Customer Rating:  
Summary: Good light for casual use or back-up
Comment: I've been using this light for a couple of seasons now and it has held up well. Amazingly bright for a single led for about the first 4 hours with new batteries, usable light for several more. I run a Light and Motion Li-ion Logic Solo as my main light with this one for back-up in case the Logic's battery dies because I forgot to charge it or the bulb fails. Makes a great around the house flash light that fits in your pocket for on the go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brighter than most cheap lights, still too dim, still too fragile
Comment: I went away to college in a city where bicycling is ubiquitous and there is little in the way of street lights due to light pollution concerns. Since I figured I'd have a lot of late night classes and I wasn't willing to spend lots of money on some expensive rechargeable system, I went with this because this was the brightest AA light in the bike shop I went to. I quickly learned that this light was inadequate for riding down a street with no lights at night, but oh well. One day, I accidentally knocked this light off my desk and it fell about 3 feet to the ground, which was covered with carpet. The part where the head screws into the body was cracked and the entire thing was rendered useless. I went and bought a replacement EL500, which fell victim to the same thing a few months later. This thing really isn't that durable at all.
I later discovered that you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck if you get one of those new Cree LED flashlights from China. I'm currently using a Fenix L2D CE Q5 premium 2xAA flashlight that is WAYYYYY brighter than this, throws much further, costs about the same, and is quite rugged. Don't waste your money on this (or any dedicated plastic bike light) and go the LED flashlight route instead.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good light, but not terribly bright
Comment: It is good to use in dark areas but in semi dark places it is not great but OK (for instance a street with some lamps here and there). Pretty easy to mount.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good overall
Comment: I think for a battery powered headlight, this one is one of the best. But I believe the useful run time to be exaggerated. It may indeed last 30 hours and continue putting out light, but in my experience once the batteries have reached about 8 hours, the light output drops enough that it becomes pretty hard to see by. So I'd say that if you're just using it to be seen by cars when riding at night, then you probably can get 30 hours out of it. But if you actually need it to illuminate the road, then 8 hours is probably about the maximum use you'll get out of the EL500 before needing to replace the AA batteries.
With fresh batteries, I've found it to have enough light to ride on country roads with potholes, roads with absolutely no street light. It's probably pushing it to ride over about 15mph in those conditions, however. To ride faster, safely, I believe you'd need to add another EL500 or one of the much more powerful (and expensive) rechargable halogen lights.
As of this writing, Cateye has released the EL530 which claims to be 50% brighter. That may be the way to go unless you can get a super deal on the EL500.
This light is also probably useful for people who have a rechargable halogen but need a backup light, since most of the rechargables have run times not much over 3 or 4 hours. The EL500 would be very good for that purpose.
Overall, a good product.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Quality Light
Comment: Nice light. Very easy on/off. Very bright but am considering getting one more for the other side of the handlebars for extra light when I need it.
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