Applying the age old purchasing principles of ready availability and impatience, I have now bought a Petzl Duo Belt head torch at a price of 37 GBQ. (Great British Quid)
Interestingly, on the side of the box in some unspecified foreign tongue, it is descried as a ‘crochlamp’!
It runs off 4 X LR14 batteries - they’re the middle sized conventional round 1.5V type. Allegedly, 9 hours burn time on main beam and a massive 36 hours on the standard bulb… and the Pope is joining the Amesh tomorrow, right?
Allegedy the normal beam is good for 20 metres, and the halogen main beam is good for 100 metres. In practice, the dipped bulb, although 6 v, is slightly less bright than my Mini Maglite with it’s new bulb. (The new bulb is much brighter than the old - the glass goes black before they finally die.)
So I did a few miles this evening and found that the dipped bulb is good enough for riding on unlit tarmac lanes in near total darkness. The main beam is even good for broken surfaces, although there is the contour washout problem mentioned by other contributors. I found that the combination of head torch and hand torch is very useful
I reckon this head torch is good enough for serious use on unlit roads and easy trails. Probably not good enough for serious muni in the dark, though. As I’ve set myself a vague target of visiting all out regular summer Morris pubs by uni over the closed season, that’ll be fine for me.
One minor niggle: the elastic’s a bit short and it doesn’t sit comfortably on my helmet. (Oooer, missus!) I can either address this with cable ties, or by wearing my kayaking helmet and looking a dork. Tonight I addressed it by not wearing the helmet once it got dark. ;o)