Which AA/AAA Flashlight?

[ernestrome]

Hi
I am looking for a cheap torch solution for my bicycle lighting needs. I don't have any tools to mod or build a light and i don't think my needs warrant that anyway. I cycle short distances around a city. Rides are typically under 30 mins. Good even/diffuse spill is more important to me than a tight beam that has longer throw and weak periphery. A Flashing mode would be a boon, but i use a flashing headlight so I could live without it.

I was torn between whether to buy an AA or AAA based light or stump up the extra for a Li ion powered one. I already have aaa cells and will probably buy a lacrosse or Maha ch9000 and some LSD NIMH cells for my other battery needs.

Spotting some 3xAAA lights at Dx recently lead me to think that one of these might be ideal, plus if I ever want to upgrade to lithium these flashlights can accept them too.
I only know a little about led types, so this is one thing i could use your advice on.

Which brings me to my questions;

1 Which 3xaaa light should i buy?
2 Are there any other AA/AAA powered lights i should consider?
3 Which Mount?

The lights
Romisen RC-W4 Cree LED Flashlight (3xAAA)
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10711
+ glass lens and alu reflector (I think this is good)
- not great spill, aaa only
$17.5


ROMISEN RC-U4 3-Mode Cree LED Flashlight (3*AAA/2*CR123A/18650/3V~8V) http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11119
+ Greater battery choice, Glass&alu, Strobe, Good spill
- a little more expensive
22.46

Romisen RC-KF 3~8V Versatile Cree Flashlight (1x18650/3xAAA/2xCR123)
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5381
review says w4 above is better

HF21 Cree Q2-WC 165-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650/3*AAA) http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14911
+ Glass alu
- Less battery choice than romisen above, worse spill, no strobe

SAiK SA-8 Cree Q4-WC 3-Mode 180-Lumen LED Flashlight - Silver (3*AAA/2*CR123A/1*18650) http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.17925

3xaaa serach at DX http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.901~search.3xaaa

I think at this point the romisen rc-u4 is the front runner.

 

[PCC]

Do you want this light to be seen or to see? There is a difference. You don't need much light to be seen but you need a lot to see the road in front of you. You mention that you already have a "flashing headlight", is this mounted on the bike or helmet mounted?

 

[ernestrome]

The headlight is on my helmet.

There is street lighting for the most part, so I just need some additional light to help illuminate the road and make me more visible to traffic. This will be supplementing the headtorch and a blinky on the back.

 

[hit4six]

I haven't had experience of the lights you mention. I mention my experience with led in threads '...world of commuting' and 'IRC halogen'. Go by the recomendations on DX, you should end up with something suitable to make you more prominent on the road and provide a little more road illumination. I thought Fenix had the best reputation?

If avoiding dodgy patches on the road is a concern (is it a road bike or mountain bike?) one low power solution is a basic 5-15w halogen set, maybe £40-£60. Cheap P7 torches aer quite popular. An R2 or Q5 led modified with a lens like this http://www.kaidomain.com /ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1788 ( gives a rectangle beam) might be useful. My choice however would be an R2 or Q5 18650 torch mounted as low as possible and another with this dropin http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.17592 and this lens http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=1795 on the handlebars. You will witness synergy. The lower torch will pierce the darkness sufficently and the upper torch will allow you to make things out without glare. That's what I find at least, although it looks like most of the owners of the torches you mention manage fine, you probably don't want the hassle of a torch on your fork.

Battery, depends what you want. Dx single 18650 charger is not dear.

mount - I've tried this dx/sku.792 and it is as useless as you would expect a mount with a plastic screw to be. It is so brittle, as you tighten it securely it will snap. Replace with a metal screw, tighten securely, and the arm will snap.

I find dx sku.12000 useful but it won't work as a handlebar mount.

Go for the most expensive one by Fenix? I ordered one, hasn't arrived yet, you can buy it elsewhere. Other mounts should work, but how much time would a poor quality one waste.

good luck

 

[PCC]

I guess you can say that I've followed a typical (expensive) upgrade path to better lighting for riding my bike through darkness. It is my belief that you need about 100 lumens minimum for riding a bike in the dark as a headlight. Any less and it just becomes a single small spot in front of you that is less dark than the rest of the area in front of you. Street lights make this situation worse because even 110 lumens will disappear under street lights. Since street lights are brighter your eyes adjust, then, when you ride into the darkness again, you'll be hunting for your headlight until your eyes adjust. My current light is rated at 110 lumens and, used as a headlight, it is about right. A light mounted to your helmet that projects a usable amount of light actually seems brighter than the same light mounted onto the handlebar because the light is always projected in front of your face. I'm contemplating having a custom light made for the handlebar that will more mimic a car's headlight and produces in excess of 200 lumens.

This is for riding on the road. Riding off-road in the dark requires a lot more light than on the road.

As far as the lights you listed are concerned, I have not had any experience with any of them since they're flashlights that you want to adapt to use on a bike. Have you thought about how you are going to mount them on to your bike?

 

[jankj]

I find that this setup works, sort of:

Fenix LD2 at turbo setting, attatched to the handlebars with twofish lockbloks. Optionally LD1 at the helmet. (LD1 at the handlebar works as well. I use that if the LD2 is somehow forgotten - the LD1 is my EDC).

To me, this seems like a minimum solution. It's plenty light when it's dark (unless you do high speed mountain biking). It is just brigth enough for moving into the shadows from a well lit section.

By the way, I use eneloops. With other nihm or with alikalines the performance at "turbo" setting is noticable dimmer.

So - I would look for a light with at least as good performance as the LD2. If you use AA, get sanoy eneloops (or similar low self discharge nihm). In addition, I would buy a bee-seen blinkie.

 

[carrot]

I am strongly in favor of the Fenix L2D/LD20, and so is most of Bikeforums.com. Many like to run a dual setup with two of them with Twofish lockblocks (you can get all of this at Fenix-Store.com) but I get by with one just fine.

 

[mechBgon]

Another vote for Fenix. From well-done reviews here, the L2D Q5 appears to have the edge over the LD20, with longer runtimes on Turbo, and possibly a preferable beam pattern for all-around street use.

 

[Buck91]

Absolutely love my L1T v2.0 for commuting. Plenty of light to see with, and be seen. Nice and compact, works great on the bar with a twofish, or on the helmet!

 

[ernestrome]

Many thanks for your replies.

My headtorch is an alpkit gamma.

The l2d ld20 looks great but it is significantly more than i wanted to spend. If i were in that range and wanted to go lithium batteries i'd try a p7.

Given I want to stick with aa or aaa's i'll probably go for one of these 3xaaa lights

 

[2manybikes]

Another vote for Fenix. From well-done reviews here, the L2D Q5 appears to have the edge over the LD20, with longer runtimes on Turbo, and possibly a preferable beam pattern for all-around street use.

woof! woof!

 

[carrot]

The L2D or LD20 uses AA batteries, and runs very, very well on Eneloops or other NiMH batteries. It works well on alkalines but you will get the best performance on NiMH.

 

[jankj]

The l2d ld20 looks great but it is significantly more than i wanted to spend. If i were in that range and wanted to go lithium batteries i'd try a p7.

Given I want to stick with aa or aaa's i'll probably go for one of these 3xaaa lights

The l2d and ld20 run on 2*AA of any kind. (Make your choice: Alkaline, Nihm OR lithiums). My recommendation: Low self discharge nihm, such as sanyo eneloop.

Don't buy anything based on AAA's for high output specification. It's one third of the capacity of AA, but the cost is about the same. Which means you either sacrifice runtime or light output - or both.

Cheap 3*AAA is even worse. None of these are regulated, and the light would be designed for long runtime, not high output.


If fenix is too expensive, I would try the romisen lights. These seems to be getting very good reviews (Fairly cheap, but according to reviews, A LOT better quality than most of the other dx stuff). I haven't tried any of these, but search this forum and read the reviews. Sold at DX, but I think others sell them as well.


So my recommendation is either 2*AA lights (somewhere in the 100-200 lumens range) or the p7 option. . .

At DX, I think you can put together a package of the simplest p7 light that runs on 1*18650 battery, a couple of protected 18650's and charger for around $60 (get the charger that charges each bay individually), not including bike mount. Quality is probably somewhat hit-or-miss, but unless you're unlucky and get a bad sample it should really rock for your application.

 

[ernestrome]

My mistake, i'll take a second look at the l2d and at other 2xAA lights. An recommendations for cheaper lights in an L2D style?

It seem like the q5 lights are best, is that right?

Thanks

 

[Calina]

My mistake, i'll take a second look at the l2d and at other 2xAA lights. An recommendations for cheaper lights in an L2D style?

It seem like the q5 lights are best, is that right?

Thanks

Actually the best CREE bin is the R2 but the Q5 is not far behind.

You might find what you're looking for in this thread : http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=215569

You could also consider the Trust Fire TR-801 : http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=453791

 

[ernestrome]

I think I'm going to go for shiningbeam romisen rc-n3-q5, Q5 and 2xaa, or maybe a ultrafire c3-q5, but put off a little by the reports of varable quality on the latter. The r2 2xaa flashlights are much more expensive and i'm cheap :)