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Bike lights - thank you and decision



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 25th 05, 03:02 PM
marco007esq
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Default Bike lights - thank you and decision

I'd like to thank all the cool people who shared their opinions on bike
lights - this helped me to make what I believe was a very informed
decision.

Final decision - Light & Motion ARC HID LiON. Why?

1) Brightness - probably will be overkill for 80% of my riding.
However, for that 20% of the time, I'd rather have spent the money. I
could have shelled out a few more bucks for a Lume, but that seemed to
be over-overkill. If money was absolutely no object, I might have gone
with the Lume for brightness.

2) Smart design - This may not be a big factor for most, but I wanted
a compact battery. I prefer strapping it to my road frame. As my
Independent Fab. bike has cable routing under the top tube, I wanted
something that I could strap to the stem. The Small LiON battery will
fit.

3) Customer service - I have heard nothing but great stories about
Light & Motion's customer service. I called them to discuss some
questions about their lights, and they were happy to take more than 30
minutes answering all kinds of questions. This is what made me settle
on L&M. I have heard a lot of similar comments about JET Lites... but
their reviews on RBR smack a bit of marketing department fluff. I
might be wrong, but I just don't buy it that so many people bought them
without a single complaint. I'm always a little skeptical of RBR and
MTBR reviews. L&M's reviews were that the product was not infallible,
but that when its weaknesses come up to the surface, the company makes
it right. The reviews for JET were that the product was totally
infallible. I dont even believe that the pope is infallible -- im
certainly not buying it on a bike light.

4) Charger, price, etc... Having decided that L&M was the way to go, I
couldnt really see anything in the L&M line that was worthwhile beneath
the Solo Logic. Well, to get the solo logic with a fast charger was
$240 (best price I found NOT on Ebay). To get the ARC HID Lion was
$419. It sounds like the $180 extra will be worth it at least on a
weekly basis - and I have two light systems that I "saved a bundle"
on... I decided to splurge.

5) Bought at Colorado Cyclist. I could have saved $20 by buying it on
Ebay. But, and I dont know if this is true, but I asked L&M about
these systems for sale on Ebay. They said that there was a shipment of
lights that "fell off a truck." So, they confirmed that the lights on
Ebay were probably first-run and no different than what I would buy
from a reputable shop. But, to me, for $20 difference, I'd rather
support a shop than the "gray market."

Hope this helps someone else who might be light shopping. I will come
back and post a review of the light's performance after a week of using
it.

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  #2  
Old January 25th 05, 06:07 PM
Werehatrack
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On 25 Jan 2005 06:02:18 -0800, "marco007esq"
may have said:

... But, and I dont know if this is true, but I asked L&M about
these systems for sale on Ebay. They said that there was a shipment of
lights that "fell off a truck."


I do not know if they meant it in this sense, but "fell off a truck"
has been a euphemism for "stolen" in the trucking industry for as long
as I have been dealing with common carriers. (It is also true that
once in a while, a pallet of goods literally will get pushed off the
back of a truck, or off the edge of a dock, or some such, and will
have damaged packaging (or worse) as a result...but in such an
instance, the usual method of handling this is to deliver it to the
customer and allow the claims process to proceed. Afterwards,
disposal may put the items on the market as freight claim damaged
goods, but I have seldom seen the term "fell off a truck" used to
describe such...for reasons that should be obvious.

OTOH, if L&M knew that the stuff on eBay was hot, they'd probably have
alerted the appropriate authorities, so it may very well be that a
gravitic incident is all that was implied.

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  #3  
Old January 25th 05, 06:08 PM
marco007esq
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I don't know if it means "stolen" or not. I didn't want to know.
Apparently, insurance paid for the lights - so I dont know what the
deal is. The facts as I understand them are 1) the lights themselves
are kosher; 2) the lights were paid for by an insurance claim, so they
are either reported destroyed or stolen, 3) purchasing anything in this
kind of circumstance *might* contribute to dishonest conduct, so I
would rather pay $20 more for a receipt from a reputable dealer.

  #4  
Old January 25th 05, 06:24 PM
Matt O'Toole
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marco007esq wrote:

I don't know if it means "stolen" or not. I didn't want to know.
Apparently, insurance paid for the lights - so I dont know what the
deal is. The facts as I understand them are 1) the lights themselves
are kosher; 2) the lights were paid for by an insurance claim, so they
are either reported destroyed or stolen,


It could be any of these things, or just some kind of unauthorized, gray market
kind of deal.

3) purchasing anything in
this kind of circumstance *might* contribute to dishonest conduct, so
I would rather pay $20 more for a receipt from a reputable dealer.


I don't think there's anything dishonest about it, but $20 is definately worth
the guarantee/warranty..

Matt O.


  #5  
Old January 25th 05, 10:40 PM
Werehatrack
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On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:24:22 -0500, "Matt O'Toole"
may have said:

marco007esq wrote:

3) purchasing anything in
this kind of circumstance *might* contribute to dishonest conduct, so
I would rather pay $20 more for a receipt from a reputable dealer.


I don't think there's anything dishonest about it, but $20 is definately worth
the guarantee/warranty..


I concur on the warranty, and I can't find anything to fault in not
wanting to encourage potential misbehavior, even if it's only of the
"oopsie" variety.


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Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
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  #6  
Old January 26th 05, 12:05 AM
marco007esq
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Precisely. I couldnt find that buying them was in any way good Karma.

  #7  
Old January 27th 05, 06:50 PM
marco007esq
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Ok... Im not sure if anyone even gives a crap... but here is my initial
review of the L&M ARC Hid LiOn. It arrived, and out of the box, I put
it together. It is BLINDING. I can't look at the light when it is
activated. Pretty impressive so far. Nice blue light. Takes about 15
seconds to fully power up. We'll see how it handles tonight's night
ride.

 




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