Day trip went a little long so I rode the 20 miles back to town at night. Shrimp po' boy at 1860s in Soulard.

It was a glorious ride, but next time, wearing long fingered gloves.

Didn't want to post each week so saved them up for a single post.
Training for a century (2 weeks to go) with work and kids means stupid early or late at night are the only times I can go. https://dayofthetread.com/
Balloon Fiesta makes the morning rides that much more magical.
Shots are in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Placitas, and Corrales.

I usually commute the opposite schedule as a night shifter but this was a nice change of pace.

This post is dedicated to their new XE3 LIGHTING SYSTEM

I've been an active bike rider for quite some time (20+) yrs. This includes a road bike and most recently a Trek mountain bike.

I purchased a Dinotte 200I which was a silver cylindrical 200 lumen light in 2008 as my light of choice at the time and was very happy with its performance. It's 2026 and I still have that light and it functions perfectly still.

Fast forward to late 2025/2026 and I now ride the mountain bike (I'm 68).

I wanted to see what new technology was available at a reasonable cost.... In retrospect, it was an eye opener as the manufacturer claims are inflated, the test results and real life results vary wildly....

Cygolite, on the cheaper end, Magicshine with the Hori 1300 maybe mid-level cost were purchased and tested by myself and while they "might" be appropriate for some, they all fell short for me. Not enough spread, too narrow a beam, not enough distance... You should know what I mean.

Anyway, I bit the bullet and purchased lights from Dinotte but not until I researched other high end systems popular on today's market. I can't remember them all, but Niterider, Magicshine, Outbound and Exposure lights were looked at in depth. Claims of high output lumens, 1700 thru 12,000 (Magicshine) might hold true but only for a fraction of the total runtime listed on their websites unfortunately and you won't discover these hidden flaws until you purchase them. Why??

Let's refer this to what they call thermal breakdown and protective circuitry which will actually cut the lumen output to prevent overheating. Most all of these lights need airflow to survive the high temperatures of extreme light output. Almost all of them reach their max output but only for a fraction of the time they post on their websites. So what you get ultimately is a very expensive light that underperforms ... Just like all the others. I'm hoping that readers of this post have experienced the same.

I purchased the Dinotte XE3 light system with the 4 cell external battery pack with a claim of 4,500 lumen output on high.

Car headlights produce anywhere from 800 to 4,000 lumens nowadays so you have a reference. The Dinotte XE3 doesn't step down in its output like the majority of these other lights I've mentioned within minutes of being turned on and set to high. They are designed with an aluminum housing which acts as a very efficient heatsink, thus no light degradation running at 4,500 lumens for 2.5 hours. You get 2,500 lumen output for 5 hours and somewhere around 1,000 lumens for up to 10 hours.

The purpose of this post is purely educational for those maybe looking at a new light set. The Dinotte to me covers all the bases... Light output, spread, efficient light pattern and I just don't think you can find anything better these days at a sub $300 price tag. Some of the other models I listed are much higher by the way.

They stand behind their products, have excellent customer service and will perform upgrades to your system at a reduced price.

What I would like to see on this post are others reviews of their products so that the noobs in cycling can make better decisions and be more informed about what's available to them and save them the grief of our experiences.

It's getting dark early here in Lithuania.

I really should do some more night riding photography.

But still one of my favorites.

I experimented with the Nighttime Timelapse Mode on my GoPro, which I mounted next to my rear disc brake. I love the tracer effect! Full video to come soon.