SpiderFire LED

With another winters commute approaching I decided that I'd like to open up my route options which would mean that my pathetic LED front light would be useless. You know the sort, ye'olde LED flashers that are more "be seen" than "see by".

So I trawled the tinterweb and found Tactical4U offered a compact bar mounted LED system that ran off x3 AA's and pumped out 200 lumen's. Best of all the price was a smidgen over £20 - which surely made it worth a punt. Uphilla confirmed that he ordered something similar a while back and said it'd probably be okay for commuting. Sorted.

The Hong Kong shipment arrived less than a week later (£10 p&p) and was quickly filled with spankin' new NiMh's. Initially I was a little disappointed with the output but then found that the beam can be adjusted from a teeny spot (the shape of the LED emittor) out to a wide flood.

The lamp bracket is rubberized and fits well on the bars but only offers up/down alignment. A large recessed rear mounted switch controls the light through low, off, high, off and flashing. The battery uses an elasticated strap which fits easily underneath my 100mm stem.

In use the lamp is small and unobtrusive and the clunky button works well even with gloves pinkies. When the street lamps disappear I find that the flood setting (even on high) doesn't offer sufficient penetration but a couple twists tightens the beam to a more useful spot/flood combo. It works a treat on the roads though and cars/buses no longer cut across my path.

I've no specific details on actual runtimes yet but the spec's suggest 6hrs.

For less than thirty notes this is a marvelous offering and proves that robust, bright and long running LED's are defo the way to go :thumbu

Uphilla has fondled the the unit, played with the three light settings and mentioned that they'd since improved the battery casing and shrunk the lamp.

* "info" pic's listed on behalf of Tactical4U (to save bandwidth).

LED Light Test

At this time of year I'm sure we're all being guided with some form of candle power and I found this LED article over on Bikemag.com quite interesting.

It might not be the most scientific of comparisons but it allows you to quickly visualise the difference between each manufacturers offering.

Craving the latest bulb 'n' battery technology on these dark evenings have lit up many a internet forum and I thought some of ya's might find this useful...

Ay Up LED Light Review

Well thanks to Farqui and some fine research I managed to identify almost every conceivable LED light option to replace my L&M Solo helmet light. My research had indicated that right now an LED manufacturer called 'Cree' were producing just about the brightest highest output LED know to man. In fact I was lucky enough to be shown a Cree development board with their latest dazzler LED fitted. It was so bright (LED, no lens) it was impossible to look at it directly even from across the office! Interestingly, I only found two manufacturers claiming to be using them and AyUp had a particularly interesting product at a cracking price (direct Internet sales again!) Its well worth checking out the Au Up site. Its well produced and there is plenty of info concerning the lights and some very good night shots of the lights in action.

Well you already know I love direct Internet sales and can't resist a bargain. I decided to jump in feet first and ordered just enough bits to kit myself out with a helmet light capable of a constant 3 hours at full power. Its worth noting that AyUp have proposed a number of kits for both road and MTB use. However, if this is not what you want its very easy to spec your own set....that's exactly what I did. I paid a total of £98.00 incl freight from Aus! 5 days later, the product arrived and these are my initial thoughts and beam test comments:

• Wow, very, very small.........you will see from the picture that each lens is no bigger then a 20 pence piece. When you first see the product its a little disconcerting. It looks more like an 'Action Man' Mtb set! However, these lights are actually very thoughtfully designed and each lens barrel is made from Aluminium with a fully sealed lens. Ay Up claim these units will work frozen and under water to 1 metre......me thinks that Mr AyUp has a decent engineering background.




• Wow, very light weight. LED light unit and battery 150 grams. This enables you to fix all to your head without noticing the difference (no battery cables to backpack required). I know this will be an upside. Last year, after a long ride using my L&M Solo with the battery stashed in my ruck sack, I forgot about the light on my head, removed my ruck sack and nearly gave myself whip lash as I dumped my sack on the floor!

• The bike and helmet fittings are all very simple but effective. Consideration has been made to provide a replaceable breakaway fixing and a spare is provided. The charger is small and functional. I guess the accessories don't look as bullet proof as L&M kit but worse case just replace them, they are so cheep...battery£13.00...charger £12.00.

• It appears that AyUp are continuously updating the product range. I purchased the simplest battery solution....a plug and go (I always run on max power). No switching or power options. However around Xmas they plan to launch a new battery pack with 5 beam power option including flash strobe. Something for everyone

Tested the light beam and output compared to L&M Solo Halogen and L&M HID. Very surprised at the results:

Firstly, I was expecting the lights to out perform my L&M Halogen Solo not least because I new the light colour (much whiter) would be more revealing. However, its so difficult to compare Halogen and HID watts with LED Lumen's. The AyUp site has some user comments indicating that the lights are a real challenge to HID. I was sceptical and anticipated that my L&M 13W HID would be the clear front runner probably still around 2 or 3 times brighter then the Ay Up LED. One things for sure, there is not that much difference!

• Halogen is dead! The little Ay Up beast is whiter, has a crisper beam and is far more penetrating then I expected. Partly due to light colour and a more focused lens the Ay Up is just in a different class! Not bad when you consider the L&M Solo retails for around £180 in the UK, nearly twice the price. I really can't see that Halogen has a future.



• The Ay Up LED does Halo but in a very usable way. The centre of the beam is very focused and the halo is created by a reduced intensity secondary beam. Oh, I specified 'intermediate' beam pattern for the lens. It's available in Wide, Intermediate and Narrow. I can't see much use for a wide because the intermediate beam is quite broad and I imagine the narrow is like a laser beam.



• HID watch out! I am shocked to say that the light intensity of the Ay Up LED's compared to HID (13 Watt) whilst not the same is still very impressive. I had to keep switching between the two before it became apparent that the HID is brighter but more significantly provides a very clean broad, deeply penetrating light with an overall wider light dispersion. However, the Ay Up really packs a punch given its size, weight and cost. I just couldn't quite believe how well it performed against the HID. The other noticeable difference is that the Ay Up is simply feather weight by comparison.



• HID and Ay Up together provide a very impressive solution. I've no doubt that I'll be stopping even more oncoming traffic with these two on full chat!



• If you are thinking of buying a new light set for the first time then a twin Ay Up MTB Kit for £170.00 is one hell of a proposition. Perhaps LED will replace HID sooner then I imagined.

I will report back once I have had some riding hours with the Ay Up. Perhaps I should not get too enthusiastic until the goods have been fully tested. For those of you riding with me on the 9th Dec....I look forward to your thoughts!

Light and Motion Li-ion Solo Review

You will already know from my previous HID light review that L&M are a firm favourite of mine. Well last year shortly after purchasing my L&M HID I decided to complement it with the addition of an L&M 13watt Halogen 'Solo' light. My intention was to use this as a supplementary helmet light to provide me with that all important peripheral vision. I dropped Larry a line and saved myself around 30% in the process. Well I used my new solo all last winter and these are my thoughts:

• Good 'white' Halogen output. However when compared to HID or LED, decidedly Yellow. I knew to expect this and I'm prepared to say that when run next to each other its a compromise. It works but it is strange looking ahead at a 'white beam object' dominated by the HID light and then looking sideways at a 'Yellow beam object' provided by the Halogen only helmet light.




• L&M advertise that the light has an adjustable beam pattern. Well its adjustable between good medium spot and poor halo diffused effect. I kept mine on the spot setting all of the time.




• Unit is supplied with a switchable 6w, 10w and 13w output. I liked the 13w output but it only gave me 1.5hours burn time. Not really enough. The 10w lasts for 2.5 hours but does not cut it off road. The 6w is very useful for map reading on route.




• That said what it does it does well. The beam is Halo free , broad and reasonably penetrating. However its not quite got enough 'punch' for off road use and I think it would make a really solid road light with occasional off road use. The L&M accessories are of the usual high standard.

You see, what I wanted all along was a good LED light. However, when I looked last year I was not convinced that the products available offered value for money or a suitable light output. However. that's already changed. Consequently the L&M Solo has been 'ebayed' and I guess you should read my LED light Review!

Light & Motion Arc Lion Review

After a great summer and hours of ‘Chiltern’ Mtbing my fellow Mtb riding chums decided that we should inspire ourselves to 4/5 months winter riding by exploring the thrills of night riding. To be honest, the concept was entirely new to me but I figured that it must involve a decent gadget or two so I quickly indicated my enthusiasm and started my advanced research phase.

I quickly established that I was faced with three possible solutions;

• Halogen with ‘yellow light’ and generally heavy batteries, probably entry level product and not for a Mtb gadget/technology research freak like me.
• Luxeon LED (Love the technology) Reliable, durable, generally light weight but questionable light output. Nevertheless very tempted!
• HID ‘big boys light’, high performance white light, lightweight, high end product. Just the sort of thing I’d like to impress my mates with but unfortunately, over budget!
  

That’s when Rob and Farqui came to the rescue. A work related meeting with Rob quickly degenerated into a technology debate on all things Mtb and subsequently an offer from Farqui to help source L&M ‘big boys lights’ direct from the US. I’ll be forever grateful for the final import price of £270.00 inclusive, which was just about in budget (well close enough ish..). This equated to a saving of over £100.00 on UK retail.

I didn’t have to wait too long before the excitement levels rose and I was the proud (and extensively well researched) owner of a new set of L&M ‘big boys lights’. It was like Xmas but early and I quickly rushed home to tinker and prepare for a trial ride.

My first impression of the light assembly was how could something so small allegedly provide so much light? I tinkered some more…

The HID lamp assembly unit is approximately 50mm X 70mm in size. It’s constructed from a quality plastic moulding which houses the lamp, ballast lamp control assembly and an integral on/off function switch and LED status indicator. The power cable is moulded in and the whole unit is factory sealed. The ‘Solarc’ lamp is specified as factory replacement only. The lamp assembly is very lightweight and is provided with a universal bar mount or helmet mount. I chose to mount my lamp assembly on the handlebars as close to the stem as it would go. The assembly bracket is well designed and clamped in place within seconds.
The Lion battery pack is also functionally well designed and lighter then I expected. Just like the light assembly it utilises a quality plastic moulding (with a moulded in top tube profile) with integral lamp cable socket and alignment markings and Velcro top tube strap. Again, installation to my bike top tube was very easy.
By now all that remained in the box was the battery charger. Thanks to Farqui, the battery was already fully charged and ready to go. However, the L&M battery charger is designed to charge all L&M battery technology products and consequently will seamlessly handle both L&M Lion and NmHi battery technology. I like this concept and somehow it makes me feel like I should buy another product just to take advantage of it?! Anyway, its plug….wait 2hours…and play!

Enough said. It’s a very well designed and manufactured product but does it justify the price tag and is it as bright as folk would have you believe?

Answer: Yes, WOW, Yes!

This really is a ‘big boys light’. It has two power settings: 13W (attract UFO spotters) 3.5 hours burn time and 10W (irrelevant – I like the 13W setting!) 4.0hours burn time. My first ‘virgin’ night ride was solo for around 1.5 hours. I covered a mixture of open countryside single track and dense woodland track. I was able to maintain around 70% normal riding speed (except on downhill- scary) and thanks to this great product I loved every minute of it. Quick Summary:

Pros:

• Great price (thanks Rob/Farqui)
• Lightweight
• Very bright ‘wide and spot’ light dispersal
• Excellent functional design
• Good battery performance and re-charge time
• Breakaway bracket (hope I don’t need it!)
• Versatile bar and head mounting brackets.

Cons:

• Lamp to battery cable management. I wanted something to keep my bike looking tidy. Wrapped cable around top tube but still didn’t look quite right.

Other then that I haven’t found any other cons yet. All I’d say is that in my opinion this light is a minimum requirement for ‘dark dense woodland’ night riding. Anything less would slow you down too much. To get closer to 100% daytime speed I’m sure an additional helmet mounted light would make a big difference. I missed the loss of peripheral vision. This is most prevalent when you steer the bike around an obstacle only to completely loose sight of the trail ahead.
Think I need a new gadget! I fancy a Luxeon LED helmet mounted system to complement my L&M ARC. Maybe a Cateye twin or a Hope twin system.

Farqui, any options from the US??

Rob#2

It's that time of year again

...when the evenings are black and the trails are even more fun. It's also the time that a (now) annual order gets placed stateside for some lights (and/or bling) that'll help get us through this SAD time of year.

This year Chipmunk has expressed more of an interest in venturing out occassionally and rather than lug our ol'hefty and dim DIY SLA about the Yorkshire lass decided to splash out (a bit!). As my L&M ARC's have been so impressive we thought we'd give their halogen commuter-eqsue Solo Logic mv a try.

As you can see, the "mv" lamp is teeny compared to an "ARC" and we're pleased to report that it packs one hell of a glow. For a halogen, it's a fairly white light and the custom reflector gives a good spread of spot and flood. This lickle lamp also has a couple of snazzy features;

• the "side lights" that should help to bring the cockpit out of the gloom
• the bar mount shifts the lamp centrally over the stem
• dim-able from 13w, to 10w to 6w giving 2 - 4hrs burn time
  
• along with L&M's trusty "break away" bracket
  

The "mv" system comes with a trickle charger as standard but it appears that my smart ARC charger copes admirably with both a 7.2v Nimh and my 11.1v Lion. So we can top up both system's in around 2hrs a piece.

Thanks to Larry for supplying such a cute, diddy system for Chipmunk and another mighty ARC (to Rob's pal Rob) at such favourable prices. Oh and gawd bless the strength of the GBP !

Ride report to follow...

Topeak Whitelight DX

After getting caught out with no lights recently, I decided that we needed a backup lamp that's small enough to carry in your pack but with enough power to get us out of trouble / out of the woods on a local night ride.

Mucho surfing had my head spinning but I eventually opted for the Topeak Whitelight DX (black) which is just about the right size, alloy bodied, good qr clamp, good light with 3 led's and fair battery life.

For the full spec here's the manufacturer's link.

PS: I'll try and post some pic's of the light beam soon.

2006 LED Lights

Over at GearReview.com I stumbled across this LED light test, including offerings from the likes of DiNotte, Princeton Tec, NIght Hawk, Light and Motion, CygoLite, Blackburn, CatEye.

They're getting better...

Which Light ? - Light & Motion ARC

It's that time of year again when the darkness takes a hold over most of our day and we need to dig out those lights in order to keep riding. I did this a couple of months ago and found that my good ol'DIY bodge-it, halogen unit was even heavier than I remembered at around 5lbs. I've happily run this 20w puppy for at least two winters but msTurner looked shocked when I approached her with it, "okay, okay, I'll look for something else."

A few magazine reviews and hours of web browsing later presented me with a couple of options. Upgrade my SLA (sealed lead acid) battery to NiMH (nickle metal hydride) which'd be much lighter. Wait until LED's are more powerful and then go shopping. Purchase a lighter NiMH powered system, probably with halogen bulbs. Or take the plunge and opt for a bright HID (high intensity discharge) unit with a light L-Ion (Lithium Ion) battery. Much depended on the £'s but I also wanted a replacement that'd be a significant improvement over da bodge.

I contacted my trusty suppliers in the USA and Chad came back with favourable prices for JetLights and Larry with Light&Motion. Price hunting in the UK just turned up the old adage; "rip off Britain" but manufacturer's worth a mention are; Lumicycle and Rush. The US run MTBR website provided a very useful insight into most options available and I especially appreciated the light beam comparisons, the specification table is also handy.

Time was tickin' on and the L&M ARC was starting to look like a decent option for me. I also understood that Larry was making an order in the very near future so I took the plunge and request one be sent over the pond. Why'd I select it ? The HID bulb isn't off the shelf with the standard casing and uses their own reflector which gives an excellent long range spot yet stil with ample floodlight spread. The battery is tiny (rumoured to be made even smaller soon) yet has a runtime that will suffice for long evening jaunt's. If I do need to carry another then it's so light that I'll hardly notice it in my backpack. It's also been well reviewed, should provide ample light, is compact, charges fairly quickly, simple to use and light weight. Plus msTurner seemed to like ! Although the charger came with a US mains plug it uses a standard old school "kettle" style cable which was easily swapped for a UK equivalent. The L-Ion ARC weighs in at 1.2lbs, around 4lbs lighter than my trusty ol'DIY jobbie and is so much neater. It also only cost half UK retail at approx £220 (incl'g shipping/duty/VAT) compared to £450...

In use the system is very easy to setup and was mounted up with any problems. The bar clamp will fit both standard and oversize bars and the screw fitting clamps up to any tension you want - I usually have it a little on the loose side so that I can dip the beam and it's also less likely to get damaged in a crash. The L&M mount also incorporates a break away mount to help save the bulb in a crash and if you look deep in the box it also comes with a helment mount - which I've not tried yet. On the bike, just a single plug fitting is needed which looks secure and weather tight. The lamp has two settings; 13w (60w halogen equivalent) and 11w (40w equiv) which don't provide a great deal of difference to the light yet give another 30-45mins burn time.

On my first few rides the harsh, white light emitted from the HID seemed odd compared to the softer, yellow halogen lamp. However, the brightness is most definitely the biggest improvement and has to be seen to be believed. Some don't like the spot of L&M but I thinks it's great for those high speed Millenium Falcon speed runs thru the woods. It helps you to spot that log or low branch long before it comes as a BIG surprise ! As my night rides are typically less than 2.5hrs I've had no problems with the battery running down and tend to leave it on for the duration, even during stops. HID lamps have a relatively short life which is greatly reduced by switching on/off repeatedly, plus then take a few sec's to warm up after each off.

Can it be improved ? Overall, I'd say that it's a crackin' little system that allows you to ride into the darkness almost as fast as during daylight. It might just have one possible short coming as I'd actually like to see a reduced low power setting so that it'd be more useful on the road. At the moment I tend to swing the lamp down and into the verge. Having said that, the relatively high settings are great for getting lazy drivers to dip their main beam if you swing your ARC across their bonnet !

Reviews

As many a Blog has been created that review all thangs MTB, I thought it'd be handy to have a central area where they can all be found, incl'g a handy link on the sidebar. So Blog away Posse and review kit to your hearts content...

Bikes :

• Cannondale Gemini
• Cannondale Jekyll
  
• Canyon Nerve XC 6.0 '07, Nerve XC 3.0 '07
  
• On One Inbred 456 '06
  
• Marin Rock Springs '02
• Merlin Dual - hardtail
• Santa Cruz Chameleon '03
  
• Specialized Enduro Expert '05
• Specialized S-Works FSRxc '02
  
• Specialized M5 S-Works - hardtail
• Titus MotoLite '06
  
• Trek Fuel 80
  
• Trek FuelEX9 WSD '05
  
• Trek Liquid 55 '05
  
• Turner 5Spot '05
  
• Turner Flux '05
  

Components :

Bars :

• FSA XC190 - riser, alloy
  
• Maxm MX-1 - flat, carbon
  
• Maxm MX-5 - riser, carbon
  

Brakes :

• Formula Oro
  
• Hope C2 - 2 pot, closed
  
• Hope Mini
  
• Hope Mono M4 - 4 pot, open
  
• Magura Louise BAT's, VentiRotors '07
  
• Shimano Dual Control '05
  
• Shimano Saint
  

Cables :

• Avid Flak Jackets - sealed
• Dry Cables
• Shimano XT
• Sun Ringle - sealed
  

Cassettes :

• Shimano XT
• SRAM PG-990
• SunRace MZ
  

Cranksets :

• Shimano Hollowtech II '05
  
• EnduroForkSeals Replacement Bearings
  

Derailleurs :

• Shimano XTR (fd)
• SRAM X-Gen (fd)
  
• Shimano XTR (rd)
  
• SRAM X0 (rd)
  
• SRAM X9 (rd)
  
• SRAM x9 Jockey Wheels '05

Forks :

• Fox 32 140RLC Talas '07
  
• Fox 36 '05
  
• Manitou Nixon Super '05
• Marzocchi Z1 Freeride SL RC2 '06
• Pace RC41 '05
• Rockshox Pike '07
  
• Rockshox Reba '05
  
• Rockshox Revelation 426 U-Turn '05
  

Grips :

• Enduro Fork Seals Silicone
  
• Yeti Hardcore
  

Groupsets :

• SRAM vs Shimano

Pedals :

• Crank Bros Candy SL
  
• Shimano DX - flats
  
• Time ATAC Aliums '02
• Time Z '05 - flats
  

Saddles :

• Fizik Gobi '05
  
• Koobi
• Specialized BG2
• Specialized Jett - women's
  
• WTB Shadow
  

Seatclamps :

• Hope
• Salsa
  

Seatposts :

• Thomson Elite '05
  

Shifters :

• Shimano XT
• SRAM x0
• SRAM X9
  

Shoxs :

• 5th Element '05
  
• Fox DHX 5.0 (coil) '06
• Fox DHX-Air
• Fox RP23 '06
  
• Fox RP3 '05, PUSH'd
  
• Fox Float R '02, TFT & PUSH
• Rockshox MC3 '05
  

Skewers :

• Bontrager
• Hope

Stems :

• On-One Inbred '04
  
• Thomson 4x
  
• Thomson Elite '05
  

Tyres :

• Bontrager ACX '05 "Tubeless"
• Hutchinson Bulldog
• Hutchinson Spider UST
  
• Panaracer Cinder
• Panaracer XC Fire
• Schwalbe Nobby Nic's
  
• Schwalbe Racing Ralph '05

Wheelsets :

• Bontrager RaceLite UST
• Chris King & DT XR 4.1d '05
• Industry9 & DT 5.1 '07
  

Accessories :

Armour :

• Thor Quadrant

Helmets :

• Giro Animas
  
• Met 5th Element '05
  

Hydration Packs :

• Deuter Cross Air
  

Jackets :

• Endura eVENT
  

Lights :

• AyUp LED '07
  
• Cateye Stadium - HID
  
• Light & Motion ARC '05 / ARC '06 - HID, Li-Ion
• Light & Motion Solo Cub - Li-Ion '06
  
• Light & Motion Solo Logiv mv '06
  
• Lumicycle
  
• Topeak Whitelight DX '06 - LED

Locks :

• Kryptonite New York Chain '06
  

GPS :

• devices - Garmin Edge 305, eTrex
• software - MemoryMap, Tracklogs v3 '05

Mudguards :

• SKS Shockguard & X-Dry '05
  
• Topeak Defender '05

Pumps :

• Shock Pumps
  
• Topeak JoBlow Sport '02 - trackpump
  

Shoes :

• 5ten Low Impact - platforms
• Cannondale Roam '06 - women's
  
• Shimano W101 '04
• Specialized Sport Mountain '02 vs '07
  

Miscellaneous :

• Aldi Cycling Kit
• Bike Rack - Thule Ride On '05 - tow bar mount
• Books - Master MTB Skills (again), Zinn and the Art of MTB Maintenance
• "Helicopter" Protective Tape
  
• Importing from the USA
  
• Camcorder set-up & early tests
• High5 Protein Recovery drink
• Homemade Super Fruit Bars
  

Review Websites :

• BikeMagic - under the "Gear" tab
  
• Gear Review.com
• MTBR

I find that the Blogger Archive drop-down is useless unless you know "when" stuff was Blog'd. So with a little help, I'm sure that the links to any new reviews will mysteriously find there way into this handy reference blog. Eventually...