LED Lighting Solutions for Night Riding or Whatever

Peeps, the LED bulb and new battery tech have huge implications for us! The bits are all there, ready to be put together. Now to shine some light on a dark area and see the possibilities.

The purpose of this thread is to document solutions.

I got my first LED headlamp for Christmas years ago. Having light on my head that lasted an insane number of hours, to work and recreate, all hands free was a major revolution. Now to have a revolution that pertains to riding at night... to not be stuck with only a light on the forks, or not taking advantage of the cool hours in mid summer. We can seriously light up whatever we look at!

I used to night ride in the `80s with dim tungsten headlamps on trials bikes. It was possible, and fun. It was also near impossible to interest all but a very few to do it. I can understand. Not everyone has excellent night vision, and there are many social and psychological barriers do doing somw things after sundown.

But now with such bright lights available, `fraid of the dark is no longer a valid excuse. Of course there's etiquette to learn like not looking at your bud when talking to him (punching his eyes with an energy beam), but with a little learning, this new tech opens up so much for us all.

Embrace it! Onward through the night!

Maybe I can convince the Great One in LED tech, Bud Cole to grace us with his presence here?

Bud Cole...

A Bud Cole 4RT bike test would be awesome. L.e.d.`s , heated grips, street legal, saddle bags, large tank, chain saw mount, axe mount. Besides the GPS mount, etc. It would be cool to see it all!

Emailed Bud. Hoping he'll rattle around in here.

Regarding all that other stuff, I hope we can keep this thread confined to lighting by LEDs, batteries, and bits to support the same

So let's give it a whirl.

I saw a 1,000 lumen LED 'bulb' for flashlights (~30X the output of one of the old policemen's tungsten bulb flashlights), consuming 12W, and intended for 4 to 6 D-battery flashlights (6 to 9 VDC). The specs say 11 hours burn time, presumably on 6 D cells. The 'bulb' consists of three LEDs in a housing with some kind of controller. Could put it in a little housing and mount to bike or top of helmet, running wires to a backpack battery, if mounted to the bike to a battery somewhere.

http://www.ledsupply.com/led-flashlights/terralux-ministar30m-led-flashlight-bulb

And here's a whole flashlight with 2,200 lumens! No wonder they call it Intimidator!

http://www.amazon.com/Olight-SR90-Intimidator-Luminus-Flashlight/dp/B003CT5GOG

So whatever is inside... the bulb and controller, probably could be had somewhere.

To get some ideas about lumens, I recently went bouldering in my wilderness property with my son. He had one of these:

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

It is a 720 lumen hand held waterproof thing. He used it full on for 6 hours and it had hours to go. He and his cousin went over the top of a mountain while I stayed in camp. He'd sometimes shine that it on me from 3,000 feet away and it'd light up the around where I was standing. It's also be hard to look directly at. So, 1,000 or 2,200 lumens would just blast stuff up closer!

How many lumens is appropriate for what we do? Is more better? Perhaps two of something smaller is better for backup in case one fails?

I suppose important is the angle of the cone of the bulb(s) and reflectors. Best for trials would be a wider angle. I have a flashlight with an adjustable cone angle. Full narrow it projects the outline of the LED way out there. It looks like a square with some notches in it. Widened out it casts a diffuse light.

I have some bicycle lights that would work great, but I really have no interested in riding trials at night.

How about riding your trials bike at night?

Thanks for starting this one! I was thinking about this maybe 6 months ago and it didn't even cross my mind to post here... LOL

I will be looking forward to see how this one progresses!

When I started looking I found a sight that had a lot of great stuff but I just wasn't sure what I really want so didn't finish my investigation.

Maybe we can get some good ideas from that site...
http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/Battery-Powered-Cyclops-Solstice-HID-Helmetlight_p_8.html

Modern LED bicycle lights are fantastic. I have some that are as bright as street motorcycle headlights from not long ago.

There's an excellent bicycle light review here: http://reviews.mtbr.com/category/lights-shootout

And a DIY forum for people making their own: http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/

I've been using LED flashlights and headlamps around the house. I standardized on ones with 18650 Lithium batteries. I get the lights and batteries from
deal extreme, dx.com

these flashlights are pretty decent for keeping in the glove box, around the house and in the garage: http://www.dx.com/p/trustfire-tr-801-cree-q5-wc-230-lumen-led-flashlight-1-18650-13095

Note some 18650s positive terminals do not protrude, but you need the ones that protrude to fit in the tr810 flashlight and many others.
Like these: http://www.dx.com/p/trustfire-protected-18650-lithium-battery-2500mah-2-pack-blue-5790

And you comprise that same majority I found in the `80s. Not interested, so don't try it to get interested. Two interested riders and an interesting place is all it takes.

It's really amazing fun. Everything that was ridden in day is a little different, so it's like riding new sections. I could see a summer trial with section ridden in the cool of the morning, then laze around all day, then ride the same section at night for an overall award.

Huge fun is also forgetting sections, going to some bigger place, camping, eat fine meal, then go out to explore where no one normally goes, such as following a deep creek up as far as you can. It's just fantastic at night!

I remember once night riding in New Mexico with a friend. I was on my 305 Fantic, he on a 370 GasGas. All we had were the stock headlights. We left the cabin about 10 pm, going miles up to around 10,000 feet. Then one of those sneaky summer night thunderstorms chased us back down the mountain. As friend of mine likes to say, "It's the stupid shit you remember."

Thanks! Now I remember seeing something on Cyclops before, but I had forgotten.

I've been thinking about this a long time (since those good times in the `80s), but not acting on my impulses. This time I am determined to act. I'll check out this Cyclops stuff. Looks quite pricey. I'm interested in modular available components as well as already made-up stuff, so we can figure out ways to do it ourselves as well.

Oh yes ericm! Let the education begin. There nothing new under the sun, but it's sure a big planet!

Perusing the forum I see some very dedicated night riders, and a depth of tech that is very impressive. Guys designing their own boards and trying to learn to write code. I'm more interested in picking up existing bits than re inventing.

Such a froth of intellectual activity in the mountain bikers! And there are so many of them. I used to be one of them. We could take a lesson from them.

Velcro a bicycle light to the helmet. custom mounts break instead of breaking away but Velcro doesn't care about being ripped off by a limb or rock.

I've been using a $19 led bicycle light for a while and an happy

other riders just duct tape a high power Costco flash light to the helmet and change batteries as needed.

the $300 versions send like an odd thing to bash in the woods.

The price was something I had noticed and part of why I had set the search down for a few. I did have the plan to go back and review as many options as possible later so am glad on the timing of the post as it might have been a long time before I pic it back up if you had not done so.

Exactly!

I want something I can mount to the helmet that will stay pointed predictably, and I don't want the weight or bulk of batteries up there. But I do appreciate starting somewhere, so I'm going to tape a flashlight up there first. Maybe just a bracket later to hold the light will be enough?

I was given an LED flashlight for Christmas based on the Cree XML single LED. It's about 10" long and bulges to 1-1/4" diameter at the zoomable lens area. It uses two BRC 18650 3000mAh batteries, 3.7V Li-ion, rechargeable. Very strong light that can be made a beam or diffuse via the zoom. YouTube has many example of how these light.

I Googled that flashlight, an HWA(some symbol)WYS Ultrafire XML-T6 and up pops a vast proliferation of similar flashlights based on that LED. Amazing.

I'm really into the latest LEDs. Here's my recommendation --

http://www.amazon.com/RioRand-Bicyc..._sim_sg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=02J2EX0SN23XN0SJRQHT

It's crazy bright for $20. With 4 of the 18650 batteries in the pack it is far brighter than 2 cell handheld lights using the same LED.
The 3 LED model is more of a flood light and eats up the battery faster. I run one of each on my MTB. It's brighter than any car I see on rides.






The rubber band attachment works great for a quick on/off extra light for a night ride. I have ran 2 of the 3 LED floods attached to the turn signals on my 690. It's amazing amount of light..

For a helmet light I made a custom clip for the GoPro mounts. Quick to mount, battery pack goes in my pack.

How long dose the battery last you on that setup?

That's perfect feedback, thanks!

When you say "I run one of each" (the three- and the one-LED light), do you have one mounted on the bike to go with the one on the helmet? I keep thinking it is important to have one on the bike and one on the helmet. The one on the bike floods the area all around the front end, and the one on the helmet lights up whatever you are looking at. Either one is the backup if one fails.

What would be very interesting to me is figuring out how to charge the one on the bike from the magneto. Batteries would still be required, but if you did not need to charge them offline that's quite an advantage!

Probably a snowball's chance in hell finding a 12VAC to DC converter and a charger in one unit. But once you can get clean 12DC through some separate component, I imagine a car charger for batteries would not be hard to find? I don't think the rectifiers for trials bike fans and lights produce a clean DC. Anyone know?

The charger would have to be so it'd not over cook the batteries.

This is very educational on diodes and power rectifiers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyhzpFqXwdA

So... getting to ~12VDC from the magneto is possible? But what about the fact that the voltage and even the frequency is changing on magnetos? So the video concludes with needing a regulated voltage supply. I wish I was also an electrical engineer :-(

All depends which bike and street or dirt. I don't think a helmet light is cool on the street. Easy to blind other travelers.

For trail riding when expecting riding in the dark the 3 LED Flood on the bike and the single LED spot on the helmet is a great combo. The flood lights up terrain in front of the front tire like daylight. The spot goes where you look for finding your route.

On the 690 riding dual sport I run the 3 LED flood with a 12v -> 8.4v transformer. Just leave it on, once it gets dark.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C4QVTNU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

On 450 rides when I don't expect to be out after dark just the helmet light and a battery pack is all I carry.

On the trials I prefer no light on the bike, find it a distraction the way it moves with the bars. Just the helmet light keeps the light just were you are looking.

On the Mountain bike I run 2 lights on the bars with a Y cable to one battery pack. Recharge after each ride...

Lots of options once you have a few of these lights.

The Cyclops H4 LED headlight upgrade is a must have too for the KTM.