jsigone

I'd love to have 1/10th his skill and courage

RubeRad

Not to mention budget for gear (aka amount of free/sponsored gear)

jsigone

yah here's your job today, break this rim

jsigone

tis the season for night rides. I'm trying to update my light system w/ something more then the fully encased NR lumina.

Seems like quality china light are harder to find

TrojanHorse

I used my shiny new cygolite 900 whatever model it is Monday night when we took waaaaaay longer than anticipaged to get to Ventura. Worked great! Cobbled together an upside down gopro mount so I can mount it under my garmin, which was much more fabulous than on top of the handlebars (blows out the garmin display)

Also learned that I can charge my garmin 520 while riding, but because of the aforementioned headlight mount, I had to flip the garmin upside down so the cable would fit. I need to find a low profile / 90 degree micro USB cable, trying to follow a map upside down while riding is interesting.

tunavic

Your light wasn't bright enough.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-.../dp/B003YKX6WW

jsigone

I ordered this 1900lumen beast and two 4cell 6800mah battery. Light head is driven to 1500mah on max so 1 battery should be good for 4.5hrs of suffering

RubeRad

I doubt you'll need to run it on max, so you can probably double/quadruple your suffering time!

Let us know what you think of the beam pattern. I have 2 magicshine (knockoffs) like that, with only one LED, but also with the beam-spreader/diffractor, and that basically spreads the spot from a 1ft wide circle, to a 1ft wide ellipse.

jsigone

I have this one, it's wicked bright, but draws heavy current and overheats if on high for more then 30mins. I'd run it on med and high for DH only. It's heavy flood so needed to be paired w/ another light that had throw to it otherwise it was too easy to out run.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BJCDH3K...d_i=B00BJCDH3K


Here's the full review that someone else posted about the C&B seen 3up vs the BT40 4up LED.
C&B Seen 1900 3up- Mtbr.com

amazon link to the BT40, which is 90% of what I was looking for, but needed more throw and longer battery. I only want one light on the bars, so I got the C&B though more expensive, better QC from china i'm reading. I"ll post up some comments once I get the stuff in. I"ll run it off older batteries til the new one comes next week.
https://www.amazon.com/Revtronic-160...JP9JK7D0DKCZ08

RubeRad

Cool beenz, that triple looks pretty good! I might end up buying one and giving away one of my singles

TrojanHorse

Pfft, even on low it rendered YOUR headlight invisible.

It's good for road riding with some ambient light, not suitable for totally dark trail riding, that's for sure.

jimincalif

I have a Cygolite headlight, I think the Zot 250. It's a very good "be seen" light, I like the steady-pulse mode for riding at night to both light the pavement and have a subtle flash to get drivers' attention. Riding the streets of Irvine that are generally pretty clean, smooth and well-lit, it is a good enough "see where I'm going" light. For unlit roads or trails, I'd want a bit more light on the ground head of me.

So when you going to give us a write up of your cc tour, @TrojanHorse and @tunavic?

jsigone

Amazon just restocked on Monday aka after I placed the order for the C&B, I guess they were out for months. Could only get the light head from china/ebay.

TrojanHorse

Um, soon. I'll give you a heads up though -we got shut out of Refugio because it was locked down and felt like the 154 was the only viable option given that we needed to make Ventura and damn, did it suck. It sucked! At least we found an alternate path down so we didn't have to dodge cars bombing down the hill at 40 mph (while they're going 80)

jsigone

yah that's kinda why I stuck to the 1 til the 101....Used Harris Grade road WAAAY up by where the 135/1 split off. That shot me out into middle Lompoc. I had little desire to get to Solvang as I started the ride from Morro Bay that day. I knew once I hit the ocean, I'd have some yummy tail wind to whisk me away to Santa Barbara. And I did, I covered like 22miles in that last before sunset..on a loaded bike

jimincalif

Yeah, I saw the out and back on Refugio on Strava. Given the choices of either going W all the way back to 101 or taking the 154, I'd probably do the same as you, but yeah.

TrojanHorse

Once is all - if that ever happens to me again, I'll either uber or suck it up all the way back to Gaviota.

We didn't get to enjoy much of a tail wind at any point of our trip though, which was weird and unfortunate both.

jimincalif

tunavic

An esteemed bike forums member recommends this light for true performance .
https://www.lupinenorthamerica.com/L...Alpha_7200.asp

jimincalif

$1,295???? Holy smokes!

TrojanHorse

waterproof to 2 meters in case you need to ride through a river!

tunavic

You're looking at it all wrong!

It's less than 18¢ per lumen 🤣🤣

DrIsotope

And yet in that thread where I (half-jokingly) said you could just get 15 Light & Motion 900 lumen lights for the same money and put them all over the front end of your bike, a couple of guys didn't see the humor in it.

You could also by at least five 2000lm lights from several manufacturers. Or, just buy another entire bicycle. The Lupine Alpha is the Birkin Bag of bike lights.

jsigone

so there is a beach and ocean in this picture, 1/2 mile away was sunny and 70s


Since my Mavic Carbones split, this is the first ride limped back together. Actually using the stock wheel the Pinarello came with (Fulcrum 5s). Better note was also the first ride w/ the new carbon zipp bars and fresh highlighter wrap with fiziks 2mm

Ride was def smoother, not sure if from bars alone or the stubby wheels. Rides nice, bumps are muted vibrations so I'm thinking more bars then wheels, just short 30 mile slow coffee ride. I'll put it through the paces better next time.

TrojanHorse

Aha! The stock wheels! Is that the first time you've ever ridden on them? I don't think there's anything wrong with them, just a bit heavy. Mine still have the reflectors on.