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.

I was impressed by the number of recommendations, but what really convinced me was seeing one for myself. A bike was lighting up half the West End from a tiny light, and I asked the rider what he was using: it was a Dinotte.

Dinotte lights are absolutely tiny super-bright LED lights with a lightweight fastening system and a separate 4xAA battery-pack that fits into a pouch with velcro attachment. This makes swapping batteries a doddle, as well as being much cheaper than dedicated Li-ion batteries.

I use Eneloop rechargeables for everything these days, as they hold their charge for ages, and Dinotte thoughfully supplies spare battery-holders, so I just keep spare sets in my bike bag.

The reason everyone raves about Dinotte lights is their brightness. How's this for a tail-light? (I'll add some nightime shots of my own lights next time I'm out in the dark.)

And that's 'only' 120 lumens; the headlight is 200 lumens. You can get another sense of how good these lights are from this video.

The lights are so bright they even show up well in daylight, so I invested in a third Dinotte light: the amber daylight running light. This is the same power as the headlight, but amber coloured (which shows up better in daylight than red), and again the cycle forumites sang its praises as a means of being seen from miles away in daylight. I thus have this fitted alongside the rear light, using the amber light in the day and the red light at night.

Dinottes are not cheap at around $170 each, so I resisted for a while, but when they put them on sale at $99 each at a time when it was £1=$2, well, that made it irresistable!

There one drawback is limited battery-life. On high-intensity flashing mode, they last about six hours. This is sufficient for my usual needs, but I will need to find a solution for an overnight ride I have planned.