mtb lights

By work overnight I'm guessing you know already that theres really nothing on the market that gives longer than about a 4 hour burn time. Most mid range lights you are are about 1.5-2.0 hours of burn. So the question really gets down to how many batteries you want to buy and what you are using them for.

Commuting you'll get away with 5W (halogen) no problems, off road minimum you'd want is 10W (imho).

I'm currently using a set of NiteFlux Visionsticks in the 10W model. I have 2x2200mha batteries that I rotate. They are good for my hour commute home in winter, they are adequate for firetrail riding at reasonable speed.

Ultimately if you are going to spend the big $$ NiteRider are a solid choice. A lot of the enduro riders I know use them. But to get 8-10 hours of burn and dual lamps (head and bar) expect to be paying over $1,000 including the additional batteries you'll need.

--brett

Hi Brett, This is all very new to me mtb riding at night, so I'm starting from the bottom, I would want a light that gave me 3 to 4 hours bike and helmet light.Riding on firetrails and single track, the niterider sound great but to many $$$, I was going to spend around $500.thanks ken

You're limiting the choices a bit here. Probably the minimum you're going to need to fill your requirement is going to be 2xlights and 4xbatteries. My initial question would be, have you ever ridden with a helmet mount light? People either tend to love or hate them. Personally I hate them and find bar mounts much more effective. Worth considering. For the dollars you want to spend you might consider the Nightflux Visionstick 20. It's a 15w bar mount and a 5w helmet mount and two batteries for about $300. You can get 2 of the 3000mah batteries for another $200. If you run the 2 included 2200mah batteries on the 5w unit that'll give you about 4 hours of light. Use the 2 3000mah batteries on the 15w unit and you'll get around 3 hours out of that.

Pretty close to what you are looking for but in reality a pretty low end type solution. As an example I use the 10w version of this, rode in heavy wet the other night and the halogen got water in it and eventually blew. Yes it's replaceable but it'd be nice if it was waterproof in the first instance.

--brett

[font=Comic Sans MS]Howzit,[/font]

[font=Comic Sans MS] Battery life and illumination are the MTB'RS delema, We have solved the problem by using a handlebar, mounted led light for going up the mountain, (about 50 hours of life) it gives enough light for slow riding and climbing but for coming down, single track and jeep track we need as much light as possible. I use a home built `12v 20watt,halogen downlighter bulb, and a small rechargeable battery used in burglar alarm’s, its built into a water bottle and gives about 40min life, they are light enough to carry 2.I have a larger battery that i carry in my backpack about 1.2 kilo's and that gives me about 110min burn time.[/font]

[font='Times New Roman'][font=Comic Sans MS]Cheers[/font].[/font]

ken888 said:

Hi, Does anybody have any info on lights for a mtb? I would need a set of lights for bike and helmet, not a cheap set but lights that are well made and work overnight. hope you can help. ken

There was a discussion over at aus.bicycle about Vicious lights. See cyclingforums.comt339416.htmlOpen ↗
Personally, I've got a Cateye EL500, which is great in terms of battery life, 20+ hours, but the beam is a bit narrow and not quite bright enough for me when above 25km/h.

I have just got a new Light & Motion Logic Solo Mv light with a NiMH battery . Nominal burn on full power is ~ 2hr, but much longer on lower power settings. The light is much brighter & stronger than a 10W Niterider Trail rat light system (which I also have/use). It cost me ~ $330 Au.

The 3 power settings are good, and burn times can be 4 hours at the low power settings.

On full power the light can be very dazzling to oncoming cyclists, so I try to keep it on lower power or point it down more than I would on a trail.

Even though the light is very good, obviously more caution is required as you can be riding at too high a speed for the path/trail.

Light & Motion make a version of their HID light set that gets over 6 hours burn time. Pricey though, no doubt!

I have the basic NiMH version of their HID system (3-3.5hr run time) and don't have enough good things to say about it. Everything you could think of in the light, is there.. even when you crash and break the light off the handlebars, it's designed so that a $1 washer breaks, rather than a $500 light unit (and yes I have "field tested" their design accidentally :o and it works exactly as it should)

http://www.bikelights.com/Products/arc_liion_ultra.htm

I bought mine from Phantom Cycles.

Glad I didn't my Cateye StadiumIII from Phantom. $1200. Ouch!! I only paid $600 on ebay for one that was brand new.
The cheapest HID is the Trailtech that only costs $134 USD without the battery or charger.
Masterinstruments at Marrickville willl make up a LiIon Polymer battery for a reasonable price and supply a matching charger.

I have just ordered some 5W K2 LED's from Luxeonstar which I am going to make into a helmet mounted light just for fun.

Cheers

Geoff