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picard said:
What do you guys think of Vegas LED 4watt bike light? Does it seem bright enough for the single track trail? This is the URL:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=111188
You have to scroll down the middle of the page to see the photos. I am considering of buying it.
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The beamshots look a lot brighter than I was expecting. If the prevailing available flux bin is still T (I've been absent for 6 months), there is no way that a single LuxIII is bright enough for safe trail riding, overdriven or not. With the proper optics, you can get adequate flood or throw, but not both - it just doesn't put out enough light. It's enough to ride home on, but I would run at least 2 (flood on the bars, medium-spot on the helmet) for normal use.
On the other hand, it's probably great for limited after-dark road riding. It looks easily intense enough to wipe out the confusing light/dark changes around street lights, and you can dial it back in complete darkness.
I'm curious if they buy a specific Lux bin, hopefully V0 or V1. Luxes are particularly ill-suited for trail riding because they lack red, so browns (e.g. trees) look dark or black. Apparently the warmer tints are less affected.
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eebowler said:
Here is their website. Somehow, I doubt that the LED would like to be driven at 4W while stuffed inside of a plastic body... Other than heat issues, it does look very interesting.
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The LED would
hate that. I have a modified plastic body light with external finned heatsink (admittedly a small one), and running 2 TV1Js on a BadBoy at 500mA definitely requires active airflow. This config produces around as much heat as 1 at >1000mA. A plastic body coupled with that overdrive would be a dealbreaker for me.
Are you sure that the body is plastic? I'm having a terrible time telling from the pictures, and I can't find a spec list that says it explicitly. I was looking at some of the older halogen models for a mod host, but a cheaper halogen does me no good if the body isn't metal.