Another club member (Don) turned me on to LED headlamps last summer. The remarkable thing about them is that the three AAA batteries last something like 100-150 hours!
If you ever have to try to solve a motorcycle problem at night (heaven forefend!) you will at least have both hands free and, if you replace the batteries every couple years, you will never experience the light dimming just when you need it most.
While I have used mine in a power outage at my house and also to light my way to a restroom in a campground, it has seen most service as a reading light in a tent.
Set at the lowest of three levels I can easily read a paperback book stretched out in my sleeping bag.
There is a fourth flashing position (for signalling airplanes? which I could live without.) Beats the hell out of a candle lantern in a tent for reading and does everything you would want a flashlight to do in a very compact package.
The one caveat Don passed along was don’t get one with anything but LED’s.
They can drain those batteries very fast.
For some reason I didn’t like the ones at Wal-Mart and ended up purchasing a “Petzl Tika plus” at Valhalla Pure in Vernon for about $40. (They had both slightly cheaper ones and much more expensive ones.)
My only complaint about this light is that it is too easy for the battery compartment to open.
I solved that problem with a couple pieces of electricians tape.
Doug Sonju
if you have any comments send them to dougsonju@uniserve.com