macbethpoe

Hey I did a search in here and it didn't come up with anything. But I was wondering if anyone has tried the Owleye Highlux5 light out?

https://www.owleye.com.tw/product_det...p?product_id=9

lectraplayer

I'm not sure why the prices of these stinkin' things are so high. I've about decided the best way to get a lighting kit is to engineer one yourself. I'm sure you have a handful of gel cells lying about, and I have had great success out of sealed beam PAR38 lamps, especially with a 30 degree beam. The flat, wide beam that is so common lends itself well to the purpose at hand. It was designed for this (cars actually). The next step up would be a fistful of CREE LED's. Give Google a workout looking for homebrews. If nothing else, a MAG Lite on the handlebars also works well.

daredevil

your report please.

Nanomite

I ordered one of these 3 weeks ago and just got an email that they are out of stock.

They gave me the option to cancel the order so I did......

nerys

its winter so I don't ride at night at all. its sitting here in the box somewhere got to find it. IT WAS CRAZY bright when I was testing it in the house when it came in. I mean "ludicrous" bright but the real test is outside on the bike at night.

sadly the beam pattern is wrong for a vehicle headlight (I was hoping to use 4 of these as headlights for my car would give me an extra 2-3 mpg at night time.

1FJEF

I use the TerraLux 300 (lifetime warranty) wider beam flashlight in a funky looking Chinese mount that actually works well with a little shade tree modification along with Eneloop rechargeable AA batts (2 required).




So March 2nd 2013 pricing is about $33 for the light, under $3 for the mount and $18 for the charger & 4 batteries. I've used this system for years (except I used the TerraLux 220 until the 300 came out) and it works well under 20mph on the street or smooth dirt trail. The light is bright, hold it in your hand & shine it in your eyes & you'll regret it for a few minutes.

1) Remove the pocket clip. Find the balance point of the flashlight & put that point in the center of the removable light mount and tighten the fastening knob.
2) Put the funky Chinese mount base on the bar, I use old inner tubes to make a bar spacer rather than what's supplied.
3) Slide the flashlight onto the mount, it will rotate left-right, use the handlebar mount fastener to get the up-down you want. Go look at it in the dark, freakin amazing isn't it? It seems more impressive aimed so the bottom of the beams dimmer halo is 3 feet in front in front of the tire/ground junction.
4) Now fix the wobbly nature of the mount by carefully sliding the light off the quick release mount so as not to disturb your L-R adjustment. Get some black electrical tape (45cents) and wrap 2 turns around the swivel portion of the base. Fold over & smooth & you don't even know it's there.

You now have a very good light for under 20mph use that doesn't blind oncoming, a mount (that you can duplicate for $3/bike, and 2 batts + 2 spare AND a charger for $54.45. For $36.45 you get the light & one mount, so I'm way under budget.
The mount is QR, just put a base on each bike & the light will go from any bike to another with a push on the front QR lever.
Other cyclists have been amazed by the price when they see the thing in action.
Is it as good as lights in the $150 & up range, absolutely not. Is it pretty freakin' impressive for $36.45? Absolutely.
Also, TerraLux is in the USA and does honor the warranty, we had one of six go out (older 220 model) & they sent a switch free of charge!

dwmckee

I have owned several of the lights mentioned here and others as well. I have gotten tired of DX lights from China that are amazingly bright but unpredictably stop working at inconvenient times too... I also do not like the big clunky dedicated lights that seem to be steal targets too. My newest favorite is this https://edcplus.com/black-xeno-e03-wi...e-t4-p-16.html which puts out 480 certified lumens on high and it uses either a single AA or a 14500 cell. Have to use the rechargeable 14500 to get the max output though,but still pretty bright with a regular AA. On medium it gets about 90 minutes of output before needing to have cell replaced or recharged. The light is basically tiny, just a little bigger than the battery and visually looks so small no one steals it because they are looking for something that looks like a real light. This is the equivalent of the "noisy cricket" gun that Will Smith gets in the Men in Black movie. Looks tiny but amazingly powerful when activated. This light is so great you will buy a second one to keep in your pocket or to take backpacling as it is so small. It is shock resistant and waterproof to 30 feet. It has really good quality o rings and nice square threads which feel so solid when you screw on the back too. All for $32 bucks (even less if you shop around).

stevepusser

Which headlight are you talking about?

If you use lights with replacable batteries, carry extra. I use some that use 18650 rechargables, and just carry one or two extra. Also, in well-lit areas, I just use a bright blinky, saving the flamethrowers for the descents and pitch-black zones.

I'm thinking of getting another flamethrower here: https://www.fasttech.com/products/160...00-lumen-led-b

The mtbr reviews say the headlamp is really nice quality, more of a spot than a flood (better for the road or helmet than handlebar-mount dirt), and maybe 1000 true lumen. The battery pack is of unknown quality, but can be replaced with a known high quality one.

scoatw

I agree. for the money it's hard to beat in the AA flashlight category. Mounted with a two fish lock block, It gets decent run time, and works great in the rain and sub-freezing temperatures. I'm sure the XM-L T6 is a fine light for the price. And I thought about buying one. But I don't care for the battery pack. The ease of use, quality performance and low price of the Terralux keeps me a satisfied flashlight user. IMO the Terralux outperforms your high priced tactical flashlight anyday.

1nterceptor

Not the exact model mentioned(SSC P7), but very similar:
https://dx.com/p/singfire-sf-90-cree-...Ernest20130619

A bit brighter than my SSC P7 single 18650 generic flashlight and the 4 18650 pack lasts much longer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLeZhBw3cjI

zacster

Soon we'll be needing lights again for evening rides. Just from looking around though I'm not seeing anything new and different, just a lot of variations on the XML-T6. Is there anything new from Cree? Are they being put together in interesting packages?

1nterceptor

Just received this in the mail and getting ready to try it out against other lights:
https://dx.com/p/cree-xm-l-t6-4800lm-...x-18650-199920

Another BF member lent me his P7 Magicshine and I have a P7 flashlight to do beamshot comparisons.
If you or anybody else have a light they want to compare, please contact me. I'm very interested especially
in comparing beams with a dyno powered light.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...s)-for-testing

stevepusser

Yes, there are some really good bargain lights that use the newer XM-L U2, such as this one: https://www.fasttech.com/products/160...00-lumen-led-b

There's also an even newer generation of ultrabright LEDs hitting the stores, I think they are called the XM-L2 ? Yeah, here's a couple bargain ones:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/160...-2000-lumen-le
https://www.fasttech.com/products/160...00-lumen-led-b

No affiliation with Fasttech, just got my light there...

cacher

Looking through the reviews here for a cycle light to use, and went to tplanetbikes site to review their review, and found this

"Blaze™ one-watt LED is twice as bright as half-watt LED".........you don't think.

dougmc

Actually, I wouldn't think.

1) "brightness" is a very subjective thing. Doubling the number of lumens or lux doesn't make the light seem "twice as bright", and

2) just because the light uses twice as much power, that doesn't mean it emits twice as much light -- it also matter how efficient that particular emitter is at that particular power level, and there's a lot of variation there. It's entirely possible that the one watt light emits less light than the half watt light. Our four times as much.

Really, "watts" is a really poor indicator of how good a LED light is -- if you must pick just one number to describe a complicated thing, lumens emitted would be the number to pick, but of course the beam pattern factors into how good it is too. (The beam pattern needs to be what you need it to be for your particular application.)

ksisler

Buy this headlamp and the replacement lense. You will not believe how good they are.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Includes the 4,100mAh battery pack and charger. Under $30 delivered.

I find that I rarely need the high setting, using medium or low most times.

PM me if you need a convincing photo of the beam. I will shoot a pix tomorrow and post it...

Note; If you want even more light, just put a second one on the other side of your stem.

/K

niuoka

so I just ordered this set up, has some negative reviews, but we will see. Seems the biggest issue is the battery pack, maybe someone on the forums has or will come up with a fix for this. If not too much money, might be worth making one up to carry for a spare at night or at least have on hand/

dougmc

I own both this light and the diffuser. I've tried the diffuser and just don't care for it. I might use it if I used two of these lights, however -- one with and one without. But certainly, it's a personal preference.

That said, any time somebody asks me about bike lights, I now point them at this $23 light. I suggest this, two of the $5 DX PBSF clones, and one of those $1.55 DX flashlight bike mounts and a $2 9 LED 3xAAA flashlight (or whatever they have lying around) as a spare second light and $1 for a pack of AAA alkalines for that. $38 total spent, and they have redundancy and more light than 90% of the bikes on the road.

I used to go the 18650 flashlight approach, but this light is just too good and to cheap to overlook.

niuoka

so I bought this set up and yes it is a very bright light. far better than what I had. However I had an issue with it. I ordered the diffuser lens, and wanted to give it a try. I could not get the lens holder to unscrew, so put it in a vice and gently grabbed it with channel locks.....and finally it came loose

dont know if others have had this issue, just be warned, the bezel might be really really tight.

niuoka

rode tonight, switched back and forth with lens, actually like it better without the diffuser
boy is high beam bright

DerrickWade

I added another Bontrager Ion2 to the bars. One was nice, but two is extra nice.

dwmckee

I used to have the Blaze 2 watt light and retired it two years ago as it is inadequate for real night riding. Maybe good to get home in a pinch or as a flasher for visibility, but not something you want as a light to ride at night with if you can help it. Many of the other lights listed here are 4 - 5 times brighter (no exaggeration) and cost less too. My favorite right now is the Xeno e03 which sells for $30 and puts out 480 CERTIFIED lumens in a nice flood pattern. The Blaze barely puts out 100 lumens on high (though it does last a long time) and has more of a spot beam. You can do way better than the Blaze. The Xeno uses a single AA or a rechargeable 14500 Li ION cell; you will need to use the 14500 rechargeable to get max brightness. Two months ago on a tour on the C&O canal we got stuck riding at night and I had the only decent light. We wound up riding 3 abreast with me in the middle lighting up the path for everyone with my tiny Xeno e03 (and it was like riding in daylight for everyone). The Xeno with it's flood beam actually washed out the spot beams from the other double A lights so they just shut them off.

nerys

the XML Based units are the best so far. you really can't beat the insane throw and brightness for $28 shipped (amazon ebay anywhere pretty much now) the new one has 3 modes with a lower "low" which is what I used most of the time and its more than enough usually when its really dark I throw it on hi "just because" why not.

WOW niuoka found it for $23 gonna order two of them at that price and get free shipping (christmas gifts)

Bike-Bum

I just bought one of those "1800lm" lights from Ebay and compared it to a known 500 lm lamp, and it has an identical beam. No where near the output of my Di Notte. I found what appears to be the same item for $17.90, advertized as 600 lm.
https://dx.com/p/lzz-t6-cree-xm-l-t6-...x-18650-197235

dwmckee

Hey, has anyone figured out a reliable conversion factor for DX lumen and mAH over ratings? Like maybe multiply DX flashlight lumen ratings by .6 to get a more realistic measure of the real light output you can expect, and multiply DX mAH battery ratings by .7 or something like that to compare it to a normally rated battery.