Road lights 5W, 10W, what watts?

kenbaxter

Dark nights and want to try to resist hitting a badger and going over the bars like I did last year! Currently using one of the bright Cateye single LED ones but feel could be better.

How bright should a front light for road riding be to be effective. Many sets seem to be 5W + 10W. Is 5W sufficient for road riding on dark roads or will 10 be better. Flood or spot or one of the sets that offer both? Electron NiMH one seems to be a good bargain for about 40 quid on Ribble etc.

Help please before another badger goes home with sore ribs (he survived fine by the way, I and the bike didn't!).

alfablue

For Halogen you really need 10w, LED 5w. The electron set is good for the price.

Monty Dog

Agree, for halogen you need a minimum of 10 watts for unlit roads. A 5 watt LED is comparable, but does give out a far brighter, cleaner light and so is far more visible to traffic. Battery life of LED is far better too.

JWSurrey

40 squids sounds like a bargain!
I did some research last year, since which time technology seems to have marched on a little, and prices dropped in line.

The high power LEDs mostly seem to use the Luxeon 3W or 5W emitters.
I've heard it said that the 5W is not much better than the 3W.
I've also read that a 10W halogen overvolted to 12Vis roughly equivalent to a 3W LED. As Monty states, the LED will provide the crisper, bluer light that seems to be easier to pick out things in the gloom.
Maybe urban myth, but I gather that the human eye notices blue more than amber.

What you're really looking for is lumens of light output, but beware the beam spread - the lumen figure is probably rated at the very tightest and strongest part of the beam, which may not necessarily be wide enough or where you want it.

I also gather that the voltage/current regulation circuitry separates the men from the boys, with regard to LED lighting, since the LEDs are much more sensitive to voltage/current change.

Here's a comparison I looked at last year, which although out of date gives you and idea of what the differences are:
http://www.meiring.org.uk/pdm/Audax/Sol ... view.shtml

Depends on your required run time, and whether all of that is going to be at full power, plus the usual weight trade-off.

I blew the budget on a Solidlights 1303.

I also looked at the rather expensive options available from:
Lupine (superb but just a bit too pricey)
Dinotte (At the time they were much more expensive than the 99 quid they are now - plus you get a variety of battery options)
Lumicycle - A more traditional solution

My reason for the Solidlights was the multi-power option, light battery packs, reasonably good run time, technical data and reviews.
The beam spread is the real clincher for me - My only criticism is that to get the light far enough down the road, it needs to be a little too high for oncoming traffic, so I'm going to fit a hood on it this year.

As a guide to how much power you may require, I use the Solidlights on unlit potholed country roads - It has 3x 3W LEDs - I reckon they could probably get away with two - One for kerb lighting, one focused down the road.

Cunobelin

I have the Dinotte set, and for serious work the Hope HID.

cougie

I found this quite useful - cos it has some pics of what you can actually see with the lights.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=1377408

I bought Dinotte after seeing them on here.

aracer

JWSurrey wrote:

The high power LEDs mostly seem to use the Luxeon 3W or 5W emitters.
I've heard it said that the 5W is not much better than the 3W.
...
What you're really looking for is lumens of light output, but beware the beam spread - the lumen figure is probably rated at the very tightest and strongest part of the beam, which may not necessarily be wide enough or where you want it.

While most LED lights do still use Luxeons, those are very much outdated technology now. There was a revolution in LED technology about a year ago which is just now making its way into commercial lights - the best LEDs now are Cree XR-E or Seoul P4, either of which at 3W produce almost twice as much light as a 5W Luxeon. These are now appearing in the latest Dinotte 200 and 500, the new Lupine Wilma and Betty and the Exposure Maxx range amongst others. Of course those of us who build our own lights had these LEDs back in October last year - my homebuild job with 3 of these LEDs rather shocked everybody with it's output at the Polaris this weekend - noticeably far brighter than a 20W halogen!

BTW lumens is a measure of the total light output of a source, not the intensity in the brightest part of the beam, so you can make a direct comparison of the light output without worrying about the beam pattern. Of course beam pattern is still important - for road riding I'd generally recommend as narrow a beam as you can get - I use a narrow beam optic with my LED light and still find it fine even for MTBing.

JWSurrey

Ah, I stand corrected!
Will do a web search on these LEDs - explains the DInotte price drop.
Thanks

Got any circuit diagrams and good sources for reflector/optics?

Do you need a large heatsink and thermal/voltage/current stability?

Wow - The new Lupine rigs rock!

Mog Uk

I use the electron set, 5w is fine on lit roads, I only turn on the 10w when I hit the unlit county lanes... Worth noting that you only get about 2hours charge if using both..

rick_hewes

For LED drivers check out;

http://www.taskled.com/

For optics and LEDs;

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/

I built my own set using two Cree LEDs, a bFlex controller and 12 AA batteries.

Very pleased with the reults. I managed to mount the switch in the STI lever where the Flightdeck switch is usually fitted.

Rick.

OnTow

Cool - thanks everyone for the info.
Rick, does the bFlex limit you to 1W though? The Seoul maxes at 3W.

J.

rick_hewes

bFlex limits the current to max. 1 Ampere (1000mA) which is not the same as Wattage.

Rick

OnTow

Ah - Thanks - I mis-read it and didn't realise it was user reconfigurable.

andrewgturnbull

kenbaxter wrote:

Dark nights and want to try to resist hitting a badger and going over the bars like I did last year! Currently using one of the bright Cateye single LED ones but feel could be better.

How bright should a front light for road riding be to be effective. Many sets seem to be 5W + 10W. Is 5W sufficient for road riding on dark roads or will 10 be better. Flood or spot or one of the sets that offer both? Electron NiMH one seems to be a good bargain for about 40 quid on Ribble etc.

Help please before another badger goes home with sore ribs (he survived fine by the way, I and the bike didn't!).

HI there.

I've used the Electrons for the last 2 winters, and they do give great visibility for the money.

But the build quality is a questionable. My set have been back to the shop twice as the internals vibrate loose. They're currently broken again - I can only get one of the lights to stay on, the other flickers continually.

I'm saving up for the Dinottes now.

Cheers, Andy

kenbaxter

Update for anyone searching on these!

First night out with these tonight and they are miles better than my Cateye LED. 5W is actually pretty OK on unlit roads with the 10W needed for the really dark bits. WIth the 10W the whole place lights up! Also worth noting that every car without exception dipped their lights even with the 5W. With the Cateye they didn't and I was always getting dazzled. Also the halogens give a more yellow light than the LED which gives a grey/white "flat" light. Find it easier to pick things out with the halogens. 45 quid so happy if I get a year or two out of them.

Thanks for the advice.