I have hit 47mph with my light setup. 2x200L on the bars and a 15w niterider halogen helmet light. I have since dumped the 15w halogen (anyone want to buy it? it is a little over a year old).

-D

I couldn't trust my 200L anywhere over 25kph+ on unfamiliar roads.

Keep in mind i wasn't say "a" 200L. I had 2 200L and a 12W niterider halogen.

-D

i run a Wolf Eyes on my bar, with a secondary Cree light there too, around 350 lumens, then I add a fenix on my helmet and a secondary Cree there as well, works out to be another 250 lumens

so around 600 lumens in all

Btw, i am thinking of adding up a Surefire G2L (L means LED) as a backup. It will have Lithium CR123A batteries.

http://www.dmaessentials.com/images/G2L-BK_large2.jpg

Keep in mind I didn't say 200L's. I'm not convinced another 200L will make much of a difference either.

Try going to a Graingers industrial supply store or struggle through their web site and locate any of the following GE PAR36 bulbs: 4509, 4700, 4519, and Q4509 at around $19.00. While they all claim 100 watts at 13 volts they tend to list short life-spans indicating they are already over-volted. 12 volts would be fine. They go from spot to very narrow spot beams. If you are worried about speed get the Q4509, an aircraft landing light. I have used one of these lights in a standard rubber tractor headlight mount for $8.00. $50 for a heavy SLA of adequate capacity. I have been on a lot of night rides with many others and nothing, but nothing, compared with mine for sheer power. Fill the whole road out to 2 blocks and reflective signs show up 1/4 mile away. Total cost $100 or so.

Try an overvolted MR-16. Blows the doors off an MR-11...and maybe HID. I have 4 MR11 lamps pushing out 2700 lumen (I don't have any problem with the beam pattern by the way) and I added an MR-16 this last week. It puts out almost as much as the other 4 lamps combined. I can illuminate a tree a block away and see individual leaves. Can't do that with the MR11;)

I call it the Martian heat ray:D

What wattage is your MR16... and what voltage are you running it at? I'm putting my homebrew system together and I plan to use two 20W MR16's overvolted at 14.4V on a NiMH pack. One spot and one flood on separate switches so I can run one or both to balance light needs and runtime. Runtime should not be a huge factor... my ride is about 45 minutes each way with lots of time and facilities at work to recharge if needed.

Your post makes me wonder if I'm going too far with the flame throwers! Whaddaya think?

BRIGHT! I have the 600L. No problems on 35-40 mph descents. I also have no problems seeing glass and other road debris in time to react. I also have the Dinotte tail light, and feel as safe and confident riding at night as in daylight.

No not vaporizing them, just trying to avoid the ones that scurry across my path. :)

To each his own. "I" am riding with 2 when I used to only have one and it does make a difference, at least for me.

-D

Mine is the same as you want to set up. I've used MR11 bulbs for nearly 20 years and they put out good light but this set up is the first time I've tried the MR16. The difference is outstanding!

You can never have too much light;) Okay, if you happen to burn a hole through the back of a motorist head, you're getting close but...:D

A Q4632 PAR36 4 1/2" bulb puts out 250 watts. And a battery for decent run time may weight more than the bike

I think I'm getting enough now, thanks;)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/IMG_0975.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/IMG_0979.jpg

1/60 or 1/30 shutterspeed, by the way.

I'm with cycocommute on this one. I just upgraded my homebrew system from 12V to 14.4V and it's a big difference. While I was at it, I also tried out a number of different bulbs at the new 14.4 voltage. Some interesting findings:

• A 20W MR16 spot (est. 666 lumens @ 14.4V) completely blew away a 20W MR11 spot (lumens unknown). Granted, the MR16 was a highly efficient Philips EnergyAdvantage, but the MR11 was also a high quality Philips bulb not a cheapie. In other words, the best available in MR11. The MR16 appeared more than twice as bright to the eye.
• A 30W MR16 spot (1152 lumens) appeared somewhat brighter than the 20W MR16 spot (666 lumens). Noticeably brighter, but not night and day. That one kinda surprised me. Yes, the center of the beam was quite a lot brighter, but that tight little 8 degree beam was already so bright that increasing it by 50% didn't really seem to make as much difference as you'd think.
• A 30W MR16 24-deg narrow flood (1188 lumens) blew away the 30W MR16 spot (1152 lumens). Throwing all those lumens into such a tiny 8 degree beam ends up being kind of a waste. Spread it out and you've got a LOT of light on the road. Enough to illuminate the roadway even in driving rain, something I have to deal with often enough here that it's pretty important. By the way, this is only incrementally brighter than the 1080 lumens I was getting out of my previous 35 watt bulb at 12 volts ... but overvolting allowed me to get more light from a smaller bulb and step down from bulky 5000mAh battery pack to a much smaller 4200mAh pack.

Back to the OP's question: given a typical beam pattern I would find 390 lumens to be just barely enough to illuminate the roadway for a high speed downhill in total darkness. But only if it's dry out with minimal oncoming car headlights or other glare that impairs my night vision. If it's raining I would want a minimum of twice that, or else I'm going to have to be on the brakes and keep my speed under 25mph or even slower if there are a lot of intersections and conflict points. For reference, I should add that I'm over 40 and don't have the night vision that I did at 20, but probably a lot better than I will at 60.

I'm Good :)

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/1005/blazevk1.jpg

Ok, its not a moped but here is the low beam from my Vespa lx150. Its goes a little faster than my bicycle. :) Its "enough" light.

All photos F3.5 2s shutter.
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public/lxlo.jpg


And here is my quad cree MTB light on wide beam (500mA).
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public/mtblow.jpg

And here is my road light dual cree Q5 at 1A
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public/road.jpg

The vespa is a 45w halogen. Its sharply defined.
The MTB light has more spill and a similar width.
The road bike has much better throw.
I would not want to go for a ride through the dark woods on the Vespa. I don't ride it in lycra either.

Everybody, thanks for sharing your photos. I love it.

Actually I think I could use a bit more :)

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2682/light8pv6.jpg

You could build yourself a perfect bike and spare no expense on running gear to get the best fit, most comfort, and best reliability but if you don't put tires on it you're not going anywhere... :p

I'd rather overpower the lumens and work out the pattern. Most of these high lumens systems have pretty good patterns too.


As a matter of fact and going back to the thread, I'm running an overvolted MR16 setup and for kicks this weekend I wired up a 10 degree spot next to my 35 degree flood to see the difference. I wired them with an A-B switch because I had one laying around. This morning on the trails (I ride in the Greenway here which are dedicated trails with no roads, lights, or cars on them. Yeah, I know... :D ) I switched back and forth between the two.

The flood light does just that, it floods the ground in front of me with lots of bright, white light. There is a bit of a shadow out in front of me at around 50', and usually to compensate that I have a 2D LED Maglight I strap to the top tube that I turn on and focus to fill the black hold. This has been a very effective setup and worked very well. Depending on who you believe I think it's somewhere around 1200-1300 lumens out front. On a pitch black trail you can just imagine how brilliant that can be...

The spot I had mixed feelings about... It was definitely a little more narrow, and brighter in the spot so it went further down the trail. The maglight didn't make as much of a difference because of the extra light down there, and after a few miles I found I was missing the extra light around me to see those damned killer rabbits running around so I actually switched back to the flood.

Both bulbs had their strengths and weaknesses and I found that when I switched to one I always missed the other. Ideally I guess I need another battery so I can run both. :eek: Either way it was nice to have both on there so I could adjust as I felt I needed or wanted to. Those MR16's really do pump a ton of light out on the trail. They're very impressive indeed.

On a side note, being relatively new to roadbiking I was shocked when I went past a group of obviously established bikers on my way to work to see that they all were running these cheesy little walmart lights on their bars. I had a hard time believing they actually rode like that. It's so nice to go out in the morning and not just be able to see, but to see well...

I've ridden on an unlit road with a tiny 5-LED lamp powered by four AAA cells (with about 8-10 hours at full brightness, then another 30-40 hours at progressively lower brightness). Could do 25 mph without worry, but that was on a good road. The ground was lit up well enough to allow me to see potholes and large debris in time at that speed. A bit more light would've been nice, though.

You don't necessarily need something that rivals a car headlight. More light isn't always better either.

I'm happy with my Fenix helmet light and 200L on the bars. The Fenix is great for lighting up turns, outside the beam of the 200L. And the Fenix projects farther down the road, since it's beam is narrower.

From my previous BF review:
I wouldn't want to ride much over 30 mph, even on a dry, well-known road with this combination.