In need of a Powerful Mountain Bike Night Light

harez23

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Mar 13, 2006
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Ive signed up for a 24 hour mountain bike race, so a powerful light is neccessary. Im interested in the prospects of an LED light to use, which has the benifits of being very small, light, bright, and uses only minimal battery power. This light needs to be able to light up a trail at least 10 to 15 meters ahead as the trails are pitch black out in the forest. Thank you, any advice would be great.

Kevin, London Ontario
 

turbodog

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Well, this is a hobby of mine. I've been doing 24 hr mtn bike races for ~6 years now, and I night-ride actively for ~15 years. After using led and incan, I'll say that led is the LAST thing I would use.

The color temp does a pitiful job of bringing out the browns/reds. The throw is usually lacking. And the watts used per lumens produced are usually worse than a good halogen bulb.

See my avatar? Go to www.turbocatusa.com

Get a bar and helmet light. The bar makes good shadows which are critical for depth perception, and the helmet lets you check out switchbacks/etc.

Ebay is a good place to find these lights are a reasonable discount. Just make sure you're buying the current version; compare the photos to the mfg web site.

And to those that will chime in after me.... he said RACE, not RIDE. When you're hauling butt down a rutted hill at 25+ mph, trying to see where the trail turns, you NEED plenty of light. And don't believe this crap about dark-adapted eyes. See how much good *that* does you after someone with the turbo-lightzilla setup blasts by you and scorches your retinas.
 

Paul_in_Maryland

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I bought TurboCat dual headlights for each of my daughters when they were still quite young. It was probably overkill (though I bought the lights used); they felt nerdy using headlights at all. For the taillight, I found that they wouldn't use a blinker; it had to be a steady light. So I got them NiteRider tail lights. They wouldn't use that, either.

My son, on the other hand, loves the JetLights I bought him.

While TurboCat remains at or near the top, the choice is by no means a "no-brainer". Many awesome lighting systems are available. Read the owners' reviews. You may find that a certain control setup appeals to you. On the TurboCats, for example, you can't run the high beam without the low. Other brands let you choose low, high, or both.
 

Nyctophiliac

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turbodog said:
... led is the LAST thing I would use...

I'll second that.

The LED lights are great for being seen by others on the road but not too good for pitch black night riding. Go for incands or even HID (Very expensive).

I've got a pair of Catseye lights,one floody, one throwy and a lead acid rechargeable. I don't remember the catalogue numbers. They last for about an hour at good, or near constant levels before diminishing quickly (This is with both on.) They've kept me safe and free of pothole incidents for two years now, so I'll bet there's something way better out there!

Let us know how you get on...

Have you tried twin mounted SF U2's???
 

yellow

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Light & Motion # 1 because You are located in the US,
else
Lupine Edison 10 (HID, for runtime and output)
Lupine Wilma 8 (LED, for being LED)
http://www.lupine.de/en/products/products.html

anyway You will need a 2nd battery

(as a very occasional nightrider) I agree with turbodog:
a single 1 or 3 watt led headlight to see where Your are going, for low speed hillclimb,
+ a stronger for downhill, mounted on the bar to produce shadows on dangerous objects
Havent seen a Wilma by now (all the other guys are still biking, I wait for the summer) and most ppl are quite positive on the output. Then it is dimmable, used with some brain, a single battery might last a night.
The HID, while very bright for a 10 W light, is on the blue side. When its wet an incan seems to give better contrast. Still they need A LOT more current.
 
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BentHeadTX

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Elektrolumens ELX-12!
TWELVE LuxeonIII LEDs getting hit at an amp each producing about 800+ lumens on 6D cells. OK, the runtime is about an hour :rolleyes:

For mountain bike racing, I would get a HID and a Cateye helmet light with three LuxeonIII LEDs. Although high output LEDs work well for street use, they still don't have the power to go bombing down mountain trails at 25MPH (40KPH)

I myself will be running a 4 Luxeon K2 LED 8AA Mag rolling 400/200/60 lumens of regulated output. Won't be hammering down mountain roads but city ones at 20MPH (32 KPH) There is a big difference between the two but 400 lumens worth of LEDs (and another 50 to 60 on the helmet) will work fine for me.

Whatever you plan to use for 8 hours of darkness, better have some monster battery packs on that puppy!
 

CLHC

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As the others already stated above. Light & Motion, NiteRyder, Lupine. I think these fit the title of your post for the "need of a Powerful Mountain Bike Night Light"!

Hope you find what you're looking for and Enjoy!
 

turbodog

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I forgot to mention. Turbocat has a racer support program. If you're in a 24hr race, they will sell you systems and extra batteries at a serious discount. The complete systems are about 10-20% off, but the extra batteries are about 50% off.


I have 3 DS30QR-NC setups, with 5 sets of batteries. The last setup was bought off ebay with dead batteries. I then got the batts straight from TC.




harez23 said:
Ive signed up for a 24 hour mountain bike race, so a powerful light is neccessary. Im interested in the prospects of an LED light to use, which has the benifits of being very small, light, bright, and uses only minimal battery power. This light needs to be able to light up a trail at least 10 to 15 meters ahead as the trails are pitch black out in the forest. Thank you, any advice would be great.

Kevin, London Ontario
 

jtr1962

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I'm assuming that since the light turbodog mentioned is used by him in races without problems then filaments breaking over potholes isn't an issue. This is generally the biggest reason I shy away from recommending incandescents for any cycling application. BTW, this might be more of a problem unique to NYC. Some of the "rough stuff" you mountian bikers go over looks tame compared to our streets after a good winter. :huh: I've not only had incandescents fail regularly over potholes but actually cracked the headlight mounting brackets. I used to regularly crack speedometer brackets as well back in the days when I used dial-type mechanical speedometers, and I remember cracking at least two frames. One time my front fork cracked right off as well (thankfully I was only going a few mph approaching a red light).
 

turbodog

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High wattage low voltage dc filaments are extremely tough. I'm still on my original bulbs after 7 years.

Hint: think car headlights. A 55w 12v car head light filament is roughly the same size as a 19w 6v bike light filament.





jtr1962 said:
I'm assuming that since the light turbodog mentioned is used by him in races without problems then filaments breaking over potholes isn't an issue. This is generally the biggest reason I shy away from recommending incandescents for any cycling application. BTW, this might be more of a problem unique to NYC. Some of the "rough stuff" you mountian bikers go over looks tame compared to our streets after a good winter. :huh: I've not only had incandescents fail regularly over potholes but actually cracked the headlight mounting brackets. I used to regularly crack speedometer brackets as well back in the days when I used dial-type mechanical speedometers, and I remember cracking at least two frames. One time my front fork cracked right off as well (thankfully I was only going a few mph approaching a red light).
 
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