kleng

Hi

Here are some photos of the of my helmet mounting of my Fenix Digital P1D CE.
I just use the holster and fit it in the main channel of the helmet air vents, the holster is held in place by small velcro self adhesive buttons , but these aren't really needed. Its a bit neater as there is no need for any external mounting.

mimis

nice clean looking, but what about cooling of the unit, this holster looks like a warm glove...
What's your impression of this light anyway, i'm expecting a similar Fenix lamp any day now

kleng

I'm not expecting any problems due to the air flow from riding, the light has great output, I got the rechargeable 123a's so I can swap out the batteries when needed. I'm not using this as my primary light. I like the small size even the run time is about an hour.

varuscelli

That's great, kleng. Really cool looking way to mount the light with that helmet, and like mimis said, very clean looking. I'm sure that even the hard-core safety advocates would approve of that method. I love the fact that it doesn't stick up at all.

Do you feel it on the top of your head at all? Just curious.

kleng

No not really, in my helmet the holster is flush with the vents, so you don't feel it.
In order to get it flush I had to cut off the holster's D ring.

ViperZ

That's a nice little flashlight....

I Neeeeed one

kleng

It's got great output but only a hour on turbo per charge (180 lumens), but the rechargeable cr123a batteries are small and easily carried. The fenix website says this light has many settings, but mine is has only an on/off setting, so its turbo all the time.

JeffB502

I think you may not be able to access the different modes because you're using rcr123a batteries. Have you tried it with a regular cr123a? I seem to remember reading about that online somewhere (maybe candlepower forums).

GCRyder

I'm not a "hard core safety advocate," but I do wonder what damage that light will do to your skull if the helmet is ever called on to serve its purpose. It now makes a nifty light-holder, but has its integrity as a helmet been compromised? Seriously, I'm wondering, not preaching.

Chris_F

I used to mount a rear facing red LED in my headlight but when that thought occured to me I stopped. The helmet can crush substantially in a crash and I didn't want my light jammed in to my head when that happened (and I didn't want the light to serve as a focal point for all that crash energy).

mimis

if we're talkin' minor crash the light will keep nesting in the vent hole or will just pop out.
If it's -knock on wood- a serious impact that will crack the helmet dome open then the light will certainly drop aside loose. I guess possible harm could result from directly hitting a hard surface dome first so that the helmet cracks up AND the light is pushed to hammer the top of the skull. This latter case seems much less likely to happen while road cycling than trail riding (rocks, tree trunks, ditches etc). It's only logical to imagine a road cyclist crashing down with the side, front or rear aspect of his head taking the first serious impact on the tarmac, unless he has performed any funny aerial before landing (like hittin a car at full speed and rolling over).
Just an amateur oppinion i guess. But then again, let's think of how great a service and security a helmet light offers

Grun

hee hee kleng

tinkering with the lights again?

hairytoes

That is a really good question, and not one that has occurred to me.

Surely mounting a torch on top of the helmet is also a major worry? (could catch on something and wrench your neck, with a head-on collision (say, the side of a van), punch down through your helmet).

dekindy

I asked that question to the Bell helmet people regarding regular helmet mounted bicycle lights. They said that it does not compromise safety. In today's age if that were a safety hazard there would probably be stickers all over the helmet that warned against using any type of helmet mounted device. Here is the correspondence.

Hello Dwight,

Thank you for your email. It should not compromise the stability of your helmet at all.

Thank you,

Renee

Consumer Service

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Dwight Kellams [mailto:dekindy@insightbb.com]
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 3:28 PM
To: Answer_Desk@bellsports.com
Subject: Helmet mounted lights

How much, if any, does mounting a bicycle light to your helmet compromise helmet safety?

Have there been any tests done?

kleng

It's an addiction

varuscelli

Hmmmm....looks to me like Renee might not have answered the actual question you asked. You asked about "safety" and she answered with "stability." I know I'm nitpicking the wording, but still...

Maybe she was trying to answer the question accurately and merely chose a poor synonym. Or maybe she didn't interpret the question correctly and just gave you a poor answer. Or maybe she purposefully chose the word "stability" because her boss told her not to get involved in safety issue questions that have nothing to do with their manufacture of the helmet itself -- to avoid any liability that might be held over their heads (for giving advice about helmet safety when combined with an externally attached light). Again, I might be needlessly nitpicking symantics...but the words, in this case, are pretty important. Safety and stability are, to me, very different things.

In either case, my take on the safety issue is that it's a roll of the dice no matter which way you go. You could get hurt or killed in many scenarios by NOT using a helmet light. At the same time, wearing one could, in the right situation, result in injury or perhaps even death (if by some freakish circumstance it got driven into your skull or a tree branch caught a protruding light and snapped your neck back).

But, I'm all for the added safety you get from a helmet light from the "be seen" standpoint and from the extra ability to see that a helmet light allows a rider. My personal decision is that I want to be able to see where I'm going and for people to see the movement of my helmet light and lessen the likelihood of getting run by an unobservant driver.

I think kleng's example is one of the safer ones I've seen just from the fact that it doesn't protrude and would probably never "catch" on anything. His example looks like one of the best I've seen.

JeffB502

I'd like to see a helmet manufacturer and a LED bike light manufacturer get together and design helmets with nice bright lights integrated into the helmet. Like this but with better LEDs.

varuscelli

Yeah, that would be pretty cool. But one of the things I wonder about with the integrated light concept is head dissipation. Air circulation around the light would be critical (I think) or something to help dissipate heat would be needed if in a constricted space. I'd think that the brighter the light, the more need for something to help dissipate the heat, and I wonder about whether the heat might actually cause a discomfort for your head. Then, depending on how the issue of heat dissipation is dealt with, if you have a big chunk of metal to help with the heat dissipation, then you're back to the concern that some have expressed about the metal potentially causing further injury in a crash.

But then again, if the design were cleverly implemented to have a bright light with good heat dissipation combined with design that takes crash safety into consideration, you'd end up with the best of both worlds. But you'd also likely be very limited on choices of helmets and lights (not as many helmets to choose from that fit you well, and probably not very many lights to choose from).

But it would be nice if at least one of the helmet manufacturers and one of the light manufacturers would get together and come up with something that looks sleek and cool and is functional.