Lights on Helmets

tardington

After a few close encounters with the local buses, I have upgraded to a new helmet (a Specialised Instinct) - and I'd like to attach some lights to it for extra visibility.

1) Is there a reasonable headlight that can be attached? Not the £100+ ones I was reading about in What MTB*, but a decent front light, with a flash mode please, that will attach on in a way that won't damage the helmet!** Some sort of velcro strap? Or can you get them seperately?

1) And a rear light? Can you still get whale tails, or whatever they were called? I saw a second hand one, but didn't buy it last month. Ach!

*but they were NICE

** It's the grey colour Instinct - I love it! Possibly too much. But! It's grey all over!

Flycatcher

Tesco are selling mini LED lights with velcro straps front and rear quite cheap, about £5 from memory. Not sure how good they are but had a quick look at them this morning.

Gambatte

Thread recently showed Decathlon doing similar, velcro strap, front or rear lights. Also about £5

Jonah2940

Just been to Tescos. They're £7.97 each (white & red in separate packs). Look nice and small though and seem quite bright. Could easily fit both on your lid.

tardington

Thanks, will go an have a look.

(I did see the Topfire set of 4 LEDs, but they didn't look all that good, really)

BentMikey

Do you guys really think it's a good idea to have a light on your helmet? The trade off to me is that you'll get better safety by being more noticeable, but that you're increasing the liklihood that your helmet will cause you an injury in an accident.

whyamihere

Come on. I know you hate helmets, but can you really see something held on my Velcro adding to the chance of injury in a crash? If they get hit, they'll fall off or smash, or both. You might get a little cut or a tiny bruise if you hit it after it's come off, but no worse than that.

baudman

I wear ABLs (Annoying Blinking Lights as my mates and I call them - the little ones that are in 100's of different brands, but all look the same) on my helmet. I find they really aid in being noticed, especially because you naturally turn your head to get eye contact. White pointing forward, red pointing rearward. I only turn them on when conditions dictate (dusk/night/rain etc). They aren't really powerful enough for anything else.

They are held on with what is basically a hair tie, so they do come off easily. You can generally position them quite effectively for angles etc. There are also specialty items that look like spider legs with a red LED on the end of each leg that you can stick out of the various vents in the back of your helmet.

And yeah Mikey... could have an impact on the helmet's safety. (Yet another study for that one hey?) For those in non helmet-enforced jurisdictions who chose not to wear a helmet, perhaps you could put AFLs on your cap/glasses/whatever?

tardington

BentMikey wrote:

Do you guys really think it's a good idea to have a light on your helmet? The trade off to me is that you'll get better safety by being more noticeable, but that you're increasing the liklihood that your helmet will cause you an injury in an accident.

Um, what? Yes to the trade off I guess.

I did see the Helmets Yes or No thread, but kinda ignored it as it seemed a bit mad to NOT wear a helmet... I take it there's a Lights - Yes or NO topic as lights cause cyclists to be more confident at night?

Anyway, back to helmet lights... I saw the tesco ones and they didn't seem that nice... Having asked my gf (gasps!) I'm going to a make a wee velcro strap for one of those little rear lights, the cateye LD170 and some of the spare pads that came with my helmet to hold it on - will let you know if it works. :-)

BentMikey

Having stuff stuck on your helmet isn't going to make it work any better as a helmet, and has the potential to seriously exacerbate a rotational brain injury. Some have theorised that helmets make this type of injury much worse, so sticking stuff on a helmet is probably not a clever idea.

OTOH cycling is actually pretty safe, so my guess is this effect is likely very small, whilst the safety effect from the lights is probably several times as large.

dirk_van_gently

I use one of these



They are made by energizer, got mine from Focus DIY.

Obviously aimed at the DIYer, but works very well on the helmet. I used a bit of extra velcro on the back to hold it a little more secure.

homercles

BentMikey wrote:

...has the potential to seriously exacerbate a rotational brain injury...

Can I just ask what a rotational brain injury is? Sounds painful!

redddraggon

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

I use one of these



They are made by energizer, got mine from Focus DIY.

Obviously aimed at the DIYer, but works very well on the helmet. I used a bit of extra velcro on the back to hold it a little more secure.

I got one of these from tesco yesterday for £10

Aidocp

I don't use the light on my helmet but I got the Cateye HL410 as an emergency back up that would fit on my flat profile bars but I'm really impressed with it and might put it on my helmet too.
PS the ad's wrong it take the smaller AAA bateries x 3

windbreaker

I use one of these lights http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... tOrderID=1] along with some kind of red LED glued on. I'm certainly visible and I can switch the front light from flashing to constant on dark roads. I feel much better.

However I believe that "the lights give them something to aim at" has some truth. It does seem that some drivers deliberately drive closer to me at night.

redddraggon

windbreaker wrote:

However I believe that "the lights give them something to aim at" has some truth. It does seem that some drivers deliberately drive closer to me at night.

It seems like that to me aswell, in the afternoon as least, the morning doesn't seem too bad.

tardington

These ones are the Electron Back Ups (Edin Bikes does a version) - I've got a red on on the top back of my helmet - they sort of loop round with the hair tye bit to attach reasonably firmly. Pretty bright, with a flashing mode, but definately a back up, not a main rear light. Also, gf now calls me 'light house head' when I have it in. 8)

baudman wrote:

I wear ABLs (Annoying Blinking Lights as my mates and I call them - the little ones that are in 100's of different brands, but all look the same) on my helmet. I find they really aid in being noticed, especially because you naturally turn your head to get eye contact. White pointing forward, red pointing rearward. I only turn them on when conditions dictate (dusk/night/rain etc). They aren't really powerful enough for anything else.

They are held on with what is basically a hair tie, so they do come off easily. You can generally position them quite effectively for angles etc. There are also specialty items that look like spider legs with a red LED on the end of each leg that you can stick out of the various vents in the back of your helmet.

And yeah Mikey... could have an impact on the helmet's safety. (Yet another study for that one hey?) For those in non helmet-enforced jurisdictions who chose not to wear a helmet, perhaps you could put AFLs on your cap/glasses/whatever?

dondare

I've just put a cat-eye bracket on my helmet, and used it for the first time this evening. As a hands-free light for setting off fire-works. Damn' good for that, but rather too heavy for actual cycling, I'll have to see what the lightest cateye front lamp is.

Teuchter

Not tried them attached to my lid but I've got a couple of head torches intended for hillwalking - a bulb Petzl one and an LED Black Diamond one. We were camping at Glencoe at the weekend and walking from the campsite to the pub along dark roads did make me consider how handy they'd be on the bike.

My commute often takes in an optional detour along a forest path for a mile or two and while my lights are fine for that (Smart rechargeable twin 10W halogens), it would be nice to see around corners sometimes!

Not so concerned in traffic though - happy with my cateye flasher for that.

secretsam

BentMikey

What about this helmet - would go with your "man-in-black" image

http://themes.belchfire.net/screenshots/DarthVader.jpg

tardington

dondare wrote:

I've just put a cat-eye bracket on my helmet, and used it for the first time this evening. As a hands-free light for setting off fire-works. Damn' good for that, but rather too heavy for actual cycling, I'll have to see what the lightest cateye front lamp is.

The same as on the triple/double shot? Just doing googles for it, I didn't know they did helmet brackets...

dondare

On Sunday I wore the Singleshot Plus on the helmet; very bright but too heavy. Today I bought an EL135 which fits in the same bracket and is about right. So I'll be doing my bike-riding miner impersonation on the way home tonight.

mba007

Just for info. I've mounted my cateye EL520 onto the top of my helmet using 4 rubberbands. I didn't like the idea of using any mounting bracket with/without screws, so I figured that if I hit the ground with my head the rubber bands will snap thus more likely to release it before I get a Cateye-shape dent in my skull.

It helps if you use the same colour rubber bands as the helmet

itsaghostcar

I've always thought the B&M Topfires would be handy to fit to the back of the helmet. Nothing sticking out. Can't comment on how good they are though.

Wooliferkins

BLT do a nice line in helmet lights from the full on ligt of the Ultra Doppler DX to the be seen LID LED which has a rear facing red light as well.

Wooliferkins

Topfires are very visible and neat.

mrchrispy

ive used a couple of those backup lights in similar way to the Topfires for a few years now - works really well.

Belv

redddraggon wrote:

windbreaker wrote:

However I believe that "the lights give them something to aim at" has some truth. It does seem that some drivers deliberately drive closer to me at night.

It seems like that to me aswell, in the afternoon as least, the morning doesn't seem too bad.

I have found that the more dangerous i look (no lights, reflective clothing, or helmet), the more space drivers give me. Assuming it's because they think i'm a loony and don't want to get their car scratched!

dondare

I've found that it doesn't help to have all your lights on the centre line. Lamp-on-hat, lamp on rucksack, lamp on saddle-pin, lamp on carrier, lamp on mudguard; all these make the bike look two-dimensional and not something that the driver needs to move out to avoid. But put a light out to the side then the bike becomes three-dimensional and motorists give it more room. I've a rear-facing red light on the handle-bar end that seems to do the trick.

Gambatte

Thats why I bought a rear light from 'Aktive8'. advertised with arm band. It didn't come with an armband and is still advertised as such months after they were told.... :x

:x They also don't answer their mails...