advise needed for cycle lights

[kblackburn]

Hi all,

what a fantastic forum, but i've looked at so much i'm confused as to what lights i should buy or make for my night riding.

i need lights with a burn time of around 5 hours, i have been looking at some Electron 18 led lights, but after finding this forum, i think you may be able to point me in the right direction.
I have a limited budget, £60.00, so what could i buy or put together and what sort of output could i achieve, and whats the difference between lumens and watts.
I used to use a set of cateye 5watt spot and 5 watt flood, they were ok for the road, but dangerous on the single tracks.
sorry for such a long post, but as i said i am realy confused now, could someone please help.

kev

 

[Derek Dean]

Howdy kev and welcome to CPF,
I can't give you any direct advice, except to not be in a hurry. Take your time and let all of this info sink in. There is a LOT to learn here and you've just arrived, so spend some more time reading and soon things will begin to make sense.

In case you missed it, be sure and go to the Welcome Mat page where you will find links to threads which will hopefully answer many of your questions:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=172991

I'm sure other folks who are more knowledgeable about bike lighting systems will chime in with some good suggestions to get you going in the right direction.

Have fun!

 

[Doh!Nut]

Morning Kev

For £60 you are probably looking at a torch on you handlebars and one on your helmet.
For £10 you can get a 2AA battery torch from Tesco with a Cree brand LED. this would be your spot light on your head.

The rest would be getting an SSC P7 based torch from Kaidomain or Dealextreme to give flood from your handlebars. This would run on 18650 Li-Ion batteries. so look at getting a spare cell and charger.

 

[herulach]

I Have to contradict Doh!Nut there - imo those tesco lights are too heavy for on your head, and theres no chance of getting useable light out of a P7 torch for 5 hours, even with a change of cell.

My shopping list would be:
1x P7 torch - DX SKU 16541 is ideal - plenty of Al & well made.
1x KD Super Output P7 Driver - Kaidomain SKU S005296

That comes to about £30 dependent on exchange rate, the balance to go on two 7.2V nimh racepacks & charger, and asumes that you have odds& sods of cable, a spare bottle, soldering Iron and dont mind cannibalising your existing lights for switches & mounts.

That driver pulls 0.3A from 7.2V on low, 0.8 on med & 1.8 (ish) on High, whcih gives you 20hours, 7.5 hours and, 3.3 hours respectively from 2 3Ah packs (in parallel). Medium is verging on too bright as a be seen light on the road, and easily useable on non technical climbs/fireroad etc. Judicious use of the various levels will comfortably see you with 5 hours of light.

Although theres a lot of benefit to a helmet light - I still think you're better off getting the bars right first. The set up described above will have light output comparable to a decent HID, and theres no way you'll beat it for the price.

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

Hey Kev :thumbsup::welcome:

unless your familiar with DX or KD here they are


................... DX = http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.999

........ KAIDOMAIN = http://kaidomain.com/

 

[kblackburn]

Hi Guy's,

thanks for the replys, do i take it that i should purchase the torch, to strip down and refit items to my current lights, i could do with lights that are suitable for technical sections, as well as road/lanes, some sections of my rides include open fells around the lake district.
I have read some post's which show pic's of light output's of 4'000 lumens, i realise that these must cost a small fortune, but how technology has advanced in a short space of time.

kev

 

[Doh!Nut]

There are differing opinions of course

From the threads on Singletrackworld there are lots of people using the Tesco torch as head torch, including some I ride with, but I have not tried one out one my head so can't comment. - I suggested it as it is one of the few vaugely modern torches you can get throughout the UK.

If you go with a P7 torch you would stick with the P7 torch body as you need the metal to heatsink the LED, your old cateyes are I guess plastic, therefore not a good host.
If you do have a set of cateye ABS style lights you could run them off a Tamiya pack, you will get more light as you are using 7.2 rather than 6.0 v and more runtime from a bigger capacity. you can get a 7.2v 4.6ah pack for £20ish. you would be limited to 10-15watt bulbs to avoid melting the casing.

N

 

[yellow]

if You dont want to build a light:
* Sigma Powerled Black ... single led light with all its pros and cons. Reaches the runtime
* Fenix LD20/L2D ... single led light, mountable to bars, (imho better than the PLB), one set of spare batteries needed, "normal" cells
* Jetbeam Jet III Pro ST ... same as Fenix but other battery, better imho, 2nd battery necessary for 5 hours
all kick any normal priced "real bike light" with ease.
... depending on standards of advisers, possibly 2 single led lights are "needed" for trail riding

If You want to START building:
get a light from Dealextreme or Kaidimoain, or similar. One that has three or four Cree/Seoul, or a "single" Seoul P7 led and has to be powered by TWO 18650 Li-Ion cells.
use only the head of that light, add bar mounts, switch and connections to an end plate and drive the light from a Camcorder Battery (BP945 f.e.)
tends to give overlapping, tight beam

if you have done easy mods already:
take that "light-head" approach again, but change the spots where the individual led are mounted. File them a few degrees "out" of the main axis, so the beams dont go parallel. That way You receive a wider main beam.
Will need other driver, new led, other focusing devices - more expensive, more work, better light.

if You know to build a light:
You would not have to ask

 

[herulach]

Maybe I just have a weak neck. I tend to get abit obsessed with LED now, but I rode pretty technical (Dalby, Wharncrash, Peak etc.) with 2 15W mr11s run off a NIMH r/ccar battery - it's a bit heavy, but not massively so, and although you won't get 5hours (when are you riding 5 hours at night? - you know they have charge stands at enduros right?)

There are differing opinions of course

From the threads on Singletrackworld there are lots of people using the Tesco torch as head torch, including some I ride with, but I have not tried one out one my head so can't comment. - I suggested it as it is one of the few vaugely modern torches you can get throughout the UK.

If you go with a P7 torch you would stick with the P7 torch body as you need the metal to heatsink the LED, your old cateyes are I guess plastic, therefore not a good host.
If you do have a set of cateye ABS style lights you could run them off a Tamiya pack, you will get more light as you are using 7.2 rather than 6.0 v and more runtime from a bigger capacity. you can get a 7.2v 4.6ah pack for £20ish. you would be limited to 10-15watt bulbs to avoid melting the casing.

N

 

[rufusbduck]

I am in the process of modding some vistalites that should get close to his needs. One will have an mce kbin(parallel wired) and matching buck driver and optic from Kaidomain. The other will have 3 cree r2's with a 3a p7 driver from K and a triple Khatod mr11 reflector(narrow beam). This will allow me to use the existing nightstick batteries and with the splitter I can run 2 batteries into one lamp. On high, maybe just 1 1/2 hours but on low lots more! I spend a lot more time going slowly uphill where I don't need as much light than I do going back down when I need more. Good luck.