Bar mounted lights are ******* rubbish!

I know this has been done to death as a (bar or head mount?) question but bear with me..

I’ve been doing quite a bit solo of night riding this year and normally just use a single helmet mounted P7 torch off-road but I also have another P7 torch with a bar mount that I use on my roadbike so I’ve been taking that with me too (more as a spare and to use on road sections to preserve battery life)
Years ago I used bar mounted lights but recently I’ve tried using the bar mount on it’s own but even on full power it is truely awful off road apart from when going in a straight line down or climbing dull tracks – as soon as you hit a corner, weave in and out of anything tight, lean into anything, lift/dip the front, drift the bike or jump anything you are left practically blind. I have heard people complain about not being able to judge depth very well with a single headmounted light but I find the exact opposite, at this time of year the trails round my way are covered in damp leaves with hidden soft spots, holes and ruts underneath and with a helmet mount to get the depth back all I need to do is move my head slightly and this has become second nature for me over the years, so much so that I found myself moving my head in frustration when just using the bar mounted light trying to get some idea of the terrain ahead. I know a lot of people ride with both bar and head mounted lights but since I’m perfectly able to see depth with just the headmounted light, switching on the barmounted light adds nothing. (it will be useful in rain/snow but otherwise) it’s just pointless.

I can see how it might be useful to have both if you ride in a group (especially if some of the group are running ridiculously powerful lights).

Both

I’d say it’s down to beam pattern – for a headtorch you want soemthign with a fairly narro wbeam (like a torch) but for bar you want more of a flood.

As you say, head mount is worse than useless in rain, snow or mist but I find no bar mount deprives you of a lot of peripheral light (assumign you use a ‘real’ bike light).

P7 torch with a bar mount

I strapped a cabbage to my bars and that was rubbish as well.

down to beam pattern

Correct, there’s a reason there’s a market for specific riding lights.

how much runtime from a medium Savoy ?

a P7 torch’s performance blows bike specific HIDs (we all thought were the best lights imaginable a few years ago) away.

If I can see every inch of trail I’m actually riding with a helmet mount on medium (only needing full power for fast DH) why would I need a wider beam patern stuck on my bars pointing in the wrong direction?
other than to wake up the wildlife in the neighbouring county? 😕

and it’s carrots that help you see in the dark not Cabbages, silly 😉

bar mounted powerful light and helmet light = perfect combo for off road, the spread of the ones like liberators/maxx daddy’s etc is amazing on the bars, then having a nice tight beam on the lid to follow where you are looking and the bars to light directly infront of the bike!

they really arent rubbish if you have the right one, i for one wouldnt be able to do the rides i do at night with just a helmet p7 torch…

i’m too tall for a helmet light, i hit enough branches as it is without adding more height up there, bar mount for me

If I can see every inch of trail I’m actually riding with a helmet mount on medium (only needing full power for fast DH) why would I need a wider beam patern stuck on my bars pointing in the wrong direction?

Depth of field. With the light on your helmet you can’t see shaddows. With on on your bars, you can’t see round corners. Both: Best of both worlds.

how much runtime from a medium Savoy

Not sure – I run a sprout as a helmet mount and it’s all the brassica you’ll ever need imo.

Well I may not agree with you much GW but I do here. 😉

Exactly the same, I always used to use an Exposure bar mounted light and never really thought it was a problem. Got in the habit of “wiggling” the bars momentarily to light an area you wanted to see.

Recently I’ve been running a 230 lumen DX torch on my helmet along with the Exposure and found that I’m generally concentrating on that beam rather than the Exposure one. Out last night a guy we were with only had a hiking type headlight so halfway round I gave him my DX torch to put on his helmet.

The result? With the bar mount only I was all over the place on trails that I know well and usually manage fine in the dark. Being used to being able to point the head torch anywhere and light any area then suddenly being deprived of that ability made me hopeless.

I suppose having both is best for all conditions but I’m definitely more in favour of head mounted now.

the light i built myself has a very wide spread of light in addition to a bean infront..

works well, though can see the benefit of helment light.. (fixing things in the dark for one!)

TreeMagnet – Shadows? Yes I can, I already explained how.

didzy – what do you ride at night? I’ve done everything from XC to fast/slow techy DH to dirtjumping with a single helmet mount with no probs.

rocketdog – try bending? 😕

What’s all this about riding with bright lights at night, just use the force

Ideally it’s better to have both, but I did OK for a couple of years with just my bar mounted Lumicycles. The beam spread was fine and there was only a small number of situations where I was left ‘blind’ as the spread of the light was so good.

LED systems that I have seen/used all seem to have a much narrower spread of light, which means you are ‘blind’ more often using them on the bars as you don’t have so much leeway from straight ahead.

I recently invested in a Spokeshirts light to use solely as a helmet light and it is definitely better to ride with a combo of helmet & bar mount.
As others have said though, helmet mount alone definitely reduced my ability to gauge obstacles/roots/drops etc. I guess it’s down to the generation of shadows and the way this is altered with a helmet light.

Last week at Thetford a mate’s lights died, so I lent him my helmet light and carried on with my bar mounted Lumi LED conversion – just the one can. It was very difficult riding with just this light compared to when it was in it’s original halogen guise as the spread was so narrow. Previously I had run it alongside a halogen can and hadn’t noticed, but it was really noticeable how narrow the beam is for bar mount when used on it’s own.
When I convert the other can, I intend to use the higher powered driver and use the medium optic to help with the spread.

didzy – I agree liberators etc. are amazing bits of kit but you really don’t need to light the entire forest, just where you are going.

I bring a head mounted torch set up in my Camelback “just in case” but never need it. 1800+ lumens of well spread light on the bar is more than enough.

As others have said though, helmet mount alone definitely reduced my ability to gauge obstacles/roots/drops etc. I guess it’s down to the generation of shadows and the way this is altered with a helmet light.

I already explained how to guage obsticles in my original post, try it? 😉

Thats why I have these[/url]

My Hope Vision 4 does a splendid job of being my only source of light on my bars.

Don’t let other people’s experiences get in teh way of your prejudices though.

Brighter light on helmet an dimmer light on bars seems best for me.
Dimmer light stays on for whole ride and bright one for anything a bit twisty rocky or rooty. Dimmer bar one good for road bits and ride to/from the actual ‘mountain biking’ bits without ‘upsetting’ motorists.

GW – i can see your point as i recently have started using a joystick mk3 alongside my maxx daddy, had people say it wouldnt add anything as the maxx daddy just outpowers the smaller joystick – but thats rubbish, the joystick adds a great depth to the already impressvie maxx daddy, and in technical descnets around the peaks where rocks lie in await furhter down the track, the helmet light really comes into its own, also on bends before you start to turn the bars you can suss it out by pointing your head in that direction…..

i defo wouldnt be without the joystick now, its added greatly to mine maxx daddy and ive been pretty impressed, however there is no way i could run just the joystick on the helmet without the spread of the bar mounted maxx daddy, in some instances up peaks etc you do need to ‘light the forest’ just to get an idea of where the hell you are 😆

all in all perfect combo having bar and helmet for me 🙂

ohh and the joystick pee’s all over a dx 900 torch, its an excellent little torch for its weight and only 300 lumens!

I’ve thought for a while that the race for as many lumen as you can has gone a bit far

If I wanted the trail to look like it does in daylight, I’d go & ride it through the day

did I ask for a list of which brand and model lights any of you have? 😕 you just can’t help yourselves can you? 😆
but Surf-Mat, you’re prob winning 🙄

I’ve got bar mounted magic shine, love it.

If I wanted the trail to look like it does in daylight, I’d go & ride it through the day

Not if you’re working 9-5 six days a week and it’s winter you won’t – unless you only wanna ride once a week.

The point about night riding is it allows us to do in the dark what we’d rather be doing in daylight but can’t.

Or that’s the point for me at least.

as soon as you hit a corner, weave in and out of anything tight, lean into anything, lift/dip the front, drift the bike or jump anything you are left practically blind.

All part of the fun 🙂

Not if you’re working 9-5 six days a week and it’s winter you won’t – unless you only wanna ride once a week.

Once in the daylight & once in the dark for me – I just like night rides to be – well – a bit darker than daylight ones
Some of the lights you see out now turn the place brighter than your average cloudy day

OMG -the mythical “Peak” returns! 🙄 it really is nothing out of the ordinary. 😕 Do no “Peak riders” ever ride elsewhere? 🙄

surely you plan your route for a night ride (even if vaguely)?

too busy to read it all but head torches are great until it rains or snows heavily then you cant see naff all.

one on bars one on head is for winners

as soon as you hit a corner, weave in and out of anything tight, lean into anything, lift/dip the front, drift the bike or jump anything you are left practically blind.

Must be a crap light, I hardly ever lose my illumination…

I did bar-mounted, then head-mounted, now both. I really like having both – and they don’t need to be uber-powerful/expensive to do a great job. Wider more powerful flood on the bars, narrower less powerful spot on the head. Run the bars on low except when going really fast. Switch the head off on all the fireroads so the battery lasts long enough. In tight twisty woodland singletrack bars-only means you have to remember what was in front of you when you turn the bars and you can’t look ahead round corners. When it’s raining the reflections from head-only mess with your head!

GW – ok i agree with everything you stated in your first post, this is what you want to hear, yeah?!?!?!? 100% agreement that what you stated is CORRECT?? well here you go, i agree, ffs miserable sod! 😆

if you ride the peaks you dont really need to go anywhere else as nothing is better in the uk 😆

yeah i plan routes before, naturally, but there are often obstacles to tackle that a map cant foresee, ie, about 30000000000 million big **** off rocks in different places each time you go 😆

but yeah you are right though, congrats 🙄

I had a Niteflux mounted on the bars, briliant it was, until it developed a fault. The replacment, though the same model was dire. No one could ride with it. I finally got some Seca race. They are fantastic bar mounted even if they are 300 lumens less than my previous lights. So its clearly not all down to lumens.
I do actually solo night ride on an old joystick. I have that on the side of my lid. To dim for group rides.

All part of the fun

if “fun” for you involves often riding way slower than in daylight with an interupted stop-start style, frequently losing momentum and not having any flow. then yeah 😉

did I ask for a list of which brand and model lights any of you have? you just can’t help yourselves can you?
but Surf-Mat, you’re prob winning

You just started a thread saying bar mounted lights are sh1t. Some of us disputed this. Oh and BTW I didn’t name the model of my light.

A good bar light is all you need.

A pathetic trolling attitude is NOT what you need.

I can’t believe you two have managed to start getting pissy with each other about lights.

Only thing for it is a ‘ride off’ on each others’ trails with each others’ choice of head/bar light. And a cuddle.

[edit] fwiw having tried both extensively, I am mostly with GW on where to put one’s lumens. But perhaps its just my local trails.

+1 on the cuddle

(i beat SM on the lumens count anyway… everyone bow down to meeeeeee!!!)

if you ride the peaks you dont really need to go anywhere else as nothing is better in the uk

Ha ha… 😆

QFT ! 🙄

GW – Member

if you ride the peaks you dont really need to go anywhere else as nothing is better in the uk

Ha ha…

QFT !

😆 , its true sir, but to keep you happy i’ll agree with you agian 😆