Good LED bike light

I've been a lurker on the forums for a while, but just recently decided to take part in some of the discussion. I've been a flashaholic for awhile and was very surprised to find such a large forum dedicated to it. Typically I get eyerolls when people find out how much I pay for some of these things.

It was also a bonus that there are topics in the forum for watches, knives, and other EDCable gadgets. I'm addicted to those too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif All that's missing is a pen discussion. I find them similar to flashlights, watches, knives, etc in that they involve finding the perfect blend of form, function, and aesthetics.

At anyrate, while not strictly flashlight related, does anyone have any recommendations for good LED bike lights? I'm looking for both one to light the way and a rear light that would help keep you from getting run over. Most of the ones I've seen haven't been of real quality. It'd be nice to see a surefire or arc of led bike lights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Here ya go!!!

What about a rear light? I've not seen anyone build one out of single or multiple LS. I sure would like one!

Welcome to CPF!

There have been some nice LED bike lights built by individuals here on the forum, but as yet, bike light manufacturers have seemingly been slow to jump on the LED bandwagon for some reason.

Planet bike and Cat-Eye I believe have announced soon to be released Luxeon lights, but I'm not sure they're available as yet...

Several members have mounted Arcs/Shurefires/customs such as the McLux or whatever to use as a headlight.

There are some decent red LED tail-lights for bikes, though usually made of plastic. I have an older Vista-Lite 7-LED that works well for me. Another member (Velcro) likes the Planet Bike unit.

Keep reading/searching, and save up your money 'cuz you're gonna need it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Again, Welcome to CPF!

John

I am very happy with my NiteRider LED tail light.

Linky

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Illuminated said:
There are some decent red LED tail-lights for bikes, though usually made of plastic. I have an older Vista-Lite 7-LED that works well for me. Another member (Velcro) likes the Planet Bike unit.

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I have a Vista-Lite 7-LED tailight that works great for me also. Velcro did a review a while back of it, so you might want to do a search for that.

Personally, I use a Cateye LD-600 as my tail light, and currently I use an ElektroLumens Blaster VI as my headlight. I'm working with my dad on a light based upon the Fraen Tristar optics and (3) Luxeon-III, running direct drive from 2 or 4 17670/18650 Li-Ion cells.

Why not make your own? That's what I did. I drilled holes in a standard rear reflector and put 5 5000 mcd red LEDs in the holes. I made a simple flasher circuit from a 555 timer IC, and ran two wires to the front of the bike to get power from my headlight batteries (4 AA NiMH 1800 MaH cells). For the headlight I used 20 8000 mcd ChiWing white LEDs in two series strings of ten. I made a simple step-up circuit from two transistors, an inductor, and a few other parts. The headlight originally used a 2.4W halogen bulb running on four AAs. I removed the bulb and reflector but kept the front lens for the mod. A built in switch with a resistor lets me have low/high settings. The driver circuit is about 88% efficient, and drives the LEDs to a total power of ~1.8W on high and 1W on low. Brightness is easily double that of the halogen bulb on high, and about the same on low.

Shown below is the schematic. I used a 100 uH inductor from my spare parts, replaced Q2 with a ZTX449, and R2 with a 1.2K resistor. I also added a Schottkey diode and 100 uF capacitor to filter the output so it's smooth DC instead of pulses. Substituting Q1 with another ZTX449 (which would allow reducing R1 by a factor of about ten), combined with a more efficient inductor would probably get efficiency over 95%.



For a long time I didn't bother with lights on my bike even though I ride a lot at night because I couldn't afford to continually replace $5 bulbs which seemingly burned out at least every month, and sometimes more (and it's annoying having your light quit on you in the middle of a ride). Short battery life added to the annoyances. LEDs are a boon for bike lights (and any small lighting needs) as they extend battery life, never burn out, and are much more efficient than the smaller size incandescent bulbs. In fact, the pure white or slightly bluish light is about twice as effective for seeing per photopic lumen as halogen, so you win twice.

Just one caveat-whatever you make or buy use rechargeable batteries. Using disposable batteries in something that sees heavy use like a bike light ends up costing a fortune (and adds to landfill).

felder,
Welcome to the CPF! I exclusively use LEDs for my cycling lighting needs and it works out well. For the helmet mount light, I use a minimag 2AA with an R2H Luxeon LED driven at 500mA (around 1.65 watts) To narrow the beam somewhat, I threw in a Fraen Low Profile collimating optic and it works very well at speeds of around 15MPH (25KPH) A Kroll tailswitch provides the on/off duties and mineral glass replaces the plastic lens. Throw some lock-tite on the threads of the head and adjust for best beam and remove the optics (drying lock-tite will cloud the optics) This helps cool the LED and prevent people from screwing with the head.
I ride a recumbent bicycle so I added a frame-mounted light. Took a 2D Mag, a R2H Luxeon Star LED, a Madmax+ voltage regulator, a heatsink and cutdown the Mag's optics and put it together. Very, very long throw with a rather narrow beam that augments the helmet light and runs for 8 hours on 2D cells. I only use the two lights together in the winter time, for summer it is just the helmet light in case I need it.
Next year, two Luxeon III LEDs in series using the LEDynamics 7V 725mA regulator to drive them. 8 AA NiMH batteries in a 2D Mag with two Pelican optics turned down to fit. That is the plan, we shall see how it all works out.
Elektrolumens can build you the triple Luxen III bike light as Jace linked above. Luxeon powered rear flashers are a different story. I have a Luxeon mounted in a rear flasher that used to push five red LEDs. The flasher only pushes 2.0 volts from the two AAA batteries so it is decent but not very bright.
I do have an old VistaLite 2AA that flashed five green-yellow LEDs laying around. Tomorrow I will tear it apart and mount my red LS in place of the five 5mm LEDs. The lithiums should push the LS harder as they have a higher voltage. From what I recall, the green-yellow LEDs are driven at a higher voltage so I might get some decent light out of it.
My main rear flasher is an Emerson 18-LED flasher...it is very noticable and quite bright. Keep us posted on what craziness you are planning for your lighting needs.

I would love to have Wayne's bike light. Here's another URL for a Luxeon bike light made in New Zealand:

http://www.nightlightning.co.nz/multisporters.htm

No price...
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

rdwilson,
That is a nice light, I know I can't afford it but.... how much? Now the exchange rate between the NZ $ and the US $ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

BTW exchange rate is a wallet comforting 1 $US= 1.69 $NZ.
Lights sound interesting.

FWIW, the NiteRider taillight can only be used in conjunction with a NiteRider battery. Even though it is a nice light, I think it's way overpriced. But that's just my opinion. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Felder, are you looking for a front light so people can see you, or do you want something you can actually see things with? For taillights, there are a couple of really good options. I would recommend the following:

Smart 7-LED, sold as the Planet Bike BRT 1 in the US.



A very good light for city use because it has 7 LED's that point in five different directions for 180° of visibility. Very compact, very durable, reasonable battery life and excellent water-resistance! Steady, flashing and chase light-modes. Uses 2 "AAA" batteries. Comes with two different size mounting brackets (1 normal, 1 small) and rubber spacers so it can fit practically everywhere. FYI, the smaller bracket can be used to mount the light on round edges of most beam mount racks. A light that is comparable to it is the Vistalite Eclipse that Aaron and John mentioned. I personally prefer the Smart because it is brighter in the flash-mode and is more easy to change batteries.


Another good light is the Cateye LD-600.



It's much brighter then the BRT 1, but it's also much more focused. I think a less then 80° angle at best. Has 5 LED's (each with optical lens) that point straight to the rear (as you can see). It has flashing, steady, side-to-side (ala Knightrider) and random light-modes. Uses 2 "AAA" batteries. I read about water-resistance problems with this light at Mtbreview.com. I haven't had any problems so far myself, perhaps time should tell. Having owned (and still using) several different taillights, I can tell you that this light, along with the Trek Disco Inferno, is one of the brightest stand-alone taillights on the market today. No kidding.


Another very good light is the Trek Disco Inferno.



The Trek has 5 LED's that point in five directions for 330° of visibility. Of course, between each LED is a 'gap' where there is no direct light, but since the whole light is transparant it has quite some visibility off-axis. Each LED is positioned inside a special lens/reflector that helps cast an output that is just slightly less bright then the Cateye, which is quite a performance considering that the Cateye has all it's LED's pointing straight backwards. So the Cateye is brighter directly on-axis whereas the Trek is generally better visible (thus safer) because it covers a much wider angle. One pushbutton controls slow-flash, fast-flash and steady-beam light-modes, a second pushbutton allows you to choose between 3 LED's or 5 LED's. The mounting bracket looks a bit like the one from the Vistalite Eclipse. It's adjustable so you can mount it on different diameter seatposts and such. Personally, I don't really like it. The adjustable band doesn't seem to mount as tight as those regular one-piece brackets and so doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Fortunately, you can attach the slide-in bracket to the traditional round one-piece brackets such as those made by Cateye and Smart (Smart lights btw are branded as Planet Bike in the US) if you would like to. There are also some water-resistance problems reported with this light, but I rode in a couple of downfalls and haven't had any problems so far.

These three are superb lights at reasonable prices. Whichever you think suits you best depends on your preferences of brightness vs. visibility. If you have any questions left, feel free to ask me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

For the head light I'm more concerned with being able to see stuff, particularly the ground out in front.

I took my 5 year old Vistalite 5 LED "yellow-green" flasher and cut all the diodes off. Took a red Luxeon and mounted it on a thin metal plate and tapped it around the old board and soldered the +/- wires in one of the old LED holes.
It ran on 2AA so I put a pack of lithiums in and it is very interesting. Since the lens is clear, the Luxeon is very noticable and lights up the lens a different red than my 18-LED flasher. More of a medium red with a slight orange tint so it is quite different from the other flasher. The different flash rates and different shades of red make the dual-flasher setup very noticable and bright.
The Luxeon/2AA flasher has a mission in life, when it drops to -8C (20F) the big 18-LED flasher's alkalines freeze up and it shuts down. The Lithium Luxeon flasher just keeps plugging along. Two equals one and one equals none when riding in the winter months.
Checked the flasher voltage and it was 2.26 volts with lithiums VS 2.00 volts with alkalines. Nice increase in light!

I have a Planet Bike brt-7. It has 7 red LEDs, and supposedly has a 220° visibility. Three of the LEDs face toward the rear, two (one on each side) are at a 45° angle, and the other two (one on each side) are at a 90° angle.

The package says 7 Super-bright LEDs aimed 5 ways for 220°+ visibility up to 2000 ft.

And, according to the package, it includes
Bike Mounts
Clip Mount
Arm Strap
2 AAA Cells

I have this mounted to the back of my electric wheelchair (using the smaller of two bike mounts included), but it's mounted horizontally instead of vertically, so the wide visibility angle doesn't really apply here.

Craig, when will you be adding it to your website?

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Velcro said:
Craig, when will you be adding it to your website?

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I don't have a bicycle, and can't use one, so I can't test it properly. That's why it isn't on my website.
If I put it up there at all, it will be in a format that isn't a true "review". Maybe on the Miscenallenous glowing things page or something, if it gets up there at all.
Sorry I don't have better news for you here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif