johnridley | Entries tagged with lights

I brought my bike inside today to do some more tweaks.

( Read more... )

I've had a lot of trouble getting acceptable rear mounts for my taillights and rear camera on my bicycle, since I ride with either a rack trunk bag or a garment bag, both of which obscure things mounted on the seat post.

Over the weekend I decided to brainstorm, I brought the bike into the lab and came up with this. I think it's a winner.

Here are the source files and a writeup on YouMagine if you like it. Or send me an email if you want one and don't have a 3D printer.

Pretty much all bicycle headlights available in the US are pretty horrible for road use. They're almost all conical beam (like a flashlight) which means that they throw a lot of light above the horizon where it can glare into the eyes of oncoming drivers. 20 years ago when bicycle headlights were dim, pathetic incandescent bulbs with a couple of C cells, this wasn't really a problem, but these days with high power LED headlights approaching (or even exceeding) the brightness of automobile headlights, it's a case of the law simply not keeping up (partially because bicycles are largely considered toys in the US, not serious forms of transportation).
( Somewhat lengthy post with several photos behind cut )

I picked up a Philips Saferide light, which is generally considered to be one of the best on-road bike lights available. What makes it good is that it has a car-like beam - a trapezoid shaped beam that gets brighter as it gets farther out down the road, so that the road surface is evenly illuminated, then a full cutoff at the horizon to keep from blinding oncoming drivers.

Unfortunately there are no laws in the US regarding bicycle headlights, so all we get here are cruddy lights with basically flashlight beams. I've put a lens on my old light to make it not so bad, but I thought it would be good to get the real premium light.

I did a review here.

Long story short, the beam from the light is excellent. The batteries, not so much. It uses NiMH batteries and they do NOT like the cold. The light is rated at 2 hours on high - but at -1*F, I got more like 20 minutes before it started flashing the battery meter and refused to kick into high again.

I sent it back, and will keep my eye open for a shaped-beam light with LiIon batteries. Either that or I'll buy one of the light heads intended for dyno hubs, and hook it to a battery myself.

I got a new taillight today. I can recommend it as a heck of a nice light, easily the nicest self-contained light I have. It isn't as bright as the MagicShine, but the MagicShine uses a 4 cell external LiIon battery pack and is as bright as a car taillight.

The Cygolite Hotshot is a bitty little thing yet is quite bright. It has a built-in rechargable battery and charges off of USB. It's fairly water resistant and feels quite durable compared to other lights. $27 at Amazon makes it a heck of a deal.

In the comparison videos below, the Hotshot may look weak but keep in mind it's next to a MagicShine. If I put it next to your average bike blinkie, it would rule. I'm going to be using it as my 2nd light, up on my helmet.

Here is the comparison in daylight
Here they are at night
Here are the blink modes

You can speed or slow any of the modes with the 2nd button on this.

I ordered up a new taillight. It's from the Chinese company that makes my headlight, which is the best headlight I've had and at a great price. The taillight promises the same; more light and better dispersion than the $120 taillight I'm running with now, plus it runs off the same battery as my headlight (with a Y adaptor) and it's totally waterproof (the other one has a water-vulnerable battery pack) for $29. I should be able to sell the old light for at least twice that and wind up with a better lighting system, where I only have one battery pack to worry about. Currently I have to bring the taillight pack in, take the 4 AA cells out of it, recharge them and replace them every 2 days. This will be an improvement in several ways, won't add any net items to my pile of stuff and should actually net me money.

DealExtreme recently started carrying a bicycle taillight that looks like a clone of the Planet Bike Superflash. The Superflash is kind of the gold standard for affordable taillights. At less than $20 (for the Superflash), it's one of the most effective lights out there. While it can't compete with lights like the Dinotte 140L or 200R, those are $100 to $200 taillights; well worth the cost IMO but we have to keep in mind that few people are ready to pay that kind of money for a taillight, and it's best to have suggestions when people want to buy a light.

The new light from DealExtreme is $3.54, shipped. How well does it compare?

( Review with pictures and videos behind the cut )

I did a longer term test of the light's runtime, charging it on Wednesday and running it for 40 minutes Thursday, Friday and Monday mornings and Monday afternoon, which totalled 3 hours. Then I brought it inside and it died in about another 10 minutes, so it appears that the light is good for 3 hours regardless of whether you do the 3 hours right after charging or in a few runs over the course of several days.

For this test, I unplugged the lamp from the battery when it was not in use because I did not know the draw of the pilot lamp.

Also, the pilot light on the back switched to "low battery" when the battery was half empty the last few runs, instead of nearly ready to shut off like it did the first time. I'd prefer something in-between; maybe "10 minutes to go" or something.

I have now put the light on an amp meter and come up with these draws from the battery (7.4 volts)
High: 1.46 amps
Low: 0.5 amps
Off (pilot light): 5.6ma (0.0056 amps)

On high, I get 3 hours, 10 minutes. This equates to a pack capacity of about 4.5 amp hours, which is about right for four 18650 cells (2300 mAH nominal each, in series/parallel).
Assuming linear draw, I should get 8 or 9 hours on low. This is FAR more than listed by the manufacturer (they say 4.5 hours). I'm going to have to test this but I don't see how I won't get at least 8 hours. Perhaps the current controller they're using has a lower "low" than the one they originally tested with.

The pilot light for 24 hours is .0056*24 = .13 amp hours drawn. This is close to 6 minutes of runtime. So I'd have to leave it on for 10 days to kill an hour's run time, a full month to deplete the battery. This is about what I originally calculated by sheer guesswork.

I'd still rather that the pilot light wasn't on when the unit was off, but I guess at the cost of 6 minutes per day of pilot light, I'll stop unplugging it every day; I'm concerned that unplugging it an additional couple hundred times a year (every day instead of every 3 days, for me) will significantly reduce the lifespan of the connectors.

(Note: I'll be posting photos and a video hopefully tomorrow)
Click the cut tag at the bottom for way more photos and info.

I just received a new bike headlight, a MagicShine P7, purchased from GeoMan in New Mexico for $89 including shipping (USPS priority mail).

Quick info:

Run time (high):	3 hours (claimed), 3 hours 8 minutes (tested)
Run time (high, @10*F)	2.5 hours (tested, approx)
Run time (low):	4.5 hours (claimed)
Cord length total:	53.5 inches
Modes:	High, Low, Strobe (3hz, high mode)
Charge time, empty to full:	4 hours 45 minutes

( Photos and lots of opinions inside )

A few months back, DealExtreme started carrying a P7 LED based headlight for bikes, for $80. Early reports were that they had some QC issues; inconsistent beams, aluminum machining flakes inside with the circuitry, bad solder joints. But they were good enough that a US vendor, GeoMan, started carrying them and worked with the manufacturer to address the QC issues and make improvements based on user feedback on the cycling forums.

The result is that the folks that have bought them in the last month or two have been incredibly impressed; they're comparing favorably to lights from Lupine and Lights & Motion which usually run more in the $500 to $700 range.

My HID died a bit over a year ago, and I picked up a Dinotte 200L for a bit over $100. It's pretty nice and all, runs on AA batteries, but the light output doesn't quite cut it on the washboarded gravel roads that I ride on. On pavement it was fine, but on gravel I found myself either having to slow down or running the chance of hitting potholes I didn't see in time. So today I ordered one of these new lights; Geoman is in NM and is charging $90.

Bike lights right now are suffering from the same issue that computers had for a long time; buy a $200 light now, in a year there'll be a better one for less money. But I think we're getting to where you can buy an excellent light for relatively cheap.

Here's the link if anyone wants to look. I'll post pics when it comes in.

I did some playing around with it yesterday, and it turns out that the problem with my old HID bike light was just that the switch was broken, so it actually works OK. But in any case, I am still happy with the change to the new one. I tried powering them both up in a dark room this morning, and the results are basically that in the area where I want the light thrown, they're both pretty comparable, in fact the new LED is a bit brighter. The difference is that the HID splashes a lot of light all over the place. With the LED covered, the whole room is pretty well lit; with the HID covered, just that spot is lit, with a little spill (and also my hand is getting hot quickly; the HID is tossing out a lot of IR apparently).

Also, the HID takes 60 seconds to come up to full power, and has no flash modes or power levels, it's on or off. In all I'll stick with the LED. If nothing else, it weighs a fraction of what the other one does, takes up less room and I don't spend any time messing with it to keep it going.

I was wondering why the freshly-charged headlight batteries only made it halfway in to work before kicking into low battery mode this morning. When I went to charge them just now, I discovered I'd put one of the four in backwards. Idiot. Well, I guess that light can actually run on 2 batteries in a pinch.
( more text and a photo )

Now that I have figured out how to set the beam direction on the light properly, I find that I can ride quite comfortably with the light at 50% power on the gravel, 25% on paved road. That will increase my runtime, and it gives me some more power to use when it's snowing or whatever.

I swung by the hunting clothes section at Meijer last night and noticed some bright orange, thinsulate lined gloves. I wasn't looking for gloves, but they were $9, available in XL, and most of my gloves are a bit on the thin side and are dark (not visible when signaling turns) so I picked up a pair and wore them this morning. They're toasty warm, and claim to be waterproof. I might pick up another pair while they're available. They're basically orange ski gloves (OK, *cheap* orange ski gloves).

The boots I wear riding when it gets really cold are also from Meijer's hunting selection (2 years ago). They had a decent looking balaclava but I think I'll wait, it'll probably go on sale soon enough. I have a balaclava but it's a bit thin for below-zero temps. It's kind of silly that a balaclava should cost 2x what a pair of gloves do. The gloves probably have as much material and clearly far more work involved in making them. It's volume driving down prices I guess; they make a hell of a lot more gloves.

It was about 17*F this morning on the way in. It's starting to get to cold toes temps. I think when I have to face temps approaching 10* much, it's time to switch to platforms and wear the boots. They're not my favorite thing to pedal in, but they do keep my toes warm.

I've used the Dinotte 200L for a couple of days now. It kicked a low battery indication at me a mile from work today, on the 2nd day. This is OK, since it just strobes for 1/2 second and turns the power indicator LED from blue to red. It still kept going at full brightness. After a while (10, 15 minutes apparently) it would have strobed again and dropped into low output mode, where it would have run for 30+ minutes.

That's only about 100 minutes of runtime on 100% brightness (42 minute commutes, plus probably 15 minutes of playing with it), though to be fair to it, the batteries have been outside in the cold for 4 days and it was about 19 degrees this morning. And I had another battery pack in my bag anyway. I probably could run OK on medium power, which doubles the runtime, but I don't think I'll bother. Swapping batteries takes all of 15 seconds every 2 days.

For anyone who's looking for a nice bike light, they have a sale on these running today at www.dinottelighting.com - this light is now $100 instead of $130, and the taillight is $105 instead of $130. I just ordered the taillight - I don't like winter night riding without my strobe on the back.

[EDIT] - apparently the sales there last a couple of hours at a time. It's over. Glad I checked at 6AM.

I started out riding at night about 4 years ago with a homemade halogen light with a 12V SLA battery. It cost about $30, put out a lot of light, but weighed a ton (well, 12 pounds or so). The next year I went to a HID light with a NiMH bottle cage battery, and a homemade voltage regulator. The whole thing was homemade, a HID fixture here, a battery there, a charger there. It worked very well for about 3 years, but in the last week it got very dim for a couple of rides (bad enough that I was using my LED flashlight to supplement it) and then one morning it wouldn't strike at all. I put the halogen back on for a few days, but decided after 4 years, it was probably time to buy a proper bike light.

After checking out reviews and beam comparisons online, I wound up going with a Dinotte 200L. This thing is a TANK, it's unbelievably tiny and light, the whole thing cost less than just the HID fixture did 3 years ago ($130), it has wonderful flash modes, and while it's not quite as bright as the halogen in the photos, it's really close and it has a whiter light so it seems about as bright in person. It runs about 2/3 as long on 4 AA cells as the HID does on 12 C cells (2 hours in high mode versus 3.25 hours for the HID), and it's light enough to mount the whole light+battery combo on a helmet if I wanted to.

200L stands for 200 lumens. They also make a 140L taillight, which as you might guess, puts out 140 lumens of red light. I have historically had an amber xenon strobe on the back for adverse conditions, but A) they don't last long; I just broke my 3rd one, and B) it ran on 12 volts and I don't have a 12V battery on my bike anymore. I do have two Planet Bike SuperFlash units on the back of my bike (I do not trust running only one taillight) but though they're outstanding little blinkies (they throw a decent red beam) and I think totally sufficient for clear conditions, they're no match for what the strobe put out. I had no worries with the strobe even in fog and rain. I think I'll probably have a Dinotte 140L on the way soon, once I do a couple of actual rides with the 200L and confirm that it's a winner. I'll probably watch for sales, I read on BF that they put these on sale for $99 every couple of months.

They also make a 600L, which, yes, is 600 lumens. It's basically three 200Ls in one package. Apparently it smokes HIDs, and at $399 is the same to a little cheaper than a full-up commercial HID headlight. If I were doing offroad night rides, I'd definitely pick one up, but I think the 200L will do for me.

( Beam photos after the cut )

I've got this huge pile of AA alkalines salvaged from the battery recycling at work. Honestly, dozens of them. Fully 1/3 of the batteries that go in there still have significant life left in them.

I separate into 3 piles and keep the first two:
- very good to apparently new
- still pretty good
- not that good to stone dead

I used to keep ones less good than that, they're still good enough to run lots of stuff, but it got to the point where the pickings were so good I had to start throwing something out.

Anyway, I took some "still pretty good" ones, the lowest ones I keep, and put them in the flashlight on my bike. I used it for two days as my headlight for my 40 minute commute. It lasted about 1.75 days; the last 2 miles of my commute I had to turn the main headlight back on.

At least it gives me a way to use these batteries up. Of course, if I use them all winter I'll wind up saving about 50 cents worth of electricity, so it's hardly worth my time, really.

Rode in today with the brightest battery, the 3.7v LiIon single cell. Light set on "high" - Brightness was great, but it went out at about 28 minutes. I could turn it back on but it went back out in about another minute. I put it on Medium and it lasted the 8 minutes in to work.

Since medium power is probably no brighter than high with 2x AA NiMH, I'll probably try the AA cells next.

In the end I may just use this as a backup, at least as long as my HID continues to work. The HID has hours of runtime, so I only have to bother charging it once a week or so, and that convenience counts for a lot.

[EDIT] - if nothing else, this flashlight is useful for reusing old batteries - I just dropped a mostly-dead single AA cell from the battery recycle bin in it, and it's been burning fairly brightly for 20 minutes already.

I got a tiny little $25 flashlight, and while my $250 HID system is brighter, it's not much of a difference, and the HID is like 30 times bigger and heavier.
( pics inside )

New chain on bike
Odometer 7952 (last chain was at 6345, 1607 miles on this chain).
Observation: rain and no lube really kill.

Also: battery connectors died, replaced with 2 conductor rubber RV connectors (battery, bike and charger)

I finished my new lighting system for my bike today. It was half-recycled from last year, with a new headlight (HID! YAY!) and a new battery. So I'm all set to ride in the dark. I already did a bit of that, but with the SuperSpot LED, I had to take it a bit slow until the sun came up. Not gonna cut it into September and beyond.

Here's my page on the new system if you want to read about it

( Here's just a picture of the sexy bit if you are into that sort of thing... )

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johnridley

Dragonfly DIY

June 2025

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Entries tagged with lights

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[Dragonfly DIY] Bike tail final form?

[Dragonfly DIY] Bicycle tail accessory mount

[Dragonfly DIY] New headlight

Bicycle headlights

New taillight

OK, ONE more purchase...

DealExtreme taillight review

Bike light - further testing

Review: MagicShine bike headlight

Good, cheap bicycle lighting is here

Bike light reincarnation

That explains it

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Bike lights again

Bike lights

Flashlight testing, supplemental

Flashlight testing day 1

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