I'm after recommendations for lights.
Comments
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As said I was using it with a critical eye and that was all I had.
I think this demonstrates why you are a big fan but some people on here that have much experience with night riding on and off road, don't see the B&M as a serious light. Most decent lights are considerably brighter than car headlights when on full power. Assuming the car is using low beam. When I ride at night using a £5 501b the bright spot is always visible on the road, even in traffic, so I turn it down to medium.
Being a novice night rider I don't know if this is specific to this light or all lights, but the B&M does rather momentarily 'disappear' in oncoming car headlights and on extremely well lit roads (of which I only encountered 1).
I found that a little tricky but as said I don't know if that's down to me or the light.
Overall I think, for £50 this light is excellent VFM.
My night novice status does play a part, it's somewhat surreal riding in the pitch blank.
I don't get 'its so bright i have to turn it down' or 'on full beam it's amazing, but doesn't last the ride'.
As it stands for £50 the B&M does everything I want, very well.
That's not necessarily an opinion you could get from a percentage of this thread.0 -
A bright spot is not a desirable feature for a light that you are using to illuminate the road - even light is what you need if you want to be able to spot potholes. Unfortunately, you can't get that for £5.
I think this demonstrates why you are a big fan but some people on here that have much experience with night riding on and off road, don't see the B&M as a serious light. Most decent lights are considerably brighter than car headlights when on full power. Assuming the car is using low beam. When I ride at night using a £5 501b the bright spot is always visible on the road, even in traffic, so I turn it down to medium.
Being a novice night rider I don't know if this is specific to this light or all lights, but the B&M does rather momentarily 'disappear' in oncoming car headlights and on extremely well lit roads (of which I only encountered 1).
I found that a little tricky but as said I don't know if that's down to me or the light.
Overall I think, for £50 this light is excellent VFM.
I mean, the question to ask is why wouldn't your light blend into the others on a well lit road? If the road is well lit (by street lighting or car headlights) then why does it matter if you can't pick out your particular torch beam?
Still, if you want a bright shaped beam light, it sounds like a twin headed IQ Speed Premium at 180 lux would be enough to satisfy even the most "serious" experienced rider, and at £150 not actually that bad a price in the context of Lezyne and other branded lights.0 -
This light is the classic lumens-first dazzler of other road users unfortunately. On the plus side, after an accident it'd be very hard for anyone to claim they hadn't seen you - unfortunately they could quite justifiably claim to have been dazzled by your light.
I've annotated wiggle's beam diagram to show what I see as being wrong with the light here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/87j4ze5kvp2xb60/annotated%20light%20demo.jpg?dl=0
I don't know, I mean obviously you acknowledge that there's the capacity to swivel it away from oncoming drivers which is good, but once you get dazzled it takes a couple of seconds to recover regardless of if the light is no longer pointed at you, plus as you mentioned it gives a wide beam so how much effect is the swivel going to have?
It's a shame really, because bike lights with shaped beams (like the saferide 80 and IQ premium) do exist but finding them in UK stores seems to be an impossibility - I'd be happy to be proved wrong on this! - and the shaped beam lights that are available seem to use relatively weedy nimh rechargeables which mean they underperform on endurance and weight.
To be honest it's a fantastic light. It has several low-power modes that are just like any low-powered bike light. Most of my regular route is along cycle paths away from the road. I only use the high-power modes on the unlit sections of those cycle paths where there are no motorists around.
On roads with street lighting I use one of the low-powered modes.
The even spread of light from left to right lights up the greenery on either side of the cycle path and pedestrians walking along who I would struggle to see with a less powerful light. It enables me to see 30m ahead with ease and it's pointed slightly down onto the path.
The ease of changing modes with the button on top means that when I reach the end of a cycle path and am about to join a street-lit road, I can lower the power output with just a couple of presses.
I tend to cycle considerately and acknowledge motorists who let me in and pedestrians who move out of the way on cycle paths.
Of course, just last night a cyclist zoomed past me on a cycle path with a blinding rear light! Then there's the odd cyclist with no lights and no helmet.
I think the equipment on your bike should be used responsibly with consideration for others and I didn't buy this light to blind everyone! Last night on the long straights on an unlit cycle path it gave me a huge amount of confidence and a feeling of safety and security. The little light I had on before showed me what was directly 3m ahead of me at best! Being able to clearly see 30m ahead in total darkness with a wide angle helps. Sometimes the greenery on the edges isn't maintained by the local authority so it's easy to strike overhanging branches in the dark. Hence, I wanted a powerful light with a wide spread of light to allow me to see those branches and dodge them.0 -
I think this demonstrates why you are a big fan but some people on here that have much experience with night riding on and off road, don't see the B&M as a serious light. Most decent lights are considerably brighter than car headlights when on full power. Assuming the car is using low beam. When I ride at night using a £5 501b the bright spot is always visible on the road, even in traffic, so I turn it down to medium.
Being a novice night rider I don't know if this is specific to this light or all lights, but the B&M does rather momentarily 'disappear' in oncoming car headlights and on extremely well lit roads (of which I only encountered 1).
I found that a little tricky but as said I don't know if that's down to me or the light.
Overall I think, for £50 this light is excellent VFM.
I have lots of experience of night riding and have gone from using expensive mega power lights to the B&M Premium.
Bright spots are not always a good thing, that is why the B&M is a nice 'comfortable' light.
I use the B&M constantly on full power for my night rides (and I ride fast and hard) and so don't have the hastle of having to turn it down and back up when I come across a car. especially mid winter and have thick goretex mittens on.0 -
Based on the review of proposed mods on candlepower, I reckon you could overcome the thermal issues fairly easily. XM-L2, XP-G2 and XP-L wont produce that much heat at 1A. Given you'd be junking the driver and the power source, you could probably pack quite a bit of heat sinking in there.
I reckon it would be much easier to replicate the beam pattern on a better donor unit than upgrade this model.
It would certainly be cheaper.
On the mtb lights thread plenty of users have used opaque tape to totally remove the hot spot produced by modern LEDs - I agree that hot spots are annoying particularly on longer rides 4+ hours, the spot tends to fatigue you a fair bit. However, there is quite a choice of LEDs now. The current XM-L2 fills well and the domed version of the XP-L also floods better than say an XR-E or XP-E.0 -
Took the plunge and just ordered an Exposure Diablo 7, figuring that by using it on half power for longer would be better than maxing something out constantly!0
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[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19735548#p19735548]DavidfromWarboys[/url] wrote:Took the plunge and just ordered an Exposure Diablo 7, figuring that by using it on half power for longer would be better than maxing something out constantly!
Yeah that makes sense :roll:0 -
List Price £199.95[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19735548#p19735548]DavidfromWarboys[/url] wrote:Took the plunge and just ordered an Exposure Diablo 7, figuring that by using it on half power for longer would be better than maxing something out constantly!
Yeah that makes sense :roll:
Burntime: Min 1 hr
Sorry I just don't get it. double :roll:
Is this not a case of "but this one goes up to 11"?
I'm guessing it's a fantastic light, and considerably better than mine, but it would seem almost unusable.
If I wanted that light to guarantee me 4 hrs 30 mins what setting of light would it have to throw out?
I'm struggling to believe it would still have the same penetration.
As for spread the wiggle comparison isn't favourable at all.
I'm not poking the bear here, and although it might look like I'm trolling I promise I'm not.
I genuinely don't understand a very expensive light that has a maximum setting with a run time of only an hour.0 -
The Diablo's the light my son borrowed from a colleague. Exqiusite little thing. The light, not my son; he's huge. Impressively bright for something so small, with a beam like a searchlight; lit up a lot more of next door's eucalyptus tree than my Fenix torch.
I imagine it would be brilliant for off-road riding, but it would be no good for riding on roads shared with others. If you point it down enough to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers / riders, you'd have a very bright spot 7-10m in front of you and no idea what's beyond it. Point it far enough down the road to ride quickly and you'd definitely be blinding people going the other way.
Runtime of an hour would make sense for most commutes, but for £160 I'd want better0 -
Sorry, haven't read all 6 pages, but I have just taken delivery of this Lezyne Deca Drive loaded for £85:
http://www.freeborn.co.uk/lezyne-deca-drive-led-lights-2015
Bracket seems a bit naff, but the light itself feels properly good and solid, and comes with two batteries.
My other light is a philips saferide thing, which arguably has a broader beam pattern which belies it's modest 220 lumen output - not had a chance to compare them out on the road yet though.
Felt F70 05 (Turbo)
Marin Palisades Trail 91 and 06
Scott CR1 SL 12
Cannondale Synapse Adventure 15 & 16 Di2
Scott Foil 180 -
That really did tickle me, thank you.Exqiusite little thing. The light, not my son; he's huge.
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That really did tickle me, thank you.Exqiusite little thing. The light, not my son; he's huge.
Now you've quoted me I can see the typo. I knew it looked wrong, but I couldn't for the life of me work out why Exqiusite wasn't right.
Exquisite. There, that looks a lot better.
Son apparently hell bent on expanding further if the latest delivery from Maximuscle is anything to go by. All the better for sitting behind him into a headwind!0 -
I think this demonstrates why you are a big fan but some people on here that have much experience with night riding on and off road, don't see the B&M as a serious light. Most decent lights are considerably brighter than car headlights when on full power. Assuming the car is using low beam. When I ride at night using a £5 501b the bright spot is always visible on the road, even in traffic, so I turn it down to medium.
Being a novice night rider I don't know if this is specific to this light or all lights, but the B&M does rather momentarily 'disappear' in oncoming car headlights and on extremely well lit roads (of which I only encountered 1).
I found that a little tricky but as said I don't know if that's down to me or the light.
Overall I think, for £50 this light is excellent VFM.
Ah - the £5 501b will have a spot - but the spread of light is poor outside that spot - for me that's a poor way to light up.
I have a cateye nanoshot+ and a cree torch - the cateye has 3 modes - full, 1/2 power plus a constant flash - ignoring the constant flash for the moment....
Most of the time I ride around on 1/2 power - in dark lanes where your eyes are used to the dark - it is enough to see by - and more importantly, see the potholes, branches & gravel - it doesn't dazzle oncoming car drivers and it's beam is easily flooded out by passing cars.
Just occaisionally when my eyes are not accustomed to the dark (eg after a number of cars have passed) or I'm going through a winding road with lots of obstacles I'll switch up to full power mode - and to me this is the advantage of the higher power - it's having the headroom to go brighter than "normal".
I tend to use the cree torch as my "Beam up" light though - as not only is it a backup for my Cateye, it saves the battery too ...0 -
This might be something for the future - apparently they start shipping lights next month.
http://www.dinglights.com.au/
One of the team has designed headlights for the automotive industry and they seem to be testing the lights pretty seriously.0 -
This might be something for the future - apparently they start shipping lights next month.
http://www.dinglights.com.au/
One of the team has designed headlights for the automotive industry and they seem to be testing the lights pretty seriously.
WTF? Why on earth would anyone want their front wheel an sides lit up? Total distraction for the eyes.
Might be ok for popping to the shops in a well lit area.
Saw this together with the flashy website and the marketing blurb and was put off immediately.
Sorry, I'm Out!0 -
I can see why you'd want to be lit up - having nearly missed seeing a rider with a narrow beam forward facing light going around a roundabout in an urban environment - if their bike was lit up then they'd be more noticable...WTF? Why on earth would anyone want their front wheel an sides lit up? Total distraction for the eyes.
but I can see your point on distraction for the eyes - it's not something I'd want on a country lane ride0 -
whether you get a spot and poor flood on a 501b. has more to do with the LED, than the housing. If you choose a smaller domed modern LED you won't get much spot. Worth remembering that people are stil shipping these with "CREE Q5" LEDs which are very old and spotty.
In an XM-l2 the spot is much larger and the fill pretty good. it's certainly easy to make it a good flooder with a bit of semi clear tape on the lens.0 -
I can see why you'd want to be lit up - having nearly missed seeing a rider with a narrow beam forward facing light going around a roundabout in an urban environment - if their bike was lit up then they'd be more noticable...
but I can see your point on distraction for the eyes - it's not something I'd want on a country lane ride
I think this is exactly the point. The reason car headlights make them so visible is their size, and this is trying to replicate that.
I saw this early on in their Kickstarter campaign and backed it, so I'm waiting for mine to arrive (hopefully before Christmas at latest estimate) to see how it works0 -
List Price £199.95[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19735548#p19735548]DavidfromWarboys[/url] wrote:Took the plunge and just ordered an Exposure Diablo 7, figuring that by using it on half power for longer would be better than maxing something out constantly!
Yeah that makes sense :roll:
Burntime: Min 1 hr
Sorry I just don't get it. double :roll:
Is this not a case of "but this one goes up to 11"?
I'm guessing it's a fantastic light, and considerably better than mine, but it would seem almost unusable.
If I wanted that light to guarantee me 4 hrs 30 mins what setting of light would it have to throw out?
I'm struggling to believe it would still have the same penetration.
As for spread the wiggle comparison isn't favourable at all.
I'm not poking the bear here, and although it might look like I'm trolling I promise I'm not.
I genuinely don't understand a very expensive light that has a maximum setting with a run time of only an hour.
It's fine, you are not coming across as a troll. I should have explained more. So most of my night riding is done on a bike path through the dark countryside, virtually no other folks or lights around.
If I want to spend a lot of time driving down the motorway at a 100 mph then I would n't buy a 800 cc car that would be performing at a 100% constantly. I'd buy a 4 litre something or other that cruises at 50% thereby not putting stress on the engine.
Also, in this case I felt that if I could use it comfortably on a lower setting I would get longer battery times and have something extra in the bag in case I wanted to head through the woods on my mountain bike.
So it arrived today and although I'm pretty hard to please I'm delighted with it. The low power setting is just about useable on my ride home (noticeably better than the combination of the two free torches I was using). I rode home on medium which was plenty bright enough on my dark track.nfull power is just awesome and occasionally I'm sure I'll really appreciate it.
It did n't cost 200 either, 170 if I remember correctly0 -
My friend got me to buy a SolarStorm X2 that came in a bundle with a generic red rear light for about 40€. The setup is a bit wonky as it uses a big block of a heavy battery which I carry around in my saddlebag, but it's bright as hell and burns for a good amount of time. It connects with a cable that runs along the underside of the toptube - again, it's not pretty, but if you want functionality and value for money, that's a very good option. The SolarStorm has 4 power options - 1 blinking and 3 different strengths, of which the weakest is plenty enough. In the meanwhile the back one has 7 of them, including one that makes it look like the Knight Rider!
Specialized Diverge Elite
Felt F85
Bikes, hikes and lots more besides:
http://smallcountrycyclist.com/0
