Bicycle Helment LED light suggestions?

I have been searching the forum for quite some time and am now completely confused.

This is what I hope to do.

Flashlight that I will mount on my helmet with a Two Fish Bike Block. I want this to have better lumination and throw than my Dinotte 200L single mounted on the bar. I commute to work and that takes about 200 hours a week in the dark morning. I would like to see the road better and also be able to flash people (hopefully politely) who may or may not have seen me. I'd like to recharge my flashlight batteries on the weekend and not worry about it on the weekdays.

Stats I'd like in order of importance.

300-400 Lumes
200 hour battery life
good throw
Light weight
easy to change modes while strapped to my head.
Cost less than $60
Upgradeable
Back end that may have some minor illumination (fat chance)
Use RCR123A X2 batteries , 2AA would be nice but as I have seen this isn't likely.
Adaptablility to other functions (camping, hiking, tact, etc...)

baldone said:

I commute to work and that takes about 200 hours a week in the dark morning.

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You might want to check your arithmetic 200 hours equates to 40 hours a day for a 5 day week ! Doesn't leave you much time to do any work in a 24hr day.

Even if it is actually 20 hours a week I think you'll have great difficulty finding a lightweight light with 300-400 lumens under $60. 20 hours at 300 lumens would require quite a large set of batteries, and the more batteries you have connected together the more chance of a problem (These days I have a strong preference for single cell lights, especially if I am using Li-ion batteries).

You may need to recharge batteries every day to get something that goes any where near meeting your criteria.

LOL 200 MINUTES (it was an English:fail: issue not Mathmatics)

Hope that helps!

200 minutes a week of riding in the dark? That's 40 minutes a day, or 3 1/3 hours per week. I am willing to bet that you can find appropriate output for a helmet mounted light using a light that requires a single AA NiMH rechargable. You'll need either one or two such cells a week. I have other comments to make on that but first, a message from the Safety Channel!

Since you've just started posting here I'm going to assume that you haven't run into all the discussion on the proper care and usage of li-ion cells in high output flashlights. A number of folks here (including another in the comments above) will advise you to avoid multi-cell flashlights if you are going to be using lithium primaries like the CR123 or rechargables like the RCR123 you've specified or the 18650 etc. If you do go for lithium-ion rechargables, you can increase your personal safety by avoiding like the plague lights which require more than one cell.

Since this is for biking you'll be as a matter of course running down the cells and this means you really should only ever buy high quality "protected" cells and a flashlight that was designed from the get go to use them. This is important to avoid over-discharge which isn't just an inconvenience that can kill your expensive cells but in certain cases can lead to far worse outcomes than having to buy a new cell.

Li-ion cells are temperamental if not treated properly and even more temperamental in multi-cell combinations -- rechargable or not. I'm not dead set against them, but there are real risks. Some will say the risks are really only present with low end flashlights or cells, but this isn't the case.

For example here's a fellow with a high end Surefire flashlight, a product made by a company considered by many here to be the cream of the crop, and it was loaded with high end 2xCR123 Surefire primaries -- not cheap known to explode if you blink at them cells. The fellow is very lucky he got the hot flashlight off his belt before it exploded and travelled 90 feet, breaking a sliding door in the process. (A discussion on this incident can be found here.)

Or another incident and discussion here. Or another 2xCR123 explosion discussion here with 20 odd pages of follow up discussion and some blood in the photos.

Or another multi li-ion cell Surefire (was being pocket carried at the time... imagine!) thermal runaway event earlier this year.

June 2010, fellow could have lost a finger (exposed to the bone) rechargable 18650 cell blows up. Bloody photos and discussion.

Bottom line: a poorly treated (over discharged, over charged, damaged or wet) li-ion cell on its own or in a multiple cell configuration flashlight can explode and the risks are that much higher when multiple cells are run together.

I do not shy away from multi-cell NiMH lights as running mismatched NiMH cells together presents substantially lower risk than li-ion cells due to the nature of the chemistry involved, but that said I just like the light weight and simplicity of one-cell lights.

Yes, I am trying to scare you, but not specifically with the goal to steer you away from purchasing li-ion powered lights. A healthy fear or respect for the technology will hopefully ensure that you make good safe buying decisions if you do go that way.

Personally I believe that for many uses NiMH powered lights can meet many needs, often using a single cell. This is an exciting time for cyclists - we can now get general purpose flashlights that run off readily available and generally safe NiMH rechargables and still put out tons of light -- all this at prices that are extremely competitive with purpose-built bike lights.

300-400 lumens for 200 minutes on a 2xRCR123 or 2xAA power source is completely unrealistic. To get the output and runtime you want you're looking at a 2x18650 or 6xAA setup at the minimum. If you're willing to do a midweek battery swap then there are plenty of 1x18650 lights to choose from.

Toaster

Thank you, I think a midweek battery swap would be possible. I will do some more searching via the 18650 battery.

Get yourself the Romisen-2R4 light from DX as I suggested and for the same reasons as in this thread on a very similar subject, but simply mount it on your helmet.

And yes this is a friendly forum, tandem was not 'trolling' but trying to give you a quick lesson in battery safety before you get into the use of a powerful but potentially dangerous cell chemistry.

That is an important lesson to learn for your own sake and it would be appreciated if you didn't react to relevant and polite members comments, even if not exactly what you expected, in a disrespectful and rude manner.

Thanks, I'm sure you weren't intending to be rude and will soon find this forum to be the incredibly helpful and useful information source that it is.

baldone said:

Tandem are you trolling?

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Not at all, and I'm sure if you had looked at my posting history you'd have realized that isn't my style. I'm fairly certain that even in my relatively short time here that would have come out clearly by now.

I had started to write up a recommendation and mixed in with that what I consider an important safety heads up for you. In the end I decided to break the message into two components so as not to dilute the potential value (up to you) of either. I always wonder if newcomers to the site who get quickly recommended lights powered by li-ion cells find themselves buying into products before being fully aware of the safe care and handling of same. In your case you'd even specified a multi-cell configuration which set my personal radar on full power.

As for why I've not got back to the lighting component of your query, I've just not got 'round to completing that because, well, life gets in the way between work and family and in fact I'm stepping out to pick up one of my sons - by bike - at this very moment.

Perhaps you could answer a question and describe your typical route in the dark - urban? All paved? Rural? Lit or unlit? Any technical trail riding? The reason I ask is that lighting for primarily urban commuting can look at lot different than single track riding in the pitch black.

Moving right along... what I was going to comment on earlier is that depending on the nature of your route, you may find a light with 300 (or any high value) lumen output mounted on your helmet to be too distracting to other motorists.

Your mileage may vary - for urban commuting and lengthy night time training rides in a mix of lighting situations I get buy with 50 lumens up top or less. Currently I ride with a 10 lumen light on my helmet and two much more powerful lights on my bars. In the dark that seems to be more than enough to look at a map, read the trip computer, spot skunks and raccoons, and flash a motorist or pedestrian or another cyclist if I have to.

Riding trails primarily is another matter... there I put the bigger light up top and on the highest output I have.

Just be sure you know what you are getting into. I admit that it sounds very appealing to use a light powered by say a single 18650 and get brightness or runtime gains and sometimes both at the same time. I *almost* bought a TK12 and 18650 tube myself this week.

There is a trade off though -- you may spend less time swapping a cell, a trivial exercise, but will automatically inherit the responsibility for more careful maintenance of these cells. Some might consider that a hassle while others may consider that effort well spent at best or at least as an unavoidable cost of putting a system together that works for their own circumstances.

Thanks all

Red, I was pretty frustrated from the looking at 10 billion different flashlights and I felt I might have been getting my chain yanked I am new and thus might not get respect, particuraly after screwing up my orginal question.

Ive had some pretty rude folks at the RoadCycling forums that colors my emotions. I didn't want to loose my question, I put a lot of effort into it as I am sure Tandem did in his message.

I will check out your suggestion.

Tandem

I understand not sending two messages to reduce the importance of a message. I have done some research today on the 18650 seems like AW protected Black Label with a button top might be a way to go.

What is everyone feeling about button verses flat?

Looks like the Pila IBC is a good charger for that, is there other recommendations? On the thread I looked at someone was testing an Xtar charger?? but I never got to the end of it, at least not yet.

Now I am getting away from the subject.


Here's some more info.

Currently mainly urban riding on asphault, lots of construction going on with grandmas cutting me off by making right turns in front of me on a daily basis. I have 200 lumes now with the dinoette which I put on blink mode after the sun starts to rise. Like to see further so I can react a bit better to potholes, stretches of surpise gravel etc. Cat eye and Bike Planet Super Flash on the back.

I am also an eneloop and Lacrosse 900 charger users, seems like I might need to upgrade to a larger power source.

I did have the 2 RCR123A already it is used for a water purifier and they just sit I wanted to try and use them but getting to work safely with the right light is more important.