bmthom.gis

I am happy to say I finally got my new lights in the mail! B&M IXON IQ Premium front and IXBACK Senso. The front light was bigger than I thought it would be, though I am not complaining about it. I am impressed with the brightness. Can't wait to give them a try!

Yeah, I think people will see that coming

Side view for size and to show off the side visibility

Yeah, I think I shouldn't have any problems seeing the road

Rear light


Will have to get an adapter so I can plug in the silly Euro charger to my American outlet.

jrickards

Nice and bright and I like the side brightness, that's one thing that my front light is missing, my rear can be seen from any direction (rear light I mean)

tds101 

Nice light. I'm going to order a set of the Premium lights soon. There's an excellent video review of them on YouTube. If you hadn't posted this I'd never have found them - great pricing from starlight.com.

fietsbob

the rubber stick on glare shade they make for the Ixon is a good addition to keep it from glaring back at your eyes..

kingston 

Congratulations on your purchase. I wish more people would get that headlight.

bmthom.gis

lmao!

Glad to have been able to help you find them! That was a good review.

Ah! Mine came with it, I just hadn't gotten to all of the other goodies in the packaging.

Thanks! I really wasn't happy with my bontrager I got on clearance, it really doesn't do a very good job of illuminating the road surface. Also, as much as I was "my god why the hell won't people shut up about their German lights" it dawned on me that there must be a reason and I should give it a try. Based on the small bit of testing around the office and what I saw on the youtubes, I think I made a good purchase.

I believe this is the review tds101 was talking about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwM7vDvvGhU

PaulRivers

Lol, well you'll have to let us know what you think after using it for a while. :-)

noglider 

I'm really curious to see how you like riding with a shaped beam! I've been riding with them for a couple of years now and like them very much. The first time I tried the first one, I burst out laughing. Those German engineers!

Where did you make your purchase?

HydroG33r 

I've been looking at the Busch & Müller (Mueller) stuff on Peter White Cycles for a little while now, but I'm so confused about which to buy... love the descriptions & reviews, but it's SO hard to compare head to head by features or price. While I was considering a dynamo hub generator this year, I think it's still a bit out of my price range (especially since I don't need a new wheel). That said, B&M do appear to have some good battery options.

I have the L&M Urban 700 right now, and don't like the round beam... really want the shaped beam. Any rave reviews on a specific battery-powered B&M or other?

noglider 

My review of the B&M Ixon

ItsJustMe

I would have liked to have gone with that, but NiMH batteries are a non-starter for me so I have the Ixon Core IQ2.

The IQ2-50, at 50 lux, the light is adequate, but not great. I can ride with it currently for the most part, but it's not really great at picking out road hazards. I've already hit a couple of unseen stones that I probably would have seen with my brighter lighting. Even after riding with the light for 2 weeks now, and being much more comfortable with it than I was at first, I think to some extent that's false security. I THINK I can see pretty well, but then I hit a large stone that I didn't even see.

So I'm not really sure at this point. When I start proper winter riding, I will probably mount the old standby cheap Magicshine clone as well as the Ixon, and use it on the more challenging parts of the road. Or I may give up and just sell the Ixon while it's still basically new and wait for something with everything; LiIon batteries, shaped beam and 80 or even better 100 lux.

mikeybikes

I have the B&M LED dynamo lights with a shaped beam on my Breezer and am really happy with them. Glad to see there's a battery powered shaped beam light now. I might have to get one for my other bikes.

bmthom.gis

Well, so far I REALLY like my IXON IQ Premium. noglider wrote a good review of the Ixon Core.

Great review! I read it, unlike your signature. :-P

So far I really like the shape. I was a bit perplexed at first as it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, which was a rounded beam angled down. After using it this morning (it wasn't dark, but the sun was still low in the sky), seeing the reflection off of cars it appeared that it wasn't blinding and drivers in their rearview. I guess I did my small part to help us all get along.I am pretty sure some people did indeed see me. It's a pretty bright light. I have no idea the lumens, but that 80 lux really spreads it around nicely.

I made my purchase at Bike Shop | Bike-Discount: Onlineshop mit Bestpreis-Garantie after someone else on another thread mentioned them. The set (back and front) and to like $110 with shipping, which seemed to be around the price without shipping I was finding elsewhere.

acidfast7

About 10 years ago, before I ever thought a moving to Europe, I worked with a German student during my PhD.

He said the American adapters were "weak and of a horrible design" because the electrodes could be bent as they were thin parallel prongs. He squeezed the American one, said "what is this weak as crap" and through it on the lab bench top in disgust. Then he squeezed the German one as hard as possible (until he turned red in the face) and said "see, this is a good design."

From that day onward, I knew we would get along quite well and that Germans in general make sense.

I've always thought that the EU adapter was superior since that conversation on a warm Texas summer day.

bmthom.gis

What don't you like about LiMH batteries? As far as I can tell, you could put some normal rechargeable AAs in there and be fine.

Leebo

In addition to brighter lights, try using a helmet light as well. Much easier road/trail objects with 2 lights at different heights. The helmet lights allows you to see around the turn before your bars swing around.

noglider 

I know you are not directing this at me, but ...

First, I assume you're talking about NiMH.

They have less energy per gram.

The voltage drop curve is very sharp, so you often don't get a warning before they drop way down.

They prefer to be discharged fully before charging, otherwise, you get less capacity, because of memory effect. LiIon batteries have little or no memory. If your usage pattern doesn't match a full discharge, you might get a lot less usage out of a NiMH battery. With LiIon, just charge it whenever you want, even if it's mostly charged.

I've read on this forum that capacity goes down in low temperatures.

acidfast7

why not just go with a dynamo?

this thread is half-way to a proper solution.

bmthom.gis

Yup, NiMH is what I meant. As for the memory on them, according to the B&M advertising, the rechargables that came with it has no memory effect. Anyways, batteries are the least concern I have at the moment, as they can easily be swapped out.

As for the dynamo, acidfast - eh, that is a whole can of worms/set up I don't care to open up (as well as being more expensive initially).

noglider 

Yes. Dynamos don't solve every person's problems, but they work for more people than realize it. Most people just think of battery powered lights out of habit. Many of us who use dynamos wish we had started sooner. That's how much we love them.

J.C. Koto

IIRC there is an option to charge the IXON IQ Premium with a dynamo. I don't remember if you can power the light with the dynamo while using it or not though but I seem to think so.

Either way, it's an "upgrade" path should you choose to dip your toes into the wonderful world of dynamo power.

Glad you like the light!

fietsbob

The B&M IQ2 shaped beam reflector-LED arraignment is even used in the golf ball sized Eyc Headlight . And Schmidt in the eDelux.

noglider 

Yes, you can use the Ixon while it's charging, which is a pretty unusual feature! I may never need it, but I appreciate it. I sometimes carry an external battery, when I expect my phone's charge won't make it through the day. I could use this battery to charge the Ixon, though I don't anticipate needing to do this soon. I appreciate that they made this possible. It took effort, and it wasn't an accident. Most USB charging circuits don't allow it.

fietsbob

Just the premium , not the earlier one as well ? if so what was changed? Other than the brighter output:

the charge the batteries in place plug on the bottom is common to both.

there has to be a bridge rectifier in there somewhere to charge a DC battery from AC alternator Dynamos.

PaulRivers

(This one is from me, rambles on a bit, and also I ended up testing the Phillips Saferide which is a nice shaped beam light)
https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...e-ranking.html

Ixon Iq Premium
REVIEW: Busch & Muller Ixon IQ Premium - Warning Photo Heavy

Phillips Saferide
Philips LED bike light (LBL), battery powered, with cutoff

For something much brighter, Specialized has a light coming out that looks promising (Flux Expert) -
Specialized Bicycle Components

The marketing says "True vehicle lighting for your bicycle", whether this is real or is just marketing hype that won't pan out, we won't know until we start seeing beamshots, and according to my local dealer it won't actually be available until December.

If you don't need long battery runtime, I think the Phillips Saferide is the easiest light to recommend. I own both that and the Ixon Iq Premium. Nicer color temperature from the light than the Ixon, and it feels like it's brighter (whether it actually is or not I'm not sure, haven't had a problem actually seeing stuff).