Recommendations for entire light setup

[feechl]

Hi all,
I'm looking to buy a couple of lights to keep me safe while riding home. I've taken notice of other riders over the last few weeks and I'm fairly certain I know what I want.

I'm after the following....
1.) Red LED blinky/flasher that can connect to my seat post/frame
2.) Red LED blinky/flasher that I can hook onto my backpack
3.) LED light mounted on the handle bars that has flashing capabilities
4.) LED light mounted on my helmet that also has flashing capabilities

I could get two of the same lights but that's just plain boring and not in the spirit of an enthusiast.

From looking around so far, Fenix sell handlebar/helmet mounts so that should be enough for the front lights. The back lights are fairly simple, one just needs a hook for a clip and the other needs a clamp for the bike seat which I'd imagine is easy to get with a light specific for bikes.

My aim is to have all lights use the same types of batteries so I can buy a good set of rechargeable and have it all nicely in the one bundle without having to mess around with different battery sizes/types. The front light should be straight forward, 1 AA in the light on my helmet and 2 AA for the one on the handle bars. I haven't been able to find red blinkies with 1 AA in them though. Also, by my count I'd be using 5 AAs, can I get a recharger that does 6-8 at once?

On the topic of batteries, should I go for all AAs? What other types could I get? Am I being too picky asking for all the same type of battery? I really didn't want to carry around heaps of different chargers though. Can you get an all in one charger? I'll probably need some advice on good rechargeables as well.

One last thing, the streets I ride in get quite dark due to trees covering the street lights. It would make sense to buy one powerful and one slightly weaker light for the front.

Any thoughts/light recommendations?


Thanks.

 

[Wyeast]

1) Viewpoint Flashpoint @ Performance - bright, with an incorporated reflector. Keep it on steady or the "wave" pattern as a constant reference (helps drivers gauge their distance to you

2) Blackburn Mars 3.0 - this is small, but bright, with a fairly tight clip - ideal for a bag. The Planet Bike Superflash I would not recommend in this location, because I often see someone with one clipped to their bag - you can barely see it unless it's pointed right at you.

Both rear blinkies use AAA's, but their battery life will be so long compared to your front lights that you'd be charging out of sequence anyway (if you ran them on all the same batts).

3a.) Planet Bike Beamer5 - compact, with good life running on AA's.
3b.) Fenix L2D - for your "see the road" constant-on light. Ordinarily I'd suggest something cheaper/simpler like an Inova Bolt or Coleman MAX, but you seem already headed towards Fenix so I went with it.

4.) Princeton Tec Apex - not really for a flasher, more to augment your "see the road" illumination + having head control means you can check street signs or give a driver a headcheck if they start to pull out in front of you.

Hope that helps!

 

[Jarl]

cateye LD610 as a rear light- personal experience, and can vouch it's great.
Planet Bike super flash as a rear light- everyone else seems to love them, I don't own one.

Fenix L2D as a bar light- personal experience, great.
Fenix TK11 as a helmet light- personal experience, great, though a bit heavy.


The two rear lights will last basically forever on energizer lithium AAA (L91 or L92), so rechargeables aren't really important. The fenix L2D needs a 4 pack of eneloops and a decent charger (also grab a 2xAA battery case to store the extras in), and the TK11 needs (IMO) two 2 packs of 18650's from DX (also get a keep2go tube from fenix-store- they can fit 2 spare 18650's). You get 4 batteries so that if some are DOA, you're not out of riding until the replacements arrive.

 

[Steve K]

The goal of using a common battery size is a good one, but I'll toss out the idea of using a dynamo too. Not having to worry about batteries is a wonderful thing! And not having to pull the batteries out of the lights regularly for recharging is pretty nice too.

For taillights, I've been using the Cateye LD1100. It's big and bright, and uses AA cells. I also use the old Vistalight Eclipse, which was pretty bright too, but used AAA's.

Can't offer any suggestions for the headlight, except get something suitably bright. My experiences suggest that the minimum is a modern 3W led actually consuming 3W.

Just a reminder to use plenty of reflective material too. It doesn't hurt.

good luck,
Steve K.

 

[feechl]

Thanks for the help all.

I bought the Fenix L2D, Ultrafire C3, Smart Superflash(not planetbike) and two cheap rear $3 lights from DX.

The L2D came really quick and it's quite impressive, extremely happy with that buy. Thanks! Ultrafire C3 finally arrived, wasn't going to use it for biking but it's not too bad. I'll probably buy another Fenix something because they're quite impressive. I went into the local bike shop and bought a 'superflash', not the planet bike one but I swear it came out of the same factory. It's from a place called smart-bikes(website) or something similar. The half watt LED is in the middle and the shape of chassis?? looks like a bean. It seems just as bright and nasty as the planetbike one though when compared side by side. The otehr rear lights are in transit but they're mainly for backup.

I went ahead and bought 4xAA and 4xAAA eneloops with a charger, the AA requirement for rear lights was stupid. Hopefully these 8 batteries(which I paid a fair bit for) last me years.

My only concern is the superflash says use alkaline only and these eneloops are NiHM. What damage could I do if I use NiHM?

 

[Jarl]

smart are planet bike, just the UK version.

And no, NiMH won't hurt it.

 

[Zero_Enigma]

Check out the PlantBike Blaze as well. I own two of them. They use 2xAA and over steady/flash (off-on-strobe-steady in that order) with good side visibility. The unit is 1/2W and has been used as an emergency backup light when my main DIY Quad-damage went down (switch wire wore off. I should have put that switch in a box since day one. ).

Price is good and I think Preformance Bike as with DX has has a clone copy of that now. My setup is dual mounted.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49184877@N00/ Some of my crazy lighting projects. Sunglasses are optional.