Lights for the winter, I feel an essay coming on, so here goes....
Halogens provide good performance compared to traditional filament bulbs while also available at low cost and so this is the winter light choice for most cyclists.
Things have moved on in recent years however and it is now possible to get brighter lights with a longer run time, although this extra performance can come at a ridiculously high price.
The best performance is achieved using HID bulbs and lithium ion batteries. HID lights are extremely bright, burning with a blue light at about a quarter of the power consumption of halogens. Ready made systems are very expensive but it is possible to build your own with very little effort for about half the price.
This will be my third winter with diy HID lights and I will list here the required components to build a lightweight system that will blind oncoming traffic for several hours on a single charge for a fraction of the ready-made price.
Ready-made sets are available everywhere, and for comparison purposes, here are a sample...
www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5770or, (probably) the cheapest...
www.lumicycle.com/Product/product2.aspx?product=SYSHALIDELIION&dep=48Lumicycle are very good as they provide various parts to tailor the lights set, but we'll come back to this later.
So, for a DIY kit, we need to consider the light and then look at battery options.
THE HID LIGHT
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All HID lights come with the same Welch Alleyn 12 Volt Bulb. This is exactly the same in the two links above, and illustrates the sort of price discrepancy for essentially the same product.
Lumicycle supply the lights separately, and very competitively here
www.lumicycle.com/Product/product2.aspx?product=HALI_UNIT&dep=5If you want to get going without any DIYing then this is a good option. However, you can save some dosh by building this unit yourself from some quad bike lights.
The lights are available direct from US here
trailtech.net/store/single_hid_mr11.htmlThe spot light is the one to get, NOT the flood. The lights were in the past also available from trail tech UK
www.trailtechproducts.co.uk but they now seem to be supplying only helmet kits.
Try Googling or Ebaying for Trailtech HID and it is likely you will find some UK stockists...
They are available throught the uk from THE RUSH but delivery timescales can be poor. They have effectively done the DIY bit described below.
www.therush.uk.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=322&osCsid=306af9ff01e194bbd55d7fc...[/urlNB : Polarity is important for HID lights so get your wiring the right way round to avoid blowing the light.
THE BATTERY
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NiMH batteries are ok if you are on a budget but lithium ion is the way forward.
The required lithium ion batteries are 14.4V, ie over-volted. A 4.4 Amp-Hour battery will provide 4 hours of burn-time.
Lumicycle provide a battery for £110. A smart charger is an additional £40
SUPPLIER OPTIONS
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So suppose we want a HID lamp, and a lithium ion battery to give us 4 hours of burn time.
Lumicycle
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The lumicycle cost, as separates is:
Light : 180
Battery : 110
Charger : 40
Total : 330
Or as a complete kit for £300
DIY Light / Lumicycle Battery
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Before looking at the cost options for a DIY solution, some extra small parts are needed :
1. Lumicycle bracket to fix the light to the bars (or similar)
www.lumicycle.com/Product/product2.aspx?product=CAM_BRACKE&dep=52. 2.5mm DC Socket from Maplin
I use the lumicycle bracket to fix the light to the bars. These are good brackets, and are also available oversize for those of us with big bars.
The DIY light / lumicycle battery cost, as separates is:
TrailTech Light : $110 = £81 ****
Lumicycle Battery : £110
Charger : £40
Lumicycle clamp : £6.99
2.5mm Socket : 72p
Total : £240. A saving of sixty quid.
100% DIY
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The batteries are clearly the expensive component. As an aside, these are the same spec as the batteries currently in the news for overheating in laptops at the moment so there must be a lot of them sitting in a dell or an apple warehouse somewhere.
These are available at a lower price if ordered from the US.
A good selection of batteries for HID bike lights are avilable here....
www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1287TrailTech Light : $110 = £81 ****
Battery and charger: $70 = £52 ****
Lumicycle clamp : £6.99
2.5mm Socket : 72p
Total : £140. that is, < Half price of the full lumicycle kit.
I currently use the DIY / lumicycle batteries solution. I use a two lead battery and additional halogen to provide redundancy. The halogens from lumicycle are very cheap and light but get the bulbs (12v mr11 closed dichroics) from here
www.ricamstore.co.uk for a fraction of the price.
I also carry a spare 2Ah battery just in case!
The US batteries should do the business but I don't have any experience of them. The batteries from the US will require some method of attaching to the frame such as a camera case, although bottle options are available.
**** The dollar exchange is good right now at 1.88/£ but you will get hit by postage and import duties, so the conversion assumes 40% uplift after the exchange rate is applied. It is likely that you will pay slightly less than this.
100% DIY NIMh UK Sourced (See also the lumicycles nimh)
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See
mtbuk.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2298TrailTech Light : $110 = £81 ****
Battery : £56
Charger : £30
Lumicycle clamp : £6.99
2.5mm Socket : 72p
Total : £174.71. Not as good or cheap as the USA battery solution but simpler and quicker to order.
How to wire and secure the trail tech HID light to the bike
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1. Use a 2mm allen key to remove the existing bracket from the light.
2. Unscrew the front cover and remove the bulb and ballast.
3. Drill the frontmost hole large enough to accommodate the bolt on the lumicycle bracket and attach the bracket.
4. Use a soldering iron and attach the 2.5mm socket to the power cable. NB> The lumicycle battery polarity is unusual : the inner cable is negative, so solder the black wire to the inner connection in the socket, and the red to the outer terminal.
Before
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After
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PS .... New find, the lot can be bought here cheaply, with no wiring or soldering required,
www.all-battery.com/.
Choose the UPS post option instead of the default - its $20 cheaper.
If you want to be really flash then get
lithion-polymer batteries instead of lithium-ion. These babies are even lighter and smaller for the equivalent capacity.
