So what you’re describing is exactly the point, but the terms used are important. We want the light cast onto the trail to be close to equal INTENSITY, which means we want the bar light to be BRIGHTER (more total lumens) because the beam pattern is much wider, covering a larger area, so you need more light to cover a larger area at the same intensify. Narrower beam on the helmet covers less area, so can use less total brightness to be in balance with the bar light. Obviously as things move around and you point the helmet different places the intensity changes with distance, but we start with the intent of balance. Having too much intensity from the helmet light will just wash out all the depth you get from the bar, as you point out, which is generally bad if you’re trying to read the terrain accurately, but could indeed give you a false sense of security and lead to sending bigger, which isn’t necessarily better if the terrain is super rough, but again this is where specific use case comes into play, as most people night ride on familiar local trails that they may know better, so shifting the balance of light output based on your preferences is totally fine, so long as you’re comfortable with it.
Nov. 20, 2024, 6:10 a.m. - OutboundLighting
So what you’re describing is exactly the point, but the terms used are important. We want the light cast onto the trail to be close to equal INTENSITY, which means we want the bar light to be BRIGHTER (more total lumens) because the beam pattern is much wider, covering a larger area, so you need more light to cover a larger area at the same intensify. Narrower beam on the helmet covers less area, so can use less total brightness to be in balance with the bar light. Obviously as things move around and you point the helmet different places the intensity changes with distance, but we start with the intent of balance. Having too much intensity from the helmet light will just wash out all the depth you get from the bar, as you point out, which is generally bad if you’re trying to read the terrain accurately, but could indeed give you a false sense of security and lead to sending bigger, which isn’t necessarily better if the terrain is super rough, but again this is where specific use case comes into play, as most people night ride on familiar local trails that they may know better, so shifting the balance of light output based on your preferences is totally fine, so long as you’re comfortable with it.