Tom Stormcrowe

My Wife's helmet, with a $5.49 Walmart light + 2 cheap zip ties! 2AA for power and lasts about 4 hrs






Mine, with a $6.99 5 LED forehead light, bright as hell and has a couple of flash modes as well. 3AAA and lasts 25 hrs on continuous and 100 on flash modes.





And the brightness?





Let's see other helmet lighting solutions as well.

Big_knob

https://www.jensonusa.com/store/bigIm...___12___20.jpg

DCCommuter

For a few more bucks you could get some rechargeable batteries which would make them very cheap to operate.

SSP

I use a Petzl Tikka XP headlamp. It uses a 1 watt LED, and has a flashing mode that's noticable to drivers and saves on battery life. It's also good for home repairs, backpacking, trail running, etc.

sbhikes

I usually put my Petzl head lamp on my arm. I bought a Cateye helmet light for my helmet. Yours look really good! Not too heavy, I hope.

Tom Stormcrowe

The operative words are CHEAP, but effective. I was trying to work from a very low budget intentionally to show that there are solutions available for less than $8.00. I agree that the setup you posted is superior, but was not going to make my arbitrary limit. The Wifes helmet light was really cheap and works quite well. It gives ideas that can be suggested for those riders you happen across after dark with no lights and claim they can't afford lights. Wifes came from Walmart and mine came from a "Hole in the Wall" used computer store. Both are cheap enough that they can be replaced easily if broken or whatever.

Agreed on the NiCads, DC.

DogBoy

Tom, do you have any beam shots? (ie, what the road ahead looks like with the lights?) Or are these lights the "be seen" lights and not "to see" lights? I have a pricy system that works great, but I'd be interested in any inexpensive alternative solutions.

Tom Stormcrowe

I don't have any beam shots. The wife's does OK, but is more a be seen light, mine does a flood of blue white light, like any other 5 LED light. I'd use hers riding at my normal pace as a supplement to visibility and a bit of directional illumination. She rides a delta trike though and averages about 12 mph, so it does well for her purposes.

MIne does a pretty decent job, but I wouldn't want to drop a hill at speed with it, the illuminated area ahead is only about 70 feet but it will light up a sign about 2 blocks out. Both can be SEEN though for quite a way. Mine also does the blink at about 120 pulse/min though and really makes you pop in low vis conditions.

flipped4bikes

+1! One of the most versatile lights I have ever owned.

Big_knob

I put the value my of life & vision in much higher regards than $8 or less
You aked to see "helmet light solutions" so i put mine.
Edit: I have one of those bell helmet lights(looks about the same as your Rayovac) i found on a trail,it works perfectly good ,will give it to you if you cover shipping.
Ni-MH batteries are far superior to NiCads.

richardmasoner

Hey Tom, what's your camera flash reflecting against up on the helmet-mounted light itself?

I also have a little Cateye blinkie on my helmet attached with zip ties, too. For Christmas, I got this nice beauty: 2 x 3W LEDs, 5.5 hour burn time with a lightweight rechargeable Li Ion battery.

Tom Stormcrowe

The shots where Crazy is holding the helmets, yep, that's the flash reflecting inside the lights, they are off.

The night shot, my helmet also has a reflective stripe over the top. I had the flash dialed down to fill the faces in the shots only.

Here's a no flash shot of my helmet light's illumination pattern.



As to risk, to reduce it til I saw how they did, we were testing the lights on a MUP, totally away from traffic. At this point, we were about 1 1/2 miles from ANY cars.

bbonnn

Not lighting related, but I can give a glowing testimonial for a helmet covered in high intensity reflective tape. I used about 2 feet of tape (about $2 worth), and it's brighter than any reflective tape I've ever used. Me pleased.

In fact, that's what I thought you'd done to the first helmet up there in the pix.

And what is that brass-looking thing beside the trike in the sixth pic? Companion monster accessory? That'll keep the cars at a safe distance.

Lurker1999

Nice! I have my Dinotte 5W strapped to my helmet. I'm pretty certain it prevented someone from stepping off the sidewalk into my path (hey it's Boston) although they had clearly seen me and they did not have a walk light. They were about to step off the curb when I pointed the light directly at their face (which I usually avoid doing) and the Dinotte flash mode took care of the rest.

Tom Stormcrowe

That's a brass sculpture at the Lilly Nature Center in West Lafayette.

Here's a daytime pic.

bbonnn

Ah, cool. I'll remember to stay away from there when Gozer the Destructor returns. She has a fondness for turning library sculptures into things.

Lurker, I recently got a DiNotte 5W myself, and I'm loving it, especially during these dark winter nights when I don't leave work until 8 or 9. It doesn't exactly fit into the category of "cheap," but I'm very happy with it.

SSP

FWIW, my local CostCo is selling a 2 watt LED Maglite for around $22.95. It has a "flash" mode, and could rather easily be zip tied to a helmet.

CommuterRun

Good idea, Tom. I did about the same thing by taking an Optronics NightBlaster HL-6000 (a 4 AA head light) that I already had, removing the headstrap, and zip-tying the light to the front of a helmet, about exactly the same way you did. Since I commute to work before daylight, regardless of the time of year, this has proven to be a helpful addition to my handlebar mounted headlight, and bright enough for these dark rural highways.

Really, the light is the only reason I wear a helmet anymore. I wear a ballcap for the ride home in the afternoons.