Unreasonably bright bike light apparently hunts deer

posted Oct 22nd 2009 1:00pm by Mike Szczys
filed under: led hacks, transportation hacks

ureasonably-bright-bike-light

[Jukka] wanted a bike light that wasn’t afraid to go into the woods during the dark winter. He put together a lamp that uses eight 3 Watt LEDs to pump out 1680 lumens (english translation). The high power LEDs were mounted on a large aluminum heat sink and use lenses to optimize the beam of light. The system uses a 2 amp driver board that he assembled himself. Power is provided by sixteen AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that are housed along with the driver circuit in a water bottle.

This more than doubles the output of the last bike light we thought was too bright. Where will this lumen-arms-race stop?

[Thanks Sami]

Comments [76]

tagged: bike, light, lumens, nickel metal hydride

Reader Comments

Bright is good but how long does it run?

Posted at 1:05 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Dan

Wow that is bright. Well done.

Posted at 1:07 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by silvs

do want!

Posted at 1:08 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by djrussell

granted they would need to be focused, but what’s the hold-up on replacing car headlights with these? they would be more reliable than a standard or xenon bulb and use less power.

Posted at 1:10 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by djrussell

Agreed…. bright … but unless you take 20sec bycicle rides … useless

Posted at 1:11 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by cok666n

I almost hit a deer on a trail ride at night goin 25 mph because my light wasn’t bright enough! This is sick!

Posted at 1:14 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Chris

@Dan: he says 1.5hrs on his page. But he mentions 0.9A right after, so I’m not sure if that is at full power.

If you do basic calculations it should be under 2hrs at 24W draw. 1.2V * 16 cells * 2600mAH * 90% = ~45W/hr

@djrussell: they are just too expensive. If you googled you would find them on high end cars, or as an option.

Posted at 1:25 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by jproach

Yeah… I wanna make a flashlight like this with a lithium polymer battery!
With the 6 AH cell from sparkfun, 8 Luxeon Rebel LEDs would last for half an hour. Not bad if I build a car charger into it and keep it in my car. It would be crazy bright too! about $90 in LEDS though!
-taylor

Posted at 1:33 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by taylor

Plenty of cars have LED lights now. I am surprised if you haven’t noticed them because they are pretty annoying. (focused beam == ahh! my retinas!)

Posted at 1:34 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Insipid Melon

hmmm “its to dark i can’t see a thing” *turns light on* “AHHH too bright can’t see a thing”
btw nice

Posted at 1:37 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by monkeyslayer56

jproach: they don’t look prohibitively expensive. especially not with auto industry bulk rates.

insipid melon: as head lights? cite models please. the only ones i’ve seen are the audis with the accent strip underneath the actual head light.

Posted at 1:42 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by djrussell

Totally cool, but somehow I don’t think my hub dynamo will power this…

Posted at 1:48 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by rob

I’ve seen some of the higher end porsches with them as well.

Why not make a generator that is run off of the pedaling motion or the wheel to charge a battery. That’d at least make the light output constant for the life of the rechargeable battery.

Posted at 1:51 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by DaddyStop

if that thing gets any brighter he’ll be able to peel paint with the damn thing. wouldn’t mind have a few mounted on my bumpers, some in back for tailgaters who leave their brights on and some in front for… well seeing stuff.

Posted at 2:11 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by polymath

Another alternative is using the SSC P7 leds that are 10w and 900 lumens each. Which might also be bright enough to be used as supplementary lights on a motorcycle, where you are still relatively limited in power.

Posted at 2:22 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Nick Scott

Too bright? I say mount a 1kw metal halide on the thing. Good luck powering it though! 70,000+ lumens do not come easily…

Posted at 2:22 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Anthony

Mount it on a shotgun and you’re all set.

IF the game warden doesn’t see you coming from three miles off.

Posted at 2:24 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Skyler

@daddystop…i was thinking the same thing, like some kind of alternator

Posted at 2:50 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Chris

The tittle says hunts deers. Using bright lights not just on cars to stun a deer is illegal where I am from. Damn good fine at that.

Posted at 3:12 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Mic

If you think this is a high power light, then have a look at this thing (not mine):
http://fotos.mtb-news.de/photosets/view/13254

Posted at 3:40 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by more power

8 x 3watt LEDs? pah, mere matchstick light, how about a 100watt LED :D

http://tesladownunder.com/LEDs.htm#100%20W%20LED

On the subject of bike lights, my 300 3mm LED array bike light is coming along nicely (10.2 watts with all 300 lit).

Posted at 4:12 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Haku

“insipid melon: as head lights? cite models please. the only ones i’ve seen are the audis with the accent strip underneath the actual head light.”
I am not a car person and if I were I still don’t know why you’d expect me to be able to identify cars which I am complaining blind me at night when I look at them. :p

But there are enough of them in Abq. that I usually run into at least a few on night outings, and the cop cars are switching over to LED headlights as well. (they also have LED siren strips).

Posted at 4:28 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Insipid Melon

this is freaking awesome!

Posted at 4:29 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by andrew

I think with a little work you could make a nice pair of rally-style lights, and if you design it right you could have an adjustable throw pattern. Never hurts to be able to see further driving on country roads this time of year.

Posted at 4:50 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by dylnwit

“”Why not make a generator that is run off of the pedaling motion or the wheel to charge a battery. That’d at least make the light output constant for the life of the rechargeable battery.”"

Hmm this would increase resistance which i think every bike ride tries to avoid.. how ever if there was a break system which returns energy to the rechargeable battery then you are onto a winner.. That way every time you use your brakes it would add charge to your battery. this way you will get back something from that hard earned energy you put in to get the bike moving in the first place.

Posted at 5:01 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Will G

@Insipid Melon

I’m pretty sure what you’re thinking of are HID lamps. very bright and (usually) focused.

Posted at 5:25 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Abbott

I work at a bike store and I know all the bike lights. Current LED Units are pumping 1200lumins out of their highend systems with a reasonable runtime. Previously they were chucking out around 900-1000 with HIDs however the new LED stuff they are working with brings the cost down and the efficiency up drastically. Most brands have discontinued use of halogen and HIDs.

Posted at 5:56 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by paige row

What an awesome project! This is so well done not to mention simple! This is the kind of project where necessity meets fun. You know you’ve got to feel like a bad ass when your driving down the street and your blinding oncoming cars with your bike light! GJ on this project!

Posted at 5:57 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Heatgap/Ho0d0o

@DaddyStop: You’re thinking of a dynamo hub which have been around for a while now – for example http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt.asp and from what I’ve read the resistance of dynamo hubs aren’t that noticable.
My bike has a 234 watt-hour battery onboard already for it’s hub motor, ideal for powering bright lights :)

Posted at 6:07 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Haku

I have an older projector with lamp gone,
wold love to try and replace lamp with this
led..

Anyone know how i can fool projector to start
without lamp?

Posted at 6:33 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Tekburn

via this thread saw a link for a 900lux $85 bike light
http://www.geomangear.com/
On a side note just found out my surefire L2 lumamax has been upgraded to put out twice the power, twice the runtime, in a smaller package, for the same $! L2’s aren’t even in surefire’s vocabulary anymore! Only dif is mine goes 33ft, the lx2 does 3ft. L2 = 6W, 100lux, 1hr, or 15L/18hr ~.
I was thinking of running one from the bike motor (1000W ecospeed) battery (15A 38V), but will wait & see as I want a 12V jack regardless.

Posted at 6:36 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Gabriel

I’d like to put a pair of these on my 1200N.

Posted at 7:31 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by The Steven

@Abbott

I agree Inspid Melon is probably thinking of HID headlights, but the Audi R8 and Cadillac Escalade Platinum already have full LED headlights (both high and low beams.) Manufacturer Hella says standard cars will get LED headlights in about 18 months: http://http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2009/05/20/46132/led-headlights-within-the-year.htm

Posted at 7:57 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by MinorHavoc

Er, let’s try that link again:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2009/05/20/46132/led-headlights-within-the-year.htm

Posted at 8:00 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by MinorHavoc

OK, so when can we start signaling the shuttle astronauts and the space station with this thing?
Laser pointers are illegal at airports now, what would this sucker do?

Posted at 8:43 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Winston

dude, homemade photon cannon ftw!!

Posted at 10:10 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by jdog

nice for a ride though the woods or as brights, but not so much as lights on roads with oncoming traffic.

round reflectors throw light in a circular pattern in all directions, not just down, also up –not a problem with a couple leds: if a car gets a surprise, fine with me.
but at this brightness, and if you really want to use it as headlight, one should have a look at headlight patterns: if you shine your car lights on a wall you notice two things:
1. the beam isn’t round but forms a bar
2. there is a clear cutoff line just above this bar.
this cutoff line is basically required everywhere, and the bar-shaped beam directs the light to where you need it. it’s not total lumen that makes the light, it’s lux on the road. and with a good design you can save about 1/3 and get the same brightness.

here a couple links:
how to measure it (german bicycling club, go half way down the page): http://www.fa-technik.adfc.de/Komponenten/Scheinwerfer/index.html

a commercial reflector that can do that:
http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?products_id=486

a homemade attempt:
http://www.enhydralutris.de/Fahrrad/LEDWerfer0402/p1130815_s.jpg (the led is actually not mounted in the reflector but on the aluminum sheet)
- done by this guy:
http://www.enhydralutris.de/Fahrrad/LEDWerfer0402/index.html

more here:
http://wandinger.pfaffenwinkel.de/led_fahrrad/prototypen/LED_Scheinwerfer_Touchdown.html

one of course could also add an anti blinding shield and point some of the reflectors downward.
personally, i like elliptical lenses on a couple leds combined with a led in a modified spot (led with aluminum shield on one side)

the whole problem got extensively discussed in germany (more bikes there), but to some degree also at candlepowerforums

Posted at 10:40 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by tantris

@rob
some guy did tests with dynamos and got surprisingly good results:
http://www.led-treiber.de/html/dynamo-treiber.html#LED-Standlicht
go down to #5 to get the circuit
by removing the zener-diodes (over-voltage protection) in his wheel dynamo, he could power 4 white and 1 red led at 280ma while going 11mph.
the text in red on top is a warning: if you do this with a hub dynamo and your leds get disconnected while your supercaps are still charging, you have to discharge them before reconnecting the leds or they will be toast.
what surprised me: dynamos are apparently very good current sources and can drive leds directly, he got this graph http://www.led-treiber.de/assets/images/Dynamo-LED.gif on his page

Posted at 11:04 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by tantris

wow, that’s effing bright…

Posted at 11:25 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by nachowarrior

Running no light on your bike is a offence here in the Netherlands. I’m afraid that having this much lumen will also attract the attention of the police. :P

Posted at 11:32 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by Michiel

Where will this lumen-arms-race stop?

At Third-degree burns.

Posted at 11:47 pm on Oct 22nd, 2009 by DAltaica

I’m not convinced the (only) way forward is a lumen-arms-race – if you’re not looking for real-colour vision at night, would it not make more sense to run lower power red lighting to maintain night vision AND illuminate the trail effectively? The one thing I hate with super bright lighting on bikes (and I currently have it) is the fact that you need to carry stupid amounts of battery power and several lights to create a fake-sun system, yet you still can’t look to your sides, and more importantly if something is slightly out of the side of your beam pattern it’s basically invisible because teh white light is trashing your night vision. With red (or to some extent blue, which I’ve tested) you can still see where you’re going just fine but you can also see everything around you like you’ve been in a dark room with the lights off, it means you can have much longer runtimes and if your pack does go flat you can still see where you’re going without waiting 10 mins to adapt!
Not for everyone though, I’m aware.

Posted at 2:51 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

Why aren’t projectors powered by LED’s now? Oh yeah. £300 bulbs.

Posted at 3:40 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by George Stone

What about a version that was powered by the act of biking? Might need a little rechargeable battery so you can get started, but then…

Posted at 4:24 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Courtney

@James

That’s fine until a car runs by and trashes your night vision anyway.

Posted at 5:44 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Alex Dodge

@alex – you don’t use this sort of bike light in a place where there are cars – a) you’d dazzle the car driver b) you’d be risking being pulled by the cops and c) its totally overkill – this kind of light is off-road only! I get flashed by annoyed cars with my 50W halogens, let alone mental LEDs!

Posted at 5:56 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

however if you rode in a group and others had white lights you’re buggered. I tend to night-ride alone, but like I said, depends on peoples uses.

Posted at 5:57 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

Mommy says: “Don’t look directly to the sun or your bike light.”

Posted at 6:02 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Sharky

Don’t you guys know that you’re supposed to wear an eye patch to preserve your night vision while you ride? duh.

Posted at 6:15 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Caleb Kraft

Plenty of people used to use yellow/orange glasses to preserve night vision, and subs use red lighting when surfacing at night to maintain night vision for ships/ice/etc :)

Posted at 7:12 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

Actually, there is a very high power bike generator you can get – rollergen. You can engage it when convenient (going downhill) and disengage it otherwise. Puts out 30W.

Posted at 7:21 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by AH

Give over, lazy people are putting energy into their bikes to get uphill, who’s going to want to take kinetic energy out when the purpose is to ride as fast as possible?! :D

Posted at 7:29 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

I really like this write-up

Anyone know where I can get those lenses? that’s the only part of the build I don’t know where to source.

Posted at 8:45 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by twistedsymphony

He uses 0.9A with the current batteries as otherwise they run out too fast. This way he gets 1.5h. The full power is 2A and he just mentions that better lithium batteries should be used then instead of the nimh cells in use now.

Posted at 8:56 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Elias

Actually the maker doesn’t mention anything about hunting. He just notes that eyes of animals and reflectors shine back from hundreds of meters away as shiny spots and that many animals let you get close because they dont seem to see the people behind the light, they just stop to wonder the bright light.

Posted at 9:11 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Kazael

thanks for the link, MinorHavoc. that’s what i’m talking about. agree insipid melon is probably talking about HID, either oem or poorly done aftermarket.

Posted at 9:16 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by djrussell

@twistedsymphony:

Lenses can be found at:
http://www.ledil.fi/
http://www.led-tech.de/

Posted at 9:19 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by M

@James: you can’t look to your side because most led lights use spots – it looks brighter and it’s also cheaper, because one can use flashlight reflectors.

for a flashlight most people don’t want spill but a crisp spot, but for a (road-use) light, you want some side spill and not a sharp cutoff line that creates darkness (except for the top).
add a lens with a horizontal beam to it, or if you have multiple leds, replace one.

Posted at 9:32 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

@courtney, @daddystop:
see my comment @rob and the link i posted http://www.led-treiber.de/html/dynamo-treiber.html#LED-Standlicht
bottle dynamos (afixed to the fork, with a little plastic wheel riding at the rim of your wheel) are cheap in europe, but i’ve seen them even in the u.s. for under $10.

usually, they are looked down upon, because they usually power a dim 2.4 watt halogen bulb, that goes off as soon as you stop and constantly flickers.
with leds, it is a different story, the guy above claims 3 leds in series with 200-250mA. that would be about 150 lumen for the front light without any battery! he also added some caps so you can stop without the light turning off.

other people claim at least 3w: http://www.pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/Dynamo.htm
his homepage has some interesting generator projects: http://www.pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/BicycleElectronics.htm

and if you’ve never seen a bottle dynamo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_dynamo

Posted at 9:54 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

Thank you for the links M!

Posted at 11:18 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by twistedsymphony

1.) The new Prius has optional LED headlights, joining the ranks of the Escalade Premium and Audi R8.

2.) Optics for Cree and Philips LEDs can be found on ledsupply.com or futureelectronics.com.

3.) From the picture, it appears that only the blue hue spot is from the LED headlight. The intense light directly in front of the bike is NOT from the LEDs.

4.) Anyone else severely scared of how he wired the LEDs? There is no protection from the leads shorting on the heatsink… Not that it really matters THAT much, as a short to ground just means the LEDs after the short go out. But, mounted on a bike for offroad travel, I’d personally insulate the connections.

Posted at 12:04 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by JD

@tantris – that’s not the sole reason, many bike lights (LED and otherwise) use floods and they give the same effect. The reason being the white light bleaches your rod cells in your eyes (those used for low light vision) meaning anything below a certain intensity (outside your beam pattern) is effectively just black. If you use a wavelength that doesn’t bleach your rods you can have high intensity light in the spot or flood beam AND maintain low light vision for the out-of-beam areas.

I spent a while riding around with high brightness blue LEDs (similar effect to reds – little bleaching of your night vision) and I could see a nicely illuminatd trail AND everything to the side, and when I turned the light off I could still ride by moonlight immediately. This is impossible with even my 90 degree flood halogens.

It’s just a thought I’m playing with at the moment, but it seems to be holding true with a few tests, and it’s used in areas like naval warfare so I’m fairly sure it’s pretty accurate. I’ve talked it over with a couple of Profs in the field. I think the reason peope dont like it is that people like natural light colours (white) and red at the front is counter-intuitive on a vehicle :-)

Posted at 1:31 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by emmaarmstrong

@emmaarmstrong – shoot, now i need brights, lowbeam, and trail lights?
but seriously, i read some debates on the effectiveness of different colors (blue vs red debate) and what i got out of it so far is this: rods are blue sensitive but not red sensitive,
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/bright.html#c4 you see a blue led trail light with your rods and a red light with your cones.
so my understanding is: if you want a really bright trail light, make it as far red as possible, your cones will pick it up but it won’t spoil your rods. if you want some smaller illumination, make it blue, your rods will pick it up but it won’t saturate them as easily as an (almost)-full spectrum white phosphor led.
unfortunately, i really don’t like having a bright red light on the front;)

Posted at 2:27 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

@jd- #4: now, that you mention it. ooops, i thought the green coating was insulation.
i did like the thing built into a handlight however, and the driver is worth a look. i used the zetex zxld1360 before, he uses the maxim max16820. with the maxim, he has to use an external fet, but this way his current is also not limited by the chip. the maxim is also cheaper.

Posted at 2:45 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

@tantris – sorry, the post by emmaarmstrong was me, the troubles of shared computers and not watching when you click submit! but to answer your thoughts..

Checkout http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/xzMisc/Color/Media/EyeSpectralAbsorption.png also, makes the differences a bit more obvious but…

Yes, to some extent a smaller quantity of blue would indeed make sense, but for the fact that we have bugger all blue receptors (something like 2% of total, and mostly scattered all over the retina) makes focusing on things illuminated in blue-only light much more difficult than red-only apparently.

Our main problem is that we can’t really control the levels of brightness, one second it might be reflecting off white limestone, the next off dark soil. Because of this we tend to prepare for the worst case (dark soil in a dark wood maybe) and so we just blast out a blue light to match that, but this “smaller” illumination (so as not to bleach the rods) needs to be carefully controlled, whereas red doesn’t and provides better focusing (or rather resolution) due to between 50 and 75% of your cones being red.

Did any of that make sense? It’s 3AM here!

Maybe a combination of red and lower intensity blue? Red is fairly odd to ride with. But either are theoretically better than white. Worth a test, if you get spare time/LEDs. I’m currently tracking down some 3W reds and blues to test them both out.

Posted at 7:23 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

Also bear in mind that rods are not really found around the your main focus point, so illuminating with blue would mean you’d get fairly good peripheral vision with the rods but your blue cones would not be excited very much and so you’d lose low-light definition?

Posted at 7:27 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by James

I doubt if I’d like to see THAT bright at night. Lots of details, kinda scary.

Posted at 7:36 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by anon

In some countries it is indeed not allowed to have superbright light on bicycles, or lights with certain colors, but even if it is there are also many places where disturbing animals from their nightcycle and scaring them will be illegal.

And I’m a bit on the fence, I’m disappointed that you apparently need such laws with idiots that pull stunts like this, but on the other hand I don’t like too many rules and I think even the maker of this would run around all night with these lights, it’s more a bragging thing to show on sites surely? In which case it’s OK I’d say, you just dont’ want tons of people actually using this kind of thing, in fact when a certain kind of xenon or something standard bicycle light became popular in my area I was already annoyed as hell at being blinded all the time, the damn things also were predominantly pointed up rather than down for some reason.

Posted at 8:01 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Wwhat

@james: so, for the trail light a bright red spot in front of you and blue sidespill?
but i doubt, that i will build that anytime soon. i have an unfinished road-compatible white led light, and that has priority.

if anyone needs more reflector links: for the bar shaped part i’m thinking of either this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1919 or that one http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1788
i got both, they are o.k. i glued reflective aluminum tape to the back of the glass reflector, which helped with wasted back spill and made them somehow “softer”.

Posted at 8:48 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

@Wwhat
because many lights look like this http://reviews.mtbr.com/files/2008/01/img_4936.JPG but ideally should look more like this http://img138.imageshack.us/i/bbbbbml1.jpg/

Posted at 9:23 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

@ Wwhat

The BMW Xenons have an auto-leveling system which directs the headlights down when the suspension angle changes so you don’t blind other drivers. They’ve been doing this since ‘97 and it’s really nothing more than a fixed lever arm which signals a servo motor. Perhaps something that could be added to this to keep from blinding others and the added benefit of having light stay where you’re biking, even over uneven terrain…

Posted at 2:12 am on Oct 24th, 2009 by Insteon

Sure bright, but overkill IMHO.

My homebuilt E-bike light has just three Luxeon III LEDs, but I’ll bet it beats this one for ‘throw’, yet gives plenty of close range light too. 50mm dia. 2 degree Carclo optic (apparently no longer made) for long range (Up to about 100 yards /meters), and two 20 mm dia 25X6 degree elliptical optics for spread and close to medium range. Each LED can be used independently depending upon conditions / power conservation. With all three running, about equivalent to a single halogen car headlight on ‘bright’, but only requires 15-18 watts for maximum brightness.

Next one I build will use Cree or Seoul Semiconductor LEDS for greater lumen per watt efficiency, although unfortunately that wonderful Carclo 2 degree optic isn’t quite compatible with the Crees or SSes. May have to experiment with aspeheric lenses to get that long ‘throw’.

Posted at 5:01 am on Oct 24th, 2009 by Legend

@Wwhat – These lights are great for night riding off-road, they’re never designed to be used on-road. Certainly nowhere in the UK is it illegal to disturb animals overnight, and we don’t really have many to disturb. For that matter, the number of night-riding MTBers are VERY low – it’s hardly a massive problem. HIDs are used as a fairly “normal” light for night riding currently, and are similarly bright to this.

I’m not sure why you find it such a problem to be honest – if it’s on road then the rider is being stupid using high-brightness lights on the road (though some would say it’s about the only way of getting drivers to realise you’re there) and in the woods there are bugger all people about and no-one to upset.

Posted at 4:39 pm on Oct 24th, 2009 by James

Mounting the LEDs in an arc left to right may give on a pattern. 2 rows may give you an eccentrically switched high beam or low beam. I do suspect even with this light you aren’t going to see that tree that’s about to cut your face. Imagine this light when there’s snow cover, useless, unless the contoller/power supply can reduce the output. Speaking of the controller it would be nice to be able to see the pdf file associated with that.

Posted at 3:09 am on Oct 26th, 2009 by Doug

To the people talking about LED car headlights, there’s plenty of cars with LED rear lights, and some with LED sidelights, but only the Audi R8 has LED headlights. Although there’s many with bi-xenon as standard or an option.

Posted at 2:50 am on Oct 27th, 2009 by jim

Boink! There’s a couple more cars with LED headlamps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight#LED_light_sources

Posted at 3:00 am on Oct 27th, 2009 by jim