so just replaced my aging and not 100% reliable Niterider MiNewts x2 Dual (300 lumen total) lights with one of Spokebloke’s 1100 lumen jobbies

As the Minewts are US imported and a replacement UK charger is quite expensive I dont think its worth flogging them as I wouldnt get very much (the US charger is quite tempermental when used with a plug adaptor – part of reason for replacing, Ive already burned a battery out once by mis-charging) so I was thinking of keeping them for commuting but also of running the Niterider Minewts on the bars with the new light on helmet when heading offroad
Is there any point to this?
Will the 1100lumen just drown out the meagre 300lumen? or will I be able to tailor beam patterns etc and use the Niteriders to compliment the more powerful light?
or would I be better off with the new light on the bars? (The Niterider’s cant be helmet mounted though)

Anyone any thoughts?

1100 on the bars, Niteriders on the helmet, you can never have too much light 😀

I always run 2 sets. The thought of my lights cutting out on a tricky descent doesn’t appeal at all.

If you could find a way to helmet mount the Newts and they’ve got a tight beam then they would compliment the Fireball on the bars. I’m sure Smuge could sort out a charger.

Putting the Newt next to the Fireball = p1ssing in the wind.

they would be swamped by the 1100 on the helmet.
Better the other way around as Dibbs suggests.

I like them both to be the same kinda power personally.

Minewts on helmet would I agree be the best option but mounting may be tricky as there is two seperate lamp units. I’ll see what the helmet mount that comes with the Fireball is like as they both attach with O rings similar to Fireball, maybe it will be long enough to secure both lamp units next to each other, but I don’t think so

Spokebloke do you reckon you will get them to me by weekend? (No probs if not, would just be nice)

Smudge at http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/ could be able to help you out with a new charger with a UK plug.

As others have sugested I would be putting the new light on the bars and one of the Niterider MiNewts on your helmet.

Depening on what the case of the MiNewts is made of you may be able to modify them with the help of Trout from the forum to produce a greater light output which would be more suitable with the brighter new light.

without modifying them Rusty is both on helmet or none, Y lead straight from lights to battery connector, to to away with one light would need opening the other up and moddingthe cable, dont want to do that as I would rather keep them intact and use for commuting etc
its no prob if they are no good with the new light 1100 lumen is way more than enough on its own when Ive been getting by with 300 until now!

useful info about chargers though, that could have saved me some money if I knew that yesterday 🙄

I can see your dilema, they may be small enough to get both on the helmet and the battery pack in a bag, see how you go when you get the new light, at that point if they have essentially become redundant the upgrade/modify route may come into play i guess.

I just took some old Lumicycle halogen lights and re-built them with parts from Trout making them tripple LED’s and they are superb, that was the reason for the sugestion.

I used MiNewts on the bars with a 900 Lumen iBlaast on my head – I found they were still very useful for filling out what was directly in front on my wheels, and I had the big light off on fire roads and climbs (this was for a couple of 24/12s races).

The battery has a nasty connector though – appears to be some kind of control signal passed as well current – so an official battery might be the only option.. they weren’t mine so I didn’t dissect them to see if you could just use a simple 7.4v pack instead.

well I managed to fit them to helmet
Removed the half clamps that go around the bars and screwed the lights directly onto a strip of plastic I found in the shed, couple of grooves cut in the plastic to take the O-Ring and wrapped that around a vent on helmet, run cable under helmet between the shell and liner padding and fitted battery to back with velcro
Not too heavy – battery balances out lights, point perfectly at right angle in front and really solid and looks really tidy, minimal cables on show, 30 second job to fit and remove too
Big test will be on Tuesday night