Need a new bike light

[Darren M]

Hi all need a new bike light, as the one I have is useless. Can not see anything on the road in the mornings. Your thoughts on one to buy and how much would be appreciated.

Thanks

Darren

[Jake]

Ayup all the way. They are amazing.

http://www.ayup.com.au/

[HappyHumber]

There are also cheaper, DIY alternatives. A quick search here for threads turned up this lot (I'm sure there are others - and I know Pushy has posted a PDF somewhere here, too)

More CREE LED Torch Solutions
light review: UltraFire C2s (Cree Q5 LEDs)
A clamp for your new LED torches
Got bored today

As nice as the Ayups look; I don't think I could justify the money. You can make something similarly effective for a quarter of the price.

[uncle arthur]

And Torpedo 7 also has their current weekly special.

www.torpedo7.com

[Max]

I second the recommendation for ayup. I got mine not that long ago and can't say enough good things about them

Max

[DanielS]

I've got a Dinotte 5W. Its very nice - I can descend in the dark without too much worry. Cars can definitely see you coming as well! 2 x Dinotte's would be perfect. The single headlight unit with a couple of batteries goes for about $300 I think.

The Ayups looks pretty good too. I'd be tempted to go for them if I was buying again.

In my opinion, building your own is really only an option if you are particularly patient and good at such things.

[Hawkeye]

+1 for ayups. Brilliant (pun intended).

[Aushiker]

G'day

A vote for the Fenix L2D here and soon a couple of Ultrafires. All up two bikes with their own lightening systems for a lot less than the likes of Dinottes or Ay-Ups, not that I don't think the other systems are bad ones.

The other advantage with the torches is I have built in redundancy.

Andrew

[ShanDog]

+1 for ayups

[Boognoss]

Yep, I'm an Ayup junkie too. +1 for the little bright lights.

[zozza]

Ayups

[Dcyclist]

In 15 years of commuting I've tried all sorts of lighting rigs. Started out using a fairly useless basic cateye halogen. Then built my own twin 20W halogen rig (battery weighed a ton). This gave way to a niteflux visionstick, with a BLT 5W LED complementing it. The brightest was my twin 20W halogen rig, but it was to heavy and lacked battery life. I now have intermediate beam AYUPs, and while they cost plenty, in my opinion they are worth every cent. My morning commute is around 45minutes in the dark for about 4 months of the year. With the Ayups I charge them each weekend and then don't have to worry about flat batteries for the rest of the week. Add to this that they are the second brightest lights I've owned, and by far the lightest, and you could say that i'm very pleased with them.

[leximack]

ayups here too, they are awesome
i have 3 beam types for all types of riding. Intermediate is by far the best for road riding. Dont bother making your own IMO, they are cheap enough at $250 for an entry set that will light up the roads for 6 hrs, and weigh next to nothing.

Don

[rocketeer]

Hi all, long time reader first time poster! Following all the ayup recommendations here, I thought I would ask in this thread rather than start a new one. I am actually about to jump in get a set of ayup's having read all the other threads and researched etc.

However, as I only want to spend 260ish (the basic 08 MULTISPORT ), I wonder which beam I should get. From all the beam pics and stats, it appears that the medium has the widest beam, yet shortest throw, and is recommended for handlebar use. I wanted to get medium though and put it on my helmet, for a wide beam spread and decent throw. I plan to use it on road and on bike paths at night/possible commuting. I am not that fast a rider, and am not taken by the the narrow beam width of the narrow and intermediate lenses.

So my question to those who have them, would I be happy with a medium only beam to give a wide spread and decent throw? (as opposed to a narrower beam and longer throw)? Thanks.

[wombatK]

Ayup all the way. They are amazing.
http://www.ayup.com.au/

+1 on Ayups. But they are very expensive, so I just got the cheaper $245 08 Roadie kit (one pair, intermediate beam).

Thought I'd try some of the cheaper options after reading an enthusiastic thread here on Dealextreme Cree Torches. Found there was a one month delivery delay on the Cree's. So I ordered a MTE SSC P7 from DealExtreme - around $75 including 4 batteries, and charger (it only uses one battery at a time). Delivery took quite some time (about 3 weeks, even though this was nominally in stock).

Theoretically, the P7 emits more lumens than the Cree XRE Q5 currently available in the Ayups. After a test ride on dark unlit track, I thought it was more amazing than the Ayup.

But then I started testing with a luxmeter over a 5m distance (against garage wall). My luxmeter says that each individual cree element is better (and you get two !). The two crees are putting out about 3 times the lux of the P7 (individually each cree is about 50% better). The Ayup has collimators and a much better quality reflector that is probably helping this.

When I did a battery drain test, I noticed that the P7 LED has four elements to it, and one of them has substantially less output than others (still evident when fully charged, if viewed under suitable filter). This could explain the inferior results.

Nevertheless, the MTE P7 has a wider beam which I've found works on the handlebars better than the Ayups. Even with the misfiring element, it's very very amazing.

I've only tested the battery drain time of the P7 with the battery which was factory pre-charged to 3.7 V. This gave around 1.5 to 2 hours. Ayups give you 6 - before it goes into limp home mode. Buying extra batteries for the P7 overcomes this (although you'd have to stop for a battery swap out). Ayups charge up in a few hours - much quicker than the SSC P7 - it takes about 6 to 8 hours for a pair of 18650 batteries.

The MTE P7 has a flashing mode and a low-output mode that would give you longer than 2 hours - and still dazzle motorists if you didn't aim it downwards.

Ayups come with a very good mounting kit for handlebars of 2 bikes and a helmet kit that falls short a bit on battery mount for helmet (nothing that a lash up with your own velcro can't fix). Ayup also has neat stow-away wraps for travelling etc.,..

With the MTE P7, you've got to figure a way to mount it yourself - I found an electric cable elastic cord from Bunnings did the trick pretty well for handlebar mounting.

Lastly, Ayups are very water-resistant and are designed to take punishment as in MTB competitive racing. The MTE P7 isn't.

I'm negotiating with Dealextreme to see what they'll do about the P7 which I believe is below par. I'll do a proper write-up/review of the MTE P7 if I can get hold of one that is the full bottle. At this stage, I'd hesitate to recommend DealExtreme - I'm not sure if they're selling seconds and can't understand why they report stock is available yet once you order you find the items are back-listed.

If you can afford it, go the ayups. You won't be dissappointed.

[leximack]

Hi all, long time reader first time poster! Following all the ayup recommendations here, I thought I would ask in this thread rather than start a new one. I am actually about to jump in get a set of ayup's having read all the other threads and researched etc.

However, as I only want to spend 260ish (the basic 08 MULTISPORT ), I wonder which beam I should get. From all the beam pics and stats, it appears that the medium has the widest beam, yet shortest throw, and is recommended for handlebar use. I wanted to get medium though and put it on my helmet, for a wide beam spread and decent throw. I plan to use it on road and on bike paths at night/possible commuting. I am not that fast a rider, and am not taken by the the narrow beam width of the narrow and intermediate lenses.

So my question to those who have them, would I be happy with a medium only beam to give a wide spread and decent throw? (as opposed to a narrower beam and longer throw)? Thanks.

the medium beam is useless as a light to use by itself, the beam is very wide but the throw is not good if you want to travel at a half decent speed.
Get the intermediate beam, has the most useable of beams as a standalone beam. The narrow is good for helmet use when combined with the medium or intermediate beam.
The medium beam is only good as a handlebar light when used with a helmet light. The medium beam on the helmet would be totally useless.
Basically just get the intermediate beam, it works the best in most conditions.

Don

[rustguard]

Hi all need a new bike light, as the one I have is useless. Can not see anything on the road in the mornings. Your thoughts on one to buy and how much would be appreciated.

Just curious what was your budget?

[Jake]

There is one guy that rides in our group that has the Ayups on his helmet. Any other Ayup users (me included) have their's handlebar mounted, and they work brilliantly like this.
But the guy with the helmet light! What a PITA. Its far too bright to be on a helmet when you are in a group, as it lights up the back of the person in front of him, and just the general swaying of his head and the subsequent movement of the light is very off-putting.
It becomes very distracting especially when he turns towards you to talk.

So, if you are getting a light for your helmet, please consider whether you will be riding in a group of just solo.

I have the intermediate lens Ayup and I consider it the perfect choice for my application.

Cheers,
Jake

[Aushiker]

With the MTE P7, you've got to figure a way to mount it yourself - I found an electric cable elastic cord from Bunnings did the trick pretty well for handlebar mounting.

Thanks for this suggestion. Will have to take a look for these.

Andrew

[Max]

On the topic of Ayups and the decision to go with handlebar lights only vs handlebar plus helmet light - if you are riding on bike paths in low light conditions, I think the helmet light is a must. Bike paths in my area are typically quite bendy with a number of T intersections. The handlebar lights let you see what's in front of the bike. The helmet light will help you see what's coming around a bend. I can't tell you how many times this has saved my bacon, not to mention that of the pedestrians I would not have otherwise seen. For reference, I was able to spot a pedestrian wearing black clothing in near pitch black conditions, at a range of about 30m. If you can afford the MTB kit (bar and helmet lights, plus additional batteries), I highly recommend it.

Cheers,
Max.

[m@]

In my opinion, building your own is really only an option if you are particularly patient and good at such things.

Depends on how slick a solution you want really - a DIY light set could be as simple as an LED torch held to the handlebars with a rubber band and powered by non-rechargeable AAs!

Having said that, I'm planning on going with Ay-ups for next winter to replace my cheapie LED headtorch and aging halogen/lead-acid light set

On the topic of halogen/lead-acid lightsets (like the Torpedo7 special) - put the $100 toward an LED lightset instead. Brighter, lighter, longer battery life... what's not to love? B)

[Kalgrm]

So there ya go Darren: Ayups if you have the cash and want the best ready-to-go system. Or Cree LED torches if you don't have much dosh and still want a very bright light (... "some assembly required" ...)

Cheers,
Graeme

[rocketeer]

Thanks for the responses people. So an Ayup medium is not good enough on its own, but an intermediate would be sufficient to ride an unlit bike path at a decent speed?

[h3ndry]

Pity about the wait on the Cree's from www.dealextreme.com. Or is that problem fixed now?

[Kalgrm]

I think the wait is patchy. I've ordered and received within a week before.

I think it's because they don't actually keep any stock on hand - they just "go next door" and get it from the factory when it's ordered, so it depends on production runs.

It's luck of the draw really.

Cheers,
Graeme