Originally Posted by
zephyr
I walked to my nearby wallymart and bought two chrome looking 12V halogen MR-16 "driving lights", about $20 for the pair.
I'll have to head over there and see what I can find. Good idea.
Originally Posted by
zephyr
I replaced the 50 w MR16 with a 10 w, 21 degree narrow flood MR16 ($6 on the web).
Interesting idea. Everything I've been reading has been of people using the 20 watt bulb and over-volting it to 14amp. Of course that's going to give off more light but it's also going to suck up battery run time. The 10 watt idea is an interesting alternative.
Originally Posted by
zephyr
I went to batteryspace.com and got a 12V nimh 4500 ah water bottle battery ($43) that weights just over 1 lb. (I don't like to mess with having to remove and replace a bunch of little AA batteries every day or so like those LED lights require.)
This is where I run into trouble. Because my bike frame is only 17.5", I have very little space to put my battery (I refuse to give up my water bottle and don't want to use a camelback). There are many Li-Ion battery packs available that are sealed together as one and you just connect one lead to the the charger. They are lighter and smaller than the NiHm batteries, which would make it easier to mount to my bike. The problem I'm running into is that I can't seem to find the correct battery pack to work with the 20 watt 14 volt configuration.
Originally Posted by
zephyr
My run time with this battery is 4+ hours.
4+ hours - awesome! This is another big issue for me. Right now I don't see myself riding at night for much more than an hour, but that doesn't mean I won't go on an occasional 3 hour ride. The 4 hour run time is my goal.., and this is making me think that I want to setup a system like this:
● 2 separate light housings
● Lamp 1: 20 watt, 10 spot Halogen
● Lamp 2: 10 watt, 30 flood Halogen
Since I will be riding on a bike path, I want to be able to easily switch to a lower lumen light source when other riders are approaching. This 10 watt bulb might be do the trick and as a flood with a semi-wide beam, it will fill the area closer to my bike with a wider sweeping beam. The 20 watt, 10 spot will give me more distance and punch to see what's up ahead.
Great stuff. I think I've decided to go this route. I was considering buying the new Cree MC-E 752 lumen LED but it's just so much more work to get it done (and will end up costing more). Thanks again.