I might get off my backside and drag the bike out if the shed the odd evening this winter and I cranked up my old Lumi HID to see if it still worked and even after 3 years of no use it lit up nicely!
I was thinking I'd have to buy a new one - possibly Lumenator - but it appears its not an urgent purchase.
So is a new light like a Lumenator that much better than a Lumi HID?
I wouldn't say that they are any brighter but the light is a bit warmer. HID lights made everything look a little blue. The main difference is with reliability. LEDs just work immediately and work and work. The HIDs used to need a start up cycle and would often flicker in use.
More light levels, more reliable, more compact and lighter. More robust too and you don't have to worry about the stellar replacement costs of an HID bulb.
If your Lumicycle battery's okay, the Lumi LED head units work really well and have the big plus of allowing you to adjust light output in either direction rather than having to cycle through five or six different levels.
I used Edison HIDs until the bulbs went and cost £100 to replace 🙁
They were better than the LEDs that repalced them, but then again they were £500 lights and were designed accordingly with lenses and reflectors and such.