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Budget LED light for commuting?

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Budget LED light for commuting?

Old 09-09-06, 10:48 PM
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Originally Posted by G. Bucci
Don't budget when it comes to lights. Your route is well lit but what happens when the street lamps burn out and don't get replaced? As the days get shorter you may find yourself riding in the dark both to and from work.
Halogen lights are expensive ($150can.) but they are a one time purchase. They'll last at least five years where as a $40 clipon can easily get lost and replacing them can exceed the $150.
The halogen lights literally make you look like a vehicle on the road and you will find that cars will give you more breathing room when approaching intersections.
First off you don't need to carry a spare bulb if you have a dual beam setup like the Cygolite's; if one of the beams fry you simply use the other; just have a spare bulb at home or go to Radio Shack and buy another. By the way my cheap $45 Cygolite Metro with dual beams still are using the original bulbs after 4 years averaging about 2 hours of use a night from October to March (except when there's snow on the ground).

Second you can get 16 watts of dual Halogen's for less then $90 and 12 watts of dual halogen's for less then $70 from Cygolite.

Third; a bike light will NEVER make you look like a vehicle on the road unless you mount a motorcycle or car headlight to your bars! That's why a front flasher is very important.
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Old 09-10-06, 11:36 AM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
For a good idea of how bright the el500 (530), el400 (410), and el200 blinkers are, go to my post here.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...4&postcount=34

I have pics of all of em from about 30 ft away.
It's getting to that time of year again when people start light shopping. If the mods made this a sticky it might be helpful. I like that there is not too much information to read, and not too many beam shots to look at, just enough so you can ballpark what you might be considering buying.

I still like the " light selection guide" but maybe some readers did not want to proccess all that information. Maybe a short post with good photos is faster to get the idea across. ?
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Old 09-10-06, 11:47 AM
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Originally Posted by froze
First off you don't need to carry a spare bulb if you have a dual beam setup like the Cygolite's; if one of the beams fry you simply use the other; just have a spare bulb at home or go to Radio Shack and buy another. By the way my cheap $45 Cygolite Metro with dual beams still are using the original bulbs after 4 years averaging about 2 hours of use a night from October to March (except when there's snow on the ground).

Second you can get 16 watts of dual Halogen's for less then $90 and 12 watts of dual halogen's for less then $70 from Cygolite.

Third; a bike light will NEVER make you look like a vehicle on the road unless you mount a motorcycle or car headlight to your bars! That's why a front flasher is very important.
Never say never. Come ride with me.
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Old 09-10-06, 01:00 PM
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Originally Posted by froze
First off you don't need to carry a spare bulb if you have a dual beam setup like the Cygolite's; if one of the beams fry you simply use the other; just have a spare bulb at home or go to Radio Shack and buy another. By the way my cheap $45 Cygolite Metro with dual beams still are using the original bulbs after 4 years averaging about 2 hours of use a night from October to March (except when there's snow on the ground).

Second you can get 16 watts of dual Halogen's for less then $90 and 12 watts of dual halogen's for less then $70 from Cygolite.

Third; a bike light will NEVER make you look like a vehicle on the road unless you mount a motorcycle or car headlight to your bars! That's why a front flasher is very important.
There are guys here who's bike lights are brighter than motorcycle lights...
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Old 09-10-06, 01:42 PM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
There are guys here who's bike lights are brighter than motorcycle lights...

Brightness is not the only factor. The size of the lamp is what motorist see. When you go down a highway and a car is coming at you from a mile away do you notice the beam on the road or the headlight itself first? You don't even notice the beam on the road till the car is at the most 1/4 of a mile ahead of you and even then the most noticeable aspect of the light is still the headlight.

When I see a cyclist approaching me on a highway all the headlight looks like from a mile away is a tiny sparklier, which doesn't improve any till that bike is about 1/10 of a mile away then it looks like a bright firefly, and that's if the light is a very bright one! The dim ones look like someone lit a match or a very dim firefly at about 1/10 of a mile; and thats only IF the light is heading straight for you! If it's off at an angle you can't see it all or it looks like a very small dim orb.

Pay attention next time your out driving at night and look for cyclist and their lights and you'll see what I mean. That's why a bright front flasher is so effective because it attracts your attention to the bike first and their cheap.

I'll grant you this though, I can't say that I've seen the brightest headlight on a bike ever made because I don't stop a cyclist and ask if that's what they have. But most folks on this forum can't afford the over $400 price tags (and a couple I've seen are over $1,200!) for a light, which is a fact that the original poster has a problem with. Also a extremily bright light like you mentioned has the problem of all that light bouncing back at your eyes off the pavement giving you night blindness so you can't see much when you turn your head to the side. The really bright lights are really the best when used off road so you can see trail details and the dirt does not reflect the light back at you like the pavement does.

I seriously believe that cyclist's need a light that has a lens size of at least 4 inches and built so it can be seen off angle, but then all the cyclist's would complain that it's too heavy and not aerodynamic enough.
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Old 09-10-06, 04:02 PM
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I wasn't talking about the dinky little luxeon LED's here.

You said a bike light will never make a bike look like a car or motorcycle. For the right price, it will.
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Old 09-10-06, 05:06 PM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
For a good idea of how bright the el500 (530), el400 (410), and el200 blinkers are, go to my post here.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...4&postcount=34

I have pics of all of em from about 30 ft away.
You should redo the tests with the 530 and the 410. The 410 is double the 400 candlepower, and the 530 is 500 more candlepower than the 500.

See what the difference in distance and pattern these do side by side. Might as well try a 510/520 combo if you can get those too.
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Old 09-10-06, 06:21 PM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
I wasn't talking about the dinky little luxeon LED's here.

You said a bike light will never make a bike look like a car or motorcycle. For the right price, it will.
I was talking about both the ultrabright HID's and Halogen as well as the little luxeon jobs. You might be right if the price is right, but you would still have to increase the lens size substantially over what bike lights are today that at the most are only 2" across. To the best of my knowledge I don't think I've encountered any of those new $1,200 plus lights yet...and I'll be surprised if I ever do.

There are by the way, increasing smaller lights on a few of the newer cars that just look odd and not as noticable as the larger designed len's, but they offset some of that lack of noticablity with a weird violet hue to the light.
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Old 09-10-06, 06:56 PM
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Regarding large lens size, check this out, apparently named the Big Bang. From https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m.asp

Interesting!
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Old 09-10-06, 07:14 PM
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AHahahahah that's gold, the big bang.

FWIW, my HID on low power does emit a purplish hue.
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Old 09-10-06, 07:29 PM
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Originally Posted by mechBgon
Regarding large lens size, check this out, apparently named the Big Bang. From https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m.asp

Interesting!
That's more like it, but what does that cost? no price mentioned.
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Old 09-10-06, 07:50 PM
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Originally Posted by froze
I was talking about both the ultrabright HID's and Halogen as well as the little luxeon jobs. You might be right if the price is right, but you would still have to increase the lens size substantially over what bike lights are today that at the most are only 2" across. To the best of my knowledge I don't think I've encountered any of those new $1,200 plus lights yet...and I'll be surprised if I ever do.

There are by the way, increasing smaller lights on a few of the newer cars that just look odd and not as noticable as the larger designed len's, but they offset some of that lack of noticablity with a weird violet hue to the light.
My small diameter bike light is brighter and much easier to see from any angle than a large diameter car light and from any distance. You do not have to increase the diameter. The focus of the Welch Allyn bulbs that are the basis for all the bike HID lights are not focused like the complicated lens on a car and are much easier to see from an angle. My beam goes out to almost 90 degrees.

The weird violet hue lights in cars are HID bulbs, and some rip off halogen copies made to look like HID bulbs.

Originally Posted by slvoid
There are guys here who's bike lights are brighter than motorcycle lights...


I have also been mistaken for a train coming. If only I had a train whistle.
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Old 09-10-06, 07:58 PM
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Originally Posted by mechBgon
Regarding large lens size, check this out, apparently named the Big Bang. From https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m.asp

Interesting!
I'll see your Big Bang and raise with this .....

Trail-Tech 30W MR16 Eclipse HID with 11.1V 7.2Ah Li-Ion Battery and Smart Charger ---The brightest HID Bike Light in the market

Sale Price $299.95


If slvoid raises with the HID tank light, I'm going to have to fold.
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