LED lights for Mtn Biking

First off, let me say what a great site and what wonderful information I've received here.


I'm relatively new to this group but have been searching the web for information on LED
style lights that would be bright enough and
wide enough that they could be used for
mountain bike night riding.

I've seen a few sites with excellent reviews
on LED lights but I don't have enough
experience to compare relative performance
with say, a 10W Halogen system. Can anyone
tell me if any of the LED systems could be
used effectively for Mtn bike riding?
they need to be as bright as a 10 Watt
Halogen and must be able to project at
least 20-30 feet and have a beam about
10-15 feet wide.

thanks for any help or URL's you can point me too.

BTW, I'm not familiar with all the message
icons, instant graemlins, etc so please
excuse this post if it does not confirm to
the standards of this forum.

Zaki,
Welcome to the Forum. I have a road bike which is a bit, well a lot different but needs a lot of light just the same, and for a while I was going 12 miles to work before dawn, some of which was pitch dark gravel surface. I found that even a 10 watt halogen was inadequate for any real speed. LEDs are just too diffuse-you need some throw from the beam when you're approaching a large troublespot at 35mph, and a helmet. In my estimates one would need over 100 Nichia whites to even get started there, and the cost of that is >=$180 just for bulbs. The white LED is very diffuse, beautiful, and efficient, but inherently not suited to long targets. My advice: Niterider, TurboCat, and Cateye lightsets (no affiliation). I have a TurboCat S15 halogen powered by Hawker-Cyclons; I get reasonable minimum outputs for 90 minutes per cycle. I am planning to upgrade this year. HID or "arc" lights are now available for bikes and diving, and boy, they're good. They set you back in the initial buying phase, but they are worth it in the sense that you get what you pay for. Arc-HID technology is highly efficient, high in overall power, and superior in tint or color temp. You can see more and with more detail in the image. I would leave LEDs at home where they are great for short range app's. I hope this is helpful.

Hi Zaki,

My principal interest with LEDs is with cycling, which are just now starting to compete, energy-wise, with halogens.

Unfortunately, cost-wise, they have a long way to go. The best LED I have seen is the one-watt Luxeon Star/O which costs about $14.

You would need at least ten of them to provide the same light output as a 10-watt halogen, and they won't fit into the same space, although you can mount them in various places on the bike, and in that way they're perhaps more versatile, and certainly more cool looking, especially if you use exotic colors like amber and cyan in addition to white.

A drawback to the LS is that their specs are not yet very consistent from device to device, and each LS needs about 350mA (at around 3.4 volts) to achieve maximum brightness, which is incompatible with typical NiMH battery systems.

However, a constant-current driver circuit that can put out 3.5 amps for an hour or two might solve that problem. I'll be working on a smaller version of the same circuit hopefully later next week.

Welcome Zaki; Great that you've gotten some very good advice already. As for biking, there are no good LED lights to be used as headlamps for off road night biking. LEDs cast a slight off white color (with the LS being closer to white), which can be very bright and perfect to use around familar locations. The light produced can be used to identify colors very well. They work quite well when you use them on a trail hike, if your light is very bright. If your light seems bright up to about 50 feet in your yard (familar location), then it will be usable to about 15 feet in the hike (unfamilar areas).

Using this idea as a bike mounted headlight, I would think you would want the entire front path brightly lighted for at least 30 feet. This means that you would be able to test your light within the yard up to about a bright 90 feet. Seems to be a halogen type of light powered by gel cells.

Also, the white LEDs seems to make some colors more plesant looking. Tree roots look more friendly with LEDs as opposed to filament lamps. This is OK for hiking, as you have time to analyze them, but for biking, I would think you want them to stand out. For some reason, halogen lamps really make tree roots scream and tells every part of you to stop. If you can, experiment with this and you can make your own observations.

I love LED lights, but not as headlights and for underwater spotting. I think it has a far way to go in handling these applications.

I have been using a Cateye HID bike light for about four years. I paid for the technology when they first came out but will say that it was worth it. The prices have not come down but the new generation lights are much better than mine. I love LEDs as much as the next flashaholic but will say that a couple more generations of development will have to occur before they become even semi viable alternatives. As backup lamps, they are probably quite viable now as long as you are riding slowly in areas that you have great familiarity. I have used two eternalights on bike rides and can go about 10 MPH on good roads with no problem. Off road, I would suspect that ten eternalights may work at slow speeds. As such stick with incandescents or get a HID if $ is not an issue.

Yeah, welcome on(bulletin-)board, Zaki, and what an interesting question you raise. I add mine: has anyone tried the HDS Action Light for mountainbiking? I'd rather hoped this might be the answer; and had further hoped there might be a braver – richer! – soul out there who'd already bunged one on a bike.

I too have been looking for powerful bike-lighting with really long run-time. So far it looks like 'ride slowly, run dim' or 'take at least one change of battery' is the way to go. Anyone know any better?

Pierce The Night (or stray off the trail!)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pierce the Night:
I add mine: has anyone tried the HDS Action Light for mountainbiking?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It does not put out enough light (It's just not aimed at this market). And it does not have the best beam pattern for a bike light.

Lupine makes a LED bicycle lght, but it is also not as bright as your usual MTB lights.

In central Europe you have to use a 2.4W bulb when biking on public roads, this may be realistic for 2-3 Lumileds soon.

An ActionLight was used on Iditabike some time ago (maybe 1999).

Them thar HID's are very nice stuffs.

What about kogatana's LED
Topic: la luce infinita (The endless light) @ http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=11&t=000033

Don't know about the suitability for biking, but they are bright, and come with a ball-n-socket attachment system.

lightlover

Sheesh, that KT fellow features everywhere these days ......

Hi all! thanks for the nice, warm welcome! I'm
already starting to feel right at home! and
thanks for the great info. I have a couple of
follow-up questions and comments to this thread.
I am currently running a 3 light halogen
system (5W and 10W on the handlebar and 10W on the helmet).
The helmet light is important for turns, the handlebar lights only light
straight ahead so the helmet light allows me to get light on the important point on
the turn. the 5W handlebar is for a wide area directly in front and
the 10W is for lighting deep in front of me.
I'm now thinking that the White LED light
could be used for replacing the 5 watt area
light and keep the 2 x 10W for deep lighting.
The benefit of having shock proof LED's for mtn biking will insure I'm never 100% dark!

so my follow-up questions, how hard can
I drive these LED's (current wise) and still
get approx 300-400 hrs of life from the
LED's? the next question, does anyone have
an idea where I can look to see what color
lights will give the best contrast for
riding in various terrains (ie green forested
areas, brown savana areas, etc.).

I do have some electrical and mechanical
skills to design and implement a moderately complex system.

thanks!

If you have well-designed MR11s they should take care of the wide angle spread for area lighting- as well as produce a decent spot for longer range. Hence you shouldn't really need a dedicated flood light. An important point is that MR11s really vary in quality. TurboCats for example cost more, but they do better at dividing the beam up between spot and flood.

While it's true that for mountain biking, a bright, white light is best, that's not necessarily the case for road biking.

As a night cyclist, you want to be NOTICED, not just by your friends, but more importantly, by motorists, and the cool colors really help.

I'm amazed at how long cars sit at intersections as I pedal through. They notice the cyan light and stop, which is exactly what I want them to do. Even a 30-watt white light isn't that noticeable on a street bathed in amber street light, and there's nothing scarier than being cut off by a car that didn't see you, for whatever reason.