Powerful light for road cycling

[ironmonkey]

Hi there

First of all, thanks for providing a great forum to deal with these kinds of topics!

I'm looking for a powerful light to handle some on-road training down dark country lanes this winter. I'm relatively new to these lighting concepts and am a little unsure about what's what.I really like the look of the Exposure Maxx-D, but (a) is this throwing out too much light (960 lumens) for my needs and therefore overkill? and (b) is the beam focused enough? I know it's intended as a trail light and spreads the light widely, so I'm a little concerned that it won't be as effective as a less powerful light with a narrower beam.

Any help/advice/recommendations greatly appreciated!

Cheers

 

[1 what]

Hi Ironmonkey.
:welcome:
I'd caution against too bright a light on your bike if you're "on road".
I didn't realize how dangerous this was until I saw a friend on my bike a couple of years ago. At the time I had a 200L flashlight as a headlight and it was far too bright (blinding) if you were aproching it head on.
Since I make my own bike lights I can't recommend an off the shelf model for you but I use 80L on road as a headlight and a P7 driven at 2.8Amps off road.

 

[ironmonkey]

Thanks for the reply.

Do you find that 80 lumens is enough to light up the darkest country lanes ahead of you for speeds of 30mph+?

 

[dom]

Hi ironmonkey :welcome:

The more lumens the better - but for roadriding you need a more directed
beam (to avoid blinding drivers)-so alot of the trail specific lights are out.

I have a powered bike which i'd be going 45kmh constantly and i use approx
600 lumen directed light (not much sidespill -so not bad for oncoming traffic)

Of course this was a homemade light using 3 Cree LEDs and a triple 14deg
optic.(or narrow beam)
Have a look at Cutters site as his light kits use the same optics.

http://www.cutter.com.au/products.php?cat=LED+Kits

Even so - i'd made one for a serious road rider and he was still looking for
a more narrow beam -though he did make do with what he had.

EDIT: BTW -the 600 lumens is JUST enough for 45kmh!
Also here is some reviews of production lights.
http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/lights-shootout-introduction/

Cheers
Dom

 

[1 what]

"Do you find that 80 lumens is enough to light up the darkest country lanes ahead of you for speeds of 30mph+?"

No!

Apologies, I got that wrong. I was thinking country lanes and a gentle ramble not 30mph.:crazy:.

At 30mph I agree with Dom. The more the better but you need it tamed.
The optics he mentions work well if youre building your own.

Let us know what you decide.

 

[NotRegulated]

I was just looking at these recently. The Princeton Tec Switchback 1, 2 and 3. The battery hangs under the top tube and lasts for hours. 1, 2 or 3 forward lights.

I wish they had anything like this years ago. I was trying to train on the bike in the early morning when it was pitch black out for that the first hour or so before the sun came up. Moving 20 mph on a dark road without being able to see whats on the ground was an eerie and unsettling ride.

 

[BillyNoMates]

Definitely agree with the 'several hundred' lumen estimate for country lane riding. I find I use approx 400lm on roads with light traffic (ie one car every couple of minutes or so) and I will also point the light down a bit on these sections to avoid blinding on coming motorists. On single-track lanes with no kerbs or markings I use 1200lm for the fast bits and tend to angle the beam more directly ahead.

 

[znomit]

400lm is plenty. Just a few years back people were using 300 on the trails :)
Lots of long distance riders go all night on 3w halogens.

For roadies a very tight beam is key. I'm running a 6 and 10degree and I could get by on 200lm with just the 6 deg if I didn't need to go around corners.

Tyre size is important too, the bigger the tyre the bigger the object you can happily run over.

 

[ironmonkey]

Hi all

Thanks for your responses.

I went ahead and ordered the Maxx-D, on the basis that I can dim it down for use on the road (the external plug-in switch looks very useful) and I need the maximum number of lumens for bombing it down those unlit country lanes. I'm hitting speeds of up to 40mph along some of these roads, so it would be nice to have the full 960 lumens for sighting potholes as far ahead as possible.

I'll give it a proper review in a couple of days when I've tried it out. I'm also going to borrow my brother's light meter just to see how many lumens it actually is!

 

[Sardius]

40 MPH on dark roads? IronMonkey ---> Brass Balls :grin2:

You must have very smooth roads (or exceptional handling skill) to pull that off! It would be a trip to the hospital for me in the sub-200-lumen category.

You could always try attaching a reflective hood of some kind to prevent too much spill to the sides (and into the eyes of motorists). Has anyone else on here had any success with such a contraption?

 

[BillyNoMates]

The thing I find is that in the dark it is more difficult to judge the speed on the downhill sections (I assume you are hitting 40mph on the downhill bits - right? :ooo:) - I just tend to tuck down and pedal until it feels fast.

I quickly found out that was a bad idea in the dark. One hill on my regular commute is steep, but has a very sharp bend half way down. I thought that I knew that hill well enough to treat it in the same way in the dark on a low powered (~150lm) helment mounted light. I was wrong - totally missed the braking point and very nearly ended up in the hedge.

I now use 1200lm on that section, much better - I can see the hedge approach and judge my braking point much better.

 

[rooster cockburn]

Try here. Lots of options. Halogen and LED.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=240535&page=2