Hot-rodding a bicycle headlight?

Hi all,

Got a thought here. We all know that it's possible in some cases to take a flashlight and replace the emitter with a newer, better, brighter one without horking up the beam pattern too badly in some certain specific cases.

Are there any good bicycle headlights suitable for riding in traffic (either StVZO or not, but with a good horizontal cutoff and preferably a nice wide beam pattern) that uses a LED that is replaceable with something newer and brighter?

My reason for asking is that it seems that on the market today we have the choice between StVZO lights and symmetrical beam lights, but no good high power on-road lights. Now I'm currently using a Shimano hub dyno with an IQ Cyo and it works... and yet I can't help but wonder if I wouldn't like it better if the beam pattern were wider. But of course if B&M had made it wider, it'd be dimmer... unless you used a brighter emitter.

The new Saferide and Luxos U lights look interesting, but I'm wondering if we couldn't even step beyond those... does anyone know what emitters are used in either of those lights, and if there are even higher output versions of those emitters available?

Do some searching. I remember seeing a thread where somebody upgraded the LEDs in a Philips Saferide.

It's a good question. I've been interested in getting an early LED dynamo light with the intent of updating the LED and perhaps the electronics too. The only problem is that they don't break very often, and probably aren't particularly obsolete yet.

As far as buying something new and upgrading it... it seems unlikely you'd get much of an improvement. You'd need to double the output for it to be noticeable, and that's a pretty big challenge.

I don't know if an "early" one would yield the results I'm looking for.

My desire is to have the nice wide beam pattern of a Saferide or Luxos but not be limited by the StVZO 2.6W spec (but still keep current draw reasonable enough that I can use the light on my hub dyno.) I like my Cyo but the beam pattern is narrow... and I don't see a whole lot of optics being sold as separate parts that have a headlight-specific beam (horizontal cutoff with most of the light thrown right below it) so I don't know that a DIY light would really do it for me.

I guess my dream light would be something like this: a two head light with a cutoff beam pattern on one head, and an oval beam pattern on the other, set up so that with the light "on" only the cutoff would come on and then the oval would be able to be switched in as a "high beam" when you're really out in the dark and away from traffic. Should be able to run at least the "low beam" off a hub dyno at reasonable speed. If the voltage/current from the hub dyno drops too much the oval beam will drop out first, then the cutoff beam, but a standlight would stay on.

I know, it doesn't exist...

Philips Activeride.

/end

Matt King said:

Philips Activeride.

/end

Click to expand...

Is it actually made and offered for sale? I started searching for it and found more info in CPF threads than anywhere else. Also, appears to be a battery light :/ e.g. http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?344052-New-Philps-light

I guess maybe the best solution for me would be to just keep my old IQ Cyo, get something cheap and dirty like a MagicShine and rig that as a switchable "high beam" most likely?

Hmm, used to be on bike24 but no longer listed.

You didn't say anything about not being a battery light.