Originally Posted by GlowBoy
OK, my system is now built ... Philips Masterline 35W MR16, Luxeon III MR16, Night-Sun/Lightman Xenon strobe, Pirahna 2-LED clearance lights amber & red, 5000mAh NiMH pack ... So far I've only taken it out for a quick night ride around the 'hood, plus this morning's commute in broad daylight and a few minutes of demo'ing for curious coworkers. The real test will come in about a few hours.
Well, now that I've ridden it home, I just have to say I'm thrilled with my system. The 35W high beam casts out an incredible cone of bright light. Too early to gauge driver reaction, but I'm sure the combination of the high beam, the amber running light and the strobe has vastly increased my frontal visibility. And fortunately the battery held out all the way home.
At first I wasn't very impressed at all with the Luxeon III low beam, because it was really only lighting up the pavement in darker areas between streetlights. Then at one point, while riding down a really dark street I noticed a cone of bluish light moving through the
trees! So after a quick stop to re-aim the thing so it actually hit the road, it did quite well, casting almost as much light as my old 10W low beam. Sweet!
I got the idea of mounting the lights on the canti studs from this thread, but this decision is causing several problems. (1) The lights end up pretty close to the wheel (unless you seriously mangle the mounting bracket), causing the tire to cast a major shadow and causing a blind spot for oncoming drivers. And that's with the lights hanging down below the canti studs -- if I'd done the opposite it would be even worse, positioning them right next to the tire. (2) Even though I'm using washers, the bolt holding the housings onto the canti studs comes loose way too easily. Maybe I should have put Loctite on the bolt instead of grease! (3) The lights are too hard to remove and put on my other bike.
Finally (4) this location makes for a very serious safety hazard if in the event a light came loose and either rotated sideways into the wheel -- or worse, fell off completely, in which case they would swing down on their wires into the front wheel. I'm paranoid about this: many years ago I had a brake lever come loose and swing down on its cable into the front wheel, causing an instant 25 mph endo onto pavement that I never want to repeat. For this reason, I've always been careful to loop headlight wires over and not under the handlebar, so if they rattled loose they wouldn't fall very far. The Optronics housings will easily bolt onto my TurboCat CNC QR brackets, so I think I'll go that route and position them just under the handlebar.