northerntier

Just installed my Luxos U and have gone on a couple rides. Overall, I'm impressed. I have an Exposure Diablo MK 4 and a Lezyne MegaDrive and they make my Edelux pale in comparison (literally).

The Luxos U is a different beast:

• enough light that I no longer feel the need for a battery light
• as a geek I love that someone has finally put a bit of thought into the lights: more light close by when slow using cache battery etc.
• cache battery and bar-mounted button work great. I love ability to turn on the floods or to flash someone to get their attention.
• constant charging of the iphone. I've had Biologic, The Plug II, and at least one other charging solution (not the ework), but none worked very well for charging the iphone, mostly because they lack a cache battery and I am not fast on the uphills. The cache battery evens it out and the phone no longer goes on and off all the time.

I didn't wire in a rear light because I like blinkies. I use a Dinotte 300R.

I haven't done straight-up comparisons with the battery lights yet. I'd expect that the battery lights (especially the megadrive) will still provide more light. For me, however, the Luxos has crossed some critical threshold where it provides "enough". I was not at all comfortable riding w/ just the Edelux, but I'm fine w/ the Luxos. Rather than the Edelux being my emergency light, now the Luxos is my main light, the Diablo is the emergency light, and the MegaDrive (awesome though it is) will probably sit in my storage bin.

The Luxos is expensive, but it's a game changer. My only remaining issue is that the Luxos is on my commuter, and my touring bike is looking bare.

mstraus

Thanks for the review! I am thinking of upgrading my commuter/tourer to a dynamo and interested in the Luxos U, so very nice to see positive reviews of the light, considering its a reasonable investment.

westrid_dad

I've been riding with the Luxos U on my new commuter/tourer for about a month and have been happy with the performance and convenience in comparison to my previous re-chargeable setup. I do have a B&M Toplight Line Brake Plus wired on the rear as well. Depending upon the riding conditions, I will supplement these lights with a helmet-mount light (flash mode) and a Light & Motion VIS 180 (pulse mode) on the seat post. Overall, I really like the dynamo lights, especially the optics. While not as "blindingly" bright as the Dinotte Lighting set this has replaced, I feel the beam pattern of the Luxos U is more useful, and more "appropriate" for road riding.

01 CAt Man Do

This is turning out to be an interesting thread. I like hearing from people who have experience with good LED battery lamps and can compare them to the dynamo lamps. This is important if you are thinking of switching to a Dynamo powered lamp but are worried the dynamos might not meet the needs.

Personally I'd like to see more dynamo set-ups include the option for a more robust cache battery ( making it a hybrid set-up ).

While I like the idea of beam pattern having a cut-off to me the most important thing is, "Is it bright enough to meet my needs"? The next issue is of course size. Would be nice to have a lamp that doesn't shout, "Look, here comes Pee Wee".

antokelly

so blinkeys are better on the rear?
i want to get a dynamo front wheel shimano hub dynamo will do me fine i reckon had one on my last tourer worked great, does the luxus u work better without a tail light as in, does it have more power. stupid questin i know buy hey got to ask.

fietsbob

for the touring rider this is new & interesting ORTLIEB Produkt-Details

they made a disconnect plug in the bar bag QR interface , so the USB power from the hub goes to the bar mount adapter .

and removing it's bag disconnects the power in one go,

the hubs have a 3w 6v output . typical split .. head 2,4w, 0,6 to the back


Better , depends .. you are planning a trip into Germany ? legally I understand they are not pleased with blinking bike lights.

US from what I read Here US city riders are really worried about being rear ended .
so load up on blinking rear lights ..

I'm in the states but in a small town, and do not feel so worried , here .. How's Ireland?

antokelly

bad enough bob,i had the BnM toplight on the sherpa man it was brilliant as good as a car tail light.i have some great battery lights and a good cateye tail light battery, but i would love to buy thay dynamo set up for the new audax,(when i have the dosh) dynamo make sense and the headlights seem to getting better all the time not as bright as a top end battery powered light but still good enough to light up the road ahead.
expensve the luxus u though £101 on rosebikes. cant see it any cheaper anywhere else.

LuckySailor

Better , depends .. you are planning a trip into Germany ? legally I understand they are not pleased with blinking bike lights.

US from what I read Here US city riders are really worried about being rear ended .
so load up on blinking rear lights ..

Do you have a link for that article about US riders being worried about getting rear ended-or is that talk around town kinda stuff? I was thinking blinkies would be a problem-think those yellow blinikies at construction sites. They're really mesmerizing. I have a Toplight Brake Line Pro, but I have a battery blinkie too.

mstraus

I am curious what you previous battery setup was. For the headlight, how does your new setup compare with the old on 1) brightness, 2) beam pattern, and 3) overall effectiveness.

I have been thinking about upgrading to dynamo, so want to get an idea of what to expect if I do.

fietsbob

Looking like a smaller mini-Luxos the Eyc went on my Brompton hub dynamo build , T version the stand light is 2 day run extra LEDs,

being under 20" from the ground , it seems plenty bright for my needs.. Line Tech Topmount went on in place of the reflector,,

northerntier

OP here.

A bit more experience w/ the Luxos U. I'm attaching a picture, it doesn't look too big on my bike, but those are 1-3/4" tires, so it may be a bit different on your 15-lb carbon fiber bike.

Re the cache battery. My early experience was that this would smooth out the starts and stops the others had every time your speed dropped below the critical threshold (7 mph? 9 mph? seems to vary). This is true, but it's not perfect.

Yesterday I biked home 45 minutes w/o either lights or charging, so the battery should have been charged up.

Today I set out charging my iphone 5, which was running motionx w/ display off. In the first 13 minutes it went from 67% to 74%, and the kept charging (though maybe slowly) during three stops at signs/lights. W/ the display on for the next 13 minutes it continued charging to 76%. After about 60 seconds during a brief break at my turnaround it stopped charging. For the first 15 minutes on the ride back I turned off motionx and it continued charging to 86%.

However, upon turning into a 6-minute uphill ~10% grade it turned off after about 20 seconds. Same thing happened a few minutes later.

Seems to me that the cache battery must have been drained by all the stops, the GPS, and display on the way out. That's unfortunate, but still way better than other chargers (biologic, pedalpower+, theplug II). The luxos can clearly continue charging the iphone w/ both motionx (GPS) and display on (13-15 mpg), but it is very slow and depletes the battery. I do not yet know if it depletes the battery to charge the phone w/o GPS and display. I haven't been able to find out its capacity, anyone know this?

Finally, I went out w/ my Diablo MK4 and my Lezyne MegaDrive and, as expected, both the battery-lights produced more light. However, the Luxos was much broader than the Diablo, especially w/ the temporary flood on, though not as intense, so subjectively it seems at least a wash. The MegaDrive produces much more light, distributed more evenly and broadly. Again, however, I'm happy w/ the luxos. Given the hassle of charging, mounting (I have many gadgets on my handlebars) etc., I expect that I'll carry the diablo in my handlebar bag, use very rarely, and be happy.

On a different topic, there were a couple of comments about the US and rear blinkies. American drivers are getting better about watching out for bikes, but they are still generally bad (an order of magnitude worse than my experience in cambridge england a decade ago). I won't willingly ride w/o a bright blinky at night, and I generally even have a blinky on during the day. I use a dinotte 300R on my commuter, and cygolite hotshots on other bikes.

njkayaker

I don't think there are any battery-powered blinking rear lights that don't also have a solid (non-blinking) option.

njkayaker

Bicycle lights are much smaller and less bright than flashing construction lights (and there are often many more lights at construction sites).

The advantage of a blinking rear light is that flashing is more noticible from a longer distance and it allows following drivers more time to identify the thing as a cyclist. A steady small red light could be identified as many other things (even a driveway reflector). Another advantage is that it conserves a lot of battery power (which means it would allow a brighter LED for the same battery size).

fietsbob

But the German made battery lights dont really flash (china export ones do)

( though my 4D toplight senso had a Tunnel mode, 1/2 second interval , daylight , into tunnel then back into daylight.

njkayaker

???

Huh? You were saying that lights with a flashing mode couldn't be used in Germany.

Since all (that I know of) flashing lights have a solid mode, that is incorrect (except very unually).

zacster

Actually, I believe it is true that a light with a flash mode CAN'T be sold in Germany, whether it has a solid mode or not. The new Magnic Light IC has a flash mode, but it can be permanently disabled so that it is still legal in Deutschland. I think the German customers will only receive it that way. I'm expecting mine to be used with flash, but I'm in NYC where flashing is pretty much standard.

njkayaker

Read what I wrote carefully. Battery flashing lights almost always have a solid mode.

I know about the solid light requirement in Germany. (No one was talking about buying a light in Germany either. Heck, there's no indication that anybody was even planning on riding in Germany at night.)

If you go to Germany with your flashing light, you can use the solid mode.

(The flashing Magnic might not have a solid mode but it's an unusual/uncommon light and I was talking about battery lights anyway. Solid-only dynamo lights might be common since many popular ones are made/sold in Germany. In the US, it would be hard to find a flashing light that didn't also have a solid mode.)

The following makes no sense:

fietsbob

whatever ..

NL based Spanninga: keeping ahead of light and , Home*-*axa-stenman

German Busch & Müller: Home

njkayaker

Why do you keep posting such useless stuff?

fietsbob

Why are you so OCD that it matters ?

njkayaker

Actually, I was quite satisfied with addressing it once. I replied to zacster because he didn't understand what I was talking about. It's you that are OCD about it.

Anyway, what compulsion makes you write incomprehensible, misleading, and useless stuff like this:

northerntier

Each time I come back here I look to see if there are any responses to the reviews that I took the time to write up. Instead, nothing but inane bickering over crap that has nothing to do w/ my post. This wastes time for those who might be interested in the original posts, and discourages others from making their own informative posts. Please stop.

antokelly

znomit

Has anyone measured the power consumption of the luxos? I was kinda keen on it but went with the Cyo premium assuming all that extra junk would suck a bit of power. Plus I'm cheap of course.

zacster

But this was my point: They are NOT LEGAL to be sold in Germany with a flashing mode. It goes beyond whether they are used that way or not.