DX lights for MTB'ing HELP ME CHOOSE!

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for a while but don't think I've posted much before.

My question is this: I'm looking to get an inexpensive torch from DX that I can mount on my helmet to supplement my Cygolite TridenX on the handlebars. I currently use a Fenix L2D on my helmet which is a nice supplement, but at 180 lumens max, it's less than desired.

There are so many on DX that it's dizzying, and while one reviewer will say a particular light is great, another will say it's not so. I have a hard time sorting through the many they have, so figured some of you have experiece with good ones or could direct me to the right models. Cree XR-E? Cree MC-E? 18650 battery? SSC P7? A lot of this is foreign to me.

I need:
- Bright as possible (some of their 700-900 lumen versions are ideal) Don't care much about # of modes but at least 2.
- Durable as possible (since it'll be on the helmet, it won't be subject to shock as much but still needs to be solid)
- Runtime on high needs to be at least 1.5 hours, ideally about 2 hours or more. Can't be too large a flashlight though since will be on the helmet.
- Inexpensive. Most of them are, but I'm thinking in the $35 range cuz if my wife sees I bought another flashlight, she won't be happy.

Thanks for any input!

a $35 light will break/fail very quickly, spend the extra $25 and get the

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/230841

exactly what you want.

easy as the lights are more-or-less the same

single die led - roughly 200 lumen, runtime roughly 2 hours,
18650 battery MUCH better than anything else, 2*AA being 2nd best
considering Your price scheme, give the Shiningbeam L-Mini II a close look.

everything else, especially the DX quad-led (P7/MC-E) lights are 500 lumen at best and that for about 45 mins
(only when running from an 1*18650 battery, every other battery is crap, except for 2*18650 maybe)
Brutally reduced runtime is cost for the much raised power consumption

its on You

PS:
ALL flashlights tend to be tight focus and thus bad on the head.
Bar light: brighter and wider reach,
helmet light: short range wide area illumination

I guess I could always switch my setup and put the TridenX on helmet, torch on the bars.

Ah the nearing impossible dream, insisting on incompatable things like max runtime, max brightness, max durability, low price, etc, etc.

Forget all these and just look for the following to get closer to the goal:

18650 battery, about the most size/weight you'd want on a helmit.

Collimating lense, nothign else is much good for cycling. On MTB, you might be able to settle for 12' (that's degrees, not feet) or less but I suggest closer to 7', remembering that on your head if you need illuminate a different area, the neck swivels pretty well.

Durability is not a factor. Anything striking your helmit will knock you down and cause grief to you long before the flashlight. Just avoid lights prone to problems or check and correct issues when it arrives. If you check and correct issues on a $20, let alone higher priced lights, they will do fine so long as you don't try for the impossible of extreme output for an impossibly low price. Any way you look at it though, high output for over an hour requires a larger heavier light, not just inherently higher perceived quality.

So basically what you want to do is pick the lense you want to use and then a flashight with a head ID that accepts that lense, since handheld lights don't spread the hotspot with minimal spill like you'd want on a MTB light.

Either that, or DIY. There are several DIY topics on http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=124

you may wish to consider the DX MC-E drop in, i have one of those and though it may not be driven to the max, its plenty bright enough for my purposes. Get that, and a solarforce host and you're good to go, solarforce is selling some flawed hosts (anodising not up to standard etc) for $15 i think.

The drop in starts in high, reverse clicky to low, then strobe. no memory mode on mine.

yellow said:

ALL flashlights tend to be tight focus and thus bad on the head.
Bar light: brighter and wider reach,
helmet light: short range wide area illumination

Click to expand...

I won't take this for granted without testing - it is really down to personal preference. A tight spot on the head can be very useful (after all, you point your head where you want to look) in tandem with a floody bar light. Some people prefer it that way.

Some people prefer it that way.

Click to expand...

thats just partially correct
in reality those ppl have never tried the other way and thus have no experience with the concept of "blinding oneself by light reflected from nearby objects", thats what happens with a bright, tight focus helmet light.
After that the eyes drive exposure down, the floody bar light gets totally useless, the bright helmet light also looses for the few mins the eyes need to got into night mode again
For them, its simply what they are used to.

When getting shown that "reflection problem" and agreeing to it, it makes getting lights easier. Even normal Headlamps - then - are powerful enough. Bright, tight focus Light for bar mount is also easy to get.

When I first read the title of this thread, I thought the OP was looking for advice on lights for an activity that is normally done behind closed doors, sometimes in the dark!

yellow said:

thats just partially correct
in reality those ppl have never tried the other way and thus have no experience with the concept of "blinding oneself by light reflected from nearby objects", thats what happens with a bright, tight focus helmet light.
After that the eyes drive exposure down, the floody bar light gets totally useless, the bright helmet light also looses for the few mins the eyes need to got into night mode again
For them, its simply what they are used to.

When getting shown that "reflection problem" and agreeing to it, it makes getting lights easier. Even normal Headlamps - then - are powerful enough. Bright, tight focus Light for bar mount is also easy to get.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but no. I'm all for having a nice bright bar mounted light, but the crucial thing for me to have is a bright helmet light with a nice spot (good throw). When I'm riding a DH trail at 11pm that I've never ridden before (in the rain too), that bar light won't do much for me if it just illuminates a tree ahead of me and I can't see what is coming beyond a bend in the trail. That is when its nice to have 600+ lumens with a good spot and some decent spill that I can point where I'm looking. Having bar light with a bit of flood is always handy when I get to a slower section of trail, but it isn't critical when I'm riding.

To the OP, the MG PLI MC-E light looks better than all the other options. If you can up your budget a bit, I would recommend that one. If you need more runtime... then take a break or two during your ride and swap batteries.

yellow said:

thats just partially correct
in reality those ppl have never tried the other way and thus have no experience

Click to expand...

Please don't flat out discard other peoples opinions and preferences as "they don't know any better!" You have absolutely NO idea what level of expertise and experience their judgement is based on.

I first read the suggestion of a tight spot on the head + flood on the bars came from a very experienced MTB cyclist on a mountain bike forum who had tried BOTH setups and preferred flood on the bars + spot on the head. On that forum, some agreed, others preferred your setup.

My own experience is very limited. What little feeble riding I've done in the dark is still enough to let me say that for MTB riding I prefer to have some throw to the helmet light and a more floody beam on the bars. I think this works best for me and my kind of riding.

yellow said:

... the concept of "blinding oneself by light reflected from nearby objects", thats what happens with a bright, tight focus helmet light.

Click to expand...

One: That is not my experience.
Two: In what way exactly is reflexes from a spot on the head more blinding than reflexes from a spot on the bars?

yellow said:

Bright, tight focus Light for bar mount is also easy to get.

Click to expand...

Bright, tight focus on the bars is good when going (almost) straight ahead at high speeds. When negotiating tight turns, obstacles and going over an edge (such as the beginning of a downhill run) that bar mounted spot will NEVER lit up where you want to go until the bicycle is aligned in that direction. Going down a steep hill you want to look down BEFORE you let the bike slip over the edge. A spot on the head will let you do that: Tilt the head and you see everything, letting you plan your descent. Same story in tight turns. The flood on the bars is good because the trail closest to the front wheel is always well lit and you can see it in peripheral vision while the spot on your head lets you plan further ahead AROUND that bend or OVER that ledge.

jankj said:

Two: In what way exactly is reflexes from a spot on the head more blinding than reflexes from a spot on the bars?

Click to expand...

I might be mistaken, but when you have a bright light that is fairly closely aligned with your eyes, you can potentially get a lot of light bounced right back more or less inline with your eyes, this is when things might look washed out. This is also where having a decently powerful bar light (emitting from a significantly different position/angle) will help as it can help cast shadows and isn't as likely to bounce the light right back to your eyes... sort of like using an onboard camera flash as opposed to a remote flash... So yes, there are situations where having an overly powerful helmet light can be a negative thing.

That being said, a helmet light with a lot of punch is far too valuable for looking ahead, around, and over features in the trail for me to go without it. Riding with only a bar light is not reassuring at all... acceptable for trails that I know inside out, but there is still the possibility of something having changed (fallen trees/branches, broken ladder rungs, etc.) since I rode the trail last.

The thing about wide area illumination is that even with a thrower, in a small headed light light you'd typically see on a helmit or bar you'll still have a bit of spill sufficient for seeing up close, you won't really need a lot of illumination for nearby objects because by the time something is that close it's too late to do anything about it.

There isn't much point to a really tight hotspot on the handlebars though, when MTB'ing you will seldom have the handlebars pointed exact where you'll be going from a long distance, seldom is the path a perfectly straight line. That's just my opinion, but I prefer a 7' collimating lens on both bar and helmet but if I were to mix it up, I'd go with no more than 20' on the bar and tighter on the helmet.