Looks like the bulb has gone in my old Lumicycle light – which is a pain as its just getting to that time of year when I need it for the commute home (unlit forest path).

It’s done a good job. According to my records I bought it in June 2004!
This is the system:

Receipt says “Halide System 2004: 13° Flood, NiMH Bottle Battery, One Lead Fast Charger” (£286 back in the day!)

I know technology has moved on a fair way since those heady days so what are my options for fixing / upgrading / replacing it?

Buying a new Halide bulb from Lumicycle looks like it will set me back £80. Ouch!

I could pick up a brand new 1000 lumen MagicShine for not much more than that – would that be comparable? Looks like it would certainly be lighter (Li-ion vs old skool NiMH).

Or I seem to remember some folk on here were upgrading Lumicycle lights to Cree LEDs – is that something that could be done with my 13.2v Halide system for considerably less than £80?

Does anyone offer a conversion service for folk who are not electronically minded? (I’ve heard troutie mentioned before but no idea who that is?)

Troutie’s can convert lots of stuff, & is legendary, but I must warn you be realistic, it doesn’t tend to come cheap. When has quality workmanship ever been cheap though?

http://troutie.com/
http://singletrackworld.com/members/trout/

Alternatively you’ll get a magicshine/chinese light for much much less than £80 from ebay or direct from china, infact you can probably buy two or three for that amount of money. Obviously the downside is that quality control is poorer (but not rubbish as some big brand supporter would have you believe)
My experience is that even the P7 LED’s of 3/4 years ago are much much better than Halide bulbs (well my Edison 5 anyway), if you’ve not come into contact with any you’ll be impressed.
There lots to choose from and even the poor quality Li-ion batteries will be huge amount lighter than your NiMH battery… another bonus.

Drop Chris a email & see what he has to say, and make a decision.

PS: Have you tried contact lumicycle, I know some UK light companies did offer upgrade options

Linky

These are the instructions for upgrading the Lumi halogen cans to LED, HID can won’t be much different. If you’re handy with a soldering iron you can do it. Your HID lasted way longer than mine, think I got about 6 months out of it!

Thanks Zippy
trouble with the OPs set up is the battery is likley to be very tired
and the cost of bits to do a a led conversion will be higher than a whole new light set.

I’ve got a brand new HID lamp I bought last christmas – email in profile

There are conversions that can be done with that light and have been done over the years,

here is one vortex racing did a few years back
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/step-by-step-guide-no-2-converting-a-lumicycle-hid-into-a-led-with-piccies

however none of them are particularly cheap in comparison with a whole new light especially when you can get something like this for £32

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/200959831751?lpid=83&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=83&ff19=0

The other thing to consider is that you have a 9 year old battery there which is probably not at it’s best any more and is older NiMH tech rather than Li-Ion if you factor in a new one with charger on top of the cost of getting the lamp unit upgraded you will most likely be up in to the £100 mark at which point you can buy fantastic brand new light that would knock spots off your current lamp.

As far as I am aware Lumicycle did not offer upgrades on that model of lamp.

That Lumi Halogen to LED conversion thread looks great. I still have my old Lumi’s in the draw at home – 2 halogen cans, battery, charger. Might have to dig them out and get soldering…

Is it the same bulb as the hope hid lamp. If so I’ve got one as a spare. You can have it if it fits?

Trout it appears you didn’t send me a bill for the parts you sold me.
Should I use an alternative email?

tonyd,

have a look at this thread too

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lumicycle-halogen-led-kit-vote

Thanks all – lots to read and think about there then!

Something I probably should have mentioned is that I also have the Lumicycle “Tail Light One” which plugs into the same system and gives a nice bright solid rear light to complement the flashing Fibre Flare on my seatstay.

So that’s plus point for salvaging the existing system.

In terms of battery tiredness: it doesn’t seem too bad – but then I think it originally had something like a four hour run time and my commute is only 45 mins each way, maybe an hour in winter. So it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Have you tried contact lumicycle, I know some UK light companies did offer upgrade options

Not contacted them directly but it says on their website they will give £20 off the price of a Li-ion charger for existing NiMh users. Not a huge saving but welcome.

here is one vortex racing did a few years back
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/step-by-step-guide-no-2-converting-a-lumicycle-hid-into-a-led-with-piccies

Oooooh now see that is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of. The nice pics and step-by-step guide make it look like something I might possibly be able to have a go at.

A quick google yields:

– a Triple Cree XP-G for 14.90€
– optics for 3.49€
– b3flex driver for $35

Guess I’d also need thermal paste, switch gear and a soldering kit (though I might be able to get that done at work).

Big question is where do you get that nice heatsink?

Probably wouldn’t work out much cheaper than just buying a new bulb. But at least I’d end up with a dimmable light (the Lumi had two options: blinding or off)

you will most likely be up in to the £100 mark at which point you can buy fantastic brand new light that would knock spots off your current lamp.

Yeah that is a fair point. 🙁 And it would work..

eBay possibly?

I still have my trusty halogen Lumis “just because”. Rather like them when huge amounts of light isn’t a problem.

I did flirt with a Cree conversion but it was a bit of a faff with the charger and all. I passed it on to a friend but if you need one for the interim I’m sure I can get Ian to post it on.

Finally bought about 18 months ago the XPG (I think) LED system from Lumi, been really very very good. I’m sure I might have a spare battery or two if you need, again just in case..

My Gloworm X2 is insane – and not much more than the cost of messing about.
As much as I like to tinker – at the price and quality that they are it was a no brainer!
Plus Dan’s customer service is incredible.

If you are looking at doing the full upgrade and are replacing the battery and charger check out smudge at mtbbatteries.co.uk top man for batteries. He can wire be battery for your lumicycle setup .

Thanks Mac.

I was mainly just thinking about ways to upgrade the lamp and keep as much as possible of the original system – partly for cost and partly because I’m morally averse to throwing out things that still work.

If I replaced the lamp, electronics, battery and charger then it’d all be getting a bit Trigger’s Broom* and I’d really be better off just buying an Gloworm X2 (which looks amazing by the way hammy).

.

* (or ”Ship of Theseus” if you’re a pseudo-intellectual type 😉 )

like it! or in automotive examples, see Porsche 911..

Update: chickened out and ordered a new Gloworm X2 instead which looks brilliant:
http://www.crgmoto.co.uk/arriving-soon—new-gloworm-x2-led-light-system—version-3—1500-lumens-2182-p.asp

Helped that Danny (aka neninja on here) answered my emails instantly and that they offer 10% off for us Premier types.

Probably will have a crack at upgrading the Lumi to LED myself at some point.
But knowing me it’ll be summer again by the time I get round to it.

Thanks all.

Wish I had seen this earlier
I have a Lummi compatable Cutter kit – in the halogen can [ cannot keep the glow ring on though]
About 500 lumens or therabouts at a cost of £35 to me and done by Vortex.
Yours for £15 as I like you and I will put it towards my road tax 😉

I also have a first gen Troutie at Circa 1000 lumens bit more for that but i doubt you want it now.

So my Glowworm X2 arrived in the post today. I think I made the sensible choice, seems an impressive little bit of kit.

(That’s it on the lowest setting. 10p included for size reference)