Go onto any cycling forum and ask advice about which lights to buy and you'll of course get the usual conflicting recommendations. But there will be one common theme: the number of people enthusing about Dinotte lights.

Dinotte lights are absolutely tiny super-bright LED lights. I was impressed by the number of recommendations, but what really convinced me was seeing one for myself. I ordered a set soon after seeing them in action. This video (not mine) gives you the basic idea:

200 lux at the front, 140 lux from each light at the rear, These things are literally visible from a mile away, even in daylight! The lights also have a very unusual flashing pattern (five flashes, one pause) among the options that really catches people's attention.

Where battery-powered devices are concerned, I try to standardise on AAs. I have a rather large collection of Eneloop AA rechargeables, and a 12-battery smart-charger. I thus opted for a 200L headlight, 140L tail-light and a Daytime Amber Tail-light (that one doesn't seem to have a model number but is also 140 lux). I get six hours runtime from a set of Eneloops.

I had a bar made up at the rear to mount the two tail-lights (the bags contain the battery-holders), and a friend kindly shortened the power leads for me to keep everything neat.

Fitting a Streamer fairing posed a challenge when it came to fitting the front light. The same friend (the type of friend who has a CNC lathe in his garage ...) made a bespoke mount for the front Dinotte (and a dynamo light, of which more in a moment):

Dinottes are not cheap at around $120 each (plus shipping, duty and VAT), but they absolutely deliver on the old adage of buying the right thing once rather than the wrong thing multiple times.

They are superb lights. The only thing you need to be aware of is that they continue to draw a small amount of power even when switched off (for the electronic power switch), so it's important to disconnect the batteries when not in use.

They do have one drawback: being dependant on batteries. While Dinotte supply spare holders and cases, so it's not difficult to carry spares, I'm a belt-and-braces man. I thus fitted a Busch & Müller Lumotec dynamo system too. The front light is a Lumotec IQ Cyo, with a surprisingly bright-looking 60-lux output. The rear light is a Toplight Line Plus, mounted on the rear seat, which is an unspectacular but adequate 40-lux.

The Lumotec system runs off a bottle dynamo, which is a bit 1970s! I do want to upgrade to a hub dynamo at some stage, but this is not a cheap upgrade: as I have hub brakes, I'd need two new wheels and disc brakes. ICE also recommend running balanced wheels, which means two hub dynamos. This is all to the good, as I'd like to power the camcorder and an iPhone too, but the all-in cost runs to about £800, so this will not be happening anytime soon!

Incidentally, the more observant of you will have noticed the headlight is not wired-up in the photos above. The supplied cable was not long enough to run from the rear-wheel to the front of the fairing, so I had to order a spare length of cable and have that soldered-on. It's done now, but the photos were taken beforehand.

Since the Brompton is only used on lit roads (mostly in central London), it doesn't need the eye-searing capabilities of the Dinottes, and is all about hop-on, hop-off convenience. I thus decided to go for the ultimate fit-and-forget convenience of a SON hub dynamo with B&M LED lights. You can read about it on my Brompton page.