Anybody have opinions on this? I'm doing my first 600k later this year and I'm going to need a better light. I have an older 10 watt halogen light that goes about 2.5 hours on a monster of a battery. A lot of lighter and longer-lasting stuff has come out since I bought that light.
Nite Hawk has a lot of stuff (http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html) that has good battery life. The one in the Nashbar link above gets 9 hours on 100% power (more specs here (http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikepdf/spec_sheets/5505_AL-X_w_Spec.pdf) in a PDF file). The 100% power is said to be equivalent to a 10 watt halogen light. Like I said, my current setup is a 10 watt halogen, and I feel like it is plenty of light. Then again, I have only ridden up to 2 hours in the dark, not all night. It says the light distance goes up to 492 feet. How does that stack up? I'm not much of a light nerd. :)
What I really like is that it runs on rechargeable AA batteries, so it should be very easy and lightweight to take a backup set of batteries. I also have a little LED light that I could take as a backup.
What do you think? It seems like a pretty good deal and the price is very good. I'm not ready to step up to a generator at this point. I'm going to try the 600k and see how I like riding all night before I get super fancy. Is there something better to look for at or under $200?
oldokie
03-19-07, 08:20 AM
I have a handle bar unit and it has worked well for me.
thebulls
03-19-07, 09:44 AM
I've been using the previous model of the NiteHawk for a couple of years now, including a couple dozen brevets. I use it as a secondary, mounted on my helmet; primary is a Schmidt with E6. Anyway, the NiteHawk works great. It's plenty bright enough to be a primary, but I prefer the color of light from the E6 and the way it pours light onto the road when you're going downhill fast. But the NiteHawk is extremely useful as a helmet-mount, because then you can track the road through curves better than the bicycle-mounted E6. Battery life has been about as advertised -- I've never run out overnight.
The new model is considerably more expensive than the model I bought. Maybe this is justified by a fancier and more heat-radiating housing (the older model is plastic; I assume the AL in the new name refers to an aluminum housing)? Anyway, if mine ever dies I will be looking at the Princeton EOS bike light, which has uses the same Luxeon 1-watt LED, has a similar battery life, and is much less expensive.
That doesn't mean I'd be buying the EOS, just that I've heard good things about it from people who I respect, and I think it's a seriously worthy competitor with the NiteHawk :-)
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=101&subcategory=1067&brand=&sku=18910&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=Shop%20by%20Subcat%3A%20Front%20Lights
Anybody have opinions on this? I'm doing my first 600k later this year and I'm going to need a better light. I have an older 10 watt halogen light that goes about 2.5 hours on a monster of a battery. A lot of lighter and longer-lasting stuff has come out since I bought that light.
Nite Hawk has a lot of stuff (http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html) that has good battery life. The one in the Nashbar link above gets 9 hours on 100% power ...
DXchulo
03-19-07, 05:49 PM
I've been using the previous model of the NiteHawk for a couple of years now, including a couple dozen brevets. I use it as a secondary, mounted on my helmet; primary is a Schmidt with E6. Anyway, the NiteHawk works great. It's plenty bright enough to be a primary, but I prefer the color of light from the E6 and the way it pours light onto the road when you're going downhill fast. But the NiteHawk is extremely useful as a helmet-mount, because then you can track the road through curves better than the bicycle-mounted E6. Battery life has been about as advertised -- I've never run out overnight.
The new model is considerably more expensive than the model I bought. Maybe this is justified by a fancier and more heat-radiating housing (the older model is plastic; I assume the AL in the new name refers to an aluminum housing)? Anyway, if mine ever dies I will be looking at the Princeton EOS bike light, which has uses the same Luxeon 1-watt LED, has a similar battery life, and is much less expensive.
That doesn't mean I'd be buying the EOS, just that I've heard good things about it from people who I respect, and I think it's a seriously worthy competitor with the NiteHawk :-)
$40 does sound nice. So is the light as bright as the Nite Hawk? I get confused with these things. 1-watt LED isn't the same as 1-watt halogen, is it? How do you convert this stuff? I guess I'm stuck in the past. All I know for sure is that 10-watt halogen works fine. :)
The only problems I see with the EOS are that it "only" runs 6 hours on maximum setting. The good news is that it takes AAA batteries, so it wouldn't be a big deal to carry extras and change batteries once. The other potential problem is that it shows that the beam goes about 55 meters (~180 feet), which is less than the Nite Hawk. Is that a big problem?
Would the EOS make a good primary light? It looks like it would definitely make a good secondary/backup light.
supcom
03-19-07, 06:24 PM
Comparing lights based on specifications is all but impossible.
A 1 watt LED will generate much more light than a 1 watt halogen. LEDs are far more efficient than incandescent lights. In general, a 3 watt LED generates about the same light as a 10 watt halogen.
However, that's not the whole story. Most lights marketed for commuting and trail riding have very simple optics. Basically, they just have a reflector and project a cone shaped beam of light. Some of these cones are narrower than others ("Flood" vs. "Spot") and are sometimes spec'ed by the width of the cone in degrees. For similar light outputs, a narrower beam will put more light where the beam hits the road than a wider beam.
But there's more. The best lights for road riding are designed with specially tailored optics that form the beam into a rectangle oriented down toward the road and light up a trapezoidal pattern. The beam may even have more light concentrated further down the road, where the beam is spread out so that the illumination is more even.
Any manufacture claims of distance or equivalence should be taken with a grain of salt. In the end, the only real test is how it works for you. Buy the light you think is right for your riding and try it. If it doesn't perform to your expectations, then return it and try another.
Run times are another suspect specification. for example, the EOS light you linked to claims 6 hour run time on 3 AAA batteries. But how many of those 6 hours are going to be at full, or nearly full brightness? Considering that a Cateye EL500, with a 1 Watt LED and 4 AA batteries gives about 9 hours full brightness, I hardly see how the same LED with three AAA batteries can give 6 hours. I suspect that the light gives a couple hours of good light, then rapidly declines to a much lower level. As you say, it's easy to carry spare batteries, but consider the total cost of running the light before you make your decision.
Oh, and I don't know what standard the manufacturer uses for the 60m distance, but I doubt you'll see anything at 60m with this light unless it's covered in reflective paint.
oldokie
03-19-07, 08:20 PM
I forgot to mention. When my handlebar unit is on, it kills my wireless Cateye computer.
acidinmylegs
03-19-07, 10:01 PM
The Nite Hawk uses a better reflector than the Princeton Tec Eos. That's the difference in the price.
These images are from THIS (http://gearreview.com/2006_led_lights.php) review.
I'd use the Eos helmet mounted as a backup, or auxiliary, light.
Hope this helps.
Carbonfiberboy
03-19-07, 10:53 PM
I'm trying to learn about lights. There seems to be some sort of special circuitry that's associated with the better LED lights that keeps the brightness the same until the batteries are gone. That seems like a great feature. I notice that my old Cateye light definitely dims as battery voltage drops, which is a real bummer. My guess is that this fancy circuitry is what interferes with folks' wireless computers. I use a Polar 720i, which I really rely on. I would definitely not use a light which interfered with it. Anybody have any experience with that? Comments?
znomit
03-20-07, 03:46 AM
My advice would be to get a really bright LED light that will run all night, and fits on your helmet. If it isn't bright enough it will make a great backup. I am planning to run dual cateye el530s(supposedly have 90hr battery) on the bike and an older nighthawk emitter on my helmet(its nice to see what your face is pointing at). I doubt these will match my 12w halogen but for an all nighter I am not carrying a car battery!
thebulls
03-20-07, 11:29 AM
The Nite Hawk uses a better reflector than the Princeton Tec Eos. That's the difference in the price. ...
Thanks, that's an interesting review. I'd been thinking I might replace the NiteHawk with an EOS just to save weight, but it doesn't look like the EOS would be bright enough for me, even as a secondary. On swoopy, fast descents, when the E6 isn't pointing "round the next corner", I want to be able to aim a helmet-mounted secondary light into the corner to see where it's going. It doesn't seem like the EOS would have enough brightness at a fair distance to do a good job at that task. I guess I could always slow down, though :-)
DXchulo
03-20-07, 10:20 PM
These images are from THIS (http://gearreview.com/2006_led_lights.php) review.
Thanks for that link. I hadn't seen that site before.