Lights and Lighting Heads:
NiteRider's "TrailRat" uses their classic "Cyclops" lighting head. This is an extremely rugged plastic housing for a MR11 bulb+relfector combination. The system is supplied with a 6 volt, 10 watt, narrow angle beam MR11 unit, tho NiteRider can sell you (for $20) replacement 6 volt MR11 units rated at 5 watts or 15 watts. Bulb life is probably around 1000 hours of use for a system like this. The TrailRat comes with a single lighting head. As an option, NiteRider sells an offset mounting bracket for this lighting head, allowing it to be mounted right in the center of one's handlebars, over the top of one's stem. The lighting head is very rugged and water-proof. It's sleek and diminutive in size. Very esthetically pleasing. The beam from this lamp is a very nice, even spotlight. I myself use a NiteRider 15 watt lamp for much of my night riding, and am very pleased with the lighting it gives. It does require both a SAE allen wrench AND a small screwdriver to replace the MR11 unit, so one cannot reasonably consider the the NiteRider cyclops head to have an easily field-replaceable bulb. However, the long bulb life makes this less of an issue.
VistaLite's VL430 comes with TWO lighting heads, EACH with a 10 watt bulb in it. Each head is somewhat bulkier than the NiteRider Cyclops, and thus a little esthetically less pleasing. The lighting heads of the VistaLite VL4xx and NiteRider Cyclops clip on and off roughly equally easily. The lighting heads of the VistaLite VL4xx series can swivel right and left, an adjustment that's not that likely to be needed, but is not available on the NiteRider Cyclops. The bulbs in the VistaLite system are screw-mount halogen flaslight-type bulbs. Replacements are available from VistaLite for $6 each in 6 and 10 watt varieties. The 10 watt bulb comes "frosted", which results in a more even beam. The 6 watt bulb is not available as a frosted bulb. Bulb life is probably around 100 to 200 hours. The VistaLite also has an adjustable reflector, which with a twist can be set for a wider or more narrow angle light beam. This is a nice, tho not critical feature, especially for road riders, where the fixed narrow angle beam of the NiteRider is quite adequate. The beam from the 10 watt VistaLite is somewhat similar to that from the NiteRider TrailRat, tho the NiteRider's beam is, perhaps, just a bit more "flat" and even in its characteristics. If one puts a 6 watt bulb in the VistaLite, one gets a somewhat more uneven, tho still quite decent beam.
Both the VL430 and TrailRat have on/off switches on their lighting heads. These are push on / push off buttons that work adequately, tho in both cases may require a little fumbling.
The bulb in the VistaLite is easily field-replaceable. Only a coin or flat blade screwdriver of any kind is needed.
Battery:
The NiteRider comes with a 4.0 amp hour sealed lead acid battery. The VistaLite VL430 comes with a 5.0 amp hour Hawker Industries Cyclon type of sealed lead acid battery. The Cyclon SLA batteries give better performance than other brands and types of SLA batteries, from point of view of how deeply they can be safely dischraged, how many cycles they will last, and how little their effective capacity is affected by higher current loads. The NiteRider will run for a bit under 2 hours on its battery. The VL430 will run for a bit under 3 hours if you use a single lighting head, or a bit under 1.5 hours if you are running both lighting heads at the same time. This for the stock 10 + 10 VL430 system. I personally recommend one put a six watt bulb in one head, to allow for a lower power, longer battery life option for illunination during hill climbing and slow speed riding. With a 6 watt bulb, you'd get about 4.5 hours or more of light if you ran only that bulb.
Charger:
Both the NiteRider Trail Rat and the VistaLite VL430 come with "Battery-Killing", worse-than-worthless, cheapo chargers. I strongly recommend that if you get either of these lighting systems, you CUT OFF the cable from your charger, THROW OUT the main charger, go buy a Power Sonic brand high quality charger at Al Lashers in Berkeley or elsewhere, and (observing proper polarity) attach that cable to the Power Sonic charger. A 6 volt PowerSonic charger that will work with those batteries should cost about $50. It's worth EVERY PENNY, for the stock charger WILL destroy your battery if you leave the battery attached to it, whereas a PowerSonic charger will both charge your battery faster AND can be totally safely left attached to the battery indefinitely. Truly indefinitely. For months at a time. For 6 volt SLA batteries in the 1 to 5 amp hour range, such as those for VistaLite's VL420 and 430, or NiteRider's TrailRat, you want the Power Sonic model number PSC-6250A, or PSC-6300A. The PSC-6500A is acceptable, tho it's a bit more expensive, and will be able to charge the battery a bit faster.
Company Track Records:
Based on considerable personal experience in dealing with both NiteRider and VistaLite customer service, and many reports from others on the BikeCurrent EMAIL list, as well as from bicycle dealers, it's my impression that BOTH NiteRider AND VistaLite have an EXCELLENT track record of standing behind their products, and dealing professionally and even generously with customers in the event of problems with their products. I give both the Marty Goodman AAA rating for kind, prompt, professional customer service.
Recommendations:
For most riders, I think the VL430 is a better value. Tho its lighting heads are less sleek in appearance, the VL430 delivers a true TWO lighting head system AND a higher quality AND higher capacity battery at the same price as the NiteRider TrailRat, which offers less battery capacity, a lower quality SLA battery, and only a single lighting head. The configuration I recommend is this: VistaLite VL430, with a 6 watt bulb installed in one of the two lighting heads (and a spare bulb, wrapped in tissue paper, placed in the base of each of the two lighting heads), with a third party (Power Sonic or other good brand) lead acid battery charger. Total system cost would be $100 for the VL430, + $50 for the charger, plus $12 for the two spare bulbs, which = $162 plus tax. This results in a high quality, two head system, with great flexiblity to husband the battery run time when riding slowly up hill, yet still have very bright light for illumination when going quickly on the flat and downhill.
The NiteRider TrailRat is a more professional and sleeker LOOKING system, and is probably somewhat more rugged and waterproof, too. It would be fine for limited time commutes, where you know you're not going to exceed the run time of the system. It also offers a bit more economy in the very long run on bulb costs, for on a per hour basis the MR11 system it uses is somewhat less expensive. But because it is a single beam system, compared to the two beam system of the VL430, I prefer the VL430 for use in recreational, fair-weather night road riding. Note that if you get or own the NiteRider TrailRat, you might wish to consider upgrading that system by purchasing a Hawker Industries 5.0 amp hour Cyclon type SLA battery for it. These are available for about $35 from Al Lashers in Berkeley. Note that a properly upgraded NiteRider Trail Rat will cost about the same as a properly upgraded VistaLite VL430.
If you will be doing daily commutes at night for many weeks out of the year, you might want to consider spending a more money for one of the NiCd battery-based lighting systems. This will cost you about $100 or more extra initially for the NiCd battery and a decent third party charger for same, but after spending that kind of money, you'll get many more recharges out of the system. So many more that, over the course of several years, the NiCd system will likely actually turn out to be less expensive. But ONLY if you use it a lot, for otherwise the battery will just deteriorate with time, anyway. Note that both NiteRider and VistaLite sell water bottle type NiCd batteries for their 6 volt lighting systems. As with the lead acid batteries, tho, you will have to buy a third party charger if you want to both quickly charge your battery AND avoid destroying it when you leave the charger attached to the battery for long periods of time.
---marty