ItsJustMe rides in the winter, nimh batteries don't perform as well in the cold as lith-ion do (which also don't perform as well in the cold as they do when it's warm, but they're supposed to do better than nimh).

Peter White told me that Philips has stopped selling bike lights to the US market, so I would recommend against their products now.

Ah. We don't get too cold down here in SC

Their products don't stop working just because they stopped selling them. It's not like cell phone service or something where if they stopped support it it would stop working.

They still sell them on amazon in the US, though it's the previous model. But seriously, it's been like a year and they're still selling them on amazon. Not sure if someone else is importing them, or what the deal is there. It's even an americanized package, it comes with an american-plug charger rather than the European one.

A fair point, but if there are two equivalent products and only one has a prospect of long term support, I'll choose that one. If the Philips is very intriguing in some way, sure, buy it. I have the dynamo powered one, and it's working fine, even though I've lost the lens. I hope I can fashion some kind of replacement for it soon enough.

Sorry to hear about your lens - I just don't think there's a separate lens replacement or something like that available from Phillips regardless of whether they're selling here or not. Don't think so for the ixon iq either...

Say "What!?" These are supposed to be wonders of German optical engineering that don't shoot light off into the trees. Why would you need a "glare shade" to keep the light from shining in your eyes? Peter Whites site says that it for when you are out of the saddle but I've never needed any such thing with my lights that supposedly shoot half of my light into the trees. (They don't but that a different topic). My lights are mounted on my handlebars and I'd have to stand on my head to get them to shine into my eyes.

So you also Own the same B&M Ixon Light? ^^^ when I ordered mine adding it was cheap enough to add to the order.

Nope. Don't own one. But my chops have been busted many, many times about how I'm "spraying light into the trees (or people's eyes or into drivers eyes or into airplane cockpits)". I've been told over and over again how "irresponsible" I am for not using lights that have shaped beams. It's rather surprising that the "wonders of German engineering" need a glare shield to keep the light out of the bike rider's eyes. Seems like a design flaw (and a dirty little secret) to me...one that my irresponsible lights don't seem to have.

Given the flaw, I'm even less likely to own any of them.

I'm not entirely convinced you need the glare shield. I haven't tried it on a dark ride yet, but when I do, I'll post results. The only thing I can think is that since the lens all around has visibility, something with the way the reflectors are set might bring some unwanted light straight up, and it is probably only a minor annoyance to the rider. I wouldn't have spent any extra money on buying one, but mine came with it so I put it on for aesthetic purposes

Yep! After owning a couple of BMW motorcycles I learned that if there ever was a problem that involved German engineering it was due to the stupid Americans who couldn't appreciate it or properly use it.

So, the upward glare and the need for a glare shield is a feature? I can just see their ad copy: "The new Ixon Dazzler® is specially designed to teach bicyclist to remain seated at all times. When climbing out the saddle, the Dazzler® uses specially designed optics to focus a beam of light into the eyes of the cyclist which encourages them to remain in the saddle. The optics have been designed so that only the cyclist experiences the Dazzler® effect and the motorists around the cyclists is protected from any unwanted or unneeded light.

The Dazzler® joins the other fine products in the Ixon line of training devices including the Popeil 'Bed Of Nails'® saddle...based on patented Vlad the Impailer technology...which makes saddle sores a thing of the past. Remember, if you can't sit down, you can't get saddle sores. And the very popular Ronco Bladed Tape® which uses embedded razor blades to encourage a light grip on the handlebars. And who can forget the Cinelli Death Pedal®? 'If you can't take your feet off the pedals, you won't stop pedaling.'"

Haven't you learned that if you question the ways of the Germans or their designs it's just because you are an ignorant American from a less advanced culture and are not refined enough to understand the ways and methods of the elite??

I sadly accepted that fact about myself years ago, when I was an Audi mechanic. I just wasn't smart enough to understand why anyone would buy a second one.

Well said. I don't have any experience with Audis, but I bet their engineers wont admit they made a mistake either.

On my way to work this morning, near the end of our road where the Soos creek trail uses a couple hundred feet of road as part of the trail, I encountered a blinding ball of light. Even shielding my eyes with my hand and looking at the ground at my front wheel I couldn't see a thing and I needed to coast to a near stop in case there was anyone else there.
I think it was another cyclist, but I'm not sure as their light totally concealed them. I've never encountered a bike with such bright lights, and I hope I don't encounter them again. Lights that bright and unfocused are a real danger to others.

LOL, well now, that is pretty friekin' hilarious.

I don't know why they choose to go with this very odd thing in the design of their lights either. I can say that the glare shield came with the light for free when I ordered it, so it wasn't a big deal, but it is a definitely oddity of their design that they do other things so well then drop the ball on having the glare shield built into the light.

OOOh,
First ride with new Vis 180 tail light.
Bright and effective!

But I have it aimed down to spray light all over the road...

They had to get one of the German engineers to actually ride for hours over here to understand just how stinking uncomfortable the stock BMW saddle was to get them to believe what the Americans were saying. Before that, they all thought we were girly men because they could ride to another country without a problem. After that they realized a motorcycle capable of being ridden 1,000+ miles in a day needed a saddle that was better that the stock one that was only good for a couple hundred.

My Cyo Premium has a built in shade to prevent glare from upward light, but actually my handlebar blocks it when in normal riding stance:

l

Well folks, i finally had my first dark commute and thought i would add my comments on the Ixon IQ Premium...and I think the word terrific sums it up well. Plenty of visibility to the front and sides, it was plenty brigjt, cars seemed to have an easy time judging my speed and distance and on the completely dark part of my ride, I felt more than confident I could see everything minus some monster jumping out of the woods behind me.

[QUOTE=noglider;17180787 They prefer to be discharged fully before charging, otherwise, you get less capacity, because of memory effect. LiIon batteries have little or no memory. If your usage pattern doesn't match a full discharge, you might get a lot less usage out of a NiMH battery. With LiIon, just charge it whenever you want, even if it's mostly charged.[/QUOTE]

I think you are confusing MiMH with NiCAD. MiMH does not have memory effect. Other advantages to MiMH is they are less expensive, more readily available, and less volatile to pack and carry spares.

Matt

Even NiCad doesn't have a memory effect except in very limited situations. It's not really worth going into anymore anyway because nobody uses NiCad anyway, unless you're buying the very most horrible cheap Chinese cordless drills or something like that. I'm kind of surprised they're even legal to sell anymore, the battery chemistry is fairly toxic.

OK, then my knowledge is out of date. I knew they reduced the memory effect in NiMH batteries. I didn't know they've eliminated it.

I love the shade on top, my old cateye really had a big problem with the light coming up. So bad that i resorted to adhesive cloth tape.

- Andy

The first time I tried a shaped beam bike headlight was my very British Berec Ever Ready Frontguard II, in 1980. Most of my collection of Japanese-engineered Cateye headlight I've used over the decades have complicated lenses/reflectors and shaped beams as well.

I'm hopeful that now that lotsa light can be made inexpensively via LEDs, more light manufacturers will begin to differentiate their products with better optics - but I'm skeptical that lights engineered to meet an old German standard written around incandescent bulbs represents the optimum.