Night riding

lbalony

prawny wrote:

I looked at that one, the smooth reflectors are more spotty than orange peel ones (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong) so probably not ideal for on the bars, also for dual led ones I'd prefer a 6 cell battery to a 4 cell one, but I suppose you're still getting double the cells per led compared to a torch.

Hmm, time for serious thinking is now.

Right so 6 cells is better than 4 for a double. As a single would normally have 4 so 6 cells help does it?

Is it best to get orange peel reflectors!! Presuming thats the surface texture and colour?

Interesting

lbalony

jairaj wrote:

The battery packs on these are usually a bit rubbish but ok for the money you are spending.

A reasonable upgrade might be getting a new pack made up by someone like MTB batteries.

Thats really helpfull. Cheers.

I feel like im only paying for the lamp so wont mind getting a better battery!

lbalony

Ouija wrote:

I was looking at that one as something new for this winter but ordered this Trustfire the other day instead...





.. as it has a remote switch to save you taking your hands off the bars and a rubberised battery pack. And Manafont is a company i've ordered loads of stuff from before without any problems. Oh! And it works out at £28 including shipping.

Has it arrived yet? Have you tested it?

prawny

lbalony wrote:

prawny wrote:

I looked at that one, the smooth reflectors are more spotty than orange peel ones (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong) so probably not ideal for on the bars, also for dual led ones I'd prefer a 6 cell battery to a 4 cell one, but I suppose you're still getting double the cells per led compared to a torch.

Hmm, time for serious thinking is now.

Right so 6 cells is better than 4 for a double. As a single would normally have 4 so 6 cells help does it?

Is it best to get orange peel reflectors!! Presuming thats the surface texture and colour?

Interesting

To be clear, I'm no expert. But.

Each cell is a certain number or milli amp hours, so more hours = longer run time at the same output if my understanding is correct. But more cells are harder to mount on the bike. Depends how long you're likely to be out for, I'm not likely to be out for more than 1:30 so really 2 hours run time would be enough for me, just so I've got a bit of a buffer.

The orange peel is purely the texture of the reflector around the led, still mirrored, just bounces light around more for a bit more spread. Apparently you can frost the lens for a similar effect, i haven't tried that yet.

Ouija

lbalony wrote:

Ouija wrote:

I was looking at that one as something new for this winter but ordered this Trustfire the other day instead...

.. as it has a remote switch to save you taking your hands off the bars and a rubberised battery pack. And Manafont is a company i've ordered loads of stuff from before without any problems. Oh! And it works out at £28 including shipping.

Has it arrived yet? Have you tested it?

Nope. Only ordered it on Friday and got confirmation of dispatch on Saturday so it'll be a couple of weeks from China.

As for the whole battery thing, i've got tons of XML lights (about twenty at the moment) and i'd say that if four cells (2s/2p for 8.4v) for a single XML meets your needs you'd require eight cells for a twin head design. However. There is no need to go out and buy a six cell pack, you can just splice two four cell packs together with a cable.

prawny

Ahh, I've not seen a cable like that before. I've seen the ones the other way around for running two heads off one battery, where do you get them from?

rockmonkeysc

180 lumens is more than enough for anyone.

Ouija

prawny wrote:

Ahh, I've not seen a cable like that before. I've seen the ones the other way around for running two heads off one battery, where do you get them from?

There's a link in my previous post to the cable. You can also buy the cables you've seen and link it to the cable i posted (i do). That way you can have multiple batteries merged together and then splitting again to go into two separate head units. That way, when you turn one head unit off or reduce it's power, the merged battery power gets redirected to the head unit you've still got on. Also means you can have a single cable running down the frame if you connect the two Y-Splitters to a straight piece of cable rather than directly in to each other (i have my batteries in a triangular shaped frame bag or, occasionally, a under seat bum bag and don't want lots of cables running down the frame to the head units).

supersonic

180 lumens with a wide spread barely has any throw.

rockmonkeysc

I have been using a Light & Motion Stella 180 for three years with nothing else for night XC rides and I find it plenty.
Light & Motion lumens are a bit brighter than cheap, Chinese lumens

supersonic

Doesn't mean that will suit all though! I prefer a flood and a spot, and more lumens than that.

welshkev

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I have been using a Light & Motion Stella 180 for three years with nothing else for night XC rides and I find it plenty.
Light & Motion lumens are a bit brighter than cheap, Chinese lumens

that actually makes no sense at all! a lumen is a measurement of light output, so for example, 900 lumes is 900 lumens, no matter what sort of light it comes from...how can you have 'brighter' lumens? :?

rockmonkeysc

They appear to be brighter. Maybe more/less acurate measurement of the output or different spread of light.
My 180 lumen lamp seems to illuminate the trail as well as my mates 250 lumen cheap from ebay torch.

supersonic

Lumens isn't brightness though, is a different measurement.

welshkev

supersonic wrote:

Lumens isn't brightness though, is a different measurement.

Sorry yeah should have said visible light. But my point still stands. I'd say it was more likely an exaggeration of output lumens than them being brighter

rockmonkeysc

Thats what I was suggesting but without suggesting that manufacturers were lying/exaggerating.

welshkev

Sorry, missed your last post.

supersonic

They all lie/exagerate. Not seen a single one tested that comes out as they quote. However some exagerate more rthan others. And lumens are useless anway if the beam pattern is not to your taste.

homers_double

Last night's ride was interesting. I've been pretty busy of late and not been watching the sunset times so didn't realise that setting off out at 8.30 for an hour ride only left me with 30 minutes of daylight...

pesky_jones

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I do enjoy a good night ride but unlike most of my mates I like to use the absolute minimum (150 lumens) of lighting so that it still feels like night.

For stalking benefits, right?

trespasser66

4 X 2000 lumen cree xml T6's with another 2x on order before christmas and the nights start earlier. I don't think its overkill and I have yet to hear anyone say "I didnt see you".

I'm looking into running those little silicon 'frog lights' on the trailer, it should look pretty through the winter

lbalony

Right I am going to purchase this light; http://bit.ly/19reaSb is it better for bars or my helmet? Im not getting the whole orange perl frosted thing at the moment. I have roughtly another 25-30 to spend on another does any one have a goid recomendation for one to pair up with.

I think ive learnt that I need a spot type one for my head and a flood for my bars, is this right. Is the one above a flood or a spot? Sorry to be a dumbass!!!

Ouija

Smooth reflectors so it's a spot.

rockmonkeysc

Pesky Jones wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I do enjoy a good night ride but unlike most of my mates I like to use the absolute minimum (150 lumens) of lighting so that it still feels like night.

For stalking benefits, right?

Exactly, I can watch the doggers for longer before they notice my dim light.

jairaj

lbalony wrote:

I think ive learnt that I need a spot type one for my head and a flood for my bars, is this right. Is the one above a flood or a spot? Sorry to be a dumbass!!!

That's what the majority of the people I've spoken to prefer but as always there are some who like something different.

Hard to tell just by looking at the light what kind of beam pattern you will get but my guess is spot as the reflector looks long and narrow and similar to the torches which produce a spot beam.

The orange peel reflector doesn't really create a wider beam it just diffuses the light to get a wider but slightly less bright hot spot. Some of the smooth reflectors can have a very pronounced hot spot with very little spill. So while it may have great throw and you can see miles up ahead of the trail you can only really see a small spot of trail ahead. But adding some diffusion is quite easy if needed, it just as simple as adding some frosted tape to the lens.

With the two LEDs side by side yo might have enough width to not need to get a wider beam light too. I'd try this one out first and order another light later if you feel the need.

lbalony

jairaj wrote:

lbalony wrote:

I think ive learnt that I need a spot type one for my head and a flood for my bars, is this right. Is the one above a flood or a spot? Sorry to be a dumbass!!!

That's what the majority of the people I've spoken to prefer but as always there are some who like something different.

Hard to tell just by looking at the light what kind of beam pattern you will get but my guess is spot as the reflector looks long and narrow and similar to the torches which produce a spot beam.

The orange peel reflector doesn't really create a wider beam it just diffuses the light to get a wider but slightly less bright hot spot. Some of the smooth reflectors can have a very pronounced hot spot with very little spill. So while it may have great throw and you can see miles up ahead of the trail you can only really see a small spot of trail ahead. But adding some diffusion is quite easy if needed, it just as simple as adding some frosted tape to the lens.

With the two LEDs side by side yo might have enough width to not need to get a wider beam light too. I'd try this one out first and order another light later if you feel the need.

Cheers!

Liking the tape trick!

Ordered it. Just a waiting game now. I have seen some photos of it lit up on the eBay sellers page and looks promising, but could be any light really!