Best tint for bike light

Loyen said:

I'm use a bored SF 6P with an Malkoff M61 as my bike light but planning to buy a new P60 xm-l drop in from Nailbender: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?305120-P60-modules-warm-neutral-cool-white-XPG-XML-SST-50-90-P60-modules-(part-8)

What tint is best for bike lights:
T6 bin 1C / 1D Cool White
T50 flux bin E3 5000k daylight white
T50 flux Bin E4 4500K neutral white
T30 flux bin E7 3000K Warm White

What tint have normally a bike light?

My location is Sweden with snow and ice in the winter, and the light is going to be used at a commuter bike and not so much in the forest.

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I've done a lot of test with neutral, warm and cool white regarding what you see on the road, on a wet road and in fog, and between these 3, neutral was best. It's also easier on the eyes for opposing traffic than cool white.

See:
http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/experimenten/index_en.html

The best is 3C - Outdoor white type 5000-5250K.
If you cant get it aim for neutral white 4500-5000K 4A/B/C/D

4500K

I prefer 4500K as well. 5B is my preferred tint. I have a 3A bin in a SureFire KX at 1A that works very well on my helmet, but I wish it was a little bit warmer for better depth perception. I need to use a bar light with that on my helmet. My M60W (5A tint) is a very good tint for all around riding and I have ridden with it on my helmet and no bar light with no problem as long as I'm not riding at race pace - moderate pace only as it is not a super thrower. I have a hi CRI SSC that seems to have less color definition and depth than the lower CRI neutral 4000-4500K tints - it may have more 'correct' colors, but ends up being less useful. 5000K seems OK, but not as good.

I use a 4500k Nailbender XM-L 3 mode for longer rides at night, but normally my go to light is a SF G2 with a P90. The output, beam, and tint of that P90 is just perfect

Thanks for your help, seems like a 4500k natural white is the right choice

In pitch black conditions, mankinds should be able to see the warmwhite best. It has green in it, to which our eyes are most sensible to! Give me a minute to look for a proven test about this.....

kenwood96 said:

In pitch black conditions, mankinds should be able to see the warmwhite best. It has green in it, to which our eyes are most sensible to! Give me a minute to look for a proven test about this.....

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No, the lumen rating is really the brightest to human eyes, as it is measured relative to the response curve. The peak response is between green and yellow, hence why the cool whites with huge yellowish peaks rate well in lumens even though they dip towards the green colours.

But, the neutral and warm white do look better at night, especially walking or biking off-road, because the different colours of dirt, rocks, tree roots, vegetation etc. stand out more and look more natural.

in fact you are correct... but I couldn't put it in words that way! :wave:

the best is 5C !!!

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-d...men-bike-light-high-low-beam-road-581232.html

A lot of it depends where you're riding. Remember the purpose of a bike light is to see. You see better if more light is reflected off the objects in front of you. That in turn depends upon their color. Offroad you might want to go towards something neutral white in the 4000K area in order to throw more light biased towards the warmer side of the spectrum because background objects often reflect more red/orange/yellow. If you're riding primarily or entirely on streets on the other hand, much of what's in front of you is varying shades of gray. In that case, it's easier to see (i.e. you get better contrast) with 6500K. Apparent brightness is highest for any given number of lumens, plus 6500K emitters at this point in time are the most efficient. Avoid anything much under 4000K. It may throw slightly more of the long-wavelength spectrum per emitted lumen, but you'll offset that by emitting fewer lumens per watt. Besides, very warm light is just awful for seeing under most conditions because you have little contrast of graytones. It also tends to put you to sleep.

jtr1962 said:

A lot of it depends where you're riding. Remember the purpose of a bike light is to see. You see better if more light is reflected off the objects in front of you. That in turn depends upon their color. Offroad you might want to go towards something neutral white in the 4000K area in order to throw more light biased towards the warmer side of the spectrum because background objects often reflect more red/orange/yellow.

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More or less what I write on the above mentioned webpage of mine, but I would say it differently, see below.

jtr1962 said:

If you're riding primarily or entirely on streets on the other hand, much of what's in front of you is varying shades of gray. In that case, it's easier to see (i.e. you get better contrast) with 6500K.

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Not agreed. The tests I've done clearly show neutral white is also superior on all roads. Gray is not just gray (asphalt containing small pebbles etc), and streets often are bricks, or have bricks to the side. Tiles have not just gray but contain various small stones as well.

I would say it thus: What you need is a good contrast between the colours you see on the road and beside the road. In testing I found neutral white is best for both. Warm white makes everything too brown/yellow, i.e. contrast is lost between the greens and browns/yellows. Cool white loses almost all yellow/brown tints, e.g. fallen leaves on the road, and all greens look almost the same colour. Good depth perception is almost impossible with cool white. For warm white this is less of an issue, there is a loss of contrast in the other direction but not as bad as cool white and I would prefer it to cool white, esp. for mountain biking.

In the wet neutral white is also far superior to cool white on asphalt as it shows for example the difference between a puddle and tar-like sections on worn or repaired bits on roads. I made various pictures of such examples of roads (day, dry) which I will add to the descriptions on that page. Pictures when wet will be added at some point, but the description is clear I think.

I've added a bunch of pictures from tests with some XM-Ls to show the difference between various colours in the garden and on a tile path with leaves on it.

Asphalt pictures to come at some point when it's not so windy (bike on kickstand falling over strength) here... Also when I get my hands on more neutral white tints I want to make pictures of a lot of different colours and see how they fare in typical situations.

See:

http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/experimenten/index_en.html#xml

swhs said:

Not agreed. The tests I've done clearly show neutral white is also superior on all roads. Gray is not just gray (asphalt containing small pebbles etc), and streets often are bricks, or have bricks to the side. Tiles have not just gray but contain various small stones as well.I would say it thus: What you need is a good contrast between the colours you see on the road and beside the road. In testing I found neutral white is best for both. Warm white makes everything too brown/yellow, i.e. contrast is lost between the greens and browns/yellows. Cool white loses almost all yellow/brown tints, e.g. fallen leaves on the road, and all greens look almost the same colour. Good depth perception is almost impossible with cool white. For warm white this is less of an issue, there is a loss of contrast in the other direction but not as bad as cool white and I would prefer it to cool white, esp. for mountain biking.In the wet neutral white is also far superior to cool white on asphalt as it shows for example the difference between a puddle and tar-like sections on worn or repaired bits on roads. I made various pictures of such examples of roads (day, dry) which I will add to the descriptions on that page. Pictures when wet will be added at some point, but the description is clear I think.I've added a bunch of pictures from tests with some XM-Ls to show the difference between various colours in the garden and on a tile path with leaves on it.

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One thing to add here is I've compared cool-white XM-Ls to cool-white XP-Gs. I'm making a bike light with 6 R5 XP-Gs. I ordered them from Cutter last year when they weren't selling them by specific tint bins. Anyway, I greatly prefer the XP-Gs to the XM-L. The cool white XM-L I used for reference (bin 2T I think) doesn't have as much red in the spectrum as the XP-Gs. I does indeed make things look "flat", whereas the XP-Gs don't. In other words, not all 6500K are the same. Also, the 10mm Carlco optics I'm using seem to filter out a bit of the blue spike.

Asphalt pictures to come at some point when it's not so windy (bike on kickstand falling over strength) here... Also when I get my hands on more neutral white tints I want to make pictures of a lot of different colours and see how they fare in typical situations.

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I'm curious how asphalt does here. I need to look at some of the asphalt here during the day to see if it might have a slight brown tint to it. It might be a regional thing. I know most of the concrete in NYC seems to be stark gray because most of the suppliers use ash as aggregate. And we don't have a whole lot of bricks/stones on our streets (I wish we did as it adds greatly to the aesthetics). I hear you on the wind. I still remember a day during March this year where I was fighting a major headwind coming back home for 10 miles, in 38°F temperatures no less. Not fun. I even saw a few other cyclists by the wayside, probably to take a break. I managed to fight it all the way in without stopping, but my legs were on the verge of cramping towards the end.

For urban riding in times other than summer, cool LED (5K+) plus rain equals glare. From the flashlight, onto wet objects, right back to your eyes. Not as bad as "HID" upgraded cars, but similar. Neutral all the way.

The warmer the better.

I noticed that my cheepo chinese xm-l was actually more purple than my other lights. Not too much of a problem, but I'd like more towards neutral or warm.

Lightdadark said:

I use a 4500k Nailbender XM-L 3 mode for longer rides at night, but normally my go to light is a SF G2 with a P90. The output, beam, and tint of that P90 is just perfect

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I've been leaving my MC-E & XM-L combo at home in favor a SF C3 and a SF 9P with stock P90 lamp assemblies, each running on 2x 17500 cells. They are about perfect for the task. Realistically, one is plenty.