p60 as a bike light?

Has anyone tried a p60 as a bike light? I am curious because a p60 light seems like an all around performer. Does it provide enough spill? Also, I think a hotspot that is too strong might be a bad thing if it could hurt your vision when it is on something close by.

sometimes i use my 6P with my R2 drop-in, but i dont have a P60.

i have an ssc dropin from dx that is p60 size and would make an ideal bike light. nice smooth flood, decent throw and great runtime.

Great point re a "too bright" light.
I've made a number of lights and used various flashlights on my bike. I didn't realize how dangerous a too bright light was (in regular road use) until I was in my car one night and saw a friend of mine with my P3D on his handlebars. He was coming towards me and I was "blinded". I'd given it to him to try out for a week. Nowdays I park my bike (with light turned on) on a quiet dark street beside my house and then drive towards it in my car to ensure the bikelight is not blinding. FYI i'm presently using a Jet3Pro on factory default "low" around the streets. Off road it's alltogether different. I'm a lumen monster off-road with J3P on high plus twin (homemade) Q5's for spill.

Just about any good performing flashlight can be strapped to some handlebars and made into a bike-light, but when you already have a frame and plenty of space to work with, and in most cases a few lbs isn't going to make much difference, My recommendation would be a remote power supply (mounted to frame, like those "water bottle" style packs), and a dedicated bike light of sorts. Take advantage of the fact that you have room for power storage.

I'm using a CL1H V3 as a bike light, which is a p60 host, with the OP reflector there's plenty of spill area, and I set it to medium or low (3SD) when I don't need the sun strapped to my handlebars.

I'll be swapping in the smooth reflector for the bike trail for even more throw because after 10pm there's NOBODY else out there, therefore nobody to blind with the extremely bright hotspot pointed up high enough to see 200-300 yards ahead :-D

I ~DO~ consider it imperative to switch to "low beam" (or off) when approaching another biker, either facing or behind, because it really will destroy night vision if someone's trying to ride by moonlight, or by (God forbid) a 2 lumen Walmart "bike light."


My mounting method so far has been to gaff-tape the light on the steering tube rather than to the handle bars. For a paved trail or on road, this smooths out the light's motions considerably and makes that tight hotspot much more useful because it's not bouncing around left to right all the time.

My bike light is a SF G2L with the stock SF LED module. It's nice and lightweight. I have the aluminum bezel on it, but could always switch to the plastic one for long rides if I don't want to carry an extra battery.

The hotspot isn't an issue because it's angled down which makes it very oblong and evenly spread.

Oh, and I use a protected 17670. It's still very bright and runs for several hours.

For the mount I use this one from DX:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8274

It works great and the rubber is very durable. I'd suggest getting more than one for that price! It holds a G2 very snugly. And because the G2 is so light, I don't think I could possible knowck it out of the holder going over even the biggest potholes.

The $15 mount from Fenix is really nice too if you want to mount the light in an unconventional place (ie not on the handlebars) because it can rotate to just about any position.

Two P3D Q5's and some RCR123's!

I remember someone using 2 P60 type drop-ins as a headlamp for their bike. A enclosure was made for the drop-ins.

P60 is an incandescent module made by Surefire for their G2, 6P, C2 and similar lights. P60 style drop-ins are meant to fit in those lights that can accept a P60 lamp module.

The P60 module is just a module. Reflector, LED and driver. Not much else. No tube for the batteries and nothing to protect the reflector/optic.

A light with a P60 drop-in should work as a headlamp. How well, I can't say.

1 what said:

Great point re a "too bright" light.
I've made a number of lights and used various flashlights on my bike. I didn't realize how dangerous a too bright light was (in regular road use) until I was in my car one night and saw a friend of mine with my P3D on his handlebars. He was coming towards me and I was "blinded". I'd given it to him to try out for a week. Nowdays I park my bike (with light turned on) on a quiet dark street beside my house and then drive towards it in my car to ensure the bikelight is not blinding. FYI i'm presently using a Jet3Pro on factory default "low" around the streets. Off road it's alltogether different. I'm a lumen monster off-road with J3P on high plus twin (homemade) Q5's for spill.

Click to expand...

Wow, that must look like the sun rolling down the road.
I will be biking on the streets of boston so I decided a p7 was overkill (although I realy wanted an excuse to build a p7 light).

I just had an idea. What about those pressure switches for tactical lights mounted right next to one side of the handle bars? That sounds easier than taking my hands off the wheel and pushing a clickie.