I can ride that fast! It even says so right on my bike. It says Litespeed.

What else could it mean? :)

slvoid, That's my review.

-James

Oops... I meant the link is.
I list the names of people who send me the links, as I did not find it.

Ah... I understand now, no problem.

-James

Beauty. Lets move this subthread to the humor section :D

If you're interested in dynamo powered lights, this is a thorough site:

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt-lumotec.asp

Just installed a set of Schmidt E6s (primary and secondary) and a SON hub on Connie's and my Tour Easys. For those of you who have wondered whether hub generators are an alternative to battery driven lights on roads, the answer is yes! Good light pattern and freedom from recharging means that whenever you need the lights you have them. Most of the time I have ridden with my NiteRiders meant charging them up and bringing them from home on special rides. Were I to get stranded out late away from home the only lights I've had were small LEDs.

But with these lights I don't have to do anything special to be prepared to ride in the dark. And there is no limit to their burn times. I could ride a 1200K brevet and have light not only the first eight (8) hours of darkness on the first night, but have light for the other night time riding as well, without having to either recharge batteries or install new disposables.

Neat!

anybody tried cygo-lite's night explorer? i just got mine and i couldn't be happier. 10w wide and 15w spot. I commute in the city, so HID or 30w+ is not necessary. nice 5Ah NiMH bottle battery too. i had to spend $20 for a smart charger and make a connector to fit the M-type DC adaptor the batt came with. too bad cuz when i opened it it had a mini-tamiya inside the bottle that fits the stock 'universal' charger perfect. the aluminum housing get blistering hot though. overall damn good for the $75 price tag.

Updated the excel chart.

If the aluminium gets blistering hot, that's probably damaging the battery...

well actually its the lamp housing that gets hot not the battery. its completely stock except for the charger so i hope cygolite made it so it doesnt damage the battery. maybe its not as hot as i think seeing as some people are running homebrew 50w lights in metal housing too.

i'm thinking about putting a cpu heatsink on it so i dont have to wait as long for it to cool down before i put it away.

Let me tell you about how my do it yourself (DIY) bike light project is evolving. As it started getting darker in November last year I had picked up a cygolite dual 6w halogen helmet-mount system. It's a fine light but I needed “more power” as Tim the tool man used to say. I wanted to supplement the helmet light with a handlebar light that could give me a little more distance. In addition, if it's below 25F in the mornings or raining I wear a ski helmet that has fewer vents and ear covers but no light.
In order to experiment and keep the price down I bought several items from batteryspace.com. With their free shipping special on 24 2300 mah AA batteries and a 5% discount I had enough for two sets of 12 each. That gives a nominal voltage of 14.4v. I connected two 6 AA battery holders using a waterproof switch and added a ceramic bulb holder. The batteries tuck into a water bottle.
The original plan was to temporarily attach the bulb holder and MR16 bulb via a reflector hanger to my handlebar. Before that happened I found the optronics driving lights in the forums and ordered a pair of the black plastic ones. I did play with the 12 degree spot 20 watt MR16 annoying the family and shining the light around the neighborhood until the optronics housing came in.
The first night on the rail trail was glorious. Riding at 15 – 20 mph I had almost 3 seconds of lit area ahead. As I approached pedestrians from behind they knew something was coming up behind them. Of course the nice tight beam was extra bright due to over-volting.
The light didn't quite make the full 45 minute commute. A little research brought up the LightBrain light controller. I picked up the twin controller shipped for $45. It's a little PC card that you wire between the battery and lights [ I put mine in a 35mm film canister.] It soft starts the bulb reducing initial current and extending bulb and battery life. You hook up momentary closed switch to turn on the lamp(s) and cycle up through 37%, 62%, and 100% light settings. It maintains a constant 13.2v until the battery drops lower, then runs at 12v. With the LightBrain I make the full 45 min commute.
I've experimented with some other bulbs with different wattages and degree spread. In particular, I picked up the Phillips Masterline 35w 24 degree and the Masterline 8 degree 20 watt spot. The 20 watt is supposed to put out the equivalent of 35 watts. I've also bought a Solux 17 degree 35 watt bulb. The 35 watt bulbs are bright but using one will have to wait for greater battery capacity. The biggest surprise in bulbs is that the 12 degree batteryspace.com bulb for under $2.50 actually put out a tighter whiter light than the $11 Phillips 8 degree 20 watt bulb. This was even more evident at the lower 62% setting.
Here is a parts list:
24 AA 2300 mah batteries - batteryspace.com
ceramic holder Optronics housings
20 watt 12 degree MR16 - batteryspace.com
waterproof switch
LightBrain controller

Used reflector mount from local performance bike

I plan to buy a this Li-ion batter pack and charger for next fall/winter and upgrade to the dual light system
18v Li-ion battery pack

I've posted my new long distance lighting set up with Schmidt Hub over in the road cycling forum.

You can find it here.



So far its a wonderful thing.
I'm going to try for a 20 mile ride tonight, for further testing, adjustment.

Best thing i have seen so far

www.higlow.co.nz

Throwing in my experience:

I have bought several front lights now and have finally found one that I really like.

My first lights were a small leds that proved to be useless. These dont throw enough light on the road to se where you are going. You are more visible, but you arent really safely lighting up the road.

My next light was the Nite Hawk Dual Pro Lighting System w/Helmet Mount. This light is bright and very effective but I found that I seldom used it. It includes both a 20w and a 10w lamp. The 20w lamp drained the battery very quickly, once the battery was about a year old. The 10w was still very effective and would last nearly an hour on the year-used battery, but I found myself without it often. The setup was too ugly, bulky, and heavy to keep on the bike at all times. There were several nights that I found myself barely coasting with my tiny led because I would not carry the Nitehawk set with me all the time. The wires and battery are very bulky.

Finally, I just purchased the Dinotte ultralight 5w LED. The light output is nearly as bright as the 10w halogen, but battery life is good and the thing is TINY. The lamp is beautiful and about the size of my thumb. The battery pack is also tiny and looks nice. I forget its on the bike until I need it. It throws out a beam that is safe for riding a dark street or path at a reasonable speed. I wont be going as fast with it as I do in bright sunlight, but the bike is still a mode of transportation at night. It is the perfect compromise in my opinion. Small enough to keep it on the bike at all times and powerful enough to be useful. Another plus is that if I ever run the battery dead, I just grab some AAs from my bag or a gas station and Im back in business. No worries! I love the thing.

They are awful bold for asking $200 for it but its a great product.

What sort of runtime do you get, or have you determined that yet?

I get 100 minutes on mine w/ 2500 mAh Energizer cells; about 80 mins. with the OEM 2300 mAh cells after a few cycles. I routinely carry two sets of cells, since 4 AA's don't weigh much. I also run my light on "high" the entire time; the "low" setting is still usefully bright, but I don't know how much more time it gets you.

Jack

I have never run them dead yet, but I haven't given them a hard test either. I have run them about 90 mins so far, at the longest but had a bright beam at that point. Like I pointed out in my original post: they run on AAs. I have a lightweight backup if they give up. The light is overpriced, like I stated above; but they are perfect (and therefore a value) for the way I cycle. I ride to work 3 or 4 days per week. the light always lives on my handlebar and I can get home safely if necessary within 20 miles of my home. Even if I get nuts and find myself having a good time after dark at a greater distance, I can stop at a convenience store and buy batteries to last another 90 minutes for about $3.

These are great commuter lights but they are overpriced. They give off light similar to a 10 Watt halogen. Problem is that I haven't found anything better for the way I ride.

the lamp makes your bike useful in total darkness at 10-15mph. If the stock battery dies, you can get backup juice anywhere for very little $. Its a great light. Perhaps I'm only excited about them because I have tried to get along with the Nite Rider Halogens for too long, but the style, tiny size, and widely available extended power make them a winner for me personally. It makes me sick that I gave $180 for a tiny flashlight (on sale), but I love the damned thing.

It's just my two cents

I agree, the low setting is bright enough to be very useful. I tried both on a no-lights pitch black trail just after I purchased the light. Low is about 80% of high.

Like Jack stated, it is nothing to carry an extra set of AA cells.

I gave up on my Nite Rider System. It always seemed to short out or the battery would quit when I needed it most. Moved to a dyno hub. Wish I spent the $$ on it 3-4 years ago... I would probably would have broken even with the amount of $$ I spent on batteries for LED and other systems, shipping the Nite Rider back to the manufac. etc.

I say screw the blinkies and toss some dayglow paint your bike and some neons / black lights and let it glow baby!

^^

is that Dinotte ultralight 5w LED good enough for trail riding at dark or just for average street riding.

Ah answered my own question :

Here is a great review of that light:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=1377408

Because of its LED nature it would last much longer than Halogen or HID lights and thus make its high cost overcome the others IMO and its simple battery pack setup means I can make a DIY battery pack easy to make it last longer than the stock time. Untill I stroll across a better system I think this will be the light I end up buying, small, simple, effective. Very good light.

They say the light reviewed goes three hours on MEDIUM setting not high.

You can get an HID light that will go four hours for that much money and will be so much brighter you will wonder why you were ever interested in LED lights.

HID is much more efficient than LED. Much more effective. Read the very first post in this thread if you want to learn about efficiency of different bulbs. On line there is plenty of info about this.

I Got some really cool pinstriping from Relectivlyyours.com Looks black in daylight and glows very bright white when the head lights hit it. That and a cateye el-300 in the front with a couple of cateye tail lights and it's all good. :D

Used the Danolite (and more) on my Brevet this past Sat. 18g on the head, batteries in the jersey pocket. Worked really well. I turned off the dual Schmidt E6's I run with my dyno hub and it was bright enough to ride by. Would be a great commute light, even better Brevet light, as I left the light mounted all day, never noticed it. Batt pack went into my seat pack at the first control.

Well my reasonings were due to how incredibly long LED last, HID's dont last nearly as long and are very expensive to replace the bulbs. When you look at cost over time I personaly think the LED's would win.

however I appreciate the input, I would like to see a link to a similarly priced HID light with a review that your comparing it to.

I wanted to add this in:

http://www.jensonusa.com/store/produ...ht+System.aspx


from another forum, its on sale now so its a good deal I think, still too much for me but if you have the money and need a good light system this one looks like a great (and convienent) performer. I would much rather have the light on the bike than my helmet if possible.

I thought you meant run time, you mean bulb life.

Here's a couple of HID's in that range

http://batteryspace.com/index.asp?Pa...OD&ProdID=1398

Google Cygolite Z-force
they were selling for $200 to $275 not the retail listed. My friend bought one for $275 last year.

mtbreview.com has a light review section with lots of lights reviewed. Search this forum for the Cygolite Z-force. There's a lot here.

Somehow I misplaced my notes.

What are the differences between NiMh and Li-ion batteries. Does it really make a difference?

Found a good one page summary: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-3.htm

Hmm your review says this: Lithium-ion - fastest growing battery system; offers high-energy density and low weight. Protection circuit are needed to limit voltage and current for safety reasons. Applications include notebook computers and cell phones

Does that mean even if I find a Li-ion battery at the same or very close voltage output as my curretny battery pack supplies to my Dinotte that it wont work without protection circuts?

I think that just means if the voltage is too high... but now im confused.

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