Xenon vs. LED: comparing apples to apples?
 

I'm considering new, low cost light options. There is a plethora (yah, now there's a word) of info here, and I have used the very nice pivot table provided in the stickied thread.

My commute is not too bad, over city streets and a stretch of dark bike path. NO high speeds or country roads.

I want to keep $$ outlay down and probably double up lights on the bar (I have an old CAteye HL500)
The Planet BIke SuperSpot (LED) and 500X/5000X (Xenon) seem fairly similar and are in my price range

HOw do the two systems (LED vs. XENON) compare?
Looks like the LED system will run longer on one charge/battery set
ARe there advantages to Xenon?

thanks! :)

good question i was wondering the same

Don't buy an LED system made for bikes, check out the Fenix Cree Flashlights or the Fenix Rebel flashlights. They have the highest powered LED's for only 58-69 bucks. Combine that with a Two Fish Flashlight block (13 bucks?) and you've got the cheapest, most powerful solution.

They look like great flashlights, but the run times they quote are for Lithium batteries, not alkalines. Do they still recommend to run in "turbo" mode for ten minutes or less, to limit the heat produced?

How effective is the beam spread for use on a bike?

no, heat won't be a problem with these, especially while moving (I checked out the issue at candlepowerforums.com).

I don't like Alkalines for batteris, I like rechargeable li-ion. You can get the necessary RCR-123a's from Battery space or battery junction. I prefer the battery junction ones rated at 950 mAh (it won't be as bright (maybe a few lumens off) as disposable lithium batteries, but it's a lot cheaper!).

The beam spread is great. Go over to candle power forums and search fenix cree pictures or fenix p3d rebel 100 pictures, the spread on the rebel is greater.
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=163154

I just got two, one for my helmet and one for my handlebars, one will be on sos and the other on static.

For spot focus applications, which is what the majority of flashlights are used for, the MagLite Magnum Star Xenon flashlights so far remain ummatched and will very easily out-throw any LED flashlight on the market, and in emergencies, the MagLite flashlight can be used as a baton to aid in self-defense. My cousin works as a veterinarian and she says pepper spray is absolutely useless against an angry attack dog and will serve no other purpose save to anger the dog even more.

Usually, and in the vast majority of cases, even versus the new LEDs, incandescent bulbs can very easily out-throw LEDs in spot-focus applications with alkaline batteries. For example, the MagLite White Star Krypton flashlight powered by four D-size alkaline batteries will very easily out-throw a Rayovac Roughneck Flex360 LED flashlight in spot-focus comparison tests, even though the MagLite flashlight is only rated for 122.2 lumens while the Roughneck is rated for 130 lumens.

Incandescent vs LED is like comparing apples to oranges. There is no comparison. Incandescents win no contest against LEDs in almost all comparison tests.

This thread would be moved to Electronics, Lighting & Gadgets, but it is over 4 years old. I think it might be better to start a new discussion thread in that forum.

Closed.