MTB night riding - how many watts, where?

My general rule is if I have one powerful globe and one weaker globe, the weaker goes on the handle bar and the powerful on my head.

I found it fine to ride around on the recent 12 hour with only a 5w on my bars and there was lots of twisty single track.

"hippy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I've got some vistalite nightsticks and various globes to suit.

I have a 5W, 2 x 10W and 2 x 15W globes.

For the 24hr race, would I be best to run the 5W on the bars and the 10W on the helmet or
something different?

I think the 15's are overkill and would drain the batts too fast (~1hr burn time per stick) but
I'm open for more informed opinions...

hippy

Are you doing the 24hr solo or in a team?? If you are in a team then you might be able to run the
higher wattage globes as you will have more time to recharge battteries between night laps. If you
haven't done a 24hr before, I would highly recommend putting some form of identification on your
chargers and batteries as every man and his marathon bike racing dog have nightsticks in the
recharging tents (probably best if it is lairy and gumby looking so that it becomes a less
attractive item).

For solo, I reckon that the 10W on the helmet and 5W on the bars is the go. I did Mont 24hr last
year in a team of 6 and did most of the course with my 12V 20W (one 12 degree, one 38 degree)
homemade halogen lights on the handlebars and my homemade white led helmet light. I pretty much used
the 38 degree one for the entire time apart from on fast fire trail sections where i used high beam
(12 degree). Of course, every time I came up the straight to the transition area I turned on all the
lights just to impress the chicks (too bad they were all in bed, but I was impressed anyway).

Good luck with the race and with sitting down the next day if you are going solo.

Gags

"Gags" <drgagnon@nospam_ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Are you doing the 24hr solo or in a team??

haha "solo" haha ;-)

Quoted message said:

might be able to run the higher wattage globes as you will have more

time to

Quoted message said:

recharge battteries between night laps.

Good point. I just wanted to avoid recharging as much as possible.

Quoted message said:

I would highly recommend putting some form of identification on your chargers and batteries as
every man and his marathon bike racing dog

have

Quoted message said:

nightsticks in the recharging tents (probably best if it is lairy and

gumby

Quoted message said:

looking so that it becomes a less attractive item).

Yeah, bikesoiler suggested that too - I've just gotta find that masking tape...

Quoted message said:

For solo, I reckon that the 10W on the helmet and 5W on the bars is

the go.

Sounds good for now. I'll be trying that until I find I can run the 15's without runnning out of
juice too early. If it takes over 1hr to do a lap, I can't use the 15's for the whole lap.

Quoted message said:

Good luck with the race and with sitting down the next day if you are

going

Quoted message said:

solo.

thankyee! hippy

I run a Cygolite Night Explorer setup (10w and 15w) - mounted on the helmet.

In the 24hr this year I only used the 10w the whole way around - it was heaps. However, it wasn't a
particularly dark night - except in some of the more dense forest.

I tried handlebar mounted lights and found that unless the track is like fire trail then they aren't
that useful - the helmet mounted light points where you are looking.

The good thing about the handlebar light is that it shows up dips/holes a lot better than the helmet
mounted light as a result of the angle.

I get 3hours running the 10w globe on the Cygolites....enough for two and a bit laps of the MONT (or
3 if you are faster than me!!)

I guess you need to go out in varying levels of darkness (as well as rain) and see how much light
you need at night.

Whilst I haven't done the solo thing in the 24hr I would imagine that you would want loads of light
- so heaps of spare batteries - those soloists do it tough at night.

I hope some of that is helpful!!!

Cheers, Rob Canberra

"hippy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I've got some vistalite nightsticks and various globes to suit.

I have a 5W, 2 x 10W and 2 x 15W globes.

For the 24hr race, would I be best to run the 5W on the bars and the 10W on the helmet or
something different?

I think the 15's are overkill and would drain the batts too fast (~1hr burn time per stick) but
I'm open for more informed opinions...

hippy