Juha,
Replace the 6V bulb with a 12V MR11 of your choice then use a 12V battery. Works like a charm. I have done it.
Regards,
Raymond

Raymond. This is as good start. I need about 1/4 what they're selling...Just need a stationary bracket and clamp that never moves once adjusted. I think a small PVC elbo would hold the light housing but can't seem to envision a clamp that will work on the picture below. Anyone got an idea what these clamps are called?

*click on the picture* Don't know why picture keeps shrinking....

N00b here, this thread has been alerting me to the importance of lighting, even if I've shaken my head at some of these posts, i.e. lights cost more than the bike :eek:

I know I'm getting there though, because as I rode through neighborhoods Saturday night, I heard two different groups of kids say, "Cool! Look at the bike!"

PT,
Welcome! Yeah, you'll really get to know what works and what doesn't from this thread. A good light takes time.

Edited...phasing came out all wrong. Sorry...The above is what I meant!

Right now, my setup is: One 20-watt MR-11 narrow spot (which is engineered to perform like a 35-watt, all I can say is, "Wow,") my yellow xenon strobe strapped upside-down under my seat (identical to those you hear about in this thread, cost me about $8,) powered by a 3.4 AH lead-acid battery. The 3.4 fits neatly into my old Vistalight battery pouch. And of course, a fuse.

Gives me a little more than an hour's run-time. I'll probably have to go with a 5 AH battery next time, since smaller batteries lose capacity more quickly.

"i.e. lights cost more than the bike "
Not hard to do if you buy the bike at a thrift store or yard sale!

Hey Ollo- that 55W is a pretty cool setup. How's it working out?

Hey vr, I have been thinking about your clamp problem. I drew a diagram of a possible solution to your clamp needs. It isn't the most elegant solution, but this is a geek thread! Another way might be to use an old brake lever housing, removing the handle but using the clamp part. Anyway, let us know how it goes, and of course, please post some pics of your setup.
http://monarch.gsu.edu/jeff/bike/vr-clamp.jpg

Raymond, that might be looming in the future... but as it is I am fairly happy with the amount of light and the beam pattern of the 6V/10W. So I am going to see this upgrade through first.

I taped my battery together enough to do a test burn yesterday. With 5 (nominally) 1,2V AA batteries wired in series I got close to 70 minutes of burn time, which would be ok. What surprised me was that fresh from the charger the five cells produced a tad over 7V. I had originally planned to run 6 AAs, but apparently that would take the voltage close to 8,5V. From what I've read, running a 6V bulb at 7,2V is ok. But over 8V - I dunno.

How much do y'all overvolt your halogens and have you actually checked the voltage you get from your power source?

--J

The rating on the battery always seems a little lower than the actual charge. The actual charge can be as much as 10% higher than the rating on the package.

Yeah, your hose clamp idea and brake lever housing will probably work better than the zip-ties because don't get a good grip around the bike tubes and the light housing is rectangle.

VR: yesterday was extremely foggy & I rode the "Yellow Flash" in to work. Heavy fog reveals the Yellow strobes make a circle front & rear as I ride along. The 55watt cuts through the fog nicely but I noticed a some beams of light going upwards at about a 45 degree angle. As I rode along I daydreamed of possible ways to add some kind of a polished reflector shroud to the top of the light so I could deflect this light down to the ground. The flood type light has brighter & softer areas in the beam pattern & this could even it out. Needs some more thought. Don

You can buy silver reflectant spray paint and make your own reflector insert or enhance the one you've got. Places like Ace hardware sell it. It might be good to copy or reuse a reflector from an old light...factoring in heat.

My guess is that you'll need to narrow and lower the beam. Be sure you have a good seal on the housing otherwise water seeps in.

I run my 12v halogens (and experimental LEDs) at 17.4 off the charger (12 AAs).
I don't have a lot of hours on them as yet, but by the end of next week they will be busy boys I think.

For any of you out there who use 55W lights, do oncoming vehicles ever flash their brights at you? How often? I bought a 55W setup from Autozone for $20 the other night, but I don't want to install it if it will be so bright that it will irritate other drivers. My commute is fairly short (4 miles each way), but is all either steep up or steep down. On my way home I often reach speeds of 35-40mph, so I'd like to have a little extra distance on my light. I have a 7AH SLA battery, so the 20 min. commute each way shouldn't be a problem.

Nathan

I think it might have been more homourous to watch me keep riding while trying to put out the fire on my Handlebars !!


And on one night mt Bike ride, where that PVC wes melting pretty goodm we thought we lost 2 of the riders in the group, when they finally showed up they joked they found us by followingthe smell of burning plastic :D


Now on to the LED"S I assembleb them My self I bought 50 off of eBay for $15 and went from there.

I have seen those pre-made LED lights and wondered how they work. I have also seen the MR-16 LED replacement bulbs any one try those.

as For a 55 watt bulb having used one before , I use d to have people flash me all the time to turn down the light ! I laways took that asa good sign , it meant they saw me, and it kept people from blinding me with there high beams

I think this is a cool pic , so I'm posting it .
that is me , like you really can see me :D
riding down a frozen swamp , thank goodness for studded tires
http://www.nemba.org/yabbse/attachments/1-27012_sm.jpg


But here is my Hemet set up from last year ( before I broke the Helmet at 24hrs of adrenilin)
the LED lamp ( 25 LEDS at the time ) and the 20 watt Halogen MR16 in a track lighting housing . both attached with Velcro Straps and Zip Ties , maybe a little duct tape.
and fianlly a little Head lamp 5 LED powered by 3 AAA's .
http://www.nemba.org/yabbse/attachments/a0.jpg

I got my Moto Grand Touring (very clean) from Yellow bikes. They charge $25 per bike.

Heck, I paid almost that much for my new battery! :D

I might go in Thursday to buy another cheap (but magnificent) bike, just to build my arsenal (I'll have to modify my light system to be transferable.)

(Back to regularly scheduled programming...)

Quemazon, irritating drivers with a light has more to do with the angle at which you direct it. If you have it aimed too far out front it will be shining directly in the eyes of onecoming drivers. Just point it down so that the main part of the beam is directed just a few yards in front of you. It will still be quite visible to oncoming drivers without being blinding.

LED MR16 replacement bulb. Well, I got my 48-LED MR16 replacement and tried. I am underwhelmed. It does produce quite a bit of light, but the light is too diffuse. It makes more of a smudge of light than a beam. This particular bulb seems to use pretty vanilla LEDs, ie they may not be "high intensity". The beam of my Cateye EL300 (5 LEDs) seems slightly brighter, but the beam is extremely tight. It is hard to say which puts out "more" light. I took the 48 LED bulb out after one morning ride.
FWIW,
Raymond

that is what I was afraid of . I have a SImilar problem , and that is using the High in tensity LED's With in about 10-15 feet it is great after that it just is not a beam. That is why WHen I use that I use it for the Close stuff ( aimed atthe road/trail Right in front of me ) and let the Halogen with the Spot beam go for a the farther distance ?


On that note:
the MR-16's generally come in 3 differnt beam ( at least for the 20watters) configuations
12 degree Spot
20 Degree
38 degree flood


what do most of you use ?
I tend to like the 12 degree spot.

I might have the actually numbers wrong , bit I do know it is spot , middle , flood .

I’ve been experimenting with these: http://superbrightleds.com/MR16_specs.htm.
Specifically the MR16-WLX LUXEON LED BULBS. I’ve had the ‘1 watt: 25 Degree Beam pattern - 5500K Correlated Color Temperature - 210ma current draw @ 12 VDC’ since late last winter. It isn’t quite bright enough to ride 20mph in total darkness, but works ok at slower speeds.. I recently bought the ‘3 watt: 45 Degree Beam pattern - 5500K Correlated Color Temperature - 300ma current draw @ 12 VDC’. I haven’t tested it in the dark yet. I did do a runtime test. I was able to run both bulbs at the same time for 3.75 hours full strength and another 15 minutes with some fade. I decided to stop the test in order to keep from running my batteries clear down. (I run 12 AAs).

I should add that the company (superbrightleds) told me these were not intended for outdoor use, but I thought I would try anyway. I rode once in a heavy snow last winter and many times in rain throughout the summer with no problem. I did put small pieces of tape over the little holes on the front of the light in order to keep water from getting in.

I started out thinking that the tight spots, 8 or 12 degrees, was the way to go. The throw a nice tight beam out front with some light to the side. Then one morning I needed to swerve just a couple of feet to the right to avoid something and almost hit something else that had not been illuminated at all by the tight beam. I put in a 36 degree flood and realized that it seems to have just as good light out front and really gives me a more comfortable feeling about what lurks out to the sides. These are 35W Solux and 20W draw/35W light equivalent Phillips energy saver MR16. I really like both of these bulbs. The Solux is a very white light intended to produce true colors in museum art displays. I prefer its light to the Phillips, but the Phillips does have the advantage of the lower draw. The Solux lamps are about $6 and the Phillips about $10, vs $3-4 for a standard MR16, but I consider both well worth the exrtra money, especially when you consider that either should last for years.

And with oil now at $50/barrel here in the USA, we can just about justify any purchase. MAW-HAW-HAW-HAW...Don't know about you, but I'm sitting pretty with my fam how that gas prices are so high.-Virginia

Ray,
Guess it would depend where you're riding. If you're on a mt Bike trail, or bike lane the narrow angle is the way to go. But if you're on the street, you need to see the whole lane and maybe a little extra. Not all 36 degree floods will give the same result. The reflector is probably giving a crisp view up close and then fanning out the light for distance.

Hi, please help me chose the correct lighting setup. As I posted earlier, I bought a nice little 55W setup from Autozone, but I think I will return it. The main beam is a very tight and very bright spot that drowns out everything around it. I also tried standing back quite aways, and it seemed pretty bright for oncomming traffic.

I have an MR11 (bulb only) that is 20W and 38* beem. The lighting is a lot more even, but I want something a little brighter. So, I'm thinking I'll use a 35W bulb.

The remaining questions are, what size should I use (MR11 or MR16) and what beam angle? For those of you who went with MR11 setups, do you wish you would have gone with MR16? (or vise versa).

Does anyone have a beam angle that they are particularly pleased with?

I've read through this thread and also the nordicgroup site and have a pretty good idea of what I want. I'd just like some opinions from everyone here who has been experimenting recently.

As for the rest of my setup, I have just ordered a flasher and horn from allelectronics, and I have 4.5Ah and 7.2Ah SLA batteries for the powerplant (haven't decided which one to use yet). My commute is only about 20 min. to work and 12min. back. For a charger, I'll use a power wheels wall wart (They work great, BTW). I purchased my 7.2Ah batteries from www.bgmicro.com for $6 each, but now they are $15. Still a decent price, though.

Anyway, thanks for all of your infor so far.
Nathan

So, VR, can I tell my wife you gave me permission to buy a new bike?

LittleBigMan's getting the new bike. We'll have to learn from the best on this one!

-V

You can overvolt them as much as 20% and it'll shorten the life of the bulb. There are several links earlier in this thread that discuss the details.

vrkelley, I know you can overvolt more or less as much as you like and bulb life shortens accordingly. I have also read the recommendation of 20% being an acceptable trade-off, hence my original idea of using 7,2V instead of 6V.

What I was asking about is if people actually follow the 20% rule of thumb - OhiOH for one does not - and whether they use nominal voltage or measured voltage to estimate. I am sorry if I was not clear in my question.

--J

I use a 20W MR16 "spot" (not sure the degrees), and find it quite adequate. Last night I added an amber xenon flasher from All Electronics ($8) and built a little power distribution point with a couple of switches. It's all working well. I really like the strobe. It's bright enough to be quite noticable without being obnoxious.

The only problem is that I'm using a lead-acid cell that's only 2.3 AH. I foolishly thought that dividing AH by amps would get me hours of runtime. Well, lead-acid cells taper their voltage off pretty badly as they discharge, so even with 1.6A draw and 2.3 AH, by 40 minutes the headlight is pretty orange.

Tomorrow I'm shopping for a 4AH battery, and I'll pick up another charger for at work; gonna need it when it's dark BOTH ways this winter.

Here's the battery charger I use. It's designed to be attached permanently to motorcycle or other batteries, and can be left attached indefinitely. It charges fast but then kicks into maintainance mode so it doesn't overcharge. It says $40 but I've gotten them for about $26 from local discount stores. Wally world probably has something like this.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P.../p-894/c-10111

I just got a new 7 Ah SLA battery from Zbattery for $13.87, plus a new plug and forget charger. I will be mounting my old 5 Ah SLA to my wife's bike for her 10 mile round trip--I am hoping we will only have to recharge both batteries at night.

I have been pondering how to add turn signal lights, plus a good brake light to my bike. I think I have found a good source for cheap LED lights, but I have not figured out exactly how to mount the switches for both the turn lights and to actuate the brake light. I admit the brake light is not all that necessary, but I think the turn lights, especially when waiting at a intersection, would be most helpful. I would appreciate any comments on how to mount switches on handlebars.