Head torch

mathematics

Hi

I currently run 2 ultrafire torches bar mounted. I find these pretty good and do as good a job as I need. Or at least I thought...

Riding switchbacks last night I found, the bar mounted lights were very limited and didnt light up enough of the bend if you know what I mean. I'm thinking a helmet mounted head torch will do the trick.

Any advice please?

I see people riding trails with round style lights, not torches, with a single green light at the back. What are these and are they any good?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

m00nbadger

I've got a Petzl Tikka headtorch, use it for night walking and similar, not MTB'ing but the head band is very secure, and is designed to be used by climbers so should fit around a helmet with no issues. Think it has a distance of 40m ish (quoited anyway). mine has 2 potions so you can have a slightly dimmer option and then 'full beam'.

was £30 odd i think from somewhere online, but Cotswold Outdoors have them if you want to go buy one

can recommend the one I have though, its very handy round the house too for going in the loft etc

BloggingFit

I can highly recommend a Bontrager Ion 700 light if you can get hold of one for helmet mount. Brilliant in conjunction with bar mounts and does a good enough job if used on it's own if you run out of daylight. Only comes with a bar mount but a cheap lezyne helmet mount works with it.

eddiefiola

Ronseal https://www.alpkit.com/products/gamma

mcnultycop

I run a Solarstorm x2 on my helmet with a homemade battery pack in the rucksack. Helmet light to me is more important than the bar light.

cubext

m00nbadger wrote:

I've got a Petzl Tikka headtorch

eddiefiola wrote:

Ronseal https://www.alpkit.com/products/gamma

Do you use these successfully off road mountain biking?

bob6397

mcnultycop wrote:

I run a Solarstorm x2 on my helmet.

I also do this - and I have an X3 on my bars.. together they pump out an almost unbelievable amount of light.. I cable tie mine onto my helmet and then trail the cable down my back and have the battery pack either in my back pocket or my rucksack, depending on if I'm wearing a rucksack or not..

The battery for the X3 is mounted on my frame.. And I carry spare batteries for both, even though I get 6hrs out of a charge with both on full

bob6397

mathematics

bob6397 wrote:

mcnultycop wrote:

I run a Solarstorm x2 on my helmet.

I also do this - and I have an X3 on my bars.. together they pump out an almost unbelievable amount of light.. I cable tie mine onto my helmet and then trail the cable down my back and have the battery pack either in my back pocket or my rucksack, depending on if I'm wearing a rucksack or not..

The battery for the X3 is mounted on my frame.. And I carry spare batteries for both, even though I get 6hrs out of a charge with both on full

bob6397

6 hours! Wow! What batteries are you using?

mcnultycop wrote:

I run a Solarstorm x2 on my helmet with a homemade battery pack in the rucksack. Helmet light to me is more important than the bar light.

What batteries did you use for your pack? Easy to make?

eddiefiola

cubext wrote:

m00nbadger wrote:

I've got a Petzl Tikka headtorch

eddiefiola wrote:

Ronseal https://www.alpkit.com/products/gamma

Do you use these successfully off road mountain biking?

I have but nothing full on, the Gamma wont be as bright as the ultrafires so going straight ahead it wont make much difference but looking in another direction to the ultrafires would work.

One of the cheapy CREE jobs come with a head mount that you can tie wrap to a helmet, bit more powerful but then a larger battery to fix somewhere too.

bartimaeus

Ultrafire 501b XML2 torch for me... not amazingly small and light, but £8 and pretty bright on MED for 2.5 hours on a single cell, with a nice bright HI mode when you need it. All my lights are 18650 torches, so a couple of spare cells in my pack and I'm sorted even if we extend our rides.

bob6397

mathematics wrote:

6 hours! Wow! What batteries are you using?

Just the ones which came with the lights.. they don't do too badly

6hrs doesn't seem like much but when the front light is kicking out something close to 2500 Lumens (According to the specs for the bulb not from the ebay listing..) it's not bad at all.. I wouldn't want to run them for too long without moving around though - they do get quite hot if you stay still..

m00nbadger

cubext wrote:

m00nbadger wrote:

I've got a Petzl Tikka headtorch

Do you use these successfully off road mountain biking?

No haven't used it whilst on my bike. as I say, have done lots of walking of a night and its been more than suitable for that. very secure on my head whilst wearing a beanie, and would imagine it would be much the same if on my helmet

battery on them is meant to last for an eternity too. had mine about a year, easily seen over a 100 hours of night walking and still just as bright now as it was when i bought it