Thanks again, Toshi,
If there is a quarter-moon or more and crisp air quality, the only times a rider needs light are when they are not certain about branches that might be sticking out - due to being off trail or on a tight trail. People who have never been seriously poked in the eye can't understand the physical symptoms it can bring about from head to toe. It has to be experienced. Then you start thinking: "Why do our Iraq interviewers waste their time with any other part of the body?" Plus I like having two still working and that's a minor miracle.
I have a Princetontec Apex which I use if I know some things about where I am even if I'm going to ride all night, with Powerex 2700s I get 4.5 hours exactly before the light takes itself out of regulation. I'm sure a little throw is lost over fresh alkalines, but primary alkalines will only do an hour on high/high. With the luxeon on high, at 4.5hours it goes 3 blinks to whatever 30-70% reserve and then the 3v Luxeon ( I think) won't let it stay there. Right away, you get 3 more blinks and you're at 25-30% or less -It is quite bright with plenty of throw and side spill for most "almost extreme" purposes. I just took another look at the Petzl Duo 14 and given that they are calling .25 lux an acceptable light level, I don't think the halogen side will beat it - maybe the first five minutes, but it's at 75% throw before you can wind your watch - I looked at the model with the 6v worth of 2700mah rechargeables.
I can see your point about the Aurora, but the 4X 0.5mm Nichia's are placed and reflect like somebody knew what they were doing, so I pretty much am sold on the Apex. I've sold enough of them to guided ride customers that I should get a distributorship from Princetontec. That is an ODD little company, but they have a few winners to show for all the plastic they extrude.
I had recommended an Apex to a guy down the road who has a bunch of hunting dogs on 5 foot chains next to oil drums. I suggested it for a backup to his old 6v hot-driven coon light. The Apex is all he uses to hunt coons with now. The throw will light up the tallest tree-top in Missouri well enough for a coon to read the classifieds up there. It is really quite a product.
The reason the coon-hunting light "format" is so ideal for me is the "need to get back and am not sure of the landmarks concept". Anything but a really bright light can get confusing in the deep woods. The horse has a built in GPS that doesn't give a damn about fences, cliffs, and rivers. If I take a trailer or two out of state to a Nat'l Forest the current state of the art for GPS's is that the $600 topo-loaded ones are wrong around every corner and the $90 ones take the fun out of being lost. You can't count on them under tight tree cover, which is often where you have to make a directional decision. If it is no hurry, have fun ambling around until you find a trail, but the coon hunting heads and bulbs are made with a high side that will light up the area like a baseball field in the 17v + models.
One of the big coondawg state U's did a study once to find out what was the best light to get a coon's attention. It turned out to be the old Coleman kerosene (about 24 candlepower tops) 1" wick coon hunters's lantern. The globe in these have a great big fish eye in the mold and I believe a reflector behind it. Since you are shooting between the glimmering eyes of the coon, more than 99% of the coon hunting lights are cheaper than penile implants for pure practicality and "joy of the hunt in a refined sense", plus you get to see all the dogs tear the hell out of the coon ( hides haven't been worth hunting in years financially, pelts were a few bucks or less at the top of the season for years I think they may have come up a little bit - they get scarce fast then. Coon hunting, which is not cheap everything considered is way more fun than going to the dentist.
So I have been lucky that all these super powerful lights are being developed. They are all-except for 2% maybe of the market - copies of the Koehler Wheat Mining Lamp. OSHA regs and explosion proofing made the real high quality Koehler stuff prohibitive so you've got a company named Adcon cloning the necessaries and God only knows how many generic generic heads are out there. The Wheat head is an extraordinary tribute to function and design with absolutely nothing unnecessary on it as far as focussing within light ranges, waterproofing, shockproof, & you name it. It is more perfect than a pencil, because with a pencil you still have to waste some stub. However, they could have named it the Wheat artifact beam light, but I think the real thing Koehler has a purer beam and there are diamond pressed bezels now. The real Koehler 5100s are not just expensive. They even have a locking bezel so that the miners have to go to the charger- safe area - station where the special bulb changing tool is attached to the charger bank.... If there was a pr adapter with an aluminum spindle I'd buy the hottest driven Terralux and be pretty happy. Terralux or Nite-Ize or one of them is making a bayonet brake light bulb, but it's not two stage or bright enough.
Are you listening Terralux and Nite-Ize? One of your engineers could whip up a prototype in an afternoon since you are already doing bayonets and driven regulation leds. It would have to respond to 5-6 light level settings which is the hard one for me to figure out -- but you guys are geniuses. There are few coon hunters in the country that would not buy one. The hi/lo incandescent bayonets that run in these things retail from $5-8. It is kind of amazing how long one will last, literally seasons of hunting if not knocked around, but hunting or riding around in the dark, they get kncked around. I used to run a 10 volt cbx in a 17volt nicad system and it was bright, but they are subject to the incandescent filament syndrome that has something to do with Isaac Newton and stuff stopping quick. I have a 24v belt light now and on the high side it might be brighter than my car.
Thanks again Toshi, and when good quality HID's get cheap and small enough, all my problems will be solved.
Think so? I'll be out in the middle of Main Street bitching about something, promise!
Hamlet Fermi
