Garmin out front mount / light underneath

I’ll be running the Axis on low except when I’m on the unlit parts of the cycle track. Will also have it aimed down rather than straight out. There’s the little trace on the bars as well for visibility to cars. You can see my sharpie bodge to the top of the trace – stupid design where it lights in all directions so it’s very distracting when cycling if you have it on day flash. Colouring in the top has made quite a difference so far. Will see how that goes when it’s properly dark – if it’s not enough then the black insulation tape is coming out.

I’ll be running the Axis on low except when I’m on the unlit parts of the cycle track. Will also have it aimed down rather than straight out.

It’s not quite so straightforward. The trouble is that most beams the periphery (say the bit between 23 and 45deg from center on a normal 90deg wide beam) is still ~50% as bright as the spot. Whereas from a light with a cut off it’s more like 5%. Try it with your car headlights, stand in front of the dipped beam (a safe distance so you don’t get blinded) with the cut off somewhere around your waist. We can all see that’s still plenty of upward spill to “be seen”, but if you duck down and look at the lamp from below the cut off it’s f****** bright.  And for context a standard H4 bulb is ~1000lumens (main or dipped, most cars only run one filament at a time)  So a 2000lumen bar light is the equivalent of driving around with your main beams on.

The advantage of that is you can actually aim 1000 lumens up the road, and on a flat road that could illuminate a very long way without being in anyone’s eyes. And it does it very evenly as the ‘hotspot’  is right at the cut off so if you look at the trigonometry the majority of the photons are ending up where they’re spread out most on the road. The end result being that the road surface looks evenly bright at your front wheel and 50m down the road.

Whereas a 500 lumen light (i.e. most lights low settings these days), unless you’re pointing it down 45deg, is still spilling a lot more light up into the air. And even setup to be the best light, you still end up with the road getting dimmer past the hotspot.

The downside comes when cornering sharply.  The cut off leans with you so you trying to look around the corner are effectively looking “up” into the area with almost no illumination. Some motorbikes fix this with gimbals, motors, mirrors and other wizardry, But most motorcyclists know that cornering in the dark is either terrifying or requires the main beams !

@thisisnotaspoon  interesting. So to avoid winding up drivers on the other side of the road the solution could be .. ..

1. put a bit of electrical tape (?) across the top (say)  30% of the front light (mine is an older Exposure MaxxD normally used for mtbing in the forest at night, not roads). Though my light does get pretty warm!
2. tip the light to establish the cut off at a suitable level. Hopefully the light tips enough on the Alpkit ‘Garmin and Light Outfront Mount’
3. Run at approx 1,000 lumen maximum

I am getting an Alpkit ‘Garmin and Light Outfront Mount’ and a ‘3 Prong Action Camera mount to Exposure Cleat’ for road/gravel use. I will be testing the set up next week when I pick up the bike from ByC and I have a 65 mile ride home. Inevitably a fair bit of that ride will be in the dark.

put a bit of electrical tape (?) across the top (say)  30% of the front light (mine is an older Exposure MaxxD normally used for mtbing in the forest at night, not roads). Though my light does get pretty warm!

Nope, doesn’t work like that I’m afraid, if you look at car headlights , it’s often actually the opposite, the reflector has a focal popint somewhere out in front of the light so it’s the bottom half of the light that pointing upwards and vice versa.  But unless you get your cover somewhere past the focal point then it will just blur out of focus rather than get projected with the beam.

Most STVZO lights have the LED mounted facing down to the ground, then a shaped reflector that projects it forward.

tip the light to establish the cut off at a suitable level. Hopefully the light tips enough on the Alpkit ‘Garmin and Light Outfront Mount’

It’s never that straightforward in practice.

If you point the torch down far enough to get he actual cut-off horizontal, that would need to be almost 45deg down. Which means you get a very brightly lit front wheel, and relative darkness beyond it. The beam is also getting narrower (as it’s the top of a circle) into the distance, so you lose any illumination to the sides as well.

Run at approx 1,000 lumen maximum

The irony is that because the reflectors in STVZO lights put the light where you actually want it (except when cornering) they’re actually much brighter in the real world.  In terms of light output 100lux (measures intensity at the brightest point) in an average beam pattern is ~300 lumens (which is just the overall output), but is comfortably as bright as a 1000lumen light on the road.

The Magicshine 1700 Evo turned up yesterday (not had time to get beam shots yet) but f*** me, it’s like a bloody letter box shaped laser beam.

This diagram kinda gives an idea what’s going on.

The top image is an STVZO type light, the brightest bit of the beam is near the top, which (the side on diagram doesn’t really convey this) is the bit spread out over the most area of road, so when you observe it on the bike the road actually  all looks the same brightness from your front wheel to infinity (or as far as the light will reach anyway).

The middle is what happens if you try to dip a normal light.  Anything above the center of the beam is relatively dark to you, but to oncoming vehicles it’s still incredibly bright and glaring.

The bottom is an undipped normal light.

In the real world that ends up something like this:

Normal light, the road is visibly darker pas the hot-spot:

Whereas this is an STVZO beam, slight color fringing from the lens aside, the illuminated area is pretty much equally bright all the way up to the cut off, then nothing above it:

@thisisnotaspoon thanks for the response.

Not sure what the next step is then?

Might have to mess about in the garage and see what I can conjure up. I’ll see if I can find an old car headlamp deflector (from driving on the continent) somewhere.

Though I note the Magicshine Evo 1700 is not a STVZO type light.

Hmmm

Though I note the Magicshine Evo 1700 is not a STVZO type light.

Hmmm

STVZO is very prescriptive, it’s not just the beam pattern, you can’t have, even on a switch, a high beam or flashing mode either.  Both of which the magicshine has.

Same with rear lights, the STVZO standard says the light must have a constant red light and a built in reflector, nothing else.

Club run is tomorrow night so I’ll put up some comparison shots against  my Lumenator which is IIRC 1800 lumens so on paper would be a good comparison.  But suffice to say I’m pretty impressed with it.  The dipped beam is very well shaped, and quite a bit wider than some stvzo lights I’ve tried. It’s very good.  The “main” beam I’m reserving judgment on, it seems like it almost mirrors the dipped beam upwards, so you’ve still got a noticeably flat beam, we’ll see how that works out on some fast descents with corners. The remote switch / app / button is a bit confusing at first, it sounds complicated but in the real world ‘square’ takes you straight to full power main beam, and circle takes you to the previous setting, so for probably 99% of people that will be dipped on mid or high power I guess.  If you double click circle it switches from dipped to main, and a single click cycles through low/mid/high in whichever beam you’re in.

Like most lights it’s fault is offering too many modes. Just give me the ones I’ll actually use on the light, and maybe hide the rest in the app.  99% of the time I probably just want full main beams and a full dipped beam.  The only time I’d want anything else is would be an overnight audax type ride and then I’d have to choose between either a low/medium beam or running on external power.  And on that note, it can run on external power (as long as it’s dry) form any USB-C cable and a power bank.

Will check  out the magicshine light above and a few other brands that have light to GoPro type options.

Dunno if I missed it on the magicshine literature, but the 1700 EVO has a go-pro adapter, but the light itself slides on and off a mount.  You press that textured bit under the clamp to release it and the lamp body slides back off it.

I’ve got the Magicshine 1700 light on a cheap Amazon metal out front stem mount. The original supplied bar mount is plastic and felt like it might break. I’ve had it a year now and its been a neat solution without cluttering up my bars. The light has been very effective on the road and down bridleways. Not sure on its claimed lumens, but it’s plenty enough for what I’ve used it for in the pitch black.

I don’t use the quick release button to release the light from the clamp, but instead use a GoPro thumb bolt instead. The app is abit flaky at times connecting but the remote is great.

I also like the fact I can run a battery externally to keep it going (albeit in dry conditions (unless there is a way you can knock something up to protect the charge lead from water ingress).

@thisisnotaspoon and @rumbledethumps

Interesting comments on your Magicshine 1700 EVO. Mine just arrived from the Magicshine UK store based in Bodmin and I have 3 issues:

1) the GoPro connector between the Out Front mount and the light itself was a swine to get together and took a chunk out of my finger in the process. The connection is so stuff there is no way the light can ever be tilted (doubt I’ll get it apart again) and the tightening fixing bolt is pointless. The nut bit does not fit well even with the holes lined up correctly.

2) I was unable to download the Magicshine App from the Google Play Store as I get the following message

The phone is an 18month old mid-range Samsung with up to date software.

3) I was surprised to note in the very basic paper instructions (yep, I should have checked before buying) that you only get 5hrs in daylight flash mode. Which is pretty poor/pointless.

I have asked the UK Magicshine store for a return, though it is annoying as I can see myself paying for 2 lots of postage, to me and the return as well.

Thoughts please ..

The message on your screenshot says your device is too new rather than the other way around.

Doesn’t help though I know.

OK, though I interpreted it as ‘an older version of Android’ meaning the Android (14)  operating system on my phone was too new for the Magicshine App to work with.

Whichever Magicshine UK have said I’m not the first with this problem.

nick- your problem with the go pro mount may be down to the prongs of the out front mount being a little too tight rather than those of the adapter. I only say this as I have two evo 1700s and have switched them between a few different bikes/mounts. Neither of mine were so tight I struggled to fit the adapter but did have the opposite issue with one of my mounts (an aluminium out front mount) in that it needs the gopro screw to be done up super tight (ie. screwdriver required) so that the bracket can’t easily rotate. I ride on the road at night a lot so always use the quick release feature to remove the light from the bike for charging and want the bracket secured  tightly enough that it won’t rotate when re-fitting the light.

Secondly. the Magicshine app is absolutely terrible. I completely ignore it now. Set the lights manually to my preferred brightness and then just use the remote to switch between dip and main. It’s quite unlikely I’d ever need to change brightness on a ride. I run mine on full but as I’m on roads it’s generally dipped for all but faster descents. Haven’t ever run out of juice and I regularly use one for 3hr solo night road rides. When angled optimally the dipped beam with it’s very defined cut off  line really is great for road use. I’d try the light to see how you get on with it riding before giving up and sending it back.

Great little lights . Shame the App is so poor.  If it’s any consolation the App for their rear SeemeeDV rear cam/light is even worse. Instructions are quite poor too.

Whoever mentioned charging in use. have you thought about making a thru cover for the usb port from Sugru? I’ve done this successfully in the past with other lights.

Cheers @Gaah , useful info.