Light recommendations?

I was thinking about buying a new headlight for my bike. I have one
that the battery goes in the bottle cage but it's just too hot in NC
right now to think seriously about giving up a water bottle for a
battery. I was thinking of getting a Vistalight Nightstick Code 5.
Does anyone have thoughts on this light? I'd love to hear any comments
pro or con.

Also, I see that Sierra Trading Post has it for $50. I've ordered from
them before with good luck. I also see that Price Point has it for $40.
Have any of you ordered from pricepoint.com before? Thanks!

jmk

On 8/19/2003 9:42 AM, Arpit wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 08:02:08 -0400, jmk
wrote:


I was thinking about buying a new headlight for my bike. I have one
that the battery goes in the bottle cage but it's just too hot in NC
right now to think seriously about giving up a water bottle for a
battery.

What a pity. I made my light, its 50 watts of halogen downlight sla
battery jammed in bottle cage. Bright mofo

I was thinking of getting a Vistalight Nightstick Code 5.
Does anyone have thoughts on this light? I'd love to hear any comments
pro or con.

Also, I see that Sierra Trading Post has it for $50. I've ordered from
them before with good luck. I also see that Price Point has it for $40.
Have any of you ordered from pricepoint.com before? Thanks!

jmk

It's nice that you were able to create a light that fits in your bottle
cage. I'm looking for recommendation for one that leaves both cages
free though.

jmk

5W is not enough.

I agree with you about the water bottle cage being needed for
an actual bottle, but isn't there a way you could mount another
bottle cage elsewhere? See http://nordicgroup.us/cageboss.htm
for a bunch of methods. This would be the least expensive
option. It's hard to find the cage mounting hardware in the
U.S., but you can usually mail order it; I've included
sources on the web site. Forget about buying any of these
items at a bike shop in the U.S., it's mail order only.

It's kind of hard to find adequate lights that don't mount the
batteries in the water bottle cage (what are these companies
thinking?!), but they do exist.

Check out:
"http://www.cygolite.com/light/main/1products.htm"
they offer several frame mount options.

"http://store.airbomb.com/site/intro445c.html?PageID=37&SKU=LT7814"
$53 and it's a better option than the Vistalight at $50.
Gel Cel.

For $80 you get the 16W headlamp
"http://www.bikepartsusa.com/product_info.phtml?p=01-170175&r=7"

Just be certain that you are ordering a frame mount system,
not a waterbottle mount system, as Cygolite has both.

You can also order their headlight that runs on D cells
"http://www.bicyclerevolution.com/cygmetbiclig.html"
then buy six 7500mAH NiMH D cell batteries for about $36,
"http://store.yahoo.com/sterlingtek/nimdcelbat2d.html"

7.2V*7.5AH=54WH, derate by 30% to so at full 12.6W you will
be able to go for 3 hours. You could even consider going
to AA high capacity NiMH batteries (2000mAH) if you have
a shorter commute (these would run for about 45 minutes at
full power, 90 minutes at half power).

This is probably the least expensive option for an NiMH system,
though there is nothing wrong with a Gelcel system other
than the weight. I used to use a lot of Gelcel's because they
were more weight/power efficient than the NiCads of the
time, but now the high capacity NiMH batteries have changed
all that, though they are still expensive.

You can also see details about building your own system
at nordicgroup.us/s78 . I used to manufacture systems
with 14W-55W headlamps. The Malibu LV504 and LV505
are ideal for bicycle lights,
http://www.intermatic.com/?action=subcat&sid=17
Put a 12V gel cel battery in a frame bag and you're
done (at least for the headlight).

Hope all this helps.

jmk wrote in message ...
I was thinking about buying a new headlight for my bike. I have one
that the battery goes in the bottle cage but it's just too hot in NC
right now to think seriously about giving up a water bottle for a
battery. I was thinking of getting a Vistalight Nightstick Code 5.
Does anyone have thoughts on this light? I'd love to hear any comments
pro or con.

Also, I see that Sierra Trading Post has it for $50. I've ordered from
them before with good luck. I also see that Price Point has it for $40.
Have any of you ordered from pricepoint.com before? Thanks!

jmk

Vistalight Lightsticks have been discontinued. Getting parts is fun
but some can be made and others can be gotten from Radio Schack. I
made a replacement battery pack and found extra power cables at RS.

(Steven Scharf) wrote in message

... isn't there a way you could mount another
bottle cage elsewhere? See http://nordicgroup.us/cageboss.htm
for a bunch of methods. This would be the least expensive
option. It's hard to find the cage mounting hardware in the
U.S., but you can usually mail order it; I've included
sources on the web site. Forget about buying any of these
items at a bike shop in the U.S.,

Nice, informative site. Thanks.
I found the cheapo clamps like #6 on your site for "free" at my local
LBS.
(i.e. I wanted to buy two cages if he had some way I could mount them
on my ancient tandem)
This is an old Schwinn shop that the new owner bought about 3 years
ago, and there is a variety of old inventory there. There may be a
lot of local shops that still have these old-style mounts.

One trick suggested on the touring list is to mount a third water
bottle cage below the downtube (i.e. on the outside of the triangle).
Of course, it gets dirty down there and can't be accessed while on the
move, but you can only drink out of one water bottle at a time,
anyway.

"Robert Dole" wrote in message
om...
(Steven Scharf) wrote in message

One trick suggested on the touring list is to mount a third water
bottle cage below the downtube (i.e. on the outside of the triangle).
Of course, it gets dirty down there and can't be accessed while on the
move, but you can only drink out of one water bottle at a time,
anyway.

My touring bike has braze-ons down there. You're right, it is a good
place, especially for batteries or compressed air for a horn, or for a
water bottle tool set, or any of the other water bottle size accessories.

On 8/19/2003 2:50 PM, Steven Scharf wrote:
5W is not enough.

What wattage would you recommend? 10? 15? More?

"http://store.airbomb.com/site/intro445c.html?PageID=37&SKU=LT7814"
$53 and it's a better option than the Vistalight at $50.
Gel Cel.

Thanks for all of the recommendations!

"jmk" wrote in message
...


On 8/19/2003 2:50 PM, Steven Scharf wrote:
5W is not enough.

What wattage would you recommend? 10? 15? More?

"http://store.airbomb.com/site/intro445c.html?PageID=37&SKU=LT7814"
$53 and it's a better option than the Vistalight at $50.
Gel Cel.

Thanks for all of the recommendations!

I am personally not comfortable with less than 10W Halogen. This is
city/suburb riding. Off-roading (no ambient light) requires less, I think,
unless you're doing real mtb-ing, maybe.



--
Robin Hubert

"Arpit" wrote in message
...


What a pity. I made my light, its 50 watts of halogen downlight sla
battery jammed in bottle cage. Bright mofo

I'd be interested in instructions/cost for this.
Thanks

"Matthew" wrote in message ...
"Arpit" wrote in message
...


What a pity. I made my light, its 50 watts of halogen downlight sla
battery jammed in bottle cage. Bright mofo

I'd be interested in instructions/cost for this.
Thanks

Well you can look at a high wattage system that I used
to manufacture at http://nordicgroup.com/s78 . This was
back in the 1980's, things have changed, especially with
the drastically cheaper prices of NiMH batteries. at the
time, even Nightsun didn't have any really high wattage
systems available.

I sold quite a few with 55W driving lights. Personally
I think that this was a bit overdoing it.

If I was going to do it these days I'd use a 14W or 25W
halogen sealed beam ($12) and twelve 2000 mAH AA NiMH
cells ($16). Even with a 25W headlamp this would run for
almost an hour (and that's including derating the battery
capacity to 80% of rated capacity). If I needed more I'd
use twelve 7500mA D NiMH, but that's $72 worth of batteries,
or a 7AH 12V lead acid that at 84WH would give me about the
same actual capacity as the 54W hours from the 12 NiMH D
cells, and would cost $22.

Personally I don't care for water bottle cage batteries, I'd
use a frame bag to hold the battery.

The SLA batteries were good at the time, less trouble than
NiCads with their low internal resistance and memory effect,
(page 54 of "http://www.antonbauer.com/downloads/2002Handbook.pdf").
But these days the NiMH batteries are quite economical if you
only need a system that'll run for 1-2 hours between charging.

What I recommend these days is that people buy a dual headlamp
system (i.e 20W + 5W) with an SLA battery, then replace the
SLA battery with NiMH. For $50 you can buy something that works
but the SLA batteries are just too inefficient, i.e.
"http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=LT1025"