Bike Lights

[Dirt]

I’ve tried most bike lights on the market and owned lights from 8 or 9 different manufacturers over the last 20 years. I have some very strong opinions on the matter. Please keep that in mind.

The Dinotte lights are very, very good. I’ve had good luck with their customer service too. Light In Motion lights have proven reliable, durable and a pretty good value. Their customer service is okay. I’ve had trouble with Night Rider… both in durability and customer service. The lights work very well when they’re working though. They lasted a year or so before they start having issues.

By far the best system I’ve used for commuting, mountain biking and endurance racing comes from Exposure. http://exposurelightsusa.com

I use a Diablo1 and a Flare for commuting. The Diablo is too powerful on most settings, so I use the middle setting on the road and the lowest setting on the trail and make sure to aim it down so I don’t blind people. It is small, light and super bright (900 lumen on high, 300 on medium, 150 on low). I like that there are NO CABLES or external batteries. The handlebar and helmet mount are PERFECT. If I were buying a light just for commuting, I’d look at the Joystick. It is smaller, lighter and has plenty of power for riding on the roads.

The Flare tail light is tiny, powerful and the rechargable batteries work fantastically. I get 15-20 hours out of a charge and they come with a very good smart charger. The mounting system is brilliant.

The durability is amazing. I have used the Diablo 200+ days per year for the last 3 years and it has NEVER shown a sign of weakness. It has NEVER stranded me. Never had a bad charge. Never given me a moment of worry. The Flare has been in use for a little over a year and it is perfect.

For off-road riding and endurance racing, I use a Toro on the handlebars and a Diablo2 on the helmet. That combination has proved the lightest, most effective system I can imagine. There are add-on batteries you can get that double or quadruple the battery life (depending on what you need). I can’t imagine a better system.

Here’s the best part…. Their customer service ROCKS! I cracked a plastic mount for the handlebars on my Diablo. It was my fault. I tried to remove the light when it was -10F. Plastic breaks instead of bending in those temps. I called exposure and they sent me out a bag of 3 replacement parts next-day mail and didn’t charge me at all. They just asked that I return the broken one.

To my knowledge, these lights are only available from the web site listed above. They seem like they are expensive when you first look at them, but when you look closely, they are an extremely good value.

My New Project: My next commuter will have a generator system built into the wheels and frame. The German company Schmidt makes amazing systems. Supernova makes great lights to go with the Schmidt hubs. Yes, they are expensive, but imagine never having to charge batteries again. You’d never have to worry about running out of lights. Seems perfect to me. The construction is dead sexy too. http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm

Hugs and kisses,

Pete

[DismalScientist]

For the cheapskates out there (myself included), I buy a 250 lumen flashlight and handlebar mount for about $12 at http://www.dealextreme.com. Haven’t had problems yet, but my fingers are crossed.

[ronwalf]

@Dirt 5593 wrote:

My New Project: My next commuter will have a generator system built into the wheels and frame. The German company Schmidt makes amazing systems. Supernova makes great lights to go with the Schmidt hubs. Yes, they are expensive, but imagine never having to charge batteries again. You’d never have to worry about running out of lights. Seems perfect to me. The construction is dead sexy too. http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm

Are you looking at the asymmetrical version? I bought the IQ Cyo from Peter White. Besides the standard dynamo-goodness, I love the sharp vertical cutoff when I’m biking on the trails. Just like a car headlight, it keeps most of the light on the trail and out of oncoming sets of eyes.

That might be a downside on the road, so I keep a PB Blaze in blink-mode on my handlebars to “wink” at cars.

[DaveK]

Still hoping to get my Magicshine recall replacement by the start of the afternoon darkness. I don’t really need good “I can see you” lights until I’m commuting in the dark since I live in the city. I just need “be seen” lights now.

I’ll repeat myself though – for the price (and assuming it doesn’t catch your house on fire) there isn’t a better light in the world. 550 measured lumens for under $100.

[Dirt]

@ronwalf 5629 wrote:

Are you looking at the asymmetrical version? I bought the IQ Cyo from Peter White. Besides the standard dynamo-goodness, I love the sharp vertical cutoff when I’m biking on the trails. Just like a car headlight, it keeps most of the light on the trail and out of oncoming sets of eyes.

That might be a downside on the road, so I keep a PB Blaze in blink-mode on my handlebars to “wink” at cars.

That’s exactly what I’m looking at. I was just getting ready to pull the trigger on a system when I broke the frame on my commuter. All efforts went into replacing that. I still haven’t come up with a good replacement yet.

I like that Peter White sells the tools needed to use the fork ends as the + and – terminals for the light with internal cable routing. It is expensive and time consuming to do that, but a totally elegant way to set up the lights. The idea being that the quick release wheel will be truly quick release and not require you to unplug the lights before removing the wheel.

DaveK: I love the idea of the MagicShine. It is definitely the most bang for the buck. I’m also happy that your house didn’t burn down.

[brendan]

@Dirt 5633 wrote:

DaveK: I love the idea of the MagicShine. It is definitely the most bang for the buck. I’m also happy that your house didn’t burn down.

Heh. The newer battery boxes seem substantially better constructed.

Brendan

[DaveK]

@brendan 5667 wrote:

Heh. The newer battery boxes seem substantially better constructed.

Brendan

I’ll probably have to buy another light at this rate – I emailed the company to see if my shipment had gotten to them and if they had sent me a replacement and I got this back –

Quote:

Hi David,

While we wish we could, we are not sending out confirmations that we received customer’s claims or the status of the replacements because that would add another expense to this already overwhelming cost and reduced the money we would have to buy more batteries.

We are working our way through the 7600+ claims received so far but it will take several months to complete this recall process.

Thanks,
Geomangear

Translation – we won’t tell you if we even have your light. I do feel bad for them being a small business and getting caught up with shoddy parts. You get what you pay for, I guess. I got two good seasons out of a light I paid $85 for though so I really can’t complain. I may even get it back before this winter, but I think I’ll have to buy something else pre-emptively.

[RESTONTODC]

I also rode with the MJ-808 with the newer MJ-828 LCD battery pack on handle bar during the last winter. I haven’t seen any recall for the MJ-828 LCD battery pack.

It’s a bright light. I don’t need a brighter light unless I want to blind the recumbent friends or riding at 3 AM like CCrew. I’m very happy with it since I paid only $80. There is no support for it. With the price, I will get a new one every two years.

My partner rides the Dinotte 800 light and it’s brighter than mine but he rarely uses the high beam.

[MCL1981]

Being the tinkering person that I am, I have a different plan for lighting the night. I’m going to work on this in the next few weeks once I’m mobile again (just had back surgery yesterday…).

This on the front
http://www.strobesnmore.com/sound-off-500-lumen-led-par36-flood-light.html
http://www.strobesnmore.com/able-2-led-flasher.html

This on the back in red
http://www.strobesnmore.com/strobes-n-more-e4-super-led.html

I’m going to put two small 12 volt batteries in series on the rack in the back to run the system at 24v to keep the amps down. Small control panel on the handlebars which turn the rear on and off and also switch the front between off, on, and flash.

[DaveK]

I have got to see this when you’re done… of course I think I’ll be able to see it no matter where I am.

[Dirt]

Best wishes to heal after your back surgery.

My next lighting project involves a generator hub: http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt-sl.asp

[MCL1981]

Thanks. I’m sore as hell. As soon as I can get around enough to work on it, I’ll be lighting the night and post pictures.

[SONEPHETH]

If they ever send back my Magicshine battery from the recall I may buy the Magicshine taillight with Y-connector they are selling now. They’ve had the battery for two months though, I’m not expecting it back anytime soon. I still love that light though, especially now that it’s less likely to catch my house on fire.

My Magicshine battery die when I rode in the rain but I just use the battery from my Traxxas radio control car. Its waterproof, I had to solder the Traxxas connector on the wire coming from the light.

[KLizotte]

@Dirt 5593 wrote:

By far the best system I’ve used for commuting, mountain biking and endurance racing comes from Exposure. http://exposurelightsusa.com

I use a Diablo1 and a Flare for commuting. The Diablo is too powerful on most settings, so I use the middle setting on the road and the lowest setting on the trail and make sure to aim it down so I don’t blind people. It is small, light and super bright (900 lumen on high, 300 on medium, 150 on low). I like that there are NO CABLES or external batteries. The handlebar and helmet mount are PERFECT. If I were buying a light just for commuting, I’d look at the Joystick. It is smaller, lighter and has plenty of power for riding on the roads.

This is a very useful thread for me since I am now looking at upgrading my lighting system. I’m leaning very much towards Exposure in order to avoid DiNotte’s cables/battery pack. I currently have a 250 lumen MiNewt which I find too weak so am concerned that the medium setting on the Diablo of 300 lumens may be too weak as well (I’d prefer to use the 3 hr setting most of the time to ensure it doesn’t die on me). The Strata at 600 lumens in normal mode for 3 hours is looking good.

I’m also interested in a Dymotec bottle setup but can’t seem to find a lumens listing for their models. Anybody have any real world experience with Dymotec dynamos? How bad is the drag? My bike isn’t worth spending mega bucks on a super fancy dynamo system.

Thanks,

Kathy

[FFX_Hinterlands]

Kathy,
About a month ago I asked the twitter world and came up with this post on Lovely Bicycle.
http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2010/11/fondness-for-bottle.html

Here’s a test of dynamo output:
http://www.myra-simon.com/bike/dynotest.html

I’m on the fence between rebuilding a perfectly good wheel with a dynamo hub or just installing a bottle dynamo. Velo Orange has a cheap $20 dynamo and Velo Fred has the mid-grade $30 Axa bottle dynamo. The B&M seems to be one of the best ones out there from an adjustment, drag and slippage perspective. The good news is if you buy switched lights you can always add a hub dynamo later and keep your lights.

If anyone is wondering I’m thinking about the B&M Lyt (25 Lux for $50). You can get a cheapie 10 lux basta light at velo fred for $17. I think 10 lux is about the same output as 1 watt Planet Bike Blaze? The decent $100 lights are about 40 lux if you’re going fast in the dark.

Tom

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