Need ideas and experiences for bike light

[Shanghaied]

Hello you all, I'll need those hard-earned experiences of yours again /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I'm thinking about doing a bike light mod to give to a friend as a birthday present. The host body is probably going to be an old soldier's lamp (those boxy things from the 50's, if i can find them) or an old battery powered bike light. The more crap it looks the better, so to speak. You know, the surprise factor.

I'm thinking of sticking either a Luxeon I or III in there, running off half a dozen or so (as many as there is space for) AA's or AAA's, regulated by one of Wayne's boards.

Now here are some points I've considered:

1. It needs to be bright and have a long throw. I've never ridden with a light when it's dark, so I don't really know how bright or how long a throw I really need. Some people apparently go for HID's while a Arc LS is enough for others. The light is probably just going to be used around town at a relax speed. Let me hear your experiences!

2. Long runtime off regular AA's or AAA's. It's really dark here this time of the year, and 123 cells are 7$-a-pop where I live, so they are out for a user-light that's going to be on for at least twenty minutes a day /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif. Two hours of runtime is probably minimum. This kinda means that I can't run the light too bright.

So enlighten me with your thought and idea, you know, like which reflector to use, the brightness, run time, etc

Hi thanks for reading this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

 

[CM]

Use a McLux PR head with a downboy and a good 1W or 3W Lux for throw. I'm in the process of making one of these myself but time is never available. I have a biker friend who saw a McLux PR with a 1W driven at 800mA and he said it's plenty of light for mountain bike speeds. If weight is not an issue, Nicad's or NiMH packs would be the best. If weight is an issue, a Li-Ion pack would be much lighter and pack more energy for the same volume. NOw the bad part of this is that it won't look like crap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

CM

 

[PhotonBoy]

I have a 1W Elektrolumens Elektro Star, slightly underdriven running on NiMH. It has a 6 degree plastic collimator and the throw is great. Could use a bit more of side spill, though, since you need to see stuff a bit to the left and right too; a small bit of strategically located translucent writeright might do the job. I live in a dark rural area, so 1W is enough. If you live in an urban area with more ambient light, you'll probably want to use the 3W for more oomph. Either light will be noticed by drivers, so that's a good thing. If you run the 3W, you'll probably want to use NiMH for economy.

 

[Shanghaied]

Hmm... interesting.... what about runtimes for these setups?

 

[Orion]

I wouldn't use a Lux I. It wouldn't put out enough light. I had three Lux I LEDs on a bike light once and it only did fair. I would go with at least a Lux III, maybe even two if you can. Get yourself 6 AA's, connect the LEDs in series, and find some good optics and you'll be happier.

 

[pedalinbob]

im with orion on this one.

a nice setup might be two lux3's. one with a fraen low profile and one with a nx05. this way you get both flood and (semi) spot. oh, if you really want throw, i hear that elektrolumens' 30mm optics are nice. it could replace the fraen.

i would personally use micropucks and 2 AA bats, with a pigtail connector so you could easily change to 2 c's or even 2 d's for very long runtime. heck, you could even run rechargeables.

but, orion's idea is far simpler and less expensive.

decisions, decisions, decisions!

Bob

 

[PhotonBoy]

The Elektrolumens 1W Elektrostar is good for about 12 hours (I think) on 4 AA alks. In the summer I bike to work and I never ran more than about 3 nights (90 mins.) without charging my NiMH cells.

 

[Shanghaied]

Ahh... I have completely forgotten about the rechargeables! I was thinking that the poor girl that is getting this light will be forced to buy a dozen batteries a week!

I was assembling a McLux PR-T head just a moment ago, and after seeing it run I thought that a 3W is probably plenty bright at around 1amp or even less. The reflector is probably going to be the PR-reflector, although I think I'll try out the reflector that's going to come with the host first. Rechargeable C and D-cells would probably be great, but I think it might be hard to find a body that will take a couple of these.

 

[Shanghaied]

Oh almost forgot, thanks a lot guys!