Lights

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by Cgt75b

Hello folks

I'm looking to buy some powerful winter front bike lights, can anyone recommend some reasonably priced ones ?

Many thanks for any help

Patrick [IMG]files.cyclingforums.combig smile.pngOpen ↗[/IMG]

I would not purchase from a bike shop or even [censored]'s or Wal-Mart !

I just completed a conversion of a 1993 Dianond Back Ascent MTB to a Commuter and you will be amazed if you look at bike shops and then buy off eBay ! I bought a very usable 5 bulb LED front lamp and 10 bulb with 5 settings rear red light and a full trip computer for $6.00 and You could buy 2 for $12.00 and have a really sweet set-up for $12.00 and I received mine 3 days after pmt from CA to GA very good vender and a quality easy to install lights and computer ! ! !

!Well worth the $ $ $ $ and a spare computer and an extra rear light and I even bought 4 of the smaller rubber band type that mount anywhere for $3.00 a pr that was one pr. of white and red and a second paur of red and white !

lol . . . . .I am learning to ride this old hard core MTB converted to a Commuter and all the lights have held up well with several time of the bike sliding out from under me and stuffed in the back of my 2 dr Explorer and stll no broken lights or any damage and still burning bright off of AA batteries what we used to call pen light batieries and not the small more expensive ones and Home Deoot just put theirs on sale for dirt cheap for tis the season [IMG]files.cyclingforums.comsmile.pngOpen ↗[/IMG]

I highly recommend looking at shops and buying off eBay I have been very pleased and the price was to good to be true the only better deal would have been free [IMG]files.cyclingforums.comsmile.pngOpen ↗[/IMG]

Cgt75b said:

Hello folks I'm looking to buy some powerful winter front bike lights, can anyone recommend some reasonably priced ones ? Many thanks for any help Patrick :big-smile:

What's a reasonable price for you? Cygolite has some pretty reasonable options. Cateye has a few, also. Note that the very inexpensive cheap lights on eBay may not be such a great deal as some have been known to fail. Another thing to keep in mind is how brightness (intensity. Note that lumens are a measure of power in the light, but intensity is most often--at least for lights--is the measure of light power in a given area, like for instance lumens/sq. meter) of lights is typically measured and advertised: lumens. The number of lumens a bike light has does not necessarily tell you anything how well a light will work for you. A 1000 lumen headlight with a crappy reflector and a crappy lens can produce light of lower intensity than another light with significantly fewer lumens. Road.cc, a British bicycle e-magazine, has a good library of bike flight tests that allows you to compare light performance visually and graphically between two lights. You can see at the bottom of this page such a comparison. You'll note that above the first photos at the bottom of the page are two drop down boxes that allow you to choose the lights to compare. Note I picked the light on the page arbitrarily. I don't recommend it. I use an Ay Up headlight and have for about 4 years. Mine is a 300 lumen headlight, and it's provided all the light I've needed for riding at night, be that riding on city streets or down mountain roads. I prefer a headlight that can mount on my helmet as that allows me to direct light where i look, be that riding through a corner or at driver's eyes to get his or her attention when they're on a street that crosses mine.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by Cgt75b

Hello folks

I'm looking to buy some powerful winter front bike lights, can anyone recommend some reasonably priced ones ?

Many thanks for any help

Patrick [IMG]files.cyclingforums.combig smile.pngOpen ↗[/IMG]

Since you said powerful I am suspecting you mean those units with the separated battery assebly.

I tried to find a way to actually calculate how much output lights give but its a combination of Lumens, candlepower, optics (beam concentration), voltage output from the battery etc... Its really difficult so its probably best if you could try them.

A 1watt Cree or Nichia front led with a sort of concentrated beam is good enough to see potholes on the street whilst going with 20-30 km/h. There are also some 3watt ones. Giant makes some of those and they are pretty good. The 1watt one is selling for about 40euro, but you might find it cheaper on ebay.

There are lots of ways to DIY a front light and apparently its a good way to save $$, if you got the time. Maplin sells LED's and probably the circuits to put them on too. You can make a battery assembly too.

A couple of concentrated 3watt leds on the front might be powerful enough for even night mtb riding... If you can find the leds, some housing, circuit, batteries and cables its easy to make the unit. Plus your lights, since DIY'd they will be repairable in the case something brakes. I tried to repair a light that got a cable unstuck once from the circuit board but the cable was really thin and probably welded by a machine and it was really hard to re-weld it to the circuit board.

I took a chance on this ebay item:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230995581234?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Other than it taking more than a month to be shipped, I am happy with the unit. I doubt that it lives up to it's 5000 lumen claim, but it is plenty bright (brighter than my 1000 lumen head lamp), well built, has good battery life and a nice beam pattern. I would buy another. I have it mounted to the handlebars, which works OK - but helmet mounts are ideal as far as illuminating the desired area.

I have a backup light mounted as well - just in case this one fails.

It appears that there are a lot of clones to this design out there; I don't know which is the original or highest quality supplier. That is a frequent problem with Chinese made goods, everybody is making knock-offs which may be of questionable quality.

Look for units with CREE or Luxeon emitters.

I have toyed around with buying some low voltage LED spot lights to rig up my own system, but the ebay unit ended up being cheaper, brighter and less of a kludge than what I had planned.