much wider than tall.

A rectangular beam pattern puts most light where it is needed, and minimizes the light shining in the eyes of oncoming drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. It is powered by four AA batteries, allowing for replacement on the road. It comes with rechargeable nickel metal hydride cells.

It has three design shortcomings. One, quite tolerable, is that the bottom part of the case, which mounts to a bar, is the door to the battery compartment. This might be intentional to keep the batteries dry, but it seems like a weak link in the mounting system. Another weakness regards the curved rubbery spacer supplied with it to allow it to be mounted on small-diameter bars. The spacer doesn't provide enough friction to prevent the lamp's rotating downward from road bumps. (maybe roughening its outer surface would make it better). My solution to the problem was to replace the spacer with wraps of one-inch-wide Gorilla Tape to build up the diameter of the mounting bar. The third problem is the fastener that secures the battery compartment cover: although strong enough, it is so small as to be difficult to work with. It takes an narrow Allen wrench.

It's not cheap: the price is about $180, though I got it when it was less costly. Even with its shortcomings I would buy it at its present cost because of its performance. Read about it on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Philips-BF48L20BBLX1-SafeRide-Battery-BikeLight/dp/B00620Z8M2 .


This scene is on the Interurban Trail in Kent, Washington. It looks south. Just in back of me is the grade crossing of a railroad spur that serves nearby warehouses. This was near the start of a night ride that began behind the Embassy Suites hotel and went to the CenterPoint Corporate Park in Kent (east of the Boeing Space Center).

Hand-held iPhone photo shot while sitting on my trike.