i ordered one MCE and one P7. shipped out on sunday, hopefully here before day light savings changeover.

got my bats and chargers the other day, the new charger is ALOT better then the Truefire one I got in the summer with my P7. SKU number is 6105 $8.44

I now have enough batteries to ride a century if I wanted....

I just received two 8 mode P7's, 4 batts, and trustfire charger. It took 10 days after leaving Hong Kong via air mail. I went on a trail in total darkness and I'm simply amazed. 25mph and I could actually see. These lights are amazing. I have one on the bike and one on my helmet.

I've been using my Dinnote 200 as a helmet light, and my P7 on the handlebars. The Dinotte seems more focused and the light seems whiter. The P7 appears to flood more, and the light doesn't seem as intense.

here's a poorly constructed restriction head that I made.
made it to fit on a MTE P7 with assault head, which has a 40mm diameter, but as long as the head is 40mm in diameter, it should fit. based the head cut off design off of old military style light restriction/protection plates. It's actually just a 75mm circle which I divided into 6 with a protractor and just added some material to the sides. all of the paper and aluminum foil taped together :p

cone diameter 1: 40mm
cone diameter 2: 75mm
height: 60mm
Machining allowance 1: 0mm
Machining allowance 2: 0mm

haven't tried it yet, but I hope it works.


make your own cone> http://www.red-bag.com/engintools/calccone.php

the cut off works ok. as a revision I'd suggest only having the top side covered and leaving the bottom open. It would also help if it had a shaped lens to make the hot spot disperse into a more uniform flood.

I ordered my survivor kit of P7, batteries, 2 handlebar mounts and charger. So far I got the charger, says both the batteries and mounts are temporarily unavailable. Didn't say anything about the P7, although I did have it on a seperate order. Does the P7 come with a battery?

The flashlight does not come with a battery. I ordered some batteries from batteryjunction.com (tenergy, 2600mah protected li-ion) and they arrived within 2 days!

And those work the same? Thanks for the info, I might do that it doesnt hurt to have several spares :) Also, could I charge those in the trustfire charger I ordered from DX?

Also, are these the ones? http://www.batteryjunction.com/tener...-tab-2600.html

These are the ones I ordered:
http://www.batteryjunction.com/2600pcb-18650.html

The ones you linked to aren't protected (I think) and they seemed geared toward making battery packs.

I was running my two 8-mode P7s last night just to run down the batteries a little so I could fully recharge them. (Since then I read you don't have to worry about battery memory issues with the Li-Ion batteries.)

Anyway, I had them standing up in a glass on a counter. The heads were touching and they were on high just shining up into the room. After about 20-25mins. I went to move them and noticed the two of them were very hot (almost to hot to hold). Is this normal? Obviously it wouldn't happen if they're mounted on the bike with air flowing over them. A normal person walking around using them though would probably it getting pretty hot with extneded usage.

Is this normal?

Yes that's normal for a light outputting several watts with no cooling.

Just got my two mode along with a charger, some batteries and a couple handlebar mounts. Delivery took 10 days but I was sure to order items that were in stock.

It's not quite dark outside but first impression shining it around the house is great. Anxious to try it on the commute tomorrow morning.

later that evening...

Holy crap is that sucker bright! My wife thinks it's too bright to have on the highway. She called it a spotlight. Whaddya think? Is it possible for it to be too bright? I said baloney of course. I'm going to have to extend my ride in the morning to use it more.

Ask her whether she thinks you're more likely to be run over by a car that thought the light was too bright vs. a car that didn't see you because you were running a weaker light. Then ask which she'd prefer. :D

^^^
Part of the problem is she figured I had plenty of light before which I did. :o

I'm still working on convincing her I didn't. :)

Wow, that's a lot of paranoia and hyperbole. If things are so dangerous maybe he shouldn't be riding at all.......:rolleyes:

He was kind of kidding around a bit me thinks Ziemas. ;)

I basically told her the same thing, the more light the better for my safety. :thumb:

I get to try this baby out in about 1/2 hour.

First night ride results
 

Well, got my first night ride in last night. Started at 6PM and by 7PM is was dark. No moon last night and most of the ride was in unlit rural areas or the MUP (Balt. & Annap. trail).

I ran two MTE P7 8-modes mounted with LockBlocks hanging below my handlebars about 6 inches apart. I had my usual PlanetBike Superflash on the rear. I had to stop a few miles in as I didn't have the LockBlocks tight enough and the angle was slipping a little when I hit bumps. After that adjustment the rest of the ride they were fine.

Results and observations:
I started off with the one light on the medium frequency strobe. I've never run a front light before but I figured riding around sunset it would help oncoming traffic pick me up better.

As it got darker or on the darker sections of the MUP (B&A trail) I transitioned to a single medium steady light. The darker it got or the worse the trail was with Autumn debris made me crank up the power.

Not much to report the rest of the ride except that I got a total of 42 miles in (about 30 miles were in the dark). I was probably adjusting the lights through the various modes more than I needed to but I was like a kid at Xmas with new toys. I was also trying to get the most out of the batteries because I didn't have any backups to the two P7s and my ride was about 1.5hrs in the dark.

Maybe my opinions will change after a few rides but here is what I found:
<10mph - 1 light medium freq. strobe
10-14mph - 1 light medium steady
14-16mph - 2 lights medium steady
16-18mph - 1 medium/1 high
18+mph - 2 lights high

Two P7s on high was lighting the road plenty even on 25-30mph descents on twisty roads through the woods. I'm happy with them so far and would recommend them to anyone. Both lights still operated on high when I got home but I didn't check the voltages to see how much was left in them. :thumb:

I've read enough uber paranoid threads about the terrible dangers of cycling to doubt he was kidding.......

Taking the cap off my 2 mode P7 for the first time to put the battery in, the O ring came apart. Where does a guy get something like that? The local hardware store? I assume without it the water resistance would suffer.

the o-rings for my 5-mode fell apart too. It's strange how 2 o-rings on the 5-mode fell apart within a few days, but the 2-mode with a different design hasn't.

I had some spare 9/16 O-rings lying around so I used those. a bit tight, but stretches out to the proper size.

If you have some dielectric grease (typically bought at auto-parts stores to put on spark-plug wire boots), that's a good O-ring lube. Try not to get it on the bare metal parts of the flashlight that are intended to transmit electricity, though.

You could get a Dereelight DBS V2 with the 1S R2 pill and the smooth reflector, and show her what a bright light would really look like ;) Aim it at some trees 1000 feet away. "See, now I'm leaving the DBS home, dear, and just taking that other one... OK?"

In all seriousness, though, if you think it might be too bright, go do a quick 2-person reality check. Drive your car while someone rides your bike towards you in full darkness with the light aimed the way you like it, and see what you think.

I was playing around with the light, I took out the reflector cone inside the the P7 torch and I ended up with a super floody, no-hot-spot light.

so the hot spot at the center is caused by the reflector cone and not a result of the diode itself.

And the two MTE styles of housings use the same lens, which is ~34mm in diameter.

putting a different cone or lens in to replace the stock parts for something more cycling oriented should really help reduce the demerits of a P7.

Where are you all getting your twofish lockblock mounts?