DiNotte Dual lighting system

Not every bike light needs to be strong enough to burn your way through a foggy, all-night mountain-bike race. The heavy-duty systems often come with batteries that weigh almost as much as the bike itself, have bulky lamp housings, and take a lot of time to set up. And if you want to buy one light that you can switch between your mountain and road bikes, forget it.

That's why I was excited to stumble across DiNotte Lighting Systems' booth while futzing my way around in the dark at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo race, in Tucson. Compared with the unwieldy, blockish systems everyone was using, the svelte DiNotte lights immediately caught my eye. With a tiny rechargeable lithium battery and a slick-looking aluminum casing that's smaller than a roll of quarters, I couldn't wait to get home to try them on the roads.

After a couple evening road rides around Santa Fe, the small size of DiNotte lights immediately made sense. It's the perfect commuter-bike light system—lightweight and a cinch to remove when you're finished—and bright enough to blast a bike-size hole through the dark of a back road. The lamps are attached to the bars with a strong rubber loop, so you can remove the whole system in about three seconds—no screwing around with knobs or clamps. But while you can instantly adjust the direction of the beam on the fly, the rubber is tight enough to keep them from jostling out of position on bumpy stretches.

I was testing the DiNotte Dual system, which includes two three-watt LED lamps (about 80 lumens each, equivalent to about eight to ten watts of halogen power) and a battery that will give you 3.5 hours of juice on high beams. One lamp is strong enough to light the way on dimly lit roads, though I felt I really needed both to see where I was going when riding at full speed. With its slim size, the battery doesn't take up a huge amount of space on your frame, so you can still get at your water bottles, and with a little Y-shaped plug, you can route two lights at once to one battery. I just leave my battery charging all the time (it's a "smart battery," so it won't fry out if you leave it charging for a couple weeks), and grab it when I'm going to cross town after dark. Another plus? With the sturdy aluminum casing and low-profile mount, the system seems like it could handle a serious spill. With a $360 price tag, that's a good thing.

The two-light system is more than enough for those casual evening trail rides that go on past dusk, and it weighs so little (about one pound for the whole shebang) that it slips imperceptibly into your CamelBak when you don't need it. Just slap it on and you're off into the night. In my mind, that makes the DiNotte Dual the perfect crossover light for those of us who will never spend any time on Tinker's wheel. $360; www.dinottelighting.com

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