PaulRivers

For comparison though, the Cyo Premium is rated at 80 lux. The Lyt seems to be the cheapest, lowest powered "just barely enough light" light that they sell.

The worst ones are a mix of pitch black spots and bright lighting.

GovernorSilver

Yeah, I got that impression looking at this:
https://www.bumm.de/fileadmin/user_up...5__English.pdf

If it ever gets stolen, my heart wouldn't be broken - I'll admit. But whoever steals it would have to unbolt it in two places, plus need a 2nd wrench to hold down the nut in back of the fork.

I'd probably replace it with Cycliq's upcoming headlight/camera combo - but only if it's actually stolen.

Yeah, the veteran riders in my area warned me about the part of that MUP that approaches the airport - all those car headlights in the opposite direction. That's why I'm considering getting transition-type outer lenses for my cycling sunglasses - the ones that automatically darken/lighten like the transition lenses on regular prescription glasses. I mostly prefer polarized sunglasses because they stay dark whether or not I'm driving, but for unpredictable lighting conditions on the evening commute rides the transition type might actually be better.

Another reason I'm glad I got the helmet mounted light is this story one of the veteran bike commuters told me: Riding on a MUP in the dark of night, he saw a light in the distance moving erratically. As he got closer, he realized the light was mounted on a dog, and there was a cyclist with no lights on his person or bike pedaling slowly with a leash on the dog - no reflective material on the leash.

PaulRivers

I doubt it would be stolen, not only is it difficult to remove but it's not worth much lol.

I'm just pointing out for around $100, you could have a significantly brighter light on there.

From what I've read I don't think transition lenses would be a good idea. I've read the time they take to adapt to lighting is annoying just for walking in and out of buildings - for biking they sound dangerous.

Though on that subject maybe a better dynamo light would not be worth investing your money in. They're a little on the dim side for overcoming the absolute worst lighting conditions.

The Phillips Saferide did a decent job in my opinion (the battery version), I'm really disappointed they left the bike light market, I would have loved to see what they came up with with the latest gen of led's that put our more light.

I bought a Light and Motion Taz for my dad (would have gotten the Saferide v2 if they had still been selling it). It's a battery light, short runtime (1.5 hours on high), and it doesn't throw down the road as far as the Saferide does. But at the same time - damn, it is one of the few lights that totally overcomes crappy horrible lighting for me. I **really** wish they made a shaped-beam light that was that bright. The kind of light it puts out is excellent, the intensity is as much you could ever want. While it's not a strictly shaped beam, it's a lot closer to a shaped beam than the "flood the road with light" mountain bike lights with high lumen output (that are actually bright enough to be blinding).

I'm not...quite following that story. What I don't like about helmet mounted lights is accidently flahing people in the face with the light. :-/ I mean I'm riding in the city and need to look behind me, I rode with a helmet light for a while but didn't like hitting the car next to me with it while looking behind me.

GovernorSilver

Ok. I spent close to that on the Cygolite - glad I did!

Well, there doesn't seem to be any other option for preparing for the sudden onslaught of light after riding on a pitch black trail.

Anyway, that's not the main reason I'm considering getting transition type lenses for my Rudi Project sunglasses. The main reason is that sooner or later, the sun will still be out when I leave work, and in my face when I cross the bridge over the river, and during the ride home, it will set and leave me on that MUP in pitch black. In the morning after daylight savings ends, it'll be the opposite - it'll be dark when I leave my house, and the sun will rise in a direction I have to face when I cross that bridge.

The story is just an example of weird things one might encounter riding on the MUPs here. I guess if you commute by bike in the evening long enough, you'll see something crazy sooner or later. There's no accounting for the strange ideas other people might have here, like putting your light on your dog instead of your bike. The lack of reflective material on the leash added more danger - I think anybody would assume the light was on a person or a bike, not a dog, and not account for leash hidden in the dark.

As for the Cygolite, the helmet mount let you adjust the angle of the light, then lock it in place with a knob. I set the Cygolite to point at the road a few feet in front of me. To angle it to blind car drivers, it would illuminate a spot too far away from my bike to be useful. I found the lowest brightness setting to be sufficient.

PaulRivers

The only solution is to have a light that puts out as much light as you will suddenly run into. Your eyes adjust to the brightest source of light - if the light you're using is just as bright as the oncoming light it evens out, as long as the oncoming light isn't brighter than bright daytime sunlight. The problem their is not finding a light that does it (there are many if you're willing to spend a few hundred), it's finding a light that does it without gouging the eyes out of anyone else coming towards you on the trail. (The Taz is the closest I've found so far, not a strict cutoff at all, but not as wide mean as mountain biking lights).

I wish you luck, like I said, I have not used them just read that the time it takes for the lens to transition makes it dangerous and not very useful for biking. I'd be tempted to see if they have a demo or something you could try before sinking the money into it. From what I've read you'd come around the corner and get hit with bright light and they would not transition fast enough to protect you, then you'd head into dark woods and they would make you blind for a minute until they transitioned back. Just what I've read.

I'm not at all trying to say you "need" to buy a different light or anything, just that that Lyt is a particularly low powered dynamo light, and if all you're doing is running your other light on low aimed a few feet in front of you, I'm sure a more expensive dynamo light would also do the job as well. (Though perhaps not be bright enough to overcome "super bright lights in your face" lighting conditions). Good luck.

GovernorSilver

I've had transition lenses before, but on normal glasses, not the cycling type that hugs your head. The main drawbacks of the older design transition lenses is:

1. They don't darken if you're sitting in a car
2. They're not as strong as polarized lenses in filtering glare and that sort of thing.

This is a now-old video demo of the Rudi Project's photochromic lens technology - it's their version of transition lenses. I have Rudi Project cycling glasses:

The change looks quick enough for my primary scenario, which is commuting when we are out of Daylight Savings Time. Right now, when I leave the house, the sun is already up and stays up. When I leave work, the sun doesn't set until I well after I've arrived home. But it's not like this all year long. Around November or so, DST will end. That means it will be dark when I leave the house, and the sun will rise as I ride, and a good chunk of my commute ride will be facing the sunrise. This also means the sun will be setting when I leave work - and I'll be facing the sunset, and by the time I reach my house it will be dark.

In both scenarios this is more than enough time for the photochromic stuff to transition from clear to dark and vice versa. At the same time if it takes the 2015 version at least 20 seconds to change from clear to dark as shown in the 2012 video, they probably won't change fast enough in response to sudden glare from the airport/car traffic to dangerously impede my vision.

Thanks, and I didn't think you were trying to sell me on upgrading my dynamo light. I just like the flexibility of being able to aim the light on my helmet with my head, in addition to the fixed dynamo light.

PaulRivers

Thanks for the video! Yeah, Yeah, I agree with what you wrote pretty much - just saying 20 seconds is fine for "sunglasses for riding home" but dangerous for "suddenly hit by bright lights from cars". Wouldn't change fast enough to protect you, doesn't change back fast enough to avoid being blind for 20 seconds.

Have fun, despite all the debate a lot of times it's really between 3 different options all of which would work. Good luck. :-)

CliffordK

For generator powered blinking lights, consider the ReeLight

It takes so little power you won't notice it is there. About like an extra speedometer.

Tourist in MSN

I bought the AXA Luxx 70 Plus from Bike24 in Germany. It arrived about a week ago. Very happy with it.

I bought the SP Dynamo PV-8 hub two years ago when I built up a bike. At that time I bought a discontinued model of the B&M D Lumotec Oval light to use until I finally bought what I really wanted.

I wanted a good light and I wanted USB charging capability. I was really shocked that a good USB charger is over $100 when you can buy for a buck at the dollar store a USB charger that works in a lighter socket in a car. Thus, I spent too many hours over the past few months trying to make a good USB charger for my dynohub. After blowing out circuits on downhills, finally gave up and decided to buy a USB charger. I considered three options, the Sinewave Revolution (USB charger only, would use with my existing light), B&M Luxos U (light and USB charger) and the AXA Luxx 70 Plus.

I am not to sure about the waterproofing on the AXA Luxx 70 Plus in the area of the USB, there is a printed circuit board there that I felt could have been better protected.

I has an odd sort of light beam. At higher speed (I have no clue how it senses speed) it uses a single high power LED. At lower speeds it adds two more lower powered LEDs for better light distribution closer to you. There were some hot spots, but I can live with them.

I have no clue how this compares to the battery powered light you already have. A light for a dynohub is limited to the output of the hub. Battery lights are limited to how much you want to spend for a lot of battery power.

The Plus version with USB port comes in three versions. A bottle dynamo version. A dynohub powered version without the automatic sensor to turn on the light when it gets dark, it has a two position switch for light or USB use, this is the version I bought. And the auto version with the sensor. I did not want the auto version, I did not want the USB charging to cut out if I go under a bridge or whatever. I wanted to control which I was using, the light or USB. There also are other AXA Luxx 70 versions without the "Pluss" that do not have the USB charger.

I also looked at buying on Amazon or Ebay but I could not always tell which version they were selling and I did not want to get the wrong one with shipping from overseas. It was clear from the Bike24 website which version I was getting, that is why I bought from them. Shipping is an extra 20 Euros, so think about anything else you might want to add to the order, I bought some Rohloff oil, a helmet rain cover, a few other small bits too.

I obviously do not share this opinion. I mainly bought it for USB charging for bike touring, but I find that the light is very good. Of the options I looked at this was the best price. Yesterday I put some charge into four AA NiMH batteries with a couple Eneloop USB powered AA NiMH battery chargers, the USB port put out up to 620 milliamps for part of a second, the Eneloop chargers do not have a nice consistent current flow so the amperage kept bouncing around.

I do not use any Apple products, they can be picky about chargers. Anything I use is rated to be charged by a plain USB with 500 milliamp power.

If I lived in a place where it rained most days, I would have bought the Sinewave Revolution for USB charging, it has the best waterproofing in my opinion. But my bike is stored indoors and when I use this on a bike tour I can put a plastic bag over it if I am using it for USB charging.

Before I bought it I asked for experiences from others on the Thorn forums, one person had been using an AXA Nano 50 (predecessor of the Luxx 70) for three years, often in the UK rain and found it to work just fine.

There were some comments by on someone owning the Luxx 70 and finding that the light mount shifted when they hit bumps, etc. Not a problem so far but I have only owned it for a week.

noglider 

@Tourist in MSN, it probably doesn't sense speed. It only needs to sense input voltage, which varies with speed.

Tourist in MSN

I was not sure if it senses voltage or perhaps AC frequency. It does imply that if you wanted to use the light on something that was not powered by one of the common dynohubs, that the speed sensing might not work as planned. I am using it on a 3 watt hub, the speed sensing might work differently with a 2.4 watt hub?

I had a bit over 7 volts AC at the light input wiring at most speeds above dead slow with the light turned on. That includes going down a hill at 25 mph, the voltage into the light wiring stayed between 7 and 8.

I was curious about voltage, my D Lumotec Oval at speeds up to 25 mph sucks so much power out of the hub that the voltage never rises above 4.5 volts. But the AXA at over 7 volts might have some power left over that you might be able to draw some power out of the hub for other purposes?

A dynohub that is not connected to anything can run very high voltage, my SP PV-8 at 25 mph will put out 34 volts AC. That is why I gave up trying to solder my own USB charger, I kept blowing out circuits. The Sinewave Revolution is rated to handle up to 70 volts, I have no clue what the Luxx 70 Plus can take, but if it could not take 25 mph, I am sure that there would be a lot of comments on the internet about that.

I am not using a dynohub powered taillight, that is on batteries. I bought the higher rated hub since I bought it for charging batteries and electronics while touring.

noglider 

I've hooked up these modern headlights to old dynamos. Three were sidewall dynamos and one was the kind that goes where a kickstand goes, behind the BB. In all cases, the lights work flawlessly. The only drawbacks are the extra drag and noise. I don't know if the lights detect frequency or voltage, but I'm sure it's not speed.

If your light is insufficient under 25 mph, you must be using a hub designed for small wheels on a big wheel. It's not spinning fast enough.

Tourist in MSN

I puts out plenty of light at all the speeds I want to ride at.

noglider 

Oops, I read you wrong.

GovernorSilver

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm much more concerned about the sunrise/sunset during my commute rides, especially out of DST.

fietsbob

of couse the headlight choice was a compromise to lower the whole bike selling price,

Page 3 groups the various B&M headlights by output.
https://www.bumm.de/fileadmin/user_up...5__English.pdf
Page 20 there is a feature grid for various models..

Tourist in MSN

I paid 20 Euros for shipping to USA, but VAT was not charged when I bought it from Germany. If I went to Europe, bought it there, brought it home, I would of course avoided shipping cost. But I do not know how much of a hassle getting VAT refunded is, or if it is always possible.

You might want to price it for shipping to USA on some of the European websites before you leave for Europe. Then if you see it in a store and like it, you can compare how much it would cost you to take it home vs how much to have it shipped to your home from a European seller.

I bought it from Bike24. The one without sensor that I bought is at this link, at top of page select shipping to USA and English to remove VAT from the price:

Bike24 - AXA Luxx70 Plus Steady Front Light

GovernorSilver

I agree. I got good value for the money, especially since it was discounted when I bought it.

fietsbob

Tried the Lyt , narrow beam .. sent it back.. Calhouns' restock fee punished , got an Eyc T senso
thru my LBS [PeterWhite US distributor shipped], its been on my Brompton ever since.

saturnsc2

do you know if the premium cyo light uses a different led than the old cyo light? i know the premium uses different optics to spread out the beam, but on my older cyo it's a smaller beam but very bright & no problem seeing at night. in most cases spreading out the beam just dimms the beam out, but it's wider, don't know if that's really better than a smaller brighter beam....

MarqueYellow

Checkout the dynamo lights at Dutch Bike Bits.

znomit

Its a new LED. I have both lights and the new light is a little brighter and a lot wider. The old cyo is fine on the training bike.

PaulRivers

Yes, it uses a different and brighter LED and gives you slightly more light in the main beam, plus also giving you a wider beam.

saturnsc2

there's 2 videos on youtube which show tests with the old cyo & the premium one. in the test the old beam which is narrower is brighter & the premium one shows a dimmer beam but wider. the tests are by the same person wiht the same gear it looks like... check it out. if you search b&m cyo tests they will come up....

PaulRivers

It's totally fair to ask the source, but my source for my opinion is owning and using both the older Cyo and the new Schmidt Edelux II in real life (which the Cyo Premium is based off of, it claims to put out 10% more light but is otherwise identical in output).

The Edelux II is definitely a little brighter than the old Cyo, and much wider as well.

Most likely the video thing is caused by the camera adjusting it's exposure settings during the video.

If you want other confirmation, you can search for "peter white dynamo beam shots" and you should be able to find the old Cyo shots and the new Schmidt Edelux II shots taken at the exact same exposure settings.

But I know for sure from personal experience with both lights, not just from reading.