4AA Propolymer Luxeon as Bike Light

I hacked my 4AA Propolymer lens down to get better side spill and it works great as an easy on/off bike light. I use two hose clamps, one regular on the handlebar and one I found on the net that has a thumb screw to attach it firmly. Makes a nice inexpensive, dual-purpose, bright, and long-lasting bike light. I don't use it at long intervals so the loss of heatsinking aluminum doesn't matter for me. It might be an issue for some though. And by the way that's an LED turn signal/brake light I got off eBay next to it.

Nice one chanamasala! I'll bet it's a hell of a lot brighter than the crappy flashing 5mm lights on most bikes.

One day I might end up putting my fenix L1 into a bracket on my bike, shouldn't need any hacking as the hot spot is wider to start with.

Then of course I'd need to buy another one to have in my pocket

Do you have any beamshots or can you describe the effect on the sidespill of having hacked the reflector?

I already use my SL PP 4AA Lux as a bike light, but in unmodded form; it does the job for me. I mount it on an existing Cateye bike computer base using a couple of large rubber bands. Takes just a second to put on and off. It's running beside an older 1 W Elektrolumens Elektrostar 4 AA headlamp tie-wrapped to another computer base. Together, they work quite nicely. In a pinch, I'd be happy with the SL alone, since it has adequate spill for me. SL has a real winner with this light.

Here are some quick beamshots of regular and mod, respectively, from about a meter:






I used a very small and cheap hacksaw. Took a good 25 or more minutes and some sweat. I cut about 1cm off the reflector(it wasn't a perfect cut so I get some ovoid splilage.) After then cutting the top cap I think I was lucky to get it to thread again.

impressive!

It's difficult looking at black on black, but do I see the O-ring exposed now? I'm assuming you had to hack both the reflector and the plastic top housing to get the lamp base to contact the battery electrodes. If so, do you think the water resistance has been significantly compromised?

In any case, you've obviously got lots of additional spill without changing the central hot spot very much.

Great job.

Also, those are very nice beamshots--they illustrate the beam very well.

Bob

I'm sure it's lost some waterproofness, it not all. But there still is threading that closes. But that breather valve is exposed now and maybe if rain hit that it would soak through.

Here are a few more pictures of it. There was a lot of aluminum dust that I vacuumed out before turning it on. I totally risked my light when doing it and lucked out that it still works. I don't think doing this will surely work all the time.

Too bad the threading doesn't go all the way to the lens because I'd like to try for more spill by cutting more off. But I think that might be pushing it.

Excellent photos! I think I'll stay with my stock light though -- it rains way too much here in Nova Scotia.

Hi chanamasala


Can you post the diameter of the Beam @ one and at 3 or 4 meter (i know last one are a bit tricky)

corona :xxxcm
hotspot: xxcm

please.

beamshot´s are nice but if i don´t have the light i hardly can imagine how they really look and feel.