Light Em Up!

Do you need lights to commute? No...BUT! I'm a firm believer in the brighter the better mentality. I've commuted with and without and it seems that people give you more room when you're lit up. I light up at all times, day or night. I also think in the event that you would get hit. It would be hard for the offender to argue that they couldn't see you if you're lit up like the fourth of July. I use two of these attached to both chainstays on the bike. I like having the two lights close to the ground to help spread the light on the roadway. This is probably the coolest idea for a light. It's basically the same Planet Bike reflector but, it's suspended so it's always level. I have it attached to the back of my helmet and usually have it on the "constant" mode.
The great thing about the reflectors is... They're cheap. Which is a hard thing to come by in the cycling world.
I have a total of 4 battery powered reflectors rounding out the rear. One on the helmet, two on the chainstays, and one mounted to my rack. That is a green reflector I got from my wife's grandfather. I run that on "constant" mode, also. I like having some constant lights, it's supposed to help people can judge my distance.
  The roads I ride on are not lit well if at all. I live in a small city and my work is around farm land. I go from street lights to no lights in two miles. Up until last week I was just using a Serfas 500 usb headlamp. The battery on the 500 setting only lasts about 70-80 minutes. You have to charge it pretty regularly. The cord is too short to charge it on the bike so, you have to take it off of the mount every time you charge it. It's held up so far {about 6 months} but I'd imagine the mount will wear out sooner or later.
 The light does the job but, in the rain when you're competing with car headlights reflecting off of the pavement surface, it's just not enough. I leave my house at 6 am. It's dark.  I just got this little light for my Birthday...  It's a claimed 1200 lumens. It is way brighter than my Serfas 500. I now use this as my main light and the Serfas as a blinkie. The cord is long enough to stow the battery on my rear rack. Since it's an actual battery pack it lasts a good long time. I went a couple of days before I had to recharge it. It has four different settings, high, medium, low, and blinkie. The blinkie is way too fast at night. I think it would give seizures. The handlebar mount is just a thick rubber washer. It works but, could be improved on. I mount it on the underside of my handlebars and it doesn't move like it did when I had it on the top. Oh? Did I mention it's under 20$? I've only had it for a week though. Time will tell if it holds up. For 20$ though I could have five for the price of the Serfas.

I got these off Amazon for about two bucks. I don't have much faith in the quality of them but, they're cheap and I'm a gambling man. I like the idea of having a light that can be seen from the side. Although,  getting a good reflector and facing it out on each chainstay would probably be a much better idea.