Oculus Light

The spousal unit and I did a night ride last night to a Festivus party
and while it was a pretty strange party, one interesting thing was the
designer of a new bicycle light was there with samples from his
first-production run (a year late apparently).

http://www.bikelighting.net/. He funded the R&D with a Kickstart
campaign
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barrybeams/the-future-of-bike-lighting-by-barry-beams
where he raised $32,475.. He said that the price was going to be $190
once the lights are in full production.

He seems to have addressed the problems with StVZO compliant beams while
also addressing the complaints about symmetrical beams on very high
power lights. The beam still has the necessary upward direction that's
missing from StVZO compliant lights but won't shine in the eyes of
oncoming traffic (it may still be an issue on narrow multi-use paths but
the level of intensity can be reduced), the beam pattern is at
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/232/472/314a9c4b761d46a8507b659ac106ed59_large.jpg?1351483 332.

On our night ride to and from the party we were on some very dark
streets and one unlit MUP. The adjustable beam on my light proved to be
extremely useful because on the twisting MUP we needed to illuminate off
to the sides and up, but we were not going very fast so there was no
need to illuminate very far ahead.

On Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:59:22 AM UTC-5, sms wrote:
The spousal unit and I did a night ride last night to a Festivus party
and while it was a pretty strange party, one interesting thing was the
designer of a new bicycle light was there with samples from his
first-production run (a year late apparently).

http://www.bikelighting.net/. He funded the R&D with a Kickstart
campaign

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barrybeams/the-future-of-bike-lighting-by-barry-beams

where he raised $32,475.. He said that the price was going to be $190
once the lights are in full production.

He seems to have addressed the problems with StVZO compliant beams ...

Um, those "problems" exist only in the minds of those who have not tried modern StVZO LED headlamps!

...while
also addressing the complaints about symmetrical beams on very high
power lights. The beam still has the necessary upward direction that's
missing from StVZO compliant lights but won't shine in the eyes of
oncoming traffic (it may still be an issue on narrow multi-use paths but
the level of intensity can be reduced), the beam pattern is at

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/232/472/314a9c4b761d46a8507b659ac106ed59_large.jpg?1351483 332.

On our night ride to and from the party we were on some very dark
streets and one unlit MUP. The adjustable beam on my light proved to be
extremely useful because on the twisting MUP we needed to illuminate off
to the sides and up, but we were not going very fast so there was no
need to illuminate very far ahead.

:-) Scharf seems to be the only person that "needs" to shine light upward on MUPs.

About the Oculus light: The designer seems to recognize what Scharf does not, that it's best to put the light where it's actually needed, rather than waste something like half of it in unproductive or actually harmful directions - i.e. up into the sky, or blinding oncoming eyes. The designer attempted to design a proper road beam, even though Scharf touts a round fog of light.

However, the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Qo8wL2SC5fM shows that the beams are still far from optimum. Unlike most motor vehicle lights and the best German-standard bike lights, these beams do not put out a bright horizontal "throw" beam for distance, then taper smoothly and evenly in intensity as they get closer to the headlight. Rather, they throw out a very bright spot plus some prominent beam artifacts.

The video illustrates some of the things I've been saying. It's not just as good to tilt a "hot spot" beam down, because the hot spot washes out night vision. Smooth illumination is much better, because your eyes don't have to struggle to see in blindingly different levels of light.

Now there's a chance the "hot spot" effect is much less in real life. Camera technology doesn't yet match the human eye, and camera settings can have a bad effect on beam shots. I'd like to see comparative beam shots with other well-designed headlamps, shot in the same location with the same camera settings.

Other points: 1500 lumens is a LOT. Does a bicyclist _really_ need to see highway signs one mile away, as claimed? Does anybody?? The lumen wars continue, it seems, and people who never exceed 25 mph at night are now being convinced that they need a headlight that's brighter than that on a 70 mph motorcycle. Strange. With a properly designed beam, they'd find that far, far fewer lumens work as well or better.

Handlebar mounts, if well done (and this may be) work well enough for a lot of people. But many, many touring and utility cyclists have handlebar bags, various racks, packages, etc. in front of their handlebars. It's a good idea to provide for other mounting locations.

Many people (including myself) find that the optimum mounting height is a bit lower than the handlebar for another reason. When mounted at about 24" to 28" above the ground, a bike headlight does a better job of showing debris and potholes in the road. The beam direction causes shadows from rocks, holes, etc. that are clearly visible in your vision's line of sight. (At least handlebar mounting is better than mounting on one's head, which gives no such shadows at all.)

Overall, this might be a better headlight than most on the market. I suspect that if I bought one, I'd run it on its lowest steady mode, and reserve the highest level for, say, making toast when camping.

- Frank Krygowski

On Saturday, December 28, 2013 5:29:43 PM UTC, Frank Krygowski sneered:
On Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:59:22 AM UTC-5, sms wrote:

He seems to have addressed the problems with StVZO compliant beams ...

Um, those "problems" exist only in the minds of those who have not tried modern StVZO LED headlamps!

Crap. I have a box full of unsatisfactory BUMM lamps, all StVZO compliant, and other expensive lamps, a bit better but still crippled by StVZO requirements.

However, the video at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Qo8wL2SC5fM shows that the beams ...[snip]... throw out a very bright spot plus some prominent beam artifacts. (Krygowski is here comparing a lamp Scharfie mentioned with the Krygowski-approved StVZO complaint BUMM lamps, implying that they are superior because they don't have a hotspot. )

Why, Franki-boy, that is precisely what BUMM's current generation of IQ lamps does, the ones that are StVZO compliant, that you are trying to hold up to us as so desirable. The sixth photo down this page illustrates the wretched, wretched, vision-wrecking hotspot on the expensive BUMM IQ Fly, a current model: http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec6.html As usual, Franki-boy, you're talking through the back of your neck.

[snipped, more of the same supercilious, ignorant, inaccurate crap as too offensive to men of intellect to reprint]

- Frank Krygowski

On Sat, 28 Dec 2013 07:59:22 -0800, sms
wrote:

The spousal unit and I did a night ride last night to a Festivus party
and while it was a pretty strange party, one interesting thing was the
designer of a new bicycle light was there with samples from his
first-production run (a year late apparently).

http://www.bikelighting.net/. He funded the R&D with a Kickstart
campaign
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barrybeams/the-future-of-bike-lighting-by-barry-beams
where he raised $32,475.. He said that the price was going to be $190
once the lights are in full production.

He seems to have addressed the problems with StVZO compliant beams while
also addressing the complaints about symmetrical beams on very high
power lights. The beam still has the necessary upward direction that's
missing from StVZO compliant lights but won't shine in the eyes of
oncoming traffic (it may still be an issue on narrow multi-use paths but
the level of intensity can be reduced), the beam pattern is at
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/232/472/314a9c4b761d46a8507b659ac106ed59_large.jpg?1351483 332.

On our night ride to and from the party we were on some very dark
streets and one unlit MUP. The adjustable beam on my light proved to be
extremely useful because on the twisting MUP we needed to illuminate off
to the sides and up, but we were not going very fast so there was no
need to illuminate very far ahead.

"The spousal unit", uncapitalized?? What ever have you been doing?
Groping a bed post?
--
Cheers,

John B.