Bicycle lights have become very important in recent times because the number of road users has increased and riding a bicycle is not longer restricted to day time only. This is not only for the benefit of other road users but also to the benefit of the bicycle rider themselves to see the way ahead as they ride along especially at night. Bicycle lights just like car lights are normally required to be clear for the front side and red lights for the back which are augmented by orange reflectors placed at both sides. Bicycle lights can be made from many different types of sources for light. The ancient forms of light were from carbide lamps. These produced very bright light and required rigorous maintenance. The discovery of battery powered lights in the 1890s changed this. The advantages of this form of bicycle lights were that they were not expensive and they were readily available in most stores. The main disadvantages of using batteries were the fact that the user had to keep replacing them with new batteries unless they were rechargeable. This brought the cost back up. These batteries were also producing very low power voltage especially under conditions of poor visibility. LEDs used for the front lights of bicycle lights produce high voltage power and have a long battery life. When there is on coming road traffic the bicycle rider can dim their lights. These lights can also be turned off immediately with a switch and they can also be used when blinking of lights is required. These LED lights do not dim throughout their life. This type of bicycle lights is pricier than the batteries and in some countries they are not allowed. They can also be used for the rear but with lower voltage. Here the bicycle lights are purely used for visibility purposes only or to provide back up for the other rear lights already present. Halogen lights have increasingly become common for use as bicycle lights because of their very high visibility. They are now more readily available and with a reasonable capability on their batteries have been known to be very reliable. They are detachable from the bicycle and this prevents theft. Their cost has gone down as they have become more widely available. The flip side to these types of bicycle lights is that they have to keep being recharged at short intervals because of their limited lifespan. For those with powered bicycles they tend to shorten the overall halogen light lifespan.
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