lights for night riding

[rapiddescent]

here in scotland - it is about 5pm and its nearly dark outside!  so most of the folk I ride with continue to ride through the winter but with big light rigs.  last year - the majority of riders where using high power halogen units from "Lumicycle" - however, this year quite a few of us (including me) have switched to LED units.  Of course, in the summer, we were riding in bright daylight at 11pm ....

what night lights do you use?

• USE Maxx Enduro 3xLED unit
• TTT

I've got the new MaxxD on order - its 4xCREE LED with 960 lumens for that true alien encounter experience.  It is a great unit because it has no wires and has an extremely pimpy flash mode.

The TTT is a Tesco Torch for a Tenner.  This translates into a torch that a major UK supermarket where selling that was 10 GBP (about 20 dollars) that has a single very bright CREE LED unit and mountain bikers everywhere bought them and made them into helmet lamps!

callum

[DugB]

I use a NiteRider TriNewt on the handlebars (around 485 lumens, 3 hr batt on high, 7 on low) and a homebrew helmet light using a 3 CREE LED MagLits replacement module (around $60 on eBay) which also pumps out 500 lumens, but if a bit more focused than I'd like.

I'd love to have one of the Hope Vision 2-LED stem mounted units, but worry that the Crosslink linkage might bump the bottom of the battery...plug, they're expensive for the battery life.

- Doug

[Thunderchild]

I have been riding in dark morning hours for over a month.  I have been using Vista lights, the smaller ones, for several years.  I mainly use the helmet mount(battery fits in camelbak), but occasionally I will use a handlebar mounted light (battery mounts to the side of the water bottle cage).  I picked up a set when they were being closed out a few years ago and have added several more lights and batteries purchased on ebay.  I have had the battery sticks rebuilt with newer higher capacity (milliamp hour) batteries, so I can now get 2-hours from one stick with a 10-watt bulb and 4-hours with a 5-watt bulb. 

One in our riding group has an HID light that had been mostly trouble free, but it was expensive.  I have had zero problems with mine so far.  I will most likely move to LED lights when my vistas are all burned out and dead. 

Thunderchild

[Colin]

Which TTT did you buy Callum? a link to it if it's on-line would be good.

I bought a SMART halogen light a couple of years ago for my night rides down here in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.
It's got a single quite small headlight and is quite nifty because a single handlebar button controls on/off and 3 light intensities up to 20W, it runs off a 12v Ni-Cad bottle cage battery.
The light intensity was amazing when I got it, but it's soon been overtaken in technology, also, it's downside is that the battery is very heavy (~1Kg) and it takes 16hrs to recharge!

And just recently I got a Petzl Tikka XP LED headlight,
http://en.petzl.com/petzl/LampesProduits?Produit=555

The 3 x AAA batteries last for 120hrs, I haven't the faintest idea what LED it uses, but it produces a fantastic spot on only 35 Lumens main beam and has adjustable output and it fits easily onto the front of my helmet with a couple of cable ties.

I've been so amazed by how good that is, that I started doing some research on LED lights and have been very impressed by the Exposure range, but less impressed by the price! (~£280!!) LED technology is leaping ahead very quickly at the moment. Cree, Seoul, Luxeon and others are continually surpassing each other.

So.......Inspired by the Maxx Enduro,


I've just started building myself a triple Seoul P4 LED light:


It'll run at 1000mA and the LED's are classed as 3.5W each.
Light output should be 720 lumens and should easily outshine the 20Watts of my old Smart.  It'll run off a 12V 1800mA Li-Ion battery that is really small and lightweight and should give me a couple of hours of run time (I'll include a dimmer control to conserve power and stop blinding people)
The parts cost about £70.
Headlight unit will be 50mm diameter by 65mm long and the battery is 100mm x 23mm x 60mm

I'm getting a real buzz from researching and planning this light, it's ages since I did an electronic project (I used to work in an electonics development lab) so I've become a complete anorak on the subject!

I'll post piccies as I go along.............

Col.

[jeffhop]

i use a cygolite hid as a main light backed up with 2x300 lumen led torches on the bars and a 120 lumen led torch on my lid, my torches cost £14 each including p&p from hong kong and almost hold their own against a wilma that my mate uses. ive been looking for the ttt at my local store but have yet to find one.

[shovelon]

I use a Light&Motion Halogen on my helmet, and a Nightsun on my bars. I use the Nightsun on lowbeam during a climb, then on descent I light up the helmet and bars on highbeam. The barmount reveals shadowing for depth perception, while the helmetmount lights up terrain on cornering.

Went this way initially because I kept getting stranded with dead battery.

Time to get them out.

Terry

[RhinoDave]

My lights are as old as my bikes. I run a Niterider Digital headtrip halogen on my helmet that I've yanked the digital components out of and run a straight 15 watt output. I built two additional 4500mah battery packs that fit in a water bottle cage so I have three packs to make sure I don't run out of light. I also have a set of Schwinn Mod three halogens that are mounted to the handlebar and have another battery pack that straps to the top tube. Both systems are 6 volt. I usually only run both sets in certain sections of trail. i suppose I'll eventually have to switch when these finally die but I really don't ride fast enough to require landing lights in the woods.

[Luke]

Hi
I’ve been commuting on with my lights for a month already 
I’m not a retro grouch but the Niterider blowtorch HID I got in 2002 with a special deal for sending in my old, dead NR has been fantastic!
This autumn I had to replace a couple of cells in the battery pack because of corrosion. After all this time the seal was compromised and I think I must have put it away wet.
I’m very curious about these LED developments, but the French aren’t hot on night riding so I never get to see any to compare. They must be good because the HID offerings are getting scarce.
On my morning ride in, I drop 850 m in 15km with 7k off road. The HID allows me to ride just as fast as in summer (ground wetness permitting).
On the climb home, I actually prefer riding in the dark on the road sections; with my HID nobody, but really nobody, overtakes in the opposite direction on the “it’s only a bicycle” grounds (I smash at least two wing mirrors each summer because of this problem)
I’ve been flagged down by police on a cycle path, they wanted to fine me for riding a motorbike on the cycle, “but I haven’t got a motorbike officer!”.
About four hours burn time from the 4Ah Nimh 500g water bottle pack.
It’s really really paid for itself.

Been thinking about bodging a more powerful HID using the little retrofit quad bike units, but until the NR dies it’s not urgent.

Landing lights rule!

On the downside (yes there is one) I dropped the head unit while it was still hot while rushing into the office. New bulb = 100 dollars!!!
Ouch.

[alistair]

Cateye 520 and a MaxxD ( I got it the other day, did not mean to, but it was just so much brighter than the other lights in the shop) so far really, really impressed, almost already justified itself in my own mind at least. The pattern is very even and just fades off to the edges so you don't get a sharp cut off, I think is somewhere between my cars' dipped and main beam.  For years only had basic lights so never really gone out much after dark, this is the first one I can go at normall pace off road and not feel I am squinting into the shadows. Even after a couple of rides ( bits on/off road) I have noticed other road users cannot miss you, most of the time do not need to run it on maximum, so should last ages. Around town the strobe is fun, you can get an entire streets worth of signs flashing back at you, 100m+.

For going properly off road I am looking to attach my Alpkit Gamma as a helmet light to see around corners, it is almost as bright as the MaxxD on Low but with a narrower beam and is only about £12.

[rapiddescent]

  I know what you mean by having an entire streetscape of sign posts flashing back at you!  I get that with my Maxx Enduro (my MaxxD arrives this week!).  I've been out in some truly foul weather lately with it and it is brilliant.

by the way - tonight, if you are out night riding then look out for the tauroid meteors - there should be one every 5 minutes or so. 

In the UK it is Guy Faulks night where we celebrate the burning down of the UK Parliment (in Scotland) and the celebration of *not* burning down Parliment (in England)  .  So there are typically fireworks and burning effigies and that sort of thing.  I think I'll ride out of town and view it all from our local hills (about 1000ft climb).

callum

[Colin]

Callum,
I thought up there, you'd be building a "wicker man" ?

It's not safe to go to Scotland......... I've seen the films!     <GRIN>

Col.

[Tel]

Callum,
I thought up there, you'd be building a "wicker man" ?

It's not safe to go to Scotland......... I've seen the films!     <GRIN>

Col.

I`ve seen Britt Eckland count me in

[Tel]

Has anyone tried these, they were given a great review in singletrack magazine last month, they give an average width beam, but having two lamps you can separate the beams to give yourself a nice bright corridoor to ride through. The kit is good and it looks like you can buy the bits seprately. The only downer was the bar mount was bit involved.
  http://www.ayup.com.au/lighting.php

[Colin]

Has anyone tried these, they were given a great review in singletrack magazine last month, they give an average width beam, but having two lamps you can separate the beams to give yourself a nice bright corridoor to ride through. The kit is good and it looks like you can buy the bits seprately. The only downer was the bar mount was bit involved.
  http://www.ayup.com.au/lighting.php

They look great!

I'm in the process of making my own set of LED lights, see above, and the main difficulty is the hardware, i.e. the body to mount the LED/lens/heatsink into and the handlebar mount.
Most of the cost is in the manufacture labour, the parts are pretty cheap.

The LED's that AYUP use (Cree Q5's) are fantastic (and R2's are on their way! Even more Lumens!)
and Li-Po batteries, with 3/6 Hr run times wow!
I would have used Cree's but they didn't suit the triple lens arrangement that I want and so I have used Seoul P4 U-Bin LEDs which are equivalent to Q5's.

I'm planning to put the Li-Ion battery into a small neoprene case and strap it under the handlebar stem, just as these have been done. It'll only give me about 2hrs run time, but that's fine for me and just means that I charge it for every ride.

These AYUP lights look really well made and well thought out, I'm almost tempted!

We're in the middle of a LED lighting revolution. Given the run times and Lumen output of LED's, HID's and Halogens are dead!

I reckon Hong Kong/China manufactured ones will hit the market soon and then the prices will tumble!

Col.

[alistair]

Callum,

I'm not sure you will find the MaxxD much brighter than your Enduro, in the literature that came with it there are some output charts, the MaxxD appears to have a shorter throw but is much wider. Having said that on the couple of rides I have used mine so far I think it has been useful to get an extra fraction of a seconds' warning of all the suicidel rabbits that insist on running in front of me.

I did look at making a light, down by my feet are the remains of my last effort about ten years ago ( 20W halogen and 12v drill batteries), but came to the conclusion to get the same performance I would be looking at similer money and unless you know what you are doing with electronics you cannot get the same sophistication. The AyUps look really good value and have seen them get really good reviews but I can see where the extra has gone into the MaxxD, the four LED lens is cast as a single bit, the power level indicator (really useful the led touch I have been using just stops working with no warning), the different modes, the thermal regulation ( which I found out does work when I was trying to run the battery flat indoors).

I did find something at work which put the cost slightly in perspective, I have a project that is going to use some strip lighting and have had to do a fair bit of research into various leds performance. A basic led light is about £10/m, the led unit we are probably going to use is £100/m and I need about 45m.