Looking for the Best Bike Light

arracer · #1 09-20-2004, 11:27 AM

I am new to all this technical talk, on LED's, boards, controllers and all the special stuff to build a light. I am trying to find the best possible bike light for technical off trail riding, I do adventure races that last more than 1 day around the clock, so weight, and battery life are very important but brightness is even more important. I have a 10w niterider dive light that is not good enough.
Is there someone that can recommend the best light to buy, or kit to build, or person to talk to. I was trying to buy one from trailhead lights in B.C but he is not building them right now. I am looking at H.I.D. but they are so expensive?? I am thinking an LED would be better?

thanks for your help [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]

NamTinker · #2 09-20-2004, 05:56 PM

Where are you situated in Canada? E-mail me off-list and I can give you many options and if you are in Calgary - show you! Also into that crazy sport...

markus_i · #3 09-21-2004, 02:13 AM

To put it short:
- HID will give you the most light for a given battery configuration (brightness or runtime), but is expensive and sensitive to vibrations/drops
- LED is difficult to focus, i.e. you won't get a single light with more than ~10 Watts (3 Lux III in a triple optic), but insensitive to vibrations
- halogen is cheap and easy to get high power

From efficiency, LED and Halogen don't (yet) have a large difference - LED may seem brighter, though, from the light colour and a smoother beam.

HTH
Bye
Markus

arracer · #4 10-06-2004, 03:23 PM

Not sure what you meant about off list? never participated in a forum before? I am from Pembroke Ont. but do not mind shipping etc., right now I am looking at Niterder cyclone?

NamTinker · #5 10-07-2004, 07:38 PM

I use a older NiteRider version, the 10W Storm. 4 hours straight, no add hype. A mite expensive though and for AR you'd require at least 2 more batteries and the in-vehicle charger for your crew to recharge (assuming multi-day races). The Cyclone is supposed to give you 6 hours, so you might get away with one spare battery. Worth every cent! Back-up is a 3W LED light capable of using the same battery pack. Using HID power is a bit of an overkill for those off-track bike carrying AR exercises...
Off-list: e-mail me directly by clicking on my name and private e-mail. This is an excellent site to discuss lights of all forms - but it is easy to digress to pure AR stuff - non forum related.