Commuting - New Planet Bike 1 Watt LED Headlight

Does anyone have a guess or an opinion about what this new LED headlight from Planet Bike might be like?

http://www.planetbike.com/frontlights.html

Super Spot 1 Watt LED headlight
Advanced 1 watt white LED Technology
The POWER to see where you're going!
Over 30 hours run time on 4 AA batteries (included!)
Vision Optics(tm) Beam specifically engineered to illuminate your path
Quick release battery cartridge for quick battery changes
QuickCam(tm) bracket mounts, adjusts or removes in seconds
MSRP: $35

(There is a small image of the supposed "beam pattern" if you click on the light for details.) I'm just wondering how much of an improvement this light will be over the Cateye EL300 (LED) as an actual "see the road" light - I know there are wildly different opinions about that - or how it might stack up against the new Cateye LED light that will supposedly come out this spring, since I don't know much about the quality of Planet Bike products.


{from a previous thread:** "...the most interesting one we found won't actually be on the market till the spring. Made by Cateye, it's small and looks unassuming with just one LED, but it puts out a mind-boggling 1,000 candlepower. That's 600 more than Cateye's current big seller, the 5-LED EL-300. Dubbed the Power Opticube, the new light reportedly will burn for 30 hours on 4 AA batteries. It's expected to sell for $45-$50."

I've grown tired of a rechargeable system with expensive replacement bulbs and a battery that never seems to be ready, and I would love to find something simpler (and cheaper) that would provide enough light to ride safely and be seen in a suburban setting. (A 6 watt flood beam is plenty for me, though I know this light won't be as bright.) I was all prepared to take a chance on one or even two of the EL-300s for Christmas, but now I'm wondering if one of these new lights will do a much better job (or even a Luxeon Star flashlight)... though I know they will get nowhere near the claimed 30 hours of full brightness on a set of batteries. (Hopefully 10?) It's so hard to guess without seeing the actual beam, arrrrgh! I don't know enough about the LED technology and I can't decide if I should take a chance on the Super Spot or wait for the new Cateye in the spring... or even just go with the EL-300.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Jeff

Hi,
I got an EL300. it wasn't enough to ride in the dark so I got another. Still not enough, so I got a 15 watt halogen. That sucker works. But it's a rechargable. If I remember right, that planet bike is a spotlight. Too small from the looks of it. If you need light, and you're tired of batteries; it's time to get a generator light.
The Shimano generator hub is pretty cool.

1 mile of my commute is down a rural 2 lane road with a few street lights. There is a pretty clean paved bike lane on the shoulder so I do fine with a lumotec standlight driven by a 40 year old dynohub (new tech mixed with old). It only puts out 3 watts but has a wide rectangular light spot that works for me. I also have a Vistalight supernova blinkie on my rack & a Zefal bar light running just the yellow blinkie. I wear a reflector vest & the sparse traffic always gives me a wide berth. My other touring bike has a bottom bracket Soubitez generator. It runs off the rear wheel tread & powers a halogen headlight that puts out a similar beam. I do have 10 watt & 15 watt Vistalights left from failed nightstick systems which I now run off rechargeable lead/acid battteries. They are mounted on 2 of my backup rain bikes. Both give more than enough light for my commute & once I reach the main road (4 lanes & brightly lit) I could probably do the remaining 3 miles with just the vest & red back/yellow front blinkies. You should checkout the Shimano generator hubs. They look to be pretty capable. Don

I also had the EL300, and yes it is (or was?) the brightest and longest battery run time of any self contained battery light I ever used. However I did not like the (approx) 1 foot diameter spot beam it projected, it was too small with no stray light and found myself able to override it on a pitch dark bike path.

So I took it back to the store and bought a Cygo Metro which is a dual beam 13 watt total unit. You can switch from flood to spot or both, the flood is 6.5 watt and has a beam that is about 8 feet in diameter with scatter extending way beyond that. The spot is angle up 5 degrees and oval shape beam that is about 2 feet across at the narrowest. This light I could not override and with just the flood on it totally washed out the EL300 beam. But this light runs off of 6 D batteries-which I prefer because it will run for 5 hours on a single beam or 2+ hours on both. Now if your batteries go dead on a ride you can go into any store and buy more OR you can buy rechargeable D batteries, but the alkys last longer than any rechargeable anyway (although Radio Shack supposely has a new battery that is rechargeable and last longer than alkys). And the final thing that sold me on the Cygo Metro was the cost-only $49!! I get Walmart store brand pack of 12 D alky batteries for only $8.

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your advice and experiences. I'm willing to slow down a lot and ride cautiously at night, but I guess even two of the lights like the EL-300 still won't be enough to see the road safely, especially for someone who wears glasses like me. :) I had hoped that one of the new 1W LED lights might give as much brightness as those 3W generator lights, but maybe that's too much to hope for. I'll just have to wait for the day when I can afford one of those generators :eek: (I have a tiny budget), and in the meantime I'll consider the idea of adjusting my 6W halogen light so it can use conventional batteries.

Thanks!

Whooo... 1 watt is not much. I rode my 4am rides and started with 4 watts and could barely see any upcoming road "distortions". I upgraded to 12 watts and life was gooooood.

Make the investment and get a good light- I say at least 10 watts and make it rechargeable so you can plug it in when you get home and have it ready to go for your next ride.

Koffee

I agree wth Koffee. Depending on how dark it is when you ride, get some really serious lights. I use Vistalites. One is 10watts the other is 15watts. Combined they only last for an hour but they are fantastic for riding in total darkness. Individually they last for 2.5hrs and 1.5hrs respectively.

CHEERS.

Mark

I've grown tired of a rechargeable system with expensive replacement bulbs and a battery that never seems to be ready, and I would love to find something simpler (and cheaper) that would provide enough light to ride safely and be seen in a suburban setting.Jeff

Get a dynamo light. See Peter White Cycles on the web. I've been very happy with their products and service.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm

Do NOT buy a bike light based solely on wattage ratings. You need to see the beam pattern and compare it to other similar products. For example, Lumotec lamps are widely recognised for excellent optics, so they put their 3 watts exactly where you want it.

If you already have a light, go to the LBS with it, find a dark room and compare potential new lights to your old light. They will all seem impressive in the dark (including your old one), but you will be able to rate them using your old system as reference.

--J

I firmly believe the introduction of the 1W Luxeon Star LED's in the bicycle lighting market will make the well known two-cell battery operated headlights, such as those made by Cat-Eye and Smart, obsolete. Those high-intensity white 5mm LED's already proved to be highly effective in creating visibility to be seen by and the Cateye EL-300 actually casts a fairly usable beam. And since those Luxeon's are many many times brighter then the 5mm LED's, we might be looking at a light that comes close to the power of a 4 x "AA" halogen...

Come to think of it, there used to be a time me and some friends used those 2 x "C" cell battery headlights on our bikes. They would dim on every ride, forcing you to buy batteries almost every day. They never quite casted a beam, they just scattered light here and there. And they always have that small, completely linear hotspot. What's up with that? Anyway, now'a'days we are using white LED's. They are very attention getting and last a long time on batteries, even on those small AAA's. I still regularly see people commuting with those two-cell headlights and it always makes me chuckle. Especially when their beam is as dim as a candle and my little LED keeps on shining. :)

While looking around at the new 1 watt Planet Bike LED light, I discovered that the company making the LED also had a 5 watt version... Anyone heard about any potential use of this bulb in a cycling light. They advertise that it has about 120 lumens but I haven't had much luck trying to determine how that would compare to say a 5 watt 6 volt system or 10 watt 6 volt system... I think I saw a 12v 10Watt bulb rated at 160 lumens but I really don't know is this is like comparing apples to oranges.. I did find some flashlight with the 5W Luxeon Star LED's maybe it's worth looking into for some type of home-built unit....

The 5W luxeon ones are blindingly bright.
There are MR16 bulb type LED's that use it so it's a direct drop in replacement.
Also, they sell flange base bulbs that directly go into those battery powered lights that replaces the bulb with a luxeon LED which I think the module is voltage regulated.

I wonder if the PlanetBike 1W LED is regulated, if not, it'll go dim pretty quickly.

1. Luxeon's current 5w LED bulb takes just as much power to drive it reliably as a 10 watt halogen light. The reason no one uses them is you would have to use a water-bottle-sized battery pack to drive it and still do not get the quality of beam you get from a 10 watt rechargeable halogen system.

2. The Planet Bike 1 watt LED is more than twice as bright as the EL300.

Do NOT buy a bike light based solely on wattage ratings. You need to see the beam pattern and compare it to other similar products.
--J

Frug

Besides brightness and pattern, you may want to E-mail the light company and ask them about the light's throw. At 15MPH your bike probably travels at 22'/second: 15 X 5280/3600 = 22 feet

To get 1 second of reaction time, the light needs to throw light 22' in front of the bike. Most people I've talked to like about a 75-100' throw or more. LittleBigMan can probably answer your lightbulb questions on this thread http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=42629&page=1&pp=25

BTW: performancebike.com has their gen3 light that uses 4AA's and claims to get up to 10W of halogen equivalent light and throw from a luxeon LED.

Just get a AA or C battery powered krypton/halogne/brightest you can get light, and carry extra sets of rechargable batteries, and have the same amount of batteries on the charger at home.

I am the proud owner of the light you mention and keep it in my bag. I used to have the 5 led cateye light and because of the multiple bulbs it tended to blur the shadows out so it was difficult to see objects in your path. The Superspot does not have this problem and is brighter. I took a 50 mile ride the other morning and had no problem going 14 mph (I was climbing) with the light. Dawn started before I got to higher speeds but I have not had any problems with the light. It is not a high end ligh but on the other hand you can use it for rides longer than an hour or two or even 4 or 5 hour rides. I like the fact that I can put batteries in and forget about it for several weeks or months even depending on how much nightriding I do.

I've been using PlantBike's Spot 3 and DualSpot lights for my urban winter commutes the past 2 winters and find them very reliable and good enough for well lit roadways. There's not enough light for dark areas and bike trails, but I don't have to ride on them. They are very convenient, quickly going from one bike to another, and battery life is good. For the price, I think they're among the best for value.

I think I'll give the new 1 W light a try this winter.

>>>I' been using PlantBike's Spot 3 and DualSpot lights for my urban winter commutes the past 2 winters and find them very reliable and good enough for well lit roadways

Pinerider,
When an oncoming car approaches, are you still able to see your own path? Or does the car's lights sortof take over.??

... I had hoped that one of the new 1W LED lights might give as much brightness as those 3W generator lights, but maybe that's too much to hope for. I'll just have to wait for the day when I can afford one of those generators ....


Check http://www.peterwhitecycles.com and http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/
Both sell the Shimano dynohub which is a cheap option if you want to build your own wheel... or if you need a new front wheel. They also sell the very good Dynotec bottle generator. Not as wonderful as the Schmidt, but still very good alternatives.

As for the 1 W LED vs the 3 W Lumotec generator headlights, they compare, but to a point.
I think -- very subjectively -- that both emit almost the same amount of light (technically, the same number of lumens), with the 1 W LED slightly weaker and bluer. However, the 1 W LED shed its light everywhere in a fashion similar to MR-11 spotlights typically used in battery headlights. Such a design is good for trail riding, but quite a wasteful way to use the light. On the other hand, the 3 W Lumotec and the 3 W BiSi or Schmidt headlights have wonderful optics which concentrates all the light onto the roadway.
This is why a 3 W Lumotec provides enough lighting for riding on the road at night. However, its limitation appears very quickly when riding offroad at night.

[QUOTE=vrkelley Pinerider,
When an oncoming car approaches, are you still able to see your own path? Or does the car's lights sortof take over.??[/QUOTE]

My commute is all on well lit urban 4 lane streets. The street lighting provides enough for me to see where I'm going, the bike light is basically so drivers can see me. Oncoming lights aren't a problem.

www.bicyclelights.com

Great stuff. Check EBay, he sometimes sells systems for a bit less there (http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=laseredg&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=50). I bought a NiCd dual spot as well as a helmet mounted system for less than a $100, including shipping.

I've been extremely happy with them. While not dark enough yet to use on my commute, I've been enjoying the new found love of night riding. These units really put out the light. Construction is top notch, yet simplistic. The whole light on a helmet thing is pretty cool.