Forum menu
I don't like riding at night - I did it once and I was slow, cold and rubbish.
However, I do like drinking and camping - the perfect cover for this is Mountain Mayhem. It does mean that I'll have to ride at night though.
I don't have a light at present, and given that I'll probably only need it for 24hr events, I want to spend as little as possible, whilst not making it so miserable that I pack up my tent and go home at 11pm.
What's the minimum sensible outlay for a light for the above? Can I get by with just a Joystick on my noggin or do I need 1000 lumins of Lupine power?
Our team is riding for fun, my budget is closer to £100 than £300 and no I don't want to MTFU!
Help please!
You need one of the DX torches and a handful of batteries. You should get away with running one on Medium power so one batter will last a couple of hrs. Search on here and you will find links to the Hong Kong-based seller etc.
Shouldn't cost you more than about £50
How about just borrowing one from a mate for the night though?
I was going to buy a dx torch to go on my helmet but ordered one of [url= http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29489 ]these[/url] and one of these [url= http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/8.html ]these[/url] too. Makes more sense to me. But I suppose with the torch you can take a load of batteries to keep you going.
If you order this lot you will have a first class torch (for around £36 all in) and what's more, if you get the night riding bug, it won't be a waste because this makes the ideal companion for another light on the bars.
Part No of Torch
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16092
Part No of Torch Mounts
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12000
Part No of Batteries
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790
Part Number of Charger
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1251
Burn time shouldn’t be such an issue surely as it’s the shortest night (ish) of the year, you’ll maybe have to do two ~1hr stints in the dark max, assuming it’s a team of 4 people, each actually pulling their weight…
Stick your joystick on the bars and either a DX bastid on your noggin (a single charge should last you a couple of laps no trouble) or a DX - P7 torch of some sort some zip ties for helmet mounting plus a change of batteries between laps, both will work out about £50 details can be found all over the place on here…
Have you all bought these DX lights? What's the build quality like? What's the beam pattern like?
If you go for the torch option I have attached one with an old animal watchstrap with a bit of old inertube streched over the torch to stop it slipping.
Have you all bought these DX lights? What's the build quality like? What's the beam pattern like?
They are comparitivly cheap the reflectors and lenses are standard torch jobbies, so the pattern is never going to be as good as a £150+ lights; you have a central hot spot and moderate spill to the sides, I personally find it’s plenty to ride pitch black, scary woodland Singletrack with, the build quality is also far below that of a hope or Lupine, but the head is tough enough, and all the parts are available separately as spares, the battery is basic and benefits from some additional weather proofing, they do the job at a price far below any other similar output light, finish and beam pattern are obviously the compromise to achieve this…
Others will tell you your need 3 times the spend, you’re buying the light to use for approximately 1/3rd of single event, by your own admission you don’t like riding at night, why spunk more than absolute minimum amount of cash on lights you’ll barely ever use again? If you think you may do more night riding in the future or enter similar 24hr events again then it’s worth perhaps spending more, but for one event, get a DX…
I've been using a dxmagicshine on the bike combined with a trustfire 801 inthe lid. The magicshine is a wide spread and the torch is a tight spot so it seems to work quite well as a combo. The combo including chargers, spare batteries and various mounts etc was well under 100 quid