what is the best lens angel for Bicycle lighting

[gamezawy]

Hi all

I am on my way to make a light for my Bicycle and i am confused about using lens or reflector

so i want to know what is the best lens angel for Bicycle lighting

and what is the common angel for the reflectors because i cant see any details for the reflector angel on any site

 

[AnAppleSnail]

The best angle depends on where you ride, how fast you ride, and how many streetlights are around.

 

[Steve K]

For road riding, I've been pretty happy with the Ledil Rocket Smooth Spot, which has a "full width, half maximum" angle of +/- 4 degrees:
http://www.ledil.fi/datasheets/DataSheet_Rocket.pdf

Most of the light is in a spot that lights up the road 15 to 20 meters away, and there is enough stray light that lights up the road near me too. My riding is mostly on dark rural roads, so I do depend on it to illuminate the road surface.

The best solution is a lens or reflector that meets the German standards, but you can't just buy this as a separate part. As far as I know, you can only get it by buying a complete headlight.

 

[gamezawy]

Thank you for your help

Ok i will be riding on normal speed in roads that has no lights, all i want is to make is a light to my Bicycle using 4x cree XML, 2 leds with big angel lens or reflector to light the road in front of me and 2 leds with tight lens or reflector to light the surface of the road to about 15 meters
so what i want to know is what should i use for the close range leds and the long range ones

 

[Steve K]

I think the Rocket SS lens does just fine for close and far. My light started out with some lenses with a slightly wider beam, but I decided that they put too much light close to the bike. The ground close to the bike was so bright that my eyes never adapted to the lower level of brightness of the road far away. Fortunately, the lenses aren't too expensive, and you can try different ones without spending a lot of money.

 

[A10K]

The last time I used XM-Ls for bike lights I used them wit Carclo 20mm plain-tight optics, #10003, and they were serviceable. Not a lot of throw, but with the light output they filled up the road pretty well. For my upcoming XM-L2 build I'm going to upgrade to the 26.5mm equivalent, the #10048. I currently use 2 XP-G2s with the 10048, and those have good throw even at dynamo-driven power levels.

 

[znomit]

For road riding, I've been pretty happy with the Ledil Rocket Smooth Spot, which has a "full width, half maximum" angle of +/- 4 degrees:
http://www.ledil.fi/datasheets/DataSheet_Rocket.pdf

I'm pretty happy with this config on the road. Note if you go wider you'll be dumping a lot of light right in front which will make it harder to see down the road. With 4 LEDs I'd go with 1mm die XPE/XTE rather than the wider XML or XPG.

 

[1nterceptor]

Thank you for your help

Ok i will be riding on normal speed in roads that has no lights, all i want is to make is a light to my Bicycle using 4x cree XML, 2 leds with big angel lens or reflector to light the road in front of me and 2 leds with tight lens or reflector to light the surface of the road to about 15 meters
so what i want to know is what should i use for the close range leds and the long range ones

If you're going to use 2 separate lights; I would suggest one on the fork and the other on your helmet/head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLeZhBw3cjI


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGpBHbEYqeo

 

[gamezawy]

what about using this http://www.fasttech.com/products/1220100 ?

 

[gamezawy]

any one ?

 

[Steve K]

what about using this http://www.fasttech.com/products/1220100 ?

The nice thing about Ledil optics, as well as some others, is that they tell you what the beam angle is. This retailer doesn't tell you anything particularly useful, other than a few dimensions. Try asking the retailer for beam angle info.

 

[gamezawy]

Do you know a website that sells Ledil optics ? i would prefer a chines website or a website that delivers to Egypt . thank you in advance

 

[Steve K]

I have ordered directly from Ledil in the past. More recently, I've ordered from Digi-key. Not sure what they would charge to ship to Egypt.