Headlamps placed on side of head

I was wondering if there were any headlamps out there that have the light positioned at the 3 or 9 o clock positions. I'd like for it to preferably be less than 20 dollars, and bright enough for outdoor use at medium range.

If such a solution doesn't exist, would be better to just use a standard handheld light and somehow create a way to secure it to a headstrap?

Zebralight, NiteCore and Fenix has headbands for their flashlight so you can have it on your head in 3 or 9 o clock positions, but they are over 20 $.
With Zebralight Flashlights you get a headband that you can use it in that position. You have to pay more for headbands from NiteCore and Fenix.

Nite-ize headband for Minimag will work with most 1AA/1AAA flashlights.

niteize makes a headband for minimags that does what you want you just need to get one and supply the appropriate light.
note: someone beat me to it lol

trdsupragt said:

I was wondering if there were any headlamps out there that have the light positioned at the 3 or 9 o clock positions. I'd like for it to preferably be less than 20 dollars, and bright enough for outdoor use at medium range.

If such a solution doesn't exist, would be better to just use a standard handheld light and somehow create a way to secure it to a headstrap?

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If you must use a flashlight on your head, a jockstrap headband is a better option because you can move the light around to aim the beam where you want it. Mounting it on the side of the head limits where you can aim the beam.

davidt1 said:

If you must use a flashlight on your head, a jockstrap headband is a better option because you can move the light around to aim the beam where you want it. Mounting it on the side of the head limits where you can aim the beam.

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It also pulls to the side because of the weight, unless the light is VERY low weight... I prefer to side mount my lights to my bike helmet because I feel I get slightly better depth perception that way and less glare in my glasses or sunglasses.

I would love to see a product that would provide a side mount clip for a flashlight or have a built in light that offered some kind of ball joint connector so the light could easily be positioned to point where you need it to go.

B0wz3r said:

I would love to see a product that would provide a side mount clip for a flashlight or have a built in light that offered some kind of ball joint connector so the light could easily be positioned to point where you need it to go.

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Fenix makes one for about $20, it doesn't have a ball joint but can be rotated up and down.

I just experimented with this last night via my boss on rollerblades. See my "unusual application" thread in this section...

I had an extra Quark Mini 123 (and there's a certain CPF member I still owe a favor to because of that light) but he didn't have a hat. He did have this headband thing he was wearing, so we taped the Mini to it.

A small portion of the light was wasted on the side of his head.

The worse problem was bias in aim - we put the light on the right side of his head. This meant for him to "light up his left" he had to crank his head more than to light up the right.

And despite our attempts it really was never aimed dead center.

But in this work you're really sensitive to your dead center, and you really want to whip your beam around a lot to check out your path. Lots and lots of squirrel like head twitching...

For this there's just no substitute for center mount.

For something more relaxed though I guess side mounting could be okay...

Dude Dudeson said:

I just experimented with this last night via my boss on rollerblades. See my "unusual application" thread in this section...

I had an extra Quark Mini 123 (and there's a certain CPF member I still owe a favor to because of that light) but he didn't have a hat. He did have this headband thing he was wearing, so we taped the Mini to it.

A small portion of the light was wasted on the side of his head.

The worse problem was bias in aim - we put the light on the right side of his head. This meant for him to "light up his left" he had to crank his head more than to light up the right.

And despite our attempts it really was never aimed dead center.

But in this work you're really sensitive to your dead center, and you really want to whip your beam around a lot to check out your path. Lots and lots of squirrel like head twitching...

For this there's just no substitute for center mount.

For something more relaxed though I guess side mounting could be okay...

Click to expand...

I use my lights on my bike helmet for cycling at night and I too am rather sensitive to when they're not on dead center. Although, that's sort of a relative thing considering there's always some play in the helmet itself on my head...

And yeah, I do find myself looking around more with a light on my helmet than mounted on my handlebar; even with both. But I think this isn't because of limitations in the light, but rather because of it; with a light on my helmet I can see pretty much anything much better than without it, so I tend to look around more because I can see better as a result.

The problem with a light on your helmet is that it flattens everything out - no shadows to show how deep that hole is, or how big that rock is. But they are great for spearing the typical zombie drivers who are always staring straight ahead without seeing. Wakes them right up when you zap 'em with the spot beam from the helmet light. This is one case where alien-abduction blue tint is perfect, really stands out from the orange streetlights and standard halogen headlights. Also great for lighting up corners when the bar-mount light is still pointing straight ahead.

Obligatory on-topic advice: I got a roll of velcro and used it almost like duct tape - ran it through the vents in my bicycle helmet to hold an LED flashlight on top my head. It makes an excellent supplement to my LED bar-mounted light by cateye, a triple 3 watt LED that works quite well for lighting up a road which has no street lights. The helmet light is for cornering and making sure those drivers in cross streets and driveways know I am coming.

Don't mess around with DealExtreme crappy lights when it comes to bicycle lighting. You want one that will not fall apart, go out, or change modes every time you hit a bump. Waterproof is also a great asset. Think of the light as a piece of safety equipment that will save your life, and that should make it easy to spend the money it takes to buy a high quality light that will not send you to the hospital or the morgue.

Max_Power said:

But they are great for spearing the typical zombie drivers who are always staring straight ahead without seeing. Wakes them right up when you zap 'em with the spot beam from the helmet light.

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Had to do this very thing this evening on my ride home from work. Big 4WD pick up turning right as I was coming into the intersection from his left side. He was looking down the road my direction, but didn't see me, despite my QAA on my bars and my Jet 3 Pro ST on my helmet. Flashed him dead on in the face with the hotspot from my Jet 3, and it still took him a moment to notice me and stop (I had the green light). But, stop he did, and when passing me after I had gone through the intersection, he crossed the double yellow nearly all the way over to the other side to avoid me.

200+ lumens in the face is sometimes a necessary evil to inflict on someone to keep them from running you over.

Max_Power said:

The problem with a light on your helmet is that it flattens everything out - no shadows to show how deep that hole is, or how big that rock is..

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Interestingly I get no such problem while night rollerblading. And believe me, the depth/height/size of any obstacle on the ground is a HUGE concern on rollerblades...

It could just be that my 20+ years of rollerblading experience gets me by there though.

Dude Dudeson said:

Interestingly I get no such problem while night rollerblading. And believe me, the depth/height/size of any obstacle on the ground is a HUGE concern on rollerblades...

It could just be that my 20+ years of rollerblading experience gets me by there though.

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If you have other ambient lighting besides the one on your head, then there are often enough shadow cues for your brain to calculate size and depth. On a pitch black road or trail, using only a head-mounted light, I find that those little bumps often turn out to be a lot bigger than they look.

Max_Power said:

If you have other ambient lighting besides the one on your head, then there are often enough shadow cues for your brain to calculate size and depth. On a pitch black road or trail, using only a head-mounted light, I find that those little bumps often turn out to be a lot bigger than they look.

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Oh I've done pitch black environments this week.

I'm finding that the positioning of the light in terms of shadowing is a complete non-concern, but this is coming from my 20+ years experience of rollerblading - many of which were done at night with NO lighting.

For a newbie skater at night, yes maybe this would be more of a concern...