Dropin for a bike?

[oren1s]

I need a recomendation from your experience for a dropin that will work best for the use of bike ride. It should run on 18650 for at least 90 min and price should be up to 70-80$

Also which mount to use to hold SF G2 /P6 / C2, Solarforce L2, Malkoff MD2?


Thank you for your kind help.

 

[hron61]

im really not sure what drop in to use just yet, its winter and i am awaiting spring and summer to see which light combo will be perfect for night riding. i did buy the mg pli which is supposed to be designed for bike riding. it puts out alot of light, an mce light. i use it while i take my puppy out for.. well you know. i hold it at say waist level and imagine how it would be on the handlebars and to my eyes it looks like a winner. i also just picked up an md2 with an m60 but it seems just a little to throwy for the bike. just not enough side spill for me. maybe ill duct tape my fenix tk 40 on my bars. yeah thats the ticket. :thumbsup:
as for the light mount, shiningbeam has a nice one for just under 3 bucks. i picked up 2 of em and they are quite nice for the price. i've seen em on another site for 12.99. it does hold the md2 perfectly also. good luck.

 

[PCC]

For cycling use I prefer a floodier beam than a spot beam. I bought a Dereelight 1SD module with OP reflector when they were blowing the 1a versions out for a different project and I compared it to my NiteRider Minewt Mini-USB and, though the M-USB is not as bright, I prefer its floodier beam to that of the 1SD, which is too much of a spot for cycling purposes. It's like tunnel vision trying to use that thing.

Having said that the ideal cycling flashlight along those lines, using a P60 drop-in, would probably be a Malkoff M30F in a Solarforce L2 host running on a protected 18650. It should give you around 3-4 hours of usable light at about 235 advertised lumens.

 

[steelcycler]

Been a while since this thread was posted. Lots of new drop ins on the market now so curious if anyone has any updated thoughts on this setup.

Still like the solar force host and the long battery life with an 18650 but is there a p60 drop in that will toggle from a turbo mode to strobe like the fenix lights do when tightened?

What I tend to do is run a smaller lamp strapped to my helmet then run a blinky on the handlebar. Would be nice to have a floody output on the handlebar mated to a smaller spotty lite in the helmet with the option of toggling the light on the handlebar to a strobe when the traffic gets heavier.

Thanks....

 

[tandem]

Be wary of most tactical strobes, especially those in higher output lights. I find that even during the day some motorists and even cyclists are bothered by even the strobe in a simple 1xAA Fenix LD10; at night it is simply too annoying to oncoming traffic to be safe in my opinion. On foggy gloomy days I do sometimes mount the LD10 on strobe but that's about it.

A slow blinky would be a different case; tactical strobes flash using intentionally designed patterns to help disorient those the light is being aimed at; do you really want on-coming traffic to be disoriented? No. Warned, yes.

So I run my P60's mostly on max output. If I'm riding around town I usually use an XP-G drop in that puts out about 260 lumens out the front; this gives me 2+ good hours of light on a single 18650. If I'm riding country roads or distance cycling where my speed is likely higher (fewer stop signs and traffic lights) I mount a second 18650 light with more throw - it's an XP-E based light. Why more throw? At higher speeds you need to see what's coming up ahead sooner if you plan on stopping.

This solution works out well enough for me. Six spare 18650's would see me through the night for an endurance event. Is it better than a purpose built cycling lighting solution? Don't know although once of these days I'm going to try to borrow a high end system and do some comparisons.

I'm not using my one XM-L drop in for cycling as the runtime on max isn't worth it. A multi-cell Malkoff M91 might work better but I'm a little concerned with any XM-L drop in with regards to heat when running on continuous at max. While cycling the airflow over the light might keep it cool enough, might not. Another, probably better, option are multi-emitter lights like the Moodo Triple XP-G and others.

 

[CarpentryHero]

The Thrunite XML was only run at 1.5 amps so it'd run 400-500 lumens.
What I would do is run a Solarforce XPG dropin. On a good 18650 you'll get the 1 1/2 hours runtime you want.
If your off road mountain biking get a Malkoff M61 or a potted dropin from Nailbender xpe xre or XPG will do nicely