Commuting HELMET lights?

joecamel

It's nearly time to light up again for the commute to work.
I've got a Solarstorm X2 on the bars and CandB Seen at the rear, both are superb.
I need a decent helmet/headlight, any suggestions? Something lightweight but effective enough to be seen and aid in seeing on darker parts of the ride. I've been using a Hope 1 for a few years but it looks like I'm mining coal and it's heavy with the battery pack mounted on the helmet too.
CHEAP IS GOOD.
Any suggestions welcome, thanks.

timothyw

Lezyne Macro Duo is what I use:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lezyne-macro-drive-duo/

Although I doubt you'll find it as cheap as the £20 with magazine subscription that loads of us signed up for last year.

joecamel

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19688990#p19688990]TimothyW[/url] wrote:

Lezyne Macro Duo is what I use:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lezyne-macro-drive-duo/

Although I doubt you'll find it as cheap as the £20 with magazine subscription that loads of us signed up for last year.

Thanks. What sort of burn times do you get from that? I had a Lezyne Mega previously and it was crap. It ran for about 90 minutes on low. I had three of them before getting my money back.

Bobbinogs

I use the Exposure Joystick as a helmet/backup light. It is not cheap (~£120) but it is very good and relatively light (~100g). It can be charged via a USB adaptor cable and mounted either on the bars or on a helmet. On the medium light setting it helps me read signs at a distance, etc., even when out in the pitch black and will give over 3 hours use. Using a min setting or flash helps me be seen and lasts for hours.

One does need to be careful with ensuring any helmet light hits the road in normal use and try and remember not to lift one's head too much when cars come towards you. The Joystick light beam has no pattern as such, just a round beam so it is easy to glare oncoming drivers.

My main lighting is via a bar mounted Exposure Diablo.

fenix

Cheapo Cree Torch on top of the helmet secured with a livestrong band or something.

timothyw

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19689014#p19689014]joecamel[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19688990#p19688990]TimothyW[/url] wrote:

Lezyne Macro Duo is what I use:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lezyne-macro-drive-duo/

Although I doubt you'll find it as cheap as the £20 with magazine subscription that loads of us signed up for last year.

Thanks. What sort of burn times do you get from that? I had a Lezyne Mega previously and it was crap. It ran for about 90 minutes on low. I had three of them before getting my money back.

Oh, more than ample for me anyway - I only ever tend to run it on low, and literally can't remember when I last charged it, must have done 5 hours at least and charge indicator is still on amber (rather than red for near empty).

joecamel

Thanks for the good suggestions.
The Exposure sounds the bollox but more than I need. The Lezyne sounds fit-for-purpose. 350lm with a rear too. Hoping the battery is better than my previous Lezyne lamp.

diy

For road riding, I think its helmet lights that are most annoying to others. Ideally go with something that aids being seen rather than giving you a focused spot on the road. If you are finding you want to reduce shadowing or get moor flood, then a second bar light spaced apart is better at this. The downside off the storm is that the lights are quite close together so shadowing is still a problem. Other thing to do is check the current draw, there are so many of these around, often they can barely suck 1A out of the cells which is useless to get the best out of the LED.

many of the Lezynes take a standard 18650 battery, so don't throw the lamp away just because the cell is rubbish.

iron-clover

I have an exposure Joystick which can be used as a helmet light, but I would agree that on the road it's usually quite dazzling when someone is coming the other way with a bright helmet light (little flashers are a god idea though).

I got my joystick for around £40 off ebay with some patience as they are a very popular light amongst spendy MAMILS, and as such a lot get tossed out when their owners realise they don't actually enjoy cycling- a massive bonus for those with more limited income!!

My favourite commuting headlight is the Hope Vision 1 that you already have! With 4 2300mAh AA batteries I can get mine to fun for over 24h in a mix of the two lower settings (the second lowest is all I really use even on fast road night rides) and you can throw the batteries away when they start to degrade.
Hope is also legendary with their customer support- if you keep the recipts they will do their best to fix a broken unit, and they even helped me with my 2nd hand unit.

holiver

I would find my Hope Vision 1 way too heavy to run as a helmet light! Mine with 4 of the best quality rechargable AA cells weighs over 250g!

I'm considering a Cateye Volt 200 or 300. Possibly the 400 too. The beam patterns would appear to work well as helmet lights.