Best all round light for night biking.

B

BIG BEAM

100 W
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
175
I collect flashlights for one of my hobbies(hence the name BIG BEAM).I've tried over 30 lights and a few mounts on my bike and I think I found the best all round light.It's not the brightest but has a good runtime with 18650 Li-ions.Most of my lights are pricey but this one isn't.
YOU CAN GET ALL THIS STUFF FROM DEALEXTREME.COM

flashlight sku#19767

mount sku#15642

battery sku#20392

charger sku 06105

The light uses a p7 emitter and draws 1.55 A on high so it'll run about 1.5 hrs. on a charge.It has a low setting but I can't measure the ma. because of the resister in the tail cap.This light puts out 400-500 lumens OTF(out the front) and has very good build quality.

The charger is 2 channel and charges at 1 A with 2 batteries and 2A with 1 battery.

Just thought I'd give back a little to all you guys on ES because,you been VERY helpful to me.



The mount fits the light perfect with the included rubbers

ALSO ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ABOUT LIGHTS. I PROBABLY OWN OR HAVE OWNED MOST OF THEM.
DON
 
Nice! Thanks for sharing in this area Don. Are you a member on CPF? You must be, there some insanely expensive lights on there, the tiny spy ones come to mind.

On the light, what color range does this light fall under?
 
Yes,I'm BIG BEAM over there also.

It's in the 6K range.I usually like lights in the 4-5K range for outdoor use.The browns and greens seem to have a 3 demension to them in that range.But in my town the roads are blue stone and some worn blacktop that looks like blue stone so the blueish tint seems to work well.Even the gray concrete has a 3D look to it.

What really shines(yeah I know) about this light is the rather large spot and mostly the huge,bright spill.
DON
 
LMAO, yo big beam, you might want to check the sku number of your charger. I think that might have been the sku from your last order. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks for the list of the other items. Giving me some new ideas of what I can do with stuff.
 
I think he meant # 06105

As I have ordered that charger before.

I've also had good luck with this light #07934. not sure how it compares to the other though, other then being cheaper

I think the P7s have 4 leds on one die though, which would make it much brighter.
 
Not to hijack the thread, but BIG BEAM do you think you could take a look at the drop in units I got from Cree and tell me if you know what chip it is that they use on the driver board? If you have time please take a look here if you think you can help: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=14901&p=309435#p309435

It might just be easier to buy a new driver board. Sadly the board costs as much as the drop in unit...
 
dequinox said:
Not to hijack the thread, but BIG BEAM do you think you could take a look at the drop in units I got from Cree and tell me if you know what chip it is that they use on the driver board? If you have time please take a look here if you think you can help: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=14901&p=309435#p309435

It might just be easier to buy a new driver board. Sadly the board costs as much as the drop in unit...
Click to expand...

Sorry but I can't help you with that.Sadly it is usually cheaper to buy new than to repair.

I would stay away from Cree MC-E and P7 emitters if they're in a drop-in (especially if they're run hard ie 3 amps).You just can't move the heat away fast enough.
DON
 
Ypedal said:
Thanks for the sku number.. with Hi and Lo only button.. i have a similar one with the 5 mode button and hate the blink modes.....

Not cheap.. but i'm hooked on the Lumenator from ebikes.ca .. daaamn that thing is BRIGHT..
Click to expand...

The lumenator uses XP-G emitters and they were really built for a focused beam but with 4 emitters I'm sure you get good spill also.

I'm sure that light is bright at 9.5W
The light I suggested runs at about 6 W
You can buy lights from DX that are 10 W but they draw 3A from a 18650 and that means 45 min. runtime.
You can also build a "hotwire" from a 3 cell maglight and they are 35W-200W :shock:
DON
 
BIG BEAM said:
The mount fits the light perfect with the included rubbers
Click to expand...

What had the included rubbers? I ordered this light and the mounts and neither one had included rubbers? The light is really loose in the mount.

I also bought a LED lights from harbor freight. I got this one on sale for $4.99, super bright. But it is slightly too big for the mounts. I also gota few of these for $2.99. These are a lot brighter then any bicycle shop bike light I have used yet. They also fit perfectly in the mounts. They actually do come, one red/one blue in a pack, so I bought an even number of packs to be able to make same colored sets. I will go and test them soon. I am also in the middle of charging the batts for the flash light that you recommended. I will go test with that also when they are charged. I have a lot of different pieces of rubber in the shop, next time I get down there, I can make some spacers for it and test it properly.
 
A friend of mine used some of those red/blue pairs as axle-height lights, too. He took cable clamps
cable-clamps-top.jpg
just big enough for those flashlights, and screwed them to the front dropout fender mounts, tight enough to not un-aim themselves, and he aimed them for just a few feet in front of the wheel for very close pothole/rock visibility. Then he has other lights on the bars and helmet for seeing farther down the road and for others to see him by.

I'd've done it to mine, too, but I don't have enough rechargeable AAA batteries, and would need to modify the casing of the flashlight to allow a wire to run out the side to go to a DC-DC converter (old celphone charger) to power them. I'll get around to that eventually. :)
 
Here are the harbor freight lights in the clamps that Big Beam recommended.

dual_headlights1.jpg
 
The 15642 came with a rubber for the HB and the flashlight.
DON

You can always use an old inner tube as a shim.I have chrome HB and use double sided tape between the HB and rubber.
 
jay64
How do you like the flashlight from DX?
DON
Are you running it on an 18650?
You're not supposed to run it with 2-CR123!
 
I really like my magicshine 1400 lumin. On full, with all lights blaring it lasts an hour and a half. At lesser settings it lasts for hours.
 
I bought the Nitelights 1400 lumen UFO a couple of weeks back and its awesome - especially compared to the crappy catseye I had been using before. Pedestrians wince in pain when they cop the full 16w in the face :p I have even had cars flash their highbeams at me :shock:

I just got an email from Nitelights and thought I would share it with you all - just in case you are looking for a bargin. Daylight savings has just kicked in so I guess their local market just got smaller - hence the discount.

.... We would like to offer you a massive 30% discount of the 1400 lumen UFO.. goto http://www.nitelights.com.au type in TEST1 in the coupon code when completing your order we only have 35 sets left at this price.......

Happy riding

Dave & Raynie
 
I must be the only one but I use 2 lights at night, a blackburn Flea (damn bright for it's size) either as my near beam (within 10-12' ahead of me) and yes, sucker than I am a I have an Uno NIMH which I adapted to use 2S Lipo and it seems quite happy - best damn light and for it's size... lets just say I'm very pleased at 30+ mph without street lights and since I've added it I haven't hit a single pot hole at night... that beam is set to about 25-30' ahead of me and works perfectly with the flea.

When in heavy traffic, I will turn the blink of the flea on just to ensure I'm visible and noticed by drivers.

I know 100.00 for a nimh headlamp, not exactly low cost or cheap but the flea was only 30.00 on sale and I have half a dozen head and tail lamps (fleas) because I find them to be best tiny, rechargable single piece lamp available.

-Mike
 
StudEbiker said:
Any thoughts on this light?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.36356

I'm sure it's not quite as great a light, but it is $13 cheaper. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...


That light uses a P26 type drop in.The good thing is it's EZ to change drop ins ,the bad is that some drop ins have trouble moving heat from the drop in to the flashlight body.Over heating is a problem with most drop in type lights at higher power settings.
DON
 
I just got the list of items in post 1. The only thing I needed to do was wrap the light with some old rubber inner tube so it fits the mount better. This light is truly awesome. Very smooth light. No halos. I could see all the way down my street (about 500 feet). It lit the whole corridor. I was a little worried spending $55 for the whole kit, but it is the real deal. Hopefully my testimonial will help others rest assured in buying this light.

Adam
 
Good God. Are you afraid of the dark or something.
 
itchynackers said:
I just got the list of items in post 1. The only thing I needed to do was wrap the light with some old rubber inner tube so it fits the mount better. This light is truly awesome. Very smooth light. No halos. I could see all the way down my street (about 500 feet). It lit the whole corridor. I was a little worried spending $55 for the whole kit, but it is the real deal. Hopefully my testimonial will help others rest assured in buying this light.

Adam
Click to expand...
I purchased the list too. Was reportedly shipped 10/14/2010.........still anxiously waiting. It's getting dark so early now.
 
The SpiderFire kit came in the mail today. Awesome light. I feel like a Jedi.

Pretty good holder for $3 . Unfortunately there isn't a quick release to facilitate easy removal when leaving bike unattended. The screw must be removed from the handle bar clamp to remove the whole assembly, or the endcap has to be removed from the flashlight to seperate the flashlight from the mount. I cut a slot for the handlebar mounting screw so it could flip open when just loosened like a CA mount. This doesn't work well, the screw has to be removed almost all the way to mount and dismount the clip anyway, and now it won't hold as securely without popping apart, unless the clamp jaws meet when tightened. Good thing I ordered two clamps.
There are two interlocking rubbers included for the handlebars, both are needed to fit on 22mm bars. If the lip is cut off the smaller rubber, it appears it would fit the light well, I will use some inner-tube rubber instead.

One battery measured 3.97V initially, the other 0.00mV.
I assume the voltage fell below 2.5 volts during shipping and the bms cut-out. It is accepting a charge. Will it be a good cell?
 
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