At Last A Front LED Light that performs for speed riding at night

[gothicguy64]

hi
i h8 to be a kill joy but have u eva looked in cellbikes.com.au


they sell a 4aaa .1 led 1watt headlights at 14 bux an the top sellin headlight is 199
ohh an the are in stamore nsw


brad
nsw

 

[motorpsycho]

Why are there always guys who have to tell someone what they purchased was a mistake because they can't afford to purchase it themselves. These lights are extreme high tech , water proof and light weight. But all that is besides the point. If I dude wants the best there is available there is no need to tell him he got Jipped. Personally I think that anyone who rides a bike for primary transportation needs to spend a lot more than the cost of these lights in order to achieve reliability and safety. Nothing wrong with wanting the best. Peter White Cycles has an extraordinary collection of lighting some at more reasonable prices. His site is worth a look ,a lot to learn there. I particularly love the hub dynamo setups with "standlights" that stay lit for 7 minutes even when the bike has stopped, all without batteries involved. I installed that on my Spoiler.

it's not I can't afford that light, it's the fact that I like to build ny own stuff and i can not justify paying that much money for a headlight.
if you want the best there is, why did you buy a h.t. motor for a bicycle?
if you want the best there is, you should have bought a real motorcycle.

 

[bluegoatwoods]

Maybe he paid a lot, but he needs it.

He needs the best, as a matter of fact.

The rest of us, mostly, ride in places where there are streetlights and such. Even when they aren't very good, they supply more light than it might seem.
We can get away with cheap stuff. And trying something new when what we've got doesn't work out.

Away from electric lighting you literally can not see your hand in front of your face, like he said.

If the OP has the light that he needs under those circumstances and if he's confident that he'll be able to keep it working for a while, then he made a good buy. Even at $250 (or so).

 

[Irish John]

Also, since June or so last year i've been riding in daytime with a headlight lit, i commute to work 5 days a week, 8am to 4pm shift, early morning, tin can drivers roll into the street from their driveways with fogged out windows, lighting cigarettes and drinking their coffee while talking on their cell phones.. a BRIGHT headlight has saved my *** a few times now..

I know what you mean ypedal. i owe my life to my rear lights and to my luminous vest. I worry more about what's behind me although your description of the fugged up car etc is a classic!

 

[Irish John]

Brad, I have bought from that website and paid a lot of money for lights like I described - brand names that will have no back-up in 12 or 24 months time.
I've had bad experiences with CygoLite products with switches failing on expensive halogen twinsets and the lights dimming quickly over a short time span and batteries the size of beer bottles. What some of you guys can't seem to understand is that after riding over 40,000 kms, and quite a bit of that was in the dark, that I just may know what I'm talking about. That $199 light by CygoLite that Brad mentions is not a light I would ever have bought because it is way overpriced for what, in design terms, is basically a small hand torch (250 lumens) clipped onto a handlebar. 250 lumens just doesn't cut it Brad. I’m talking about seeing and being seen – not just being seen. There is a light at Cellbikes that might be OK and it is $315 reduced from $375 and is exactly the sort of technology I have been using these last 6 years with all the headaches I’ve already described. Good lights aren’t cheap although some people on this thread seem to think otherwise and I resent paying good money for technology that is unsupported in terms of parts and especially when it has unique elec connections that are irreplaceable when it becomes discontinued in the very near future. Also I am experienced enough to know that lumen levels in a spec are not great indicators of how good the light is. It is important to eyeball it and to try it at night. I went to try out a Ay-Up before I bought one albeit a helmet mounted one but it gave me a fair indication of its power when I shone it out over a darkened paddock on a moonless night.
If anyone has experience of a relatively new German LED torch called LED LENSER, well they are pretty amazing how they can focus a very bright beam from broad to narrow. The LedLenser will probably make the US made Maglite redundant. I wrote to the Australian agent to say that if they put that technology on a bike light they would have a winner. A guy from HQ in Germany phoned me to discuss bike lights and he asked me to send him what I thought were the main criteria for a bike light. Maybe they'll come up with something one day but I think they will have difficulty getting the technology to a smaller scale for bikes. I sent him links to websites showing MTB lights that cost a fortune so he could see just what the market is like at present. Personally I reckon Ay-Up have already arrived at the place that LedLenser are aiming for.
One of the above members (wbuttry I think) tells me I was duped (jipped?) and that he is also a person relying on a motorised bike as a principle means of transport and that if, 'for some unGodly reason', he needs to ride at night what is wrong with a Maglite. Well nothing except Maglites are old technology and expensive for what they are and prone to suddenly lose connection between battery and bulb as well as being battery hungry. The little maglites would be no use at all for night riding and big ones would have to be strapped to the handlebar (I think they might sell a special holder that breaks from the oscillation forces) so your bike looks like something out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but I have visions of the maglite being held between wbuttry's clenched teeth. If you used your bike for primary transportation as you say then you should know what I am talking about. If you live in a brightly lit neighbourhood or a city you will probably not know what I am talking about. Riding at night on Australian country back roads is not the same as riding in a big town or city. Not even remotely similar.
Gene writes about the hub dynamo lights and I too am interested in them. Some of the top end ones really do kick out a lot of light and I think I looked at a Dutch set-up that might well have fulfilled my needs but it was very expensive and I have had trouble with dynamos because of the speed my bike cruises at. Sometimes the bulbs blow and sometimes the thingy that rubs against the tyre flies off into the bush. Those were both Chinese dynamos though and pretty much rubbish and I know the high-end stuff has current regulators and also holds the charge when you slow down and are stationary. I think the Germans and Dutch seem to have the best dynamo hub lighting systems which is what I’d expect given their heavy use of bicycles.
As for Motorpsycho’s comments I just can’t respond because I don’t understand where he’s coming from. I sort of went off this Forum about mid 2009 when the whole mood of the site changed but it was here that I learnt most of what I know about motored bikes.
Everything I have said about the Ay-Up stands up to all I’ve read on the thread since I wrote the first posting. If you live in the open countryside and you need to travel long distances at relatively high speed on difficult roads then these lights are the absolute best thing I’ve yet come across. I would, however, be very interested to hear about any of the high-tec European dynamo lights if anyone has experience of any.

 

[Alaskavan]

Thanks for your review John. The reason I usually would go with judging lights by Lumens, is that I would have to fly to Seattle to check them out myself. I'll take your word for the performance of these lights.
Again,
Thanks
Van

 

[Irish John]

Thanks Alaskavan, I think I've read about Haines in 'Passage to Juneaux' but at 59 degres north you wouldn't need lights in Summer and you'd need them a lot in winter. It looks terribly hilly around Haines. Hilly and chilly I'll bet. There would probably be a lengthy spell of snow and ice when you couldn't ride at all. You would be so busy looking out over the water for whales blowing that you mightn't notice the grisly bear standing 10 foot tall on the road right in front of you!

 

[Alaskavan]

It's hilly around here, but the roads don't go over the hills, they follow the rivers. It's snowing lightly right now, but it's too warm for it to stick (36f). And we don't call them Grizzlys, we call them Brown Bears.
Again,
Thanks
Van

 

[Irish John]

It's hilly around here, but the roads don't go over the hills, they follow the rivers. It's snowing lightly right now, but it's too warm for it to stick (36f). And we don't call them Grizzlys, we call them Brown Bears.
Again,
Thanks
Van

I see - brown bears as opposed to black bears which are smaller. Maybe we should call our Brown Snakes Grizzly Snakes!
Like with Brown Bears you just never know when you'll come across one.

 

[gothicguy64]

point taken


i cant personally to change my motor from my shaft biike to my 7spd mtn bike so i can change it to a 8spd 11-32 an fit my sbp shiftkit 2 an black expanson
pipe on my rse hp2 48cc joy
i hit a pot hole an bent my shaft doin 60kph on parra rd
lol



brad