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Mountain biking :) Trying to train 3-4 times per week (after work) for races coming up in the spring. Getting hard without daylight on my side. Gonna have to

Mountain biking :) Trying to train 3-4 times per week (after work) for races coming up in the spring. Getting hard without daylight on my side. Gonna have to buy a light soon. Or adjust my work hours.

davidw 17y ago
Night riding can be a lot of fun. It's best on a nice single track on a summer's night, when it's just cooling off some, but can be fun in winter too if you're dressed right.
ax0n 17y ago
Check out Candlepower forums. There are guys there inspiring me to built an LED kilo-lumen beast for my winter commuter bike. I'm sure you could build something to suit your singletrack fetish. :)
- Sidnicious 17y ago
  Man, 256 lumens ought to be enough for anybody.
  - ax0n 17y ago
    I had a DiNotte 200L (200 Lumens) and it barely cut it. I mean, the optics might have something to do with it... throwing photon from hither to yon without a really good focused area on the road. I'd outrun my light (going too fast to stop in time for a hazard exposed by my light) at maybe 12 MPH on a clear night on the dark backroads. I can see maybe 500-600 lumens being sufficient, but 256 doesn't seem like enough to me.
    - blasdel 17y ago
      You're right -- the optics are everything. The flashlight fetishists love round symmetrical beams, which is exactly what you don't want in a headlight. You want to focus almost all of the light at the horizon, with some spill below and a sharp cutoff above. Anything else is wasted. See: http://peterwhitecycles.com/plight.asp http://peterwhitecycles.com/plight.asp
      - ax0n 17y ago
        I agree. It's just hard to find good headlight-worthy optics for DIY LED or Halogen lights. You always have to buy the whole package, always for $too.much from someone like Peter White, or the local bike shop. Even my "good" headlight (15W, ~300 lumens by my guess) is just a stupid 6V MR11 bulb with a clear waterproof lens in a waterproof housing. No optics. It's just a farking accent light that can be bolted to a bike. Über lame.

davidw 17y ago

Night riding can be a lot of fun. It's best on a nice single track on a summer's night, when it's just cooling off some, but can be fun in winter too if you're dressed right.

ax0n 17y ago

Check out Candlepower forums. There are guys there inspiring me to built an LED kilo-lumen beast for my winter commuter bike. I'm sure you could build something to suit your singletrack fetish. :)

Sidnicious 17y ago
Man, 256 lumens ought to be enough for anybody.
- ax0n 17y ago
  I had a DiNotte 200L (200 Lumens) and it barely cut it. I mean, the optics might have something to do with it... throwing photon from hither to yon without a really good focused area on the road. I'd outrun my light (going too fast to stop in time for a hazard exposed by my light) at maybe 12 MPH on a clear night on the dark backroads. I can see maybe 500-600 lumens being sufficient, but 256 doesn't seem like enough to me.
  - blasdel 17y ago
    You're right -- the optics are everything. The flashlight fetishists love round symmetrical beams, which is exactly what you don't want in a headlight. You want to focus almost all of the light at the horizon, with some spill below and a sharp cutoff above. Anything else is wasted. See: http://peterwhitecycles.com/plight.asp http://peterwhitecycles.com/plight.asp
    - ax0n 17y ago
      I agree. It's just hard to find good headlight-worthy optics for DIY LED or Halogen lights. You always have to buy the whole package, always for $too.much from someone like Peter White, or the local bike shop. Even my "good" headlight (15W, ~300 lumens by my guess) is just a stupid 6V MR11 bulb with a clear waterproof lens in a waterproof housing. No optics. It's just a farking accent light that can be bolted to a bike. Über lame.