So the sun is setting ever faster and it's got me thinking about lighting setups. I feel familiar enough with the local trails to try it for the first time but am a bit clueless on all the battery powered lights.

What do you guys use/suggest?

I feel obligated:

The best bang for your buck would be a Magicshine from geomangear.com. The SSC P7 emitter that's in it is slated to produce 900 lumens. Factories always over rate them b/c they can take a percentage of the absolute best binned emitters from their batch and over-amp them. They rate them at the emitter instead of out the front. LED's are amperage driven, so you will run them at approx 3.5-4.2v...but you can run them at say 1.2 amps and get a 50% low beam and so on. The SSc P7 should be driven at no higher than 3amps giving you an OTF rating at approx. 650-700 lumens for $89 on the Magicshine.



If you have the coin...there are tons brighter/physically smaller options out there, but you will pay for it. If you're feeling adventurous, you can build your own fairly easily...and cobble something together somewhat inexpensively. If you have $1500 to spend, you can get a Lupine super-fat betty whatever, but they're not worth it when you consider the lights made over in the UK by Troutie. He makes some severly cool stuff for $550 or less.


There's a guy over at EmTeeBeArgh that builds them out of 6061 square tube called the Amoeba. It's a pretty decent, yet somewhat cobby looking light. If you order one from Scar (the Amoeba guy), the hot setup is a 2x XP-G r5 with Regina reflectors. It will give you a true 700lm out the front, but is so much more efficient in beam layout than the Magicshine that it appears brighter and is physically smaller.



The Cliff's notes:
Cheap bright: Magicshine
Moderate priced bright: Amoeba

That's my setup, as well as a boatload of others 'round these parts.
Tiny, bright & local (for me).
CS from scar is top notch!

Yah...Scar is a good guy...and a MTB'er. Not a marketer. He knows what works. If I had the time and resources to start building again...I'd probably still be building dual XPg Regina setups for the most part. It's a hot setup.


https://amoebalight.blogspot.com/

https://www.geomangear.com/index.php?...52jflsumlaigb2



Here what I ended up building (shameless plug for me):

Size comparison...Magicshine on the right:


My Double Barrel Regina:


My smaller refined version:


Here's my different 3-up 1100 lumen hex lights:







My single XP-G:

Wow thanks Ed! The Amoeba stuff looks snazzy but it doesn't seem like you have much control over where the beam goes once the light is mounted on your helmet; your mount looks a lot nicer. If you get the time/resources any time soon let me know, I'd definitely be interested.

Do you run only with the helmet lights or with handlebar as well?

I plan on riding trails that rate pretty low on the danger and speed factors, mostly just typical NE roots and rocks.

Both is preferred, of course.

The lower-mounted light gives better depth perception, roots & rocks. Drawback is the light goes where you point your bars.
On helmet, you can put light anywhere, but some things on ground might sneak up on ya.

Maaan, lights have sure come a long way since I bought my venerable old Niterider Headtrip. Which I still use...

You really don't need more than a helmet light of you're using a MS or Dual Regina setup. I was balling a 3-up handlebar light (square one) with the double barrel regina on the helmet...for the Tim Taylor effect. It was pretty obnoxious to other riders though...especially when they have their light on full blast and all they can see is their own shadow.

I've got a really cool housing that I plan to finish at some point. It looks like a jet engine. It will be a triple. I'll probably keep it for myself.