2manybikes

It look as if the small compartment on the front of the bag can store extra cable. It looks just like my camera bag from the front. I attach that to the stem, bars, top tube, head tube, etc. with large pieces of velcro used as straps. You can attach anything to anything with a little though. I would attach that to my top tube and rivet or sew or just wrap the whole thing in a big wide piece of velcro. No problem.

Somewhere I have beam photos of my 15 watt halogen light and my 10 watt HID light. I'll start looking for them.

2manybikes

On the first post in this thread there ia a group of links a little way from the top. They all go to beam comparison photos. You can figure out the power of any light you want from these links.
Click on the link under "courtesy of 2manybikes". on the left is a list of albums, click on "bike light photos"
double click on a thumbnail to get a full size photo. The photos are captioned right in the photo.

There is a 10w HID and a 15 watt halogen, and a few others. The HID is better.

genel

I just attached a Whelen TIR 3 Ultra to the rear rack. Brightest thing I've ever seen. Daylight bright. It was a few dollars cheaper then the NOVA at https://www.strobesnmore.com/ . Runs fine on 9 volts. So far 6 hours.

I've removed the LD1000, but I'm still keeping an LD500 for backup.

stapfam

In that link is a light called the USE Exposure. This is actually the Race version of the lamp and is an old model. I have the new Enduro Turbo. Longer battery life and a more powerful light. The Race is good for anyone road or trail riding but for those of us that ride offroad then a lot more powerful light is required. That is where the Enduro comes in. Instead of two Floods- it has a spot and a flood. It also has a longer battery life. This year the lamp has been upgraded and instead of just two power setting of Low and high- This year the Turbo Enduro has low- high and Turbo. The turbo does eat battery life but is a more powerful light than the old model without the turbo.

https://www.use1.com/exposure/product...race/index.php

To take all these comparisons into perspective you have to have the latest data. In this case- it is not the latest data. The only way to check to see if a lamp is good enough for you- is to try it. Saves you spending a fortune on advertising hype that does not evolve into the quality of lamp you want. And even the beam comparisons do not give you the true comparison of trying a lamp.

Very few of us will be doing 6 hour night rides- at 40mph downhill across rutted tracks. Last year I did 6 hours at sensible downhill speeds and I just used a twin 10w halogen. Completely adequate for riding- but not for comfort. I could have done with better lighting and that was where a helmet lamp came in. If you want the benefit of my experience then a GOOD floodlamp to light up 25 ft in front of the bike and Top quality Helmet lamp would be my choice now. Mind you- the exposure Enduro Turbo is fantastic and the 8 hour battery life just about covers my needs for a 6 hour ride. Contrary to what the comparison tests would lead you to believe.

ItsJustMe

I got my Nashbar Brilliant II (5-LED) today.
I took some pics, including one taken about 25 feet across a room at ISO 800, 1/6 sec f/3.5 to try to make it comparable to slvoid's image strip. It looks like it comes in about equivalent to somewhere around a 5 watt halogen.
Here's the Nashbar page for the light
Here's my gallery page with slvoid's strip and mine. Also there are two outdoors pics, one with my trailtech HID but that makes the LED look pretty pathetic.

mechBgon

COOL! I know it has a ton of strobe modes, any comments on those? Are the motorists terrified?

Also, can you show some photos of how it can be attached to stuff, and how you attached yours? Here's a thread showing how I hooked up my Nova to my rack:
https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/202062-so-how-s-nova-led-megablinkie-broad-sunlight.html

Pics of it in daylight from 100, 200 and 300 paces at 4x zoom would be interesting too, since the first photos in that thread were shot under those conditions too. PICS, we must have PICS!!! A photo of its beam pattern against a wall, too!

I also just noticed the Whelen can be bought in a vertical style, which could be very useful since it would put the mounting holes over-under.

Lurker1999

Any impressions on the Cateye HL-EL530? It runs off 4 AA batteries and they claim it's 50% brighter than the the HL-EL500. It's not up in the comparison chart yet but from the front page they say 1500 candlepower.

https://www.cateye.com/en/product_detail/327

tuolumne

RECOMENDATIONS PLEASE I'm not sure I can afford any of these options, but I would like an HID bike light. Here are the best prices I saw with a quick scan of the net (not counting ebay bids). I've read reviews and looked at beam comparisons until extreme dizziness set in. What do you folks (having experience with these lights) think of the following options (all NiMH and HID):

JetLite HID Blast - $375
Light & Motion ARC HID - $329
Lume Lighting Strada (slow charger) - $280
Nightpro Extreme - $299
Niterider Rage (LED/HID) - $420
Edison anything - forget about it

I need 3 hours (maybe more) of light for a snowy commute (32 miles R.T.) . I do not think Lion is worth the cost or potential problems with cold weather. I like the LED combo of the niterider, but $400+ ...yikes. Charging time is not important...I've got all night. Does Cygolite make any HIDs? HID is important to ride 25 mph+ if possible as much of my commute is in the country with some long hills. I'm not sure a LED would be enough to avoid the deer in time. All of this may prove academic with no budget. This will be my first winter commuting...right now I start my mornings with a hiking headlamp and handheld LED flashlight. This mostly makes me visible to other cars as the mornings are not fully dark. I've only got a few weeks tops before it's too dark for this setup. Thanks...

dalmore

Go to Batteryspace for a 185-195 HID light and battery. That's your best price.

Also The Nightrider Enduro is on sale severala places at the moment. Pricepoint, JensonUSA

And finally Performance currently has the Topeak Moonshine HID on sale.

If you can't swing the HID - check back and get recommendations for one of the newer LED's or perhaps a halogen.

tuolumne

If I am getting Li-ion (not sure I want it for New England cold) at this price, what is the resulting sacrifice in quality of the remaining components. Anything over $100 had better last a long time.

That looks like good competition.

The run time shown is not enough for my commute.

2manybikes

MY Li-Ion battery gives me about full run time in the winter in Rhode Island. I have not used it below about 10 degrees F. It just has not been any colder when I was riding. The insulation on a water bottle battery can have an effect too.

Even alkaline batteries that really work bad in the cold will work fine if you keep them warm. I've done it in the past by putting the battery pack under my clothing while riding. 98.6 is great for batteries. Any type of battery can be made to work this way.

There is an owner report somewhere in these forums for both of the inexpensive batteryspace.coM HID lights. I don't remember if they mention the cold. Search the forums.

$100 lights are entry level lights.

2manybikes

Charging time is important. If you get home at 6:00 pm and have to leave at 6:00am for work, you only have 12 hours to charge your light. Many of the overnight charger lights take that long or even 14 hours for a full charge. You may have much longer, but think about it when purchasing. To get three hours in the cold you need to include extra time for a flat or something else. I would go with 4 hours for a three hour commute. Cygolight does not seem to sell their HID anymore.. The batteryspace lights are less $$ anyway. They will give you your 4 hours. And of course less in the cold.

The only thing on the market today that will give you 4 hours, bright light, and be close to your budget will be HID right now that's where the marketplace is. You can build your own Halogen light for less than $100.oo that will do that. You may have to get a huge SLA battery to do that. They can be insulated and have a chemical hand warmer put inside the insulation. I have not tried that myself, but maybe others here have?

As you alread have seen, you will get light recomendations from others that do not have the run time you need. If you need three hours in the cold buy a four hour light.

ahpook

Has anyone gotten one of these? The mounting system and battery look fine, but do they perform as advertised and are you sacrificing anything important compared to, say, the L&M ARC?

2manybikes

There are a couple of owners in the forums that gave repots on the lights. Try searching the forums. One is very recent.

Eriol

I dont know much about lights, I started commuting in the summer and it has always been bright in the morning, but now its getting dark and need something.
The streets around here are very dark. Would this be a good one for people to see me?
https://www.cateye.com/en/product_detail/263

robtown

People will probably see you but you may want to see the road. Those type of LED lights are much closer to $200 than $100.

tuolumne

Question 1 - I like the idea of the Niterider Rage with built in LED technology. It would be very useful to use just LED flashing lights when only visibility is needed. Would it be better to use a separate LED light and stick with straight HID? What is the LED light included in the Rage comparable to for stand alone versions? What other manufacturers produce a combo HID/LED light? Thanks.

Question 2 - Does anyone carry a charger to work every day? How heavy/bulky is it? How much does a second charger cost? This way I could pay less for battery power and recharge my headlight at work. Any thoughts?

2manybikes

A couple of good questions.

I have not see the Nightrider auxiliary LED's in the dark, so I don't know about that. But here's my 2 cents worth on the other things. I ride long rides in the dark a lot, and I like having one HID light and another small backup LED with it's own power. If you forget to charge the main light or if something breaks, you have a complete other lighting system. Also with a small separate light it's handy for a flat tire or to see something else on the bike, looking in your bag in the dark, etc. You can also mount one on your helmet, that is great for other things and looking at something way off to the side.
I have one that fits my helmet , and I use it to put bikes on a car rack in the dark etc.

Bike light chargers are not very big, it's easy to take one to work. Most of the light makers list the prices of extra chargers and spare parts on their web sites, I know Nightrider does.

Lupine, And Supernova make Halogen or HID and LED combos, but they are higher priced than the Nightriders. Both have good web sites.

tuolumne

Thanks 2manybikes. I do carry a very small LED flashlight now (my primary light at present) and will continue to do so if and when I can afford HID as a backup and for changing flats etc. I don't have much room left on my handlebars, so I'm tempted to get something that incorporates a front blinky into a headlight. I've noticed that Lupine anything is well beyond my price range. Supernova is a new one for me, but I'm just beginning to research all of this.

2manybikes

Also....... once my Nightrider did not start well about 40 miles from home. I finally got it started but I thought I was in for a long lousy ride. Also one time I just forgot to charge it and It just ran out about 20 miles from home. Oops ! Not fun.

Supernova may be more than Lupine.

rickymurphy

1. On all the NiteRiders, the HID comes on before the LED, to the chagrin of many of their owners. I'd prefer a separate LED system for backup, that way if something fundamental goes wrong with your primary system (switch, connectors, BATTERY), you'd still have an alternative.

2. Just get a charger from batteryspace. $20 for a slow charger (0.5A), ~$30 for a faster charger (1.5A). Should outlast any light system, get a separate one for work, you can't have too many.

mechBgon

On my NiteRider, the LEDs come on steady with the first click of the power button, and the HID ignites with the second click. If you want the flashing mode, then you hold the button for 4+ seconds. If you want steady LED but don't want to fire up the HID, then you can unplug the battery from the light head to turn it off without striking the HID.

I agree, I'd rather have a weentsy lil' Cateye EL400 or something as the LED light. I can remark that the NiteRider LEDs would be about sufficient to follow the fog line in pitch-dark conditions at very low speed, but nothing beyond that.

rickymurphy

Alright, I've been shopping for a new light. After a few too many close encounters with skunks (came within a couple meters of more than 6 skunks in one night), I've decided that my 5-watt halogen just doesn't cut it.

Check out the attached file...

What's I've done is a basic comparison of some HID lighting options out there. Red means I've decided there are better options, and green means it's probably what I'll go with.

The other pages in the Bike Lighting.xls file detail battery options- that's what should be most interesting to you. I have every single battery pack from 11.1V-14.8V that they sell, with the exception of the really small ones, those are never the best value, and are rarely the best option for bike lighting.

Some of it won't make sense to anyone, this was primarily created for my benefit, but you guys are free to do what you want with it, I hope this helps.

LCI_Brian

Has anyone seen the new Cateye HL-EL350? It looks like the HL-EL300, but brighter. The 350 has a new bracket, but all my bikes have the old bracket for the 300. It looks like the head from the 350 can be unscrewed and put on the 300 base, has anyone tried that?

genel

There are four wires coming out of the Whelen unit. +12,GND,mode, and sync. You change modes by temporarily connecting the mode wire to +12.

The Whelen strobe modes are basically, 4,3,2, or 1 blinks at a time, or solid. Each mode has two modes one for chaining to other units. I wish that one of the wires would just do solid then it would make a terrific brake light. I've just been using it in the default 4 blinks mode.

I just used some bits of aluminum strip and "P" clamps to attach it to the rear rack. I discarded the mounting stuff it comes with and am just using the unit itself. real simple. I added a molex connector and a 9V battery connector. The battery is just sitting in the rear bag. I have an 8 Cell AA pack ready when the darn 9volt battery runs out. I've got about 10 hours on it now and it's still flashing, Not quite as bright but still brighter then the LD500, and thats with 9V instead of 12. I still don't know what the current drain is as it only gives max current, but it's quite efficient.

The mounting holes are on the two outside edges of the metal back plate about 3 1/2 inches apart, so the vertical unit would need a bit of finagling to fit on the typical verticle reflector mount.

The electronics appear to be potted (although I didn't actually dissasemble it), so I'm not concerned with weather. The unit is designed to be mounted on the ouside of emergency vehicles.

While riding the Apple Cider Century about 6:00 am and very dark and foggy every car that passed moved completely into the opposite lane, well before reaching me, and I had forgotten to remount the reflector so the only rear lighting was the whelen. So it was bright enough to penetrate the ground fog.

I'm still a little concerned that a flashing red light might be restricted to emergency vehicles, but I haven't been stopped yet.