LEDAdd1ct: I have gone on a bunch of rides with the light at this point, although mostly road rides. I did do a mountain bike ride last week for a few hours in the dark. Now, I have only used this as a bar mounted light on both my mountain and road bike, so I am not sure how the helmet mount works yet. I use my 200L on my helmet in the woods which works great in combo with the 500L.
-build quality?
The light is built really well, I would not be afraid of crashing and have to replace anything.
-bang for the buck?
I am thinking the bang for the buck was good, I ordered directly from Dinotte and I did not want the 3rd battery and 2nd charger and I paid quite a bit less than the posted price. Rob at Dinotte is great to deal with. Look at the bright side, no expensive HID Lamp assemblies to replace.
-weight?
I don't know the specifics on the weight, but the light engine's weight is not really a problem, and neither is the battery. I could tell I had the battery on my mountain bike when picking the bike up, (maybe all in my head) but it had no effect on riding. I couldn't tell it was there weather it was over logs or rocks.
-ease of setup/use?
The light is easy to use, one button (2 clicks) does instant high, while the other does all the modes. Either button can turn the light on or off. As for setup, I keep calling it operator error witht he mount, I always seems to screw up how the locking lever locks. I always put it in the wrong direction and take minute to figure out why I keep screwing it up. It really is simple and effective, I just need to get it embedded in my brain. No big deal, at all, for some reason it just gets me every time. The battery mounts with velcro to the frame and seems to stay put fairly well. I had to use the extension cable and wrap it around my top tube on my mountain bike, but it mounts in a good location without the extension on my road bike.
-"puts a big grin on your face"?
Yes it does!! I can't outrun the light, this might not be saying much, but it is friggin' bright. I have gone downhill on the road at 41 mph, and still felt comfortable with just that light. In the woods I have never used the bar/helmet combo (usually one or the other), and I am going to try just the 500L on my helmet either during my race next month or the smarter idea of sometime before to work out any bugs. My training partner on one of our road rides kept asking me if the the light kept catching out the corner of his eyes was a car or my light. He has an old Niterider HID, and it puts out a bright, but dirty beam and this thing just blows it away.
Argon mentioned to order it from Geoman, I have read nothing but great things about him over on MTBR forums. I hope to be ordering a GPS from him this winter (X-mas gift from wife).
Any other questions/concerns, please feel free to ask.
