anyone attached their LED or xenon to a bike?

Has anyone attached their LED or xenon light to a bike for night ride? What's your impression of these light performance ?

I sometimes use a red Nightcutter Chartlight as a tail light.

picard said:

Has anyone attached their LED or xenon light to a bike for night ride? What's your impression of these light performance ?

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I wedded a Surefire L4 to the salvaged ball-and-socket gooseneck of an old Craftsman gooseneck flashlight that had given up the ghost. It's a "franken"-fit at best, but its now one my most versatile flashlight. The gooseneck wraps securely around the handlebars for use on the bike during rides, comes immediately off when I need it to, and does double-duty as a directional stand for the L4.

I'll get a picture of it if I can. It ain't pretty, but pretty is as pretty does...

I have a red-LED CMG mounted under my seatbag facing rear.

I use my Eveready 4AA headlamp with 4 NiMH and overwattage (Mag 4D xenon) bulb. I can actually see by it.

Now, I need to find a handlebar mounted 4AA light and fit the same xenon bulb in it.

I made a V-shaped cradle so I can strap large flashlights to my handlebars. Every year Indianapolis has a midnight ride through the city and some of the lighting rigs on the bikes are quite interesting. I also fixed a Luxeon headlamp to my helmet with tie-wraps.

I've got one of the nite eze rubber thingies for a AA M@G attached to my handle bars.

This holds my L4 or my HDS EDC with a bit of a squeeze.

L4 especially makes a great flood, as you would expect.

I once taped my EL XM-3 to my handle bars, it was better tham my Cateye
EL-300 bike light

picard said:

Has anyone attached their LED or xenon light to a bike for night ride? What's your impression of these light performance ?

Click to expand...

Yes, I use a Twofish Lockblocks (reinforced with nylon webbing by yours truly, so they look like Twofish Cyclopsblocks) I got from Nashbar.com They'll hold the lights (up to C size, or D size if you make your own, longer, straps - longer lights will need 2 locks and don't balance well on the handlebars). I point the lights slightly closer to the ground while I'm in town so I don't blind people coming the opposite way. I know of another CPF'er who uses their HD45 out on the trails.

I've used my Pila GL3R (nice, bright, smooth beam), my SF U2 (same, but whiter light which fades out somewhat when you're in the city), both, a minimag with NG500 sammie and 17mm reflector (at the time, since upgraded to 20mm). I put my L1 on there once, but the beam is too tight for my taste, as I want to be seen and I fear the L1's beam is too tight for that. My wife tells me I look like a motorcycle from a distance. Our good friends tell me I look like a Christmas tree.

I don't have a speedometer on my bike. All I can tell you is that at top speed (downhill, no breaks) I feel like I need a little more throw, so I slow down and all is well again.

You should consider putting a light on your helmet as well. I started putting my NG500 minimag on my helmet and that helps a little with throw, to signal oncoming traffic, and checking sideways as you turn. Eventually I'll have a FluPIC mod in an ArcAA on my helmet (and use the strobe as attention-getter).

Don't forget LED flashers and reflective vest or tape on you and your bike. Even with all this parafernalia I was almost hit by a distracted driver this winter. Ride safe and have fun.

here ya go

http://darelldd.com/light/

Yep,
MillerMods L1P (1.7 watts) on my helmet. Coming soon, 400+ lumen BAM 8AA to 2D Mag mod on the frame.

I use a Quicksilver V (or whatever Emilion calls it) with a twofish cycloblock on my handlebar and a 15W Niterider halogen helmet light for mountain biking at night. The Quicksilver V complements the Niterider nicely and I can see well enough to keep a pretty good pace.

I put a HD45 on my cycloblock and it was pretty good, almost too much for the road.

I made a 2C light with a 50 4700k MR16 bulb and connected it to a 12-cell high current sib-C cell pack. It was brighter than any car lights on the road that night...

You guys certainly found novel ways to make biking at night more fun. I should try attach my lights to handle bar. My bike dedicated halogen lights batteries are heavy as concrete blocks.

I believe elektrolumens has already done this with his LED lights. Judging by his pics... it seems to work REALLY well.

My experience has been that flashlights didn't work very good for my riding, street mostly with some dark dirt roads. A modded Surefire G2 P90/R123 was bright enough but got too hot and didn't run long enough. Most LEDs don't have enough throw or don't have the power to make the throw useful. You need much more of both when riding then when walking.

You should either buy or make a good bike light. Here are some links to more info.
homemade lights

bike lights

I got a Nightrider light from Bike Nashbar on sale for $26. It was made to use 4 C cells with a 5 hour runtime at 7.2 watts. Better, but still not bright enough. Then I modified it to use a 6V NiMH battery pack from a broken 8mm camcorder that I also had a smart charger for. Actual voltage is 6.8 so I got a nice increase in brightness. To get even more I tried a 7.2V 3300 NiMh pack for an RC car. Even brighter with no problems although these mods were more practical for me because I already had the batteries and chargers for them.

lacking time to finish the halfway ready HID-light, I still use my SF 9N for heavy trail riding. Clamped to handlebar by 2 metal clamps, one at the bar, 2nd around the light.
Except for the low runtime (1 h 15 mins with homemade batt-stick), it works very good. In the same leage as the cheap Sigma lights around here.
I also tried an 8X, modded with a Lux III, but this one was too weak alone.
Then, if needed, a 1W Led-headlight for having light where I look at.

By now, most of the regular night riders here improve their lights to all the various Lupine models, or some homemade 12 V / 20 W Halogen-models or even combinations of such.
Personally I dont like this: I think the fun of riding at night dimishes, when too much light is used.

Replaced the bulb of my 2C bike light with an Opalec NewBeam (now moded to CS LEDs). The light was mainly to be seen with and to have a long running flashlight on my bike.

I once duct taped a MiniProIII equiped maglite to my helmet and rode through complete darkness (besides the stars) for about three hours. From that experience, I've decided that I'll never waste time or money attaching to my bike anything bright enough to see with. All 'seeing with' lights will go on my helmet.

Summertime, I run with an Elektro Lumens Elektrostar headlamp on my handlebars (using 2 cable ties on an old bike computer mount) and a Streamlight 4AA ProPoly Luxeon on a second old computer mount; I attach it with two thick rubber bands.

On my backpack, I dangle an Eternalight ErgoMarine which I set to flash mode -- very visible and makes me feel very safe while riding in pitch blackness.

LED lights work well in rural areas with little or no ambient light; in the city or for off-road use, expensive incandescent lights are likely preferred. This will change as LED technology improves.

I found $1 5 led flashers at the flea market and stocked up(seen them for up to $5 each elsewhere). They flash about 7 different patterns. I set them for all flashing at the highest rate. 2 on the back in red, and 1 each on the sides and the front, same pattern, but in white.

Then I attached a SL Jr. to the handle bars with 2 zip ties. Looks like a figure 8 when done with the light inside one loop and the other around the bars. Cinched it up tight but just barely loose enough so that I can quickly and easily adjust the angle of the light while riding.
My night riding is limited to residential area and I ride slow so it works for me. And I adjust the angle to light different distances in front depending on ambient lighting and traffic/road conditions, etc.

I also got hold of a chinese 5 led head lamp that has a flashing mode. The band fits just right on the visor of my helment. When I see oncoming vehicle or one approaching from a side street, I mearly look in that direction so that they can see the flashing lights.

I myself had asked before on CPF about bike lights and got alot of response. Try doing a search and you'll find more. I attached the headlight to the visor on advice from more than one about helment safety and the fact that you will want the light to be a "breakaway" if struck, to get the most out of the helment should there be an accident. And there's no law that says you can only have one light on the bike.
I also carry an incan 2xCR123 light (depends on mood) on my belt that is quickly and easily drawn and used one handded if the need arises.

I usually have my 3y.o. daughter on the rear carrier seat so that is why I do not ride fast, stay on sidewalks, and wait for traffic at all intersections. I try to set the example so that she will grow up doing the same when she starts riding alone.

For LED tail light, the performance viewpoint flashpoint is one of the brighter I have seen, has an approved rear red reflector integrated as a backup, lasts a reasonable time on batteries, and has 1 constant on and two flash modes to comply with your local laws (rear flashers are not allowed in some places). And is currently on sale for $14.95 at performancebike. I thought my older cateye flasher was good until I compared it to this one, which caused the cateye to slink off to the corner. But I still have yet to try out the Cat Eye TL-LD1000, which looks awesome.

I am still looking for LED headlight perfection from a price/performance/runtime point of view. I am back to using a 10w halogen headlight, while the investigation continues. As a main headlight the 3 watters I have tried just don't cut it. My favorite helmet mount light, though, is a Coast Tac torch 1.25W 3AAA nimh, which works great for me, but is not held in high esteem around here. Maybe I just got lucky and bought an exceptional sample, because my particular one is bright, white, and holds its own against the 3W flashlights. I am going to road test the L2T as a helmet light next, so we'll see how that goes.