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#1
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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
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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. -- My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature. Words processed in a facility that contains nuts. |
#3
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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
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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
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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. -- My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature. Words processed in a facility that contains nuts. |
#6
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Precisely. I couldnt find that buying them was in any way good Karma.
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#7
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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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