Nightride: 21st of October

RobMac":c4hi8rcs said:

Did you guys come to some conclusion regarding which was the best light set up to get?????

Click to expand...

Or any particular lamp- front or helmet

Si`s http://troutie.com light was very impressive

I thought kaisers light was ideal for the job, considering making that my next purchase

In an ideal world you want one on the helmet and one on the bars, I reckon. If I could only have one, it'd be on the helmet... I'd hate not to be able to look ahead if you know what I mean.

I've got the older 900 lumens version of this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Bicyc...ighting_Lamps_Lighting_SM&hash=item231557f6bf. Great for the money, superb run time on the battery pack too.

I think Kaiser has the 1200 lumen version in the link.

As gmac says, Si's troutie liberator was absolutely outstanding, but it's no cheap. Quality though.

yup big expensive lights like the liberator is the way to go but 300 quid is a lot of cash

try the e-bay second hand option , the old halogen bulb lights still have life in them ,retro too and potentially cheap

i lent TK a set of cateye lights i have had for 15 years or so , give a nice warm light and an hour and a half burn time
add some of the 300 odd lumen e-bay cree torches at a fiver each and its not a dear night out
or go for the ,like i did ,lupine halogen lights £35 third hand from a mate ,were over 300 quid new a few years ago , still work fine , give a nice halogen glow and 2.5 hours burn time
you will get hope lights for not a lot of cash on the bay ,
led's and hid lights give a lot of power ,but the definition is not right
halogen bulbs give ,in my opinion a better light . i hope TK chimes in hear as he discribed exactly my opinion on lights
thing is you dont need that much light to have fun outside in the dark

I work in theatre lighting and to a large extent Mikee is correct about halogen v's LED.

LED gives a light that makes things very 2 dimensional and flat, halogen or tungsten gives depth and shape.

However LED has the advantage of long life and won't break if given a sharp impact.

And I keep getting told LED is the future.

Getting the combo right is important too. I had three lights, a helmet torch (spot) the bike light (spot) and a torch(floody)on the bars. When riding the two spots would flit about and was a bit off putting. I'm thinking going more floody, Greg had the lens fitted thats been posted a couple of times and it seemed to work well.

Mikee is right - the Halogens were a much warmer light and more comfortable to see in, I'm thinking some orange film for my LED's might help.

One thing I would warn against on the decent from spooky I used the LED's on my lid and the halogens on the bar - by the bottom of that section my head was sore, I think it was caused by the different colours crossing over constantly and my brain having issues white balancing it. the rest of the run was done with only the halogen bar lights and things were fine.

You don't need to see all the time, in fact it is a fair advantage not seeing what's coming or what's over the edge

Si's Troutie liberator was amazing though the brightest bike light I have ever seen and much brighter than the Exposure (6 packs?) that the other group had.

Yellow glasses might be an option? I wore mine on Friday night, they were fine, although while I agree the LED lights can be harsh, I don't really have a problem with them.

Plus you get the bonus of thinking you are in 1970s French movie everytime you see a car's headlights! Tres cool!

Si's Troutie liberator was amazing though the brightest bike light I have ever seen and much brighter than the Exposure (6 packs?) that the other group had.

Click to expand...

I had a look at their site and they have the lumen listed at 1700 lab tested but on high it says its only 900.
Why the difference :? TBH i usually take this kind of info as a bit of a con.If its 900 say its 900 dont claim something thats not coming out the front of the light :?

Thats because 900 is the high setting and 1700 is boost setting- there is also a low setting which gives around 8 hours burn. You only need the low setting 90% of the time because it has such a broad flood and enough power for regular use. I use the high setting when going faster on the downhills only. Boost is only needed in extreme circumstances when you are really going for it. You have to keep one eye on the temperature on boost as they can get hot. It will automatically switch down a level before the temp gets critical.
The thing i like most about the Troutie is the amount of spread you get- instead of getting all the light concentrated in front of you, you also get 80% lighting going down and out at right angles which is a real boon in the twisty bits.