Advice On Night Lights

northernmonkey · *by **northernmonkey** on Wed 17/Feb/10 9:34am*

I'm lookinga tpicking up some lights for the impending winter - both for commuting and trail use.

Does anyone have any experience running the Ayup system with just one light unit out on the trails and if so which beam configuration are you using and is it better lid or bar mounted?

I'm lookingat a getting a single unit and just runnign it as a helmet mount with some cheap commuter LEDs on the bars when commuting and to cast shadows. Any thoughts on this or should I just man up and buy the full system and worry about telling the wife later :satan:

wgtngrl · *by **wgtngrl** on Wed 17/Feb/10 9:40am*

Narrow beam ayup on the helmet for me - dirt/road/commuting, whatever. I prefer helmet mounted because I have control over where it points - great on the road for shining in to cars to let them know you're there. I go through a couple of km's of unlit highway on my commute and I point one of the beams further up the road and one just a few m ahead (it's a split beam). Works great. Both light and batt go on my helmet. Not sure what they're doing these days in the way of mounting system but I added the optional gecko system which was a lot better than the standard one, well worth a few extra dollars.

banga · *by **banga** on Wed 17/Feb/10 9:50am*

I use narrow on my helmet. I've got a medium for bars but pretty much never use it, in fact its had far more use on my mates helmet. I find one on the helmet more than enough, But I'm not one of those people who trys to night into day with lights if ya know what I mean.

Que Danose coming in and telling you AYUPs are rubbish in 4 3 2 ....

kiwi_zg · *by **kiwi_zg** on Wed 17/Feb/10 9:52am*

It's a hard one to make a call on, like most techy things quality and performance get better and weight & price are coming down.
The Chinese knock off LED system can cost 5 times less than a Niterider HID system I brought 7 years ago.
If you are going to use it a lot it's worth buying quality, but I wouldn't get a top end expensive system unless you have lots of spare $$$.

MTBR have a good read on different brands of lights.

http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/lights-sho ... roduction/

wgtngrl · *by **wgtngrl** on Wed 17/Feb/10 9:59am*

Lights have certainly come a long way in the last few years, in terms of both quality and affordability. I had some niteflux visionstix back in the day because I couldn't afford better at the time. Barely tolerable - the light was hopeless and the batts only lasted an hour max so always had to carry 2 and constantly charging them - plus couldn't ride longer than 2 hours!

mark2c · *by **mark2c** on Wed 17/Feb/10 10:01am*

Currently the best value is the MagicShine light: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29489

About NZ$130 delivered. Includes battery and changer.

Know of >5 of these in service, all with good stories to tell (~3h on high beam, tons of light etc).

HTH(I'm a twerp)

grahamt · *by **grahamt** on Wed 17/Feb/10 11:18am*

mark2c wrote:Know of >5 of these in service, all with good stories to tell HTH(I'm a twerp)

+ 1

Great value for money and has bar and helmet mount options. I also have a night lightning i-blaast which is my main light. Picked up one of the deal extreme lights last year as a spare and was impressed by the output - not up there with the i-blaast but close at 1/3 the price.

Definitely go for helmet mount - bar mount only is hopeless when you get to undulating terrain and corners, as it illuminates where the bike is pointing rather than where your eyes are trying to look.

northernmonkey · *by **northernmonkey** on Wed 17/Feb/10 11:40am*

mark2c wrote:Currently the best value is the MagicShine light: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29489

About NZ$130 delivered. Includes battery and changer.

Know of >5 of these in service, all with good stories to tell (~3h on high beam, tons of light etc).

HTH(I'm a twerp)

They look suspiciously like those Nitelight ones they are flogging out at woodhill for $250 bucks....

kiwi_zg · *by **kiwi_zg** on Wed 17/Feb/10 12:43pm*

northernmonkey wrote:
mark2c wrote:Currently the best value is the MagicShine light: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29489

About NZ$130 delivered. Includes battery and changer.

Know of >5 of these in service, all with good stories to tell (~3h on high beam, tons of light etc).

HTH(I'm a twerp)

They look suspiciously like those Nitelight ones they are flogging out at woodhill for $250 bucks....

I think they are are an Asian copy of the German Lupine Tesla model that retail for over 400USD.
I heard the light outputs have a high variance from unit to unit as the LED's used are not quality controlled (hence making the price cheaper). So It's bit of a lucky dip if you score a unit with a higher light output.

swtchbckr · *by **swtchbckr** on Wed 17/Feb/10 12:45pm*

grahamt wrote:
mark2c wrote:Know of >5 of these in service, all with good stories to tell HTH(I'm a twerp)

+ 1

Great value for money ...

+1 here too.
and yep, they're suspiciously like the $250 ones. keltravers (on here) is the guy selling those, and he swears that they're in the same body, but the workings have been tidied and they've spec'd some better shit in them.
hell, buy 2 at $130 each, and have a spare...? :blink:

Mel · *by **Mel** on Wed 17/Feb/10 12:48pm*

northernmonkey wrote:
mark2c wrote:Currently the best value is the MagicShine light: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29489

About NZ$130 delivered. Includes battery and changer.

Know of >5 of these in service, all with good stories to tell (~3h on high beam, tons of light etc).

HTH(I'm a twerp)

They look suspiciously like those Nitelight ones they are flogging out at woodhill for $250 bucks....

Yeah, they look the same, but apparently some of the internal components are different.

I've got the one from Deal Extreme. I chose it because it produced way more light than a single Ay-up pairing (on a footpath test). You just need to add in an adaptor plug for the charger (mine has two straight pins), and a velcro strap if you want to mount the battery on your helmet too (the cord is long enough for it to sit in your camelbak, but not long enough to sit in your jersey pocket). You can also buy extra batteries from Deal Extreme (but not a holder) and make another battery pack for it.

The performance of the light is great. Almost too much light for commuting with (can dim it a bit which helps).

FSR_Man · *by **FSR_Man** on Thu 18/Feb/10 12:07am*

go ayups mint bang for buck!

i use a bar and helmet mounted for comuting and mountain biking, i have got the old ones where they did have the beam width option. i would go fo a wide on bars and narrow on head. 2 lights FTW! off memory they come in a set with one light and 2 batteries? just buy an extra lamp and moutn to go with it and you will be sorted!

Nick_K · *by **Nick_K** on Thu 18/Feb/10 12:34am*

If your looking for a quality light I'd highly recommend nightlighting.co.nz.

Made in NZ. excellant service and upgradeable. (unlike the ayups I believe)Reminds me I should get some upgraded LED's put in my set that I've had for 2 years.

RussS · *by **RussS** on Thu 18/Feb/10 2:29am*

Available now Mel

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32756 $29.94 USD with free shipping. Also available is an extension lead to make putting battery in the camelback easier.