ellerbro

I'm hoping to find an upgrade to my current Fenix L1D (120 lumens) helmet light for commuting purposes. It's fine when the roads are dry, but with wet roads I'm always wanting more output. There appear to be a number of fairly compact 1x18650 torches available with outputs around 250 lumens. They are all much heavier than my current torch (80 g with battery). I'd rather not go the head + external battery route, but would consider it if the torch route is a dead end.

The Dereelight CL1H V4 looks pretty good, but would be about 170 g with battery. Would that be too heavy? I ride 30 minutes at a time on my commute. I did a test strapping some extra weight onto my current torch to make it 170g and it felt a bit heavy, but maybe you get used to it?

Anyone run this torch or similar (Fenix TK11, DealExtreme TR-801, etc...) on their helmet? Opinions?

socalrider

The TK11 is a great throwing light / solid runtimes 2.5 hours+ on max brightness but is built like a tank. It would be a little heavy for a helmet light.. Shiningbeam had a great helmet light, the L-mini but looks like they are out of stock, 110 grams with battery.. The knurling give you great grip so you do not have to worry about it flying off during your ride.. Here is a review..

https://www.light-reviews.com/l-mini_2/

If you are going to spend 60.00 +, you may want to look at the SB MCE Light.. On medium mode you would get similar output to the Deree or Tk11 with the option of high beam getting you around 500 lumens.. It is small enough to use as a helmet light but not as compact as the L-Mini.

https://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/t...LI-Cree/Detail

davidad

This is an amazingly bright light for it's size. https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16241
Mine weighs about 4and 3/4 ounces. The battery lasts over 2 hours on high.

Cyclist0383

I like the SolarForce L2. The nice thing about it is that it takes a standard P60 drop-in, which means the LED to something different is as simple as unscrewing the head and dropping the new 'bulb' in.

One thing that I find to be useful in a helmet light is a strobe mode for daytime use in heavy traffic.

https://www.sbflashlights.com/cart.html

agarose2000

I don't have this light, but I've got a 5-mode P7 and the multiple modes drive me nuts switching between them. I'd prefer a 2-mode (or no mode!)

Cyclist0383

Jaa, memory is quite nice on multi-mode lights.

cyclefreaksix

Not exactly what you're looking for as it uses a CR123. I'm using this as a helmet light, primarily on SOS mode but it's quite bright. It's also very light and compact although I don't have a weight for you.

https://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26497

konut

MG PLI at Shining Beam Cree MC-E emitter. One hour on high, two and a half hours on medium and over 10 hours on low, assuming at least a 2200 mAh 18650
https://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/t...LI-Cree/Detail
165g with battery. I use this as a bar light and its great! I neglected to see that socalrider already recommended it. As to weather its too heavy, I just weighed my helmet and its 357g. I would imagine that weight variation of helmets might swamp any perceived heaviness. How heavy is your helmet? Wheres the weight weenie chart for helmets?

davidad

Don't seen to have the problem with this light.
I had it with a MTE P-7, but I took it apart and lengthened the springs and it no longer changes.

Plutonix

According to the DX specs, it is 1.3 oz

I use https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12093. Lightweight (1.5 oz), quite brite, not finicky as to battery brand, doesnt change mode and has a non insane blink and memory mode (YMMV). I dont know the lumens claim, but the it looks the same as my Dinotte 200 on the wall from 3 ft. I dont know the run time, but it would be easy to carry an extra battery for most of these.

davidad

Sorry about that. I thought you were talking about the bump change. This one has a memory and it works.

socalrider

For a smaller cr123 helmet light I would recommend the Romisen RC-C6 II.. It puts out 150 lumens on high, around 80 in medium mode.. What is nice is that the beam is full adjustable from tight spot to flood.. I usually run it somewhere in the middle.. This is more for being seen than seeing since it gets drowned out by the P7 lights I use.. 65 grams total weight w/ battery.. Runtime is right on the mark, 2+ hours on high and then additional 1 hour in medium mode or 10 hours - medium mode.. If used for being seen, the medium mode is fine..

https://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/t...h-C6-II/Detail

a1penguin

https://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15335 TrustFire TR-801 Cree Q5-WC 5-Mode Memory 230-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650)
https://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1200 Universal Nylon Mount for Flashlights and Lasers

I *love* this light. The P7 flashlights are very floody. This light is a
narrow beam and you can see well down the road in a narrow width.

davidad

If you can wait a week or two the https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16241 will probably be available with the new Cree XP-G LED. It will increase the output to over 340 lumens.