Any Recommendations for a bicycle light?

Nerd

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As above, hopefully you guys can recommend one that doesn't use 123s nor lithium coin cells. I remember seeing this nice HID light at www.bikelights.com that is a 15 watter! Only thing I didn't see till it's too late is the price. $399......

Thanks for any and all input.
 

Saaby

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I donno what do you want?

Long life, nice close range, a'la LED

or

Good throw, nice long range, a'la Incandesent

And since I am really getting hooked on this Mod thing, can't help but make the recomendation of...why not build your own?
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DonL

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Cateye has a HID system at $425. Niterider's is $389.

NightSun has two HID/incandescent combos, using the HID as the low "constant on" beam (due to the startup cycles), and an incandescent for the "instant on" high beam. Their combos are priced at $299 and $379, depending on the battery and high beam wattage.

Obviously, HID, while a great technology, has quite a ways to go before it's "common" and produced in numbers which would give larger economies of scale and lower prices.

I've had an older NightSun Team that I got nearly a decade ago when they first came out, and I've been rather pleased with it. The current combo is 10W/20W, but back in the day, you could get 30W high beam bulbs. I bought a half-dozen and I haven't gone through them all yet. I'm not a gonzo nut-buster rider anymore, and it fits well with the way I've been using it.

Buying a new system, I'd look at some of the Niterider and Jet systems as well. There are some nice systems out now. Alot of it depends on what your plans are, and how you're going to use it. Basic commuting, trail riding, night thrashing, urban assaults? That'll go a long way to narrowing down your choices.

MTBR has a page of reviews of lighting systems at http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/lights/ . Check them out.
 
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**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
I recomend for off-road riding -
1) wide beam bar mounted lite ...aprox.10 watt
2) narrow beam helmet lite...aprox 15 watt
for road riding helmet mount w/nimh batt pack
Turbo-cat is hard to beat.
If you just want to be seen; then cateye makes a
three led lite! even though the mounting system
is not as strong as I would like.
happy trails
tongue.gif
 

geepondy

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Oh to think 20 years ago, I had to make do with my Sears generator light set. It did the job though, provided you throttled back your downhill speed to keep the bulbs from blowing. No voltage regulation on those puppies.

My friend has a hundred dollar single light rechargeable system from now I forget, either Cateye or Nitesun but I did see it in action and I would say it was plenty bright enough for commuting use.

Can those HID systems take the rigors of mountain bike riding? Very expensive lamps to replace but man I bet they are bright!
 

Azreal911

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this HID systems where actually designed originally for mountain biking, that was why they needed such a bright light cause it can get pretty harrowing in the dark at high speed. *BAM*! ouch tree!
 
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**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
I ride alot, especially at night. I've been searching for a light that is bright, relatively small, and pure. This is a shame, because those trees hurt! $200, $300, $400 for a bike light? Are these vendors high? What on earth would possess anyone to spend this kind of $ on a light that will more than likely get taken out in the first serious collision? Plus, the added weight is a no-no. Why not buy a couple of Arc-LSs and strap them to the frame? At least then, you would have something useful, other than for riding. The best I've gotten is a double Luxeon Star bikelight from Wayne at Elektrolumens. Very bright, but hard to mount. My bike is my baby, even more so than my flashlights, and I'll be danged if I'm gonna tear it up for a light. I know that Wayne has made one with at least three Luxeons. As mine is sufficiently bright, I'm sure that this one is awesome. Seriously, If someone would focus in this area or market, there is some significant $ to be made.
 

Whistler

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Hi,
has anybody heard from 'Lupine' lights?

They are pretty 'cool' (in two ways
cool.gif
).

lupine

They have very good headlights but also some very nice bike lights
stuby.jpg


Here are some pictures with lamps mounted on bikes:
gallery

Here the 'overview 'bike lights:
bikelights

The price starts at about $250. Not the most cheap lights but you can turn them with extension kits into a headlight, tentlight or bicycle-headset. ( Easy, I know you can do that with some tape also with your Arc-Ls...)
headset.jpg


Quality seems to be very good. They use very good battery- and chargingsystems.

Perhaps it's a better idea to use an Arc LS if you are afraid to damage it with mountainbiking. Although I have heard from some people that the lights are really tough.
From what we have heard from MY with his coast to coast trip link
there are cheaper bikelights indeed...

A very nice headlight is the Stuby X-trem (LED), but it's VERY expensive and I think it's made for 'professional' use ( So don't complain: it's soooo expansive...are you mad?...I would NEVER buy something like this...
wink.gif
). It got a 4.2 Ah, 7.2 V, 30.24 Wh Lithium-Ion battery and runs more than 24 h. As mentioned you can also convert it into a tentlamp or bikelight. Seen the price not much people would buy it, but it's nice, you have to admit:

stuby1.jpg


stuby2.jpg



x-trem beam
 

Nerd

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Originally posted by Azreal911:
this HID systems where actually designed originally for mountain biking, that was why they needed such a bright light cause it can get pretty harrowing in the dark at high speed. *BAM*! ouch tree!
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">That would also mean *BAM* MY
BIKE!!! I remember seeing a friend who has a front wheel bent at 90 degrees when he hit into a tree, was going downhill and he guess that the brakes burn up or the wires snapped... that guy was in the hospital for weeks before he is well enough to come out...
 

Drakonchik

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I built a bicycle headlight array, to meet my own personal road and mountan biking needs, that resembles what Nerd and virgo are looking for above.

My bike headlight array is a combination of modified flashlights (that are discussed elsewhere on this site)and a harness system that I created. The array is bright, light-weight, versatile (on or off a bike), adjustable (while riding), practically indestructible, elegant (even on a roadbike), and relatively "cheap," or at least mid-range.

The array is comprised of four Maglite 2AA flashlights modified with the Inretech Luxeon Star LED adapter, and one Maglite 2AA modded with the Brinkman NexStar bulb. All five of the Mag units run Lithium AA batteries. The rest of the materials involved are: five "Flashlight Friend" tubes, a foot of rubber heater hose (1/2" ID), a couple feet of 1/4" bungee cord, and a few square inches or polycarbonite plastic.

The beam created by this array is a mix of the four LED and one incandescant flashlight(s). The beam is mostly super smooth near-white LED light. It also has a tight, long-throw, incandescant hot spot that can be adjusted for range. The width of the beam is wide enough for mountain biking (about 75 degrees.) It also casts far enough for fairly speedy road biking. The LED flashlights can be adjusted to toe in, or pan out, while the incandescant flashlight can be adjusted as to both focus and range, all single-handedly while riding. The array cannot be jolted or vibrated out of position. All the parts, of both the flashlights and the harnesses that keep them on the handlebars, are replaceable and/or interchangeable.

This system of multiple flashlights--and two bulb types--is fail-safe.

The Maglite 2AAs, as everyone knows, come in a dozen or more colors, enough to match the color scheme of just about any bike.

The LED array can be removed in a second and fit comfortably in your pants pockets. There are no fussy wires to route or remove etc.

The array can be carried by hand as a verstile flashlight; the flashlights can be reversed to point both forward and back (simultaneously) while walking along busy roads and trails.

The components of this array cost me $150. This price puts the set-up in the lonely middle range of bike light products, where to date there seem to be no competitors, an absence that virgo and Nerd point out. I believe the system I created is both affordable and capable of addressing performance in more demanding--albeit not extreme--real-world onditions. For alot less than $300-$600.

If anyone it interested please respond.
 

Nerd

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Erm.. is that 2 Cyans and 2 Blue 1 watters? I think my bike would like a single white 5 watter with a few alu foils as reflectors... nice white bright light....
 

ToddM

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Well my recommendations from building several and using several production lights is the same as someone else mentioned.

A wide flood on the bars, oh 10-15 watts halogen. This allows good spill of wide light right in front of the wheel and can be used as the primary light in slower or non technial areas. Also in technical areas that wide flood of light provides maximum visibiltiy on the slow technical stuff. LED could be a option here, 2-3 5 watt LED's in a flood configuration with a rechargeable setup could give a reasonable price and long runtime.

A narrow brighter light on the helmet 20 watts at the least. This allows you to see around corners and such especially at higher speeds and technical stuff.

For high speed technical mountain biking anything of less wattage IMO is a compromise. Even for road riding when dealing with cars it's nice to have as much light as possible. Though one has to be careful not to blind them.

IMO right now even in the homemade lights the best deal is the HID stuff out. If you shop around you can find a 40 watt equivalent halogen HID light for just over $300, you get 40 watts of light for 3-4 hours, twice the runtime of most halogen offerings in the same wattage for not much more money. The biggest problem with a homemade setup right now is you just can't get that kinda runtime with a halogen setup without either spending a HUGE amount on a nicad/nimh battery to get 3-4 hours runtime at that wattage, or you end up with a huge heavy SLA battery. LED could be the future but right now it just can't compete in light output and runtime and cost.

It is possible to build a fairly cost effective bar flood light, if you get a 10-15 watt halogen and build a fairly nice rechargeable battery to get 3 hours or so runtime. But to try and do the same with a 40 watt halogen and the battery costs go through the roof. So far the stuff to do a homemade HID stuff is not easily available and anything but cheap.

Before the days of HID I was all about the homemade setups but having used some of the new HID stuff and comparing it and taking into account the massive amount of light and the great runtime it's hard to beat them currently.

Todd
 

Drakonchik

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I agree that, whatever lights you mount on your bike, you also want if possible lights with a long throw mounted on your helmet.

I want to point out the danger however of mounting lights too high, and/or too firmly on your helmet. See Whistler's photo of the Lupine product above.

All helmets increase the effective size of your head in a crash situation. This creates the potential for a cam effect that amplifies the wrenching forces on your neck to the extent that the helmet catches on whatever objects you crash into. Anything projecting from your helmet that is too firmly affixed can increase the cam effect further. Firmly mounting something high on the helmet is worse still, as it increases the chance of snapping your neck straight back, particularly in the straight-over-the-handlebars type of crash. Helmets and their attachments also impede your ability to fall or roll properly, to the extent that you are able, in a crash situation. Of course in some, but in my experience not most crashes, there is no time for even reflexive movements on the part of the rider.

I am not arguing here for not using helmets, as they clearly reduce direct impact forces to the head. But there is a tradeoff with the risk created by cam/wrenching forces. Statistical evidence seems to favor wearing the helmet, although head and neck injuries are rising at the same time helmet use increases. This kicks off an interesting debate you can check out off this forum at sites like www.cycle-helmets.com and others.

If you have any doubt about the cam effect, try tumbling, rolling, falling, or "crashing" on the carpet with a firmly top mounted helmet-lamp and you will see what I mean. Or talk to a person who knows how to break-fall properly, such as a stunt man, wrestler, practitioner of aikido, judo, jujitsu, etc. This is where an overly-broad conclusion drawn from statistics--that you are in every way safer in a helmet--knocks heads with direct experience.

Apologies for the digression!
smile.gif


My recommendation for proper mounting of a bike headlamp is to mount it no higher than where the visor attaches. Mounting the lamp on the visor itself is an especially good idea if the visor is designed to snap off in a crash, as it should be.
 

ToddM

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While I agree that if you solidly mount a light to your helmet it can have bad results if you catch the light on something, most all lights will tear away in a crash. Take the above light it's simply held on the helmet by a couple of elastic straps, that will tear away pretty easy if you hit a branch with it

This is why almost all well designed helmet lights and helmet visors are built to break away from the mount in a crash or hitting a tree limb. Most use a velcro mount like specialized or nightrider I've torn a few of them off in low branch incidents with no bad results.

However if you are making a helmet light it's very important that whatever mount you use it's able to break away from the helmet or be torn off in a crash. It helps if you mount it lower and keep a smaller overall helmet profile. You still want the light to stay semi stable but you need it to break away if it needs to.

However being a person who has been taught how to fall in the martial arts, I can't say that I've ever had a problem tucking my head while falling or rolling out of a crash properly with a helmet on.

While it's possible to catch the lip of a helmet on a brach and probably wrench your neck, I'd say that if your head is high enough and tilted upward to catch that branch with a properly fitting helmet, you'd have racked your head on it solidly anyway possibly not only giving you a concussion but having a similar neck wrenching effect.

I don't care if other's wear helmets, I consider it cleaning out the gene pool for those that don't. However I do know that riding 3-4000 miles a year and having broken a few helmets in crashes and never having being even remotely injured by my helmet with or without a light. I won't ride without mine.
 

GlowBike

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Oh boy, one of my favorite topics. I commute year-round by bike (in rainy Oregon) and frequently go mountain biking at night as well.

For any type of riding you want at least SOME kind of "throw" to light up the surface in front of you. I consider 10W halogen or equivalent pretty much a minimum for any night riding situation. If you're only going to have one light, bar mount is better.

I ride with a TurboCat (http://www.turbocatusa.com) 10W SLA system that I like very much. I think they're the best designed and constructed units at this level, but most others are good too. On a budget, the NiteRider RoadRat and TrailRat do a decent job and cost less than $100.

OK, beyond the 10W minimum, it depends very much on what kind of riding you're doing. If you're riding on roads in rural areas where it's dark at night you may want a LOT more light than that - HID fits the bill very well, or one of the more powerful halogen based systems.

For urban commuting, frontal visibility becomes much more important than illumination. LEDs are great here because their bluish light and broad beam really get attention. I have a Petzl Tikka 3-LED headlamp strapped to my helmet. Even though it casts virtually no usable light onto the roadway, it does more to alert motorists to my existence than the 10W halogen. It works astonishingly well for this purpose. Blinking is even better - the Planet Bike Brite Spot (http://www.planet-bike.com) single-LED costs $12 and is by far the best bang for the buck and best bang for the ounce out there. An EternaLite strapped to the top of the helmet in blinking mode would be the ultimate.

For mountain biking, as others have mentioned it's nice to have both bar and helmet mount. For the handlebars the rule is pretty much the more the better and you don't want too narrow of a beam. On the bars I have both the TurboCat and a 2.5W CatEye, at different angles of tilt so I can illuminate a long section of trail. HID would give you tons of light, but is expensive (both to buy and fix) and more delicate than incandescent ... and frankly I'd think the bluish cast to the light might be less than ideal for clarity of vision at night.

The amount of helmet light you want for mountain biking depends on conditions, because fog or snow can easily become blinding if you have very much light on your head at all. If it's mostly clear conditions for you, I could see going up to 10W or 15W. Right now I'm using a Petzl Zoom with the halogen bulb (about 2.5-3W). I honestly wouldn't want much more (5W absolute max) because my night riding area is subject to frequent dense fog. Overall, I actually really like this as a helmet light. The adjustable beam is extremely nice for night riding (I vary between broad and narrow depending on conditions), it runs on a variety of battery types, and it's only held on by the tension in the elastic strap so it would likely come right off in any crash rather than engaging the "cam" effect described above. Plus I'm a cheapskate and haven't seen fit to invest $150 in a bike-specific helmet light.

Hope this information is useful.
 

GlowBike

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Originally posted by Padhraic Drakonchik:
If anyone it interested please respond.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I'm interested (heck, I'm ALWAYS interested in bike lighting!). Do you have pictures of this contraption, by any chance?

- Dan
 

Drakonchik

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I want to vouch for Whistler, TodM and Glowbike on the glories of high wattage bike lights, ditto on the need to set up the right bike lights for the job. I don't own any of the the nice high-end models yet, but I've seen them in action and bow in their general direction, eyes shaded.

More feedback on bike lighting can be found at www.mtbreview.com/reviews/Lights/, and I'm hoping we can bring some of that discussion onto this forum. For that purpose, here is a list of bike light makers taken from that site:

Bell Vista, BLT, CatEye, Jet Lites, Lupine, Marwi, Nitesun, NiteRider, Performance, Turbocat, Light and Motion

I'm hoping we can bring the kind of good insightful reviews found elsewhere on this forum to bear on these brands. Because, as you'll see on www.mtbreview, the above lights and their makers over the years have had "issues."

Also I want to correct my assertion above that there are little or no bike lights in the $50-$200 range. It seems they're out there, I just hadn't come across them until now on mtbreview.

On TodM's second post regarding helmets, I'm square with everything he says. Yes, the helmet will largely take the hit instead of your cranium! The trouble is those situations on the margin where something, the terrain usually, is able to get a purchase on your helmet and snap your head around. It's not a theoretical problem. I had an occasion to experience this in an over-the-bars situation where the ground, in this case river rock, came up and snatched my head back, turning what would have been an ordinary break-fall into a near paralyzing event. The helmet in this case was an up to date Specialized with a smooth plastic shell, no "problem" with it. I myself have had plenty of experience with breakfalls, having learned firstly on the streets skateboarding since 1977, and practicing aikido, karate and kung-fu since 1988, and never taken a hard hit to the head--at least not from the ground. Until helmets are built less thick but capable of taking the the same knocks, the chance that a given crash situation will take your head places it doesn't want to go remains a real and irreducible risk.

Yo, GlowBike. I will get some pictures up on my handlebar headlights pretty soon I hope so check back here next week. Hey, are those Specialized Afterburner tail-lights awesome or what? Did you get the larger, more powerful one? However, I thought the "universal" bracket was poor design: it was either too loose, potentially getting knocked sideways, or too tight, overstressing the eyelet and hook. I replaced it with a conventional C-bracket.

A couple specs on my headlights above (Nerd take note): since it sports 4 InReTech Luxeon Stars on lithiums, that's 4 watts, plus whatever wattage you get with a NexStar on lithiums; since I'm not as schooled on electronics as others here, does that get me 5 watts? The entire apparatus including harness weighs abought 23 ozs. Let's hear it for lithiums, light but expensive little turds.

Lastly, does anyone know where you can get AA lithiums for cheaper than $9.99/four at Fred Meyer?
 
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