headlight recommend?

Rode down to LBS today, explained my headlight dilemma (cross bike,
difficult to find space to mount headlight) and after explaining desired
use - allowing me to ride after dark, because I don't often have the
opportunity to ride during the day, save on weekends - they recommended
this:

http://www.abikestore.com/Merchant2/...Store_Code=pbs

Looks like a sweet little piece, but the price tag is almost half as
much as I paid for my bike! (granted, it cost a good bit more than that
new... but I *am* trying to maintain some semblance of a budget here.)

Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something "acceptable"
for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can anyone recommend any
products in particular?

BTW riding with a computer for the first time is a really humbling
experience. I had never gone on a real ride with one before today...
My average speed is slow, my cadence is pathetic... I guess that's why
they sell the darn things, so you can find out what you need to work on.
I *really* need to get my leg speed up - I don't even feel comfortable
over about 70 RPM. Maybe I should take the 53 off and put the 46 on to
force me to pedal faster if I want to maintain a reasonable speed?

Thanks,

nate

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Per Nate Nagel:
Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something "acceptable"
for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can anyone recommend any
products in particular?

Lowe's "Task Force" flashlight - the one that takes 2 C cells and
contains a Cree 4w emitter. http://tinyurl.com/4ev9ly

About thirty bucks.

Puts out an astonishing amount of light and the batteries last a
long time. I accidentally left one on for one or two days (not
sure which) and it was still putting out light when I discovered
it was on.

For comparison, I have an officially-sanctioned, European
something-or-other safety standard halogen headlight on my bike
whose light output is just totally pathetic compared to the
Lowe's flashlight.

Before the OP (understandably....) dismisses this as someone's
ravings, maybe somebody else can chime in on how much light this
thing puts out.
--
PeteCresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Nate Nagel:

Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something "acceptable"
for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can anyone recommend any
products in particular?


Lowe's "Task Force" flashlight - the one that takes 2 C cells and
contains a Cree 4w emitter. http://tinyurl.com/4ev9ly

About thirty bucks.

Puts out an astonishing amount of light and the batteries last a
long time. I accidentally left one on for one or two days (not
sure which) and it was still putting out light when I discovered
it was on.

For comparison, I have an officially-sanctioned, European
something-or-other safety standard halogen headlight on my bike
whose light output is just totally pathetic compared to the
Lowe's flashlight.

Before the OP (understandably....) dismisses this as someone's
ravings, maybe somebody else can chime in on how much light this
thing puts out.

Actually I'm not dismissing anything at this point, although I was
hoping for a more, um, aesthetically appealing solution. How do you
mount it? I'm envisioning a small piece of softwood or plastic shaped
with a hole saw and then cut apart to allow the flash, er, headlight to
be held firmly on the handlebars...

At this point, I'm about ready to take the headlight mount for the light
I've already bought and do something to it with a hose clamp; it's
worthless to me as it is, so... so long as I don't damage my
handlebars, and nobody looks too closely (and by that time they're
already laughing at my extra-Freddy pedals, another budget concession)
who cares?

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Nate Nagel:

Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something "acceptable"
for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can anyone recommend any
products in particular?


Lowe's "Task Force" flashlight - the one that takes 2 C cells and
contains a Cree 4w emitter. http://tinyurl.com/4ev9ly

About thirty bucks.

Puts out an astonishing amount of light and the batteries last a
long time. I accidentally left one on for one or two days (not
sure which) and it was still putting out light when I discovered
it was on.

For comparison, I have an officially-sanctioned, European
something-or-other safety standard halogen headlight on my bike
whose light output is just totally pathetic compared to the
Lowe's flashlight.

Before the OP (understandably....) dismisses this as someone's
ravings, maybe somebody else can chime in on how much light this
thing puts out.

this one?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...03W&lpage=none

looks tempting, if nothing else I could always use another decent
flashlight (I have two cars, a pickup truck, and a company car...)

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Nate Nagel wrote:
Rode down to LBS today, explained my headlight dilemma (cross bike,
difficult to find space to mount headlight) and after explaining desired
use - allowing me to ride after dark, because I don't often have the
opportunity to ride during the day, save on weekends -


Got an message today from Marty Goodman (the Sheldon Brown of
flashlights -- google him) describing the brightest LED light he has in
his testing lab. You may want to modify it a bit because it is not a
bicycle light and it seems none of the best ones are. Maybe liability
problems?

I'll paste in what he said:

Report on Romisen RC-T5 regulated 4 Cree LED flashlight:

This is the brightest LED flashlight I have. AND it cost a bit under
$50, with the four CR123 batteries it runs off, and a holster, at
DealExtreme.com.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10452

Regulation:

Here are voltage vs current and watts drawn tables for the hi and low
modes (it also has an intense strobing mode)

high power low power
volts amps watts amps watts
----- ---- ----- ---- -----
6.0 .25 1.50 .11 .66
6.5 .48 3.12 .20 1.30
7.0 .73 5.11 .30 2.10
8.0 .75 6.00 .32 2.56
8.5 .78 6.63 .33 2.64
9.0 .78 7.02 .33 3.00
9.5 .76 7.22 .32 3.04
10.0 .73 7.30 .31 3.10
10.5 .70 7.35 .29 3.05
11.0 .68 7.45 .28 3.08
11.5 .64 7.36 .27 3.11
12.0 .61 7.32 .26 3.12
12.5 .59 7.38 .25 3.13
13.0 .56 7.28 .24 3.12
13.5 .55 7.43 .23 3.12
14.0 .53 7.42 .22 3.08
14.5 .51 7.40 .22 3.20
15.0 .49 7.35 .21 3.15


Thus, regulation is EXCELLENT between 9 and 15 volts in (I didn't
test beyond 15 volts, since this flashlight was designed to work off
either a 9 or 12 volt set of batteries (3 or 4 CR123 cells).


The thing is made of rugged metal.

All in all, while obviously NOT a high end product with carefully bin
picked emitters and ultra sophisticated circuitry driving the LEDs ultra
hard (in fact, this drives them VERY gently... presumeably resulting in
manageable heat to dissipate and slightly greater efficiency, perhaps,
too) this seems to me a VERY good value in a rugged, highly regulated,
high power flashlight.

And the head DOES unscrew, for those wanting to make neat backpacking
headlamp or bike light projects out of it.

---marty

"Nate Nagel" wrote in message
...
Rode down to LBS today, explained my headlight dilemma (cross bike,
difficult to find space to mount headlight) and after explaining desired
use - allowing me to ride after dark, because I don't often have the
opportunity to ride during the day, save on weekends - they recommended
this:

http://www.dinottelighting.com/

you will thank me later.

J.

On Apr 26, 2:55 pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Per Nate Nagel:

Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something "acceptable"
for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can anyone recommend any
products in particular?

Lowe's "Task Force" flashlight - the one that takes 2 C cells and
contains a Cree 4w emitter. http://tinyurl.com/4ev9ly

About thirty bucks.


Costco has a similar flashlight with the same emitter, also cheap with
a nice alu case. Should be easy to mod a mount for it.

It all depends on whether you need to see or be seen. I just have a
cheap Sigma LED JB welded under my front platform rack. Plenty for the
city.

Nate Nagel wrote:

PeteCresswell wrote:

Before the OP (understandably....) dismisses this as someone's
ravings, maybe somebody else can chime in on how much light this
thing puts out.

this one?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...ductId=225285-...

That's the one-- the best value in a flashlight that you don't have to
buy online from Hong Kong. It's shockingly bright, and it uses real
voltage conversion unlike most other low-budget LED lights. It even
comes with decent batteries.

But it makes a much better bike light if you buy some replacement
optics from Hong Kong:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1919

I got a pack of these optics, and they convert the beam from a small,
intense round spot to a broad horizontal band that is just right for
general road use.

The catalog page says they are glass-- they are in fact made of
plastic-- and it says they're diffusers, when they are actually
collimators.

I think TwoFish Cyclopblocks work with lights the size of the Task
Force 2C light, at least if you pull off the rubber sleeve. Another
thing to consider getting is a pair of AA-to-C battery adapters so you
can use cheap and convenient AA rechargeables.

Chalo

In article ,
Nate Nagel wrote:

Rode down to LBS today, explained my headlight dilemma (cross bike,
difficult to find space to mount headlight) and after explaining
desired use - allowing me to ride after dark, because I don't often
have the opportunity to ride during the day, save on weekends - they
recommended this:

http://www.abikestore.com/Merchant2/...PROD&Product_C
ode=mini -newt&Category_Code=&Store_Code=pbs

Good grief. How long are you planning to ride after dark? An hour? Two
hours? Four? This is an important factor in your decision.

Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something
"acceptable" for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can
anyone recommend any products in particular?

No, no and yes.

The first question IMHO is whether you want a battery light or a
generator light. If you're going to be doing long rides at night, get
the latter so that you don't have to worry about batteries. But if
you're looking for, say, light for an hour or so after sunset then a
battery light can be a good choice.

If you're riding longer at night- say over two hours- or just really
like dead-simple convenience, I would recommend a hub generator. There
are several from Shimano that are very good and one from Schmidt which
is superb (but it'd be about $400 to get it built into a wheel, etc.;
the Shimano options cost much less). And you can keep the wheel and
lamp and use it on your next bike, too- it'll last for years if not
decades. I have a Schmidt hub and a Lumotec headlamp- other than
replacing bulbs a couple of times, this setup has served me very well
for 5+ years and I expect it to last for another 20 years.

With the rapid changes in LEDs and battery technologies, battery powered
lights have really started to get useable- more light and longer run
times. Several participants in this newsgroup have reported good
results with certain flashlights bought at Home Depot and places like
that, which have a 5W Luxeon LED, are compact, use normal batteries,
etc. With a TwoFish mounting block they are easy to mount to a bike.
This might be a more flexible arrangement than buying a "bike headlight."

BTW riding with a computer for the first time is a really humbling
experience.

No accessory that you can install on your bike will slow it down as much
as a computer.

Tim McNamara wrote:
In article ,
Nate Nagel wrote:


Rode down to LBS today, explained my headlight dilemma (cross bike,
difficult to find space to mount headlight) and after explaining
desired use - allowing me to ride after dark, because I don't often
have the opportunity to ride during the day, save on weekends - they
recommended this:

http://www.abikestore.com/Merchant2/...PROD&Product_C
ode=mini -newt&Category_Code=&Store_Code=pbs


Good grief. How long are you planning to ride after dark? An hour? Two
hours? Four? This is an important factor in your decision.

Probably at least an hour, maybe more. Not so important now, that it's
staying light later... not to get all windy, but my goal is to get my
bike set up so that I can use it for real transportation. I can't
commute on it for various reasons, but I *would* like to be able to use
it for light store runs, running to the post office, etc. - all the
stuff that I normally do in my car but is within a mile or two of my
house. Two reasons - I finally live in a somewhat bike-friendly area,
and I feel mildly guilty about using my car so much. Also, I'm turning
into a fat sack of crap - I'm about 15 lbs. over what I'd feel
comfortable weighing, and I'd be lying if I said that I still had all
the muscle mass that I did in high school or college. So I may simply
choose to go for a ride even if I don't have an errand to run, esp.
seeing as there's an intersection with the W&OD trail less than a mile
from my house so I have somewhere to ride if I don't feel like dicing
with traffic. The major impediment to me doing this seems to be
daylight, therefore my query - it's a problem that can easily be solved
with just a little (?) cash.

Am I silly in thinking I ought to be able to find something
"acceptable" for less? or should I suck it up and buy it? Can
anyone recommend any products in particular?


No, no and yes.

The first question IMHO is whether you want a battery light or a
generator light. If you're going to be doing long rides at night, get
the latter so that you don't have to worry about batteries. But if
you're looking for, say, light for an hour or so after sunset then a
battery light can be a good choice.

If you're riding longer at night- say over two hours- or just really
like dead-simple convenience, I would recommend a hub generator. There
are several from Shimano that are very good and one from Schmidt which
is superb (but it'd be about $400 to get it built into a wheel, etc.;
the Shimano options cost much less). And you can keep the wheel and
lamp and use it on your next bike, too- it'll last for years if not
decades. I have a Schmidt hub and a Lumotec headlamp- other than
replacing bulbs a couple of times, this setup has served me very well
for 5+ years and I expect it to last for another 20 years.

That sounds like an ideal setup for me, but it isn't in the budget now.
(your hypothetical front wheel costs about what I paid for my whole
bike, and I seem to be finding that buying all the little must haves -
water bottles, blinky, frame pump, multitool, seat bag, etc. are adding
up) Plus it appeals to my engineering weenie/must last forever, no
maintenance, no changing batteries etc. preferences. Maybe down the road.


With the rapid changes in LEDs and battery technologies, battery powered
lights have really started to get useable- more light and longer run
times. Several participants in this newsgroup have reported good
results with certain flashlights bought at Home Depot and places like
that, which have a 5W Luxeon LED, are compact, use normal batteries,
etc. With a TwoFish mounting block they are easy to mount to a bike.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This might be a more flexible arrangement than buying a "bike headlight."

Thank you! That's what I was missing... after the first couple
responses to this thread I was figuring how to fab that exact part in my
head, but I see someone's already saved me the trouble, which is good,
'cause I'm lazy I gotta get me one of those; even if I do upgrade to
a "real" headlight, that's a handy little thing to have around in a pinch.

BTW riding with a computer for the first time is a really humbling
experience.

No accessory that you can install on your bike will slow it down as much
as a computer.

I'm not sure here if you're making a joke, imagining me with a tower
case bungeed to a rack, or if you're actually making a point about
paying too much attention to the numbers...

nate

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