AA light with floody beam pattern & high output?

I'm looking for a small light that I could attach to the side of my mountain bike's head tube to provide some supplemental close-in illumination which does NOT steer with the handlebars. This can be beneficial when climbing tricky or steep trails, where the bars end up going all over the place.

I was thinking about a light such as the Fenix Q5 powerpack special, which claims ~120 lumens on Turbo with the L1D body. However, from the beamshots I've seen, and the beam pattern of my L2D Q5, that's not the beam pattern I need for this application. I need a really floody beam pattern.

I already made a determined attempt to unthread the reflector of my L2D Q5 a little, to see if a Fenix's stock beam pattern could be softened up (as I've heard people discuss here). I couldn't move it, even with full-circumference clamping on both sections, so that's out.

So, is there an affordable AA light which has a floody beam and can run at high output for about 90-120 minutes? :shrug: Or perhaps I can find a diffuser of some sort?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Maybe the Zebralight Q5? http://www.zebralight.com

It's more or less all flood, but only around 65 lumens on high, bright enough for up close though. Best performance seems to be with Energizer lithiums (the non-rechargable kind).

My first suggestion would be to use 2 single AA lights - stick one each side, angled apart. You might do better getting that brightness/runtime using AA sized 14500 rechargeable lithium poly cells.

You could even use 4 lights, one on top of the other on each side.

ssc type light? or some diffusor tape on your fenix?

Thanks guys

You can put a piece of ordinary Scotch "Magic" tape (matte finish) over a light and get a pretty decent flood with an insignificant 10% or so reduction in total light output.

c_c

a good diffuser with any of the existing light would work... running L2D CE Q5 will be an efficient way, compared to L1D CE Q5 (as L2D will have great brightness as well as regulation) ... L1D will get dimmer (on alkalines) over the runtime on continuous use.

I am going to try the Scotch tape idea... as soon as I locate some Scotch tape.

If I could find a commercial flip-down diffuser that could be adapted to the L2D head, that would be another great find. My L2D Q5 is my helmet light, and the option to flip a diffuser over it for super-flood mode on demand would be nearly as good as the frame-mounted floody light, because when I'm climbing, the helmet light's hotspot ends up right in front of the bike anyway (but too concentrated for my liking). Does anyone know of a product that could be adapted to do that?

edit: I guess I'm envisioning something like http://www.opticsplanet.net/surefire-filter-fm34.html (for SureFire), so maybe I've answered that question myself.

The Lumapower LM301 has a pretty floody beam. It is the widest AA beam I have.

Grubbster said:

The Lumapower LM301 has a pretty floody beam. It is the widest AA beam I have.

Click to expand...

+ 1 :twothumbs For LM 31

I have both the LM31 and the Zebralight H50 Q5. The beam on the H50 is really awesome, but I don't think you could mount it on your bike frame without it casting such a shadow from the front tire being turned from side to side in the beam. It's a hugely wide beam and I think it would best be mounted to your helmet to supplement more directional lights mounted on your bike.
The lens on the H50 looks like the exterior lens on a door peephole, and it puts out a beam about as wide as what you see through a peephole.
It's like walking around in your own personal bubble of light, but the tiny and clean point source of the emitter behind that tiny wide-angle lens casts very distinct shadows.
The LM31 does have a great beam among traditional 1xAA sized lights, but it may not be wide enough. I think the suggestions of diffusing a brighter light may be the simple answer for your question, even though I love both my LM31 and H50.

I'll experiment with diffusing the beam of the L2D Q5 tonight while I'm waiting for my riding buddies to show up, and also consider the other options too. I'd take the "buy one of each" approach like a true flashaholic, but my budget won't allow it right now. Thanks again everyone!