Why don't we use bicycle light lamps?

Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

Some of the brightest innovations in lighting can be found in bicycle headlights. Ranging from 10 to 25 watts apiece, they generate an enormous amount of light from small lamp assemblies, using a variety of technologies: Xenon, Halogen, LED, HID.

Has anyone looked into modding, say, a 10 or 15-watt bicycle headlight into a powerful handheld floodlight?

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

Please enlighten me to what they do better, I don't see it. If you removed the batteries and the part of the flashlight holding the batteries, then it would look pretty small and impressive as well.

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

I have a friend who uses his niterider moab hid as a flashlight all the time. Personally I'm more interested in something like the the Cateye Doubleshot or Tripleshot though I don't understand why nobody makes a good handheld form with a simple way to mount it on a bike! ( the Inova T4 would make a GREAT bike light!)

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

I haven't seen numbers to prove that the best bike lights yield more lumens per watt than best flashlights. Maybe they don't. But on an absolute basis, they deliver a bright wall of light, typically in a flood or semiflood pattern. I'll admit, they use a lot of watts. But they're able to dissipate a lot of heat from a small lamp housing. Most are powered from lithium-ion cells. It seems to me that someone could team a 15W bike light with four Pila 168A cells mounted in two columns (2 x 2), if these lights are designed to take 14V. If they're designed for 12V, then maybe three Pila 150S cells in two columns side by side.

All the good stuff is reviewed by users here.

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

Now THAT would be a pretty kick-*** light. Hello, all you guys out there with the lathes and such!!!!

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

What Paul said. Some of those light setups are SICK! I want one! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

I've got a 15w bicycle headlamp and it runs on a 6v 4.5ah Nimh battery. I've also got another side by side 10w + 20w bicycle light that runs on a "30 watt-hour" Ni-Cad battery. (unusual battery specification) Honestly, I don't think I've seen any bike lights running on lithium-ions....but then, I haven't really been looking, either.

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

Paul...interesting idea...plus they are shock resistant and probably highly water resistant

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

You guys should talk to me. I've got well over $1300 invested in my bike lights.

They are bright, but get waaaaay too hot sitting in still air. Also, battery packs tend to be on the large and heavy side. Most of these lights are about like a magcharger split in half (head/battery tube) with a larger-than-normal battery capacity.

The biggest advantage bike lights have going for them is in the bulbs they use. The mr11 bulbs can REALLY put out a LOT of light. Properly managed, their luminous efficiency is tremendous, bypassing everything except HID lights.

In final practice, you've got lights that are pretty similar to wilkey's mods. TONS of lumens... maybe something like 40 watts of power used... and runtime that WOULD suck if it weren't for the huge battery packs.

My main light I race with is a 38w halogen light, and the battery pack will run it for 2 hours. The pack is 10 "D" nicd batteries. I know that could be replaced with some "C" nimh cells, but the nicd pack seems to handle abuse much better.

Frankly, I'm not interested in toting large handheld lights around anymore. I sold my magcharger and 3 stingers because of this. I even sold my U2 because it was too large and heavy.

Most GOOD bike lights are bright because:
1. they use a lot of watts
2. they are overvolting the lamps

Overvolting an mr11 or mr16 is easier because the bulbs are typically spec'd for 2000 hours under normal use. You can push the crap out of them and STILL get 100 hours from them.

Willie hunt has made some regulators just for bike lights. I keep saying that I'm gonna tweak my setup some and add this part in. I figure that I can boost my light output by maybe 50% or so if I push my bulbs even farther.

So far, my oldest bike lights, which are my primary ones, are about 6 years old. They are all on the original bulbs, and show no signs of darkening.

I usually get noticed at the races... typically with comment like "what are those lights? and where can I get some?".

The HID lights are bright, but I'm not real fond of the beam patterns nor the color temperature. There's a lot of dirt in mtn bike racing, and the hid's color temp doesn't bring it out very well. Besides that, they are so expensive that people just have 1 light. I really prefer 2 for good visibility.

That said, I think a custom made light that used an mr11 bulb would be pretty slick. It would have a nice "cool" factor, but I wouldn't want to have to actually use it.

Re: Why don\'t we use bicycle light lamps?

Wow, thanks, Turbodog. That was illuminating. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Unlike many of us, bicycle riders actually NEED a very bright light. Their willingness to pay has created a large market that rewards innovation.

Like torches, bike lights have their politics and friendly rivalries. NightRider (Niterider?) is the leader of the pack, the Surefire of bike lights. But a number of challengers are regularly reviewed as "brighter than Niterider," with comments like, "I passed a guy using NiteRiders, who asked, "What IS that?"

If someone were to use a bike lamp as a starting point for a rechargeable, 3C-size king of floods, he might take a 10W HD11 bulb and drive it to 15W. It sounds as though heat management will become a key challenge, possibly limiting the output to 10W or two 7.5W lamps, each in its own housing. As for batteries, I'm thinking that the Surefire M6 approach would work best (two series of cells, in parallel), but with Pila 168A cells to handle the current.