XML T6 Bike Light with proper beam dipping!

pangolin

http://www.myfenix.co.uk/retail/fenix-bt20-bike-light

Not a bad price either!

jedster

looks good - that beam pattern is very like the B+M lights

essex-commuter

I like Fenix products. Price is plus battery plus charger though..assuming you don't have them already.

pangolin

essex-commuter wrote:

I like Fenix products. Price is plus battery plus charger though..assuming you don't have them already.

That's true. I do but many won't. There is a cheaper AA version but not quite as bright.

UndercoverElephant

At long bloody last! That's something that I'd consider if I didn't already have a dynamo light.

davis

You know I think that's enough to persuade me away from Exposure lights.

What batteries and charger should I be ordering? I know it takes 18650s, but I think some one on here (KB?) posted a link to a decent charger too..

Edit: Ordered the light: will let people know how it is

arthur_scrimshaw

looks good! what's the recommended batteries/charger and likely additional cost of these to add to the £80 of the light?

Kieran_Burns

davis wrote:

You know I think that's enough to persuade me away from Exposure lights.

What batteries and charger should I be ordering? I know it takes 18650s, but I think some one on here (KB?) posted a link to a decent charger too..

Edit: Ordered the light: will let people know how it is

this one: http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technolin ... -BL700.asp

cookdn

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

looks good! what's the recommended batteries/charger and likely additional cost of these to add to the £80 of the light?

Torchy the Battery Boy seems to be highly recommended (not used him myself yet). He trades on eBay as big_f_d_d.

The quoted run times for the BT20 are based on 2600mAh 18650 batteries. A pair of 2800 mAh batteries and a charger come to £27. These could be sourced cheaper on eBay, DX.com etc, though I will be replacing my UltraFire batteries from DX.com as one of the pair will not hold an adequate charge.

Best regards
David

First.Aspect

What am missing? The website talks about lenses with two hot spots directed down (which is good, by the way) and different power settings (also good). But it doesn't have a dipped beam option in the same way as a car headlight.

I went over to the exposure website. They also claim to have collumated beams, which can be pointed at the road (which is what I do) and have different power settings.

Other than the second long range hotspot to make a longer puddle of light, which I like the idea of, what's the difference?

davis

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

You know I think that's enough to persuade me away from Exposure lights.

What batteries and charger should I be ordering? I know it takes 18650s, but I think some one on here (KB?) posted a link to a decent charger too..

Edit: Ordered the light: will let people know how it is

this one: http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technolin ... -BL700.asp

Argh, that was the puppy. Doesn't look like it charges 18650s though. *shakes fist at sky*. Ta though.

cookdn

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

You know I think that's enough to persuade me away from Exposure lights.

What batteries and charger should I be ordering? I know it takes 18650s, but I think some one on here (KB?) posted a link to a decent charger too..

Edit: Ordered the light: will let people know how it is

this one: http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technolin ... -BL700.asp

Not sure that is any good for Li-Ion batteries though.

Battery Logic UK wrote:

The BL-700 has four independent charging channels each of which allow for independent charging, discharging, refreshing or testing of any AA or AAA rechargeable battery, both NiCd and NiMH.

Kieran_Burns

cookdn wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

You know I think that's enough to persuade me away from Exposure lights.

What batteries and charger should I be ordering? I know it takes 18650s, but I think some one on here (KB?) posted a link to a decent charger too..

Edit: Ordered the light: will let people know how it is

this one: http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technolin ... -BL700.asp

Not sure that is any good for Li-Ion batteries though.

Battery Logic UK wrote:

The BL-700 has four independent charging channels each of which allow for independent charging, discharging, refreshing or testing of any AA or AAA rechargeable battery, both NiCd and NiMH.

I was just responding to the question smarty-pants :P

For lithium-ion cells you need the Pila IBC

Headhuunter

cookdn wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

You know I think that's enough to persuade me away from Exposure lights.

What batteries and charger should I be ordering? I know it takes 18650s, but I think some one on here (KB?) posted a link to a decent charger too..

Edit: Ordered the light: will let people know how it is

this one: http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technolin ... -BL700.asp

Not sure that is any good for Li-Ion batteries though.

Battery Logic UK wrote:

The BL-700 has four independent charging channels each of which allow for independent charging, discharging, refreshing or testing of any AA or AAA rechargeable battery, both NiCd and NiMH.

I've got 1 of those chargers and I had no idea I could charge anything other than alkaline AA or AAA batts... Who knew! I need to get to grips with all this battery technology... I've got a Fenix L2D (or something like that) torch which I use as a light. It takes 2xAA batts... Is it possible to put some kind of Li Ion or other type of battery into the torch (provided they're the same size as AA that is)?

arthur_scrimshaw

cookdn wrote:

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

looks good! what's the recommended batteries/charger and likely additional cost of these to add to the £80 of the light?

Torchy the Battery Boy seems to be highly recommended (not used him myself yet). He trades on eBay as big_f_d_d.

The quoted run times for the BT20 are based on 2600mAh 18650 batteries. A pair of 2800 mAh batteries and a charger come to £27. These could be sourced cheaper on eBay, DX.com etc, though I will be replacing my UltraFire batteries from DX.com as one of the pair will not hold an adequate charge.

Best regards
David

thanks David

cookdn

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

thanks David

No problem.

I am seriously tempted by one of these lights (thanks for posting Pangolin). My commute is a mix of urban and country roads and my Magicshine-clone XML T6 Light (like this) is bright but very directional - basically a bright spot with a much dimmer wide halo.

Not wanting to dazzle motorists I have the light dipped, but this means on some of the faster downhill sections in the countryside I do not have as much forward vision of the road surface as I would like. The beam pattern on the Fenix BT20 looks a lot better.

Best regards
David

pangolin

cookdn wrote:

I am seriously tempted by one of these lights (thanks for posting Pangolin). My commute is a mix of urban and country roads and my Magicshine-clone XML T6 Light (like this) is bright but very directional - basically a bright spot with a much dimmer wide halo.

Not wanting to dazzle motorists I have the light dipped, but this means on some of the faster downhill sections in the countryside I do not have as much forward vision of the road surface as I would like. The beam pattern on the Fenix BT20 looks a lot better.

Best regards
David

I do the same thing with my lights, I have a couple of fairly bright LED ones but as you say both just have a circular beam. I don't really need another light... but then again...

Kieran_Burns

I'm still trying to find a uk source for that wide angle lens for the magicshine

mudcow007

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I'm still trying to find a uk source for that wide angle lens for the magicshine

i didnt like the lens i bought fro my long dead magicshine

it made the beam like a line instead of spot

i prefer spots, lines are for suckas

fossyant

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I'm still trying to find a uk source for that wide angle lens for the magicshine

eBay. UK seller. Got mine in a few days. Just put in magicshine in the search.

pdw

Yeah, sadly this light doesn't seem to have proper beam dipping.

Over the last couple of years, I've hacked together something which does. My main beam light is an old Lumicycle halogen modded to take a triple XPG LED with an external switch to toggle between full power (on paper around 1000 lumens) and inoffensively dim. The toggle switch is hidden in an STI lever where the flight deck button would go:



and a little socket hidden under the bar tape to connect up the light:



I was using another converted Lumi with a wide angle lens pointed down as a dipped beam, but it wasn't as good as something with a proper beam pattern. So I recently got a Philips SafeRide and hacked it to work with my Lumi battery (and made it brighter...)



Beam shots below. The shots are underexposed to avoid the centre washing out - they're a lot brighter than the photos suggest. Obviously a garage door isn't very representative, but it does show the difference in beam pattern well.

Philips:



The light spot above the cut-off is a trick of the photo - I think it's a reflection of the light itself. The artefacts around the top of the garage door are real - a minor annoyance of the optics.

Lumi:



Both:



The end result works beautifully. The Philips beam pattern is excellent, giving very even illumination over a large area of road, and being able to use the Lumi pointed horizontal on full power is a luxury.

I think there's a real gap in the market for someone to produce something like this commercially...

tincaman

fossyant wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I'm still trying to find a uk source for that wide angle lens for the magicshine

eBay. UK seller. Got mine in a few days. Just put in magicshine in the search.

Here you go
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wide-Angle-Lens-for-Magicshine-Lupine-and-Gemini-Bike-Lights-/261119985356?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item3ccbf6c6cc

Kieran_Burns

Excellent - thanks both, and he does a good handlebar mount as well.

kiwimatt

pdw wrote:

Over the last couple of years, I've hacked together something which does.

That is seriously frikcing awesome light fettling. :shock: Much kudos

pangolin

pdw wrote:

Yeah, sadly this light doesn't seem to have proper beam dipping.

Over the last couple of years, I've hacked together something which does. My main beam light is an old Lumicycle halogen modded to take a triple XPG LED with an external switch to toggle between full power (on paper around 1000 lumens) and inoffensively dim. The toggle switch is hidden in an STI lever where the flight deck button would go:

That is pretty cool. By dipping I just meant proper beam shape - so the light is on the road not in peoples eyes.

What battery pack are you using with yours? And how long does it last on the different settings?

supersonic

I've tried putting a bit of tin foil over the top quarter of the lens - works surprisingly well with the MagicShine clones!

pdw

pangolin wrote:

What battery pack are you using with yours? And how long does it last on the different settings?

Lumicycle Li-Ion 4.4Ah bottle battery. On paper it should do 3.7 hours with both on full, and 9.3 hours with just the Philips on. In practice it'll be less as the battery is 3 years old now, but it's still more than enough. I typically recharge it at least every other day, but I could probably do a week on a single charge.

Obviously you could get away with rather less - 4 decent 18650s would still give a very good run time.

davis

Bah. Apparently there's a manufacturing delay with the Fenix light. Oh well.

Gren82

I visited the Fenix factory in China in April when this was still in development.. cracking little piece of kit, nice and compact and much better quality production than magicshine. IMHO

davis

Righto. Mine arrived a few weeks ago, but I away for work, so tonight (as the nights begin to lengthen, obviously) was my first night that I could try the Fenix BT20.

Summary: It's really rather good; probably not as good as Exposure ultimately, but far better value. I can't decide whether external battery packs are a blessing or a curse. The beam pattern's really clever.

Full waffle:

The BT20 is clearly well made, and it's definitely bright enough. I rode home in the dark, and with no street lights I was able to ride home with just the BT20 in "mid" setting (300 lumens, apparently). The beam pattern is sensible, probably better than my old mk1 Exposure Strada, so you get more usable light from a given output -- it doesn't really show up as a distinctly non-circular pattern when shining it at a wall, but it definitely seems to have a beneficial effect.
Turning the light up to to "high" (450 lumens) is probably as high as you reasonably use on the (unlit) road. The "Turbo" mode (750) is borderline ludicrous, and you'd probably have to be some sort of cretin to be running this when you might encounter other road users.

The bar-mount is pretty good; basically just a rubber ring of the appropriate size which loops around the bar. It's fairly quick to mount and remove. The light stays where you put it, and is still pretty easy to adjust. The light rotates very easily, but still doesn't seem to shake about.

The on/off/mode switch button is plenty big enough, and easy to operate with gloved fingers.

Minor niggles:
The external battery pack is a bit annoying: you end up with two lumpy units connected by a short length of wire, which I do find irritating; I prefer the denser single enclosure lights. I suppose a plus point is it's easy to go from flat batteries to a fully charged set, which would be more useful for longer endurance events. Fenix have tried to make the battery back less annoying by coating its velcro straps with a little bits of silicone "gripper" tape in an effort to stop it sliding around so much. This didn't work brilliantly on my top tube, so I think I'll try moving it to the stem. There's an extension cable in the box to allow you to separate the light and batteries more.

The flash mode is indeed flashing on & off, not the "pulse" feature.

The only batteries supplied are some fairly rubbish CR123s: you have to get some 18650 cells (the BT20 takes two) and a charger (big_f_d_d on eBay offers very good products and service)

Overall, it's definitely worth the money. I'm a self-confessed Exposure fanboy; their lights are beautifully made, and feel indestructible -- I only managed to break one of their Micro LED lights by dropping it down some steel stairs onto a concrete floor. However, when you compare the Fenix BT20 at £80 to (say) the Exposure Strada Mk4 at £270, I can't justify the £190 increase.