Commuting - If you ride or commute at night, this would be a good addition..

I ride quite a bit at night.. For those of you who commute or like to ride at night, I came up with a super lightweight helmet light that serves a dual purpose. I use a Princeton Tec Aurora Headlamp with a velcro looped strap that can work as a backup light in a pinch and as a flashing strobe light to let other see you better. My night rides have been much more enjoyable using this light, because when you look at someone with it in strobe mode they actually see you.. I now use an ARC Hid handlebar light which is very bright but without the flashing helmet light, people would still not see me very well at stop signs. The best part of the light is its weight, with batteries and strap about 3 ounces total weight. Here is a pic for all interested.. You just need the PT Aurora and 12-18 inches of velcro with a loop and you are ready to go.. This headlamp seems to work best because it has about 90 degree of rotation which means it is very flexible of where you can point the light.

http://www.geocities.com/e_pipins/girohelmetwaurora.jpg

I ride quite a bit at night

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.. For those of you who commute or like to ride at night, I came up with a super lightweight helmet light that serves a dual purpose. I use a Princeton Tec Aurora Headlamp</snip>

Me too. I've found that people will often even put their high beams on me when they see me coming...(got a NiteRider as main light, a blinkey for attention grabbing, then a new Lupine for my helmet. It's bright, and even enough light for when it's rainy and the wet streets eat all the light.

I used a EternaLight X-Ray http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/front/lg-eterna-xray.jpg that I got for $75 or so, but now they are down to $39.99 which was OK to get seen, but not really sufficient light to see with.

Guess I'm just a photon junkie.

Tom

P.S. Here's the link to ThinkGeek http://tinyurl.com/yr5zb which has the X-Ray on it.

Tom,
i have one of those X-ray's. i forgot all about it! I got it as a promotional gift from a vendor about 4 years ago. i'll have to dig it out of my daughters toy box and put it to good use.

Thanks!!

CD

Apart from the fact that it is illegal to attach things to helmets in Aus, I really don't wish to contemplate what the effect of having this thing stuck up there will have in the event of a crash. The idea of helmets it to spread the load from the impact over a greater area of the skull. Putting something like this on will surely only negate this.

This goes for all helmet mounted lights. If you want to get the best out of your helmet, and since a helmet's protective abilities are marginal at best you really do want this, don't go sticking extraneous stuff to it.

Apart from the fact that it is illegal to attach things to helmets in Aus, I really don't wish to contemplate what the effect of having this thing stuck up there will have in the event of a crash. The idea of helmets it to spread the load from the impact over a greater area of the skull. Putting something like this on will surely only negate this.

This goes for all helmet mounted lights. If you want to get the best out of your helmet, and since a helmet's protective abilities are marginal at best you really do want this, don't go sticking extraneous stuff to it.

That's an interesting point. I wonder if any of the helmet and/or lighting systems manufacturers have done any studies on the matter.

Considering how lightweight this light is, most likely if struck directly upon a crash it will break apart.. I will take safety of being seen over a "what if" scenario of having a light attached to my helmet.. All I know is that when I have the light people see me better..

Apart from the fact that it is illegal to attach things to helmets in Aus,

It is illegal to attach things to helmets in Australia??? Do you have some information where it actually states that?

I'm a Randonneur and am planning to ride the Great Southern Randonnee in Melbourne in October - I was intending to bring my helmet light. As a Randonneur, since we ride through the night, it is common practice to mount a helmet light. On the Paris-Brest-Paris last August, I'd venture a guess that probably 1/3 of the 4000 riders had helmet lights.

I had a fairly large helmet light, but didn't like it because of the weight. Just a few weeks ago, I purchased the Black Diamond, Moonlight headlamp: http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?productId=47671182&storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&langId=-1
If I fell and landed on the part of my helmet where the light or the battery pack was sitting, I'd be willing to bet that helmet light would shatter on impact and wouldn't affect the integrity of the helmet at all.

Well, bugger me. They seem to have taken that one out. I definitely recall seeing it in there at one time, but it's not in the current version.

Still, my concerns about the safety of attaching things to the top/front of a helmet remain. Like you say, apart from anything, if you crash you're not only up for a new hat, but a new light as well.

Gotta agree with Allister on this one. Helmets are designed to spread out the impact, and having a protrusion from the helmet such as a light that even though as someone mentioned would probably disintegrate on contact would still concentrate the impact in one area just by being present. The safety warnings I have seen in helmet literature specifically advise against attaching anything to the helmet and I suspect concentrated impact is the most logical reason for such a warning.

Machka; will that strap on the Black Diamond be large enough to go around a helmet or is it made for a persons head?

Tom; how is the ETernal X-Ray fastened to the helmet?

Also how bright are these Black Diamond lights or the ETernal X-Ray light? Do they actually cast a beam of light onto the street or are they more of a light that allows others to see you?

how is the ETernal X-Ray fastened to the helmet?

Also how bright are these Black Diamond lights or the ETernal X-Ray light? Do they actually cast a beam of light onto the street or are they more of a light that allows others to see you?

I used a velcro strap & saftey piece of string to fasten the x-ray to my helmet. The light is quite bluish, and allows you to see a bit, but at speed, it's not enough to be a single source of light. The good thing is that the batteries last a long time, and it has blinkey mode, which makes you more visible.

Tom

P.S. I miss my Superbe gruppo...sniff

Machka; will that strap on the Black Diamond be large enough to go around a helmet or is it made for a persons head?

Also how bright are these Black Diamond lights or the ETernal X-Ray light? Do they actually cast a beam of light onto the street or are they more of a light that allows others to see you?

Yes, the strap is large enough to go around my helmet - I've tried that already. I will be holding it in place with a couple zipties though, but that's not a problem.

As for the beam, I haven't tried it outside yet, but I can shine a beam across my apartment. I want a helmet light for a few reasons:
1. To help me be seen. Those helmet lights are incredible for that! Have you ever seen a line of cyclists coming toward you all with headlights and helmet lights? You couldn't miss them!
2. To help me see road signs. Road signs are somewhat reflective so as long as you can get a beam of light in their general vicinity, you can make out what they say.
3. To help me find stuff in my bag in the middle of the night, or to help me read my map in the middle of the night. That Black Diamond will be more than adequate for that.