As title, still waiting on some rechargable batteries so I've only got one working light. Planning on trying night riding for the first time this evening - would I be best off with the light on the bars or my helmet?
Helmet - otherwise when you make a tightish turn your lights don't point in that direction for a second & its easy to ride in to things!
Funny but I've never really found that an issue with light on bars while I hated riding with a helmet light because you lose all depth perception from shadows.
Each to their own, I guess.
helmet every time, i hate turning into a corner absolutely blind cos my bars are pointing in another direction..
i hate turning into a corner absolutely blind
Unless you're riding with a spot beam then you're never absolutely blind...
with only a helmet mount you don't lose all depth perception at all, simply move your head. you do lose all vision in fog tho.
helmet mount for off road, bar mount for road 😉
Has to be the Bars !
bars, hate it on my helmet
Bars for me, riding mostly rocky trails. Helmet works OK on smoother, twisty singletrack type stuff but as above, you get little idea of how big rocks are 'cos everything looks too flat.
Helmet lights are good but next to useless if your ride in rain/snow/fog. Riding in these conditions I have to turn my helmet light off as the lights just bounces back at you. In fog/mist particularly it's impossible to ride with a helmet mounted light only.
So if you only ride in nice, dry waether then a helmet light is great.
Working on a unique chest-mounted lightset with integral body armour for true hardcore Caldertech.
As per clubber- helmet mounted = no depth perception. However I keep my battery pack in my backpack so helmet mount does me fine mostly. Gary_m - I have no probs riding in snow with a helmet mounted light?
[url= http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3380/3267265215_8daf732532_b.jp g" target="_blank">
To me it depends on what terrain. I prefer mine on my helmet due to tight twisty single track we ride at night. I can then point the light where I want and not just what I'm riding into!
Bars...as much as folk say the light doesn't go where they look, having a large flared spot blind you when it is raining/misty or snowing from a helmet mounted light just doesn't work for me (obviously depends on how heavy the rain/snow is)...
As much as you do get a dark spot when you turn the bars, the dark spot only lasts a second so no real issue...if it is bad weather then the flare from the helmet light can't be sorted and it does reduce your visibility.
Bars all the time for me.
If you look far enough ahead you don't need to worry about bar mounting not shining on the trail, you can predict your route.
Maybe I just dont go fast enough.
Time to get the helmetcam on with the lights!
coffeeking as DickBarton says it depends how heavy the snow/rain is but I find the light just bounces back into your face. Obviusly it's not so bad in snow because it's generally nice and bright with all that white around.
But in these conditions generally a helmet light doesn't work for me. I also find it irritating to have something constantly flickering in front of the light.
500 lumens on each foot here
Bars - cos this way the light casts shadows behind roots/rocks that i can see, this helps with my depth perception.
yes, i'm jealous of all you lucky sods whose eyes work properly in the dark.
i do notice that on some tight twisty stuff i was turning into a corner i couldn't see, but i found this quite good fun!
(i've now got a fenix pen-light thing on my skidlid, set at only 110 lumens so it doesn't fill in the shadows cast by my bar-light)
you can predict your route.
not something i'd like to have done the other night!!, technical twisty rooty rocky singletrack right next to a fair old drop to flat (30ft+)as it was the 1st time i'd ridden it, it was very unfamiliar to me and i'd just lent my helmet lamp to another guy after his broke, it emphasized just why i hate riding with only a bar mounted light.
brant - MemberWorking on a unique chest-mounted lightset with integral body armour for true hardcore Caldertech.
😆 😆 😆
Can't wait to see that
Hmmm seems like personal preference. Think i'll give the bars a try first.
All you chaps talking about snow/fog - do you know something I don't about this evening ?! 🙂
Helmet every time.
The depth perception argument is one I've never really got - have you ever gone off a drop-off with only bar lights pointing ahead whereas below you is just a black void?! I find bar mounts actually give worse shadows since every root/rock casts a big shadow behind it. And the light puddle vibrates and bounces horribly when you're going fast.
Only problem with helmet mounted lights is clouting your head off an overhanging branch and it ripping the light off...
Only problem with helmet mounted lights is clouting your head off an overhanging branch and it ripping the light off...
Yeah, that's a big one for me actually.
Anyway, try both and see - as is obvious above, most people have strong preferences for either helmet or bar mount so both clearly work - it just depends on you.
[url= http://gomotiongear.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=4 ]Sternum mounted light[/url]
try both TBH, personally I've always used bar mounts, and riding in tight woody singletrack, never really encountered the "blind spot" issue at all.
Each to their own, though
helmet, every time.
Tescos (and I'm sure many other retailers) sell a simple waterproof LED torch for £10 running on AA's. Ideal for a helmet light.
Just go buy one.
ps what happens if you crash and damage your only light...
brant - Member
Working on a unique chest-mounted lightset with integral body armour for true hardcore Caldertech.
Nipple clamps?
what happens if you crash and damage your only front wheel? 🙄
you'll see where you're walking on the way home 🙂
LOL 😉
Rode drumlanrigg last week on a night ride. Cant think of a worse place to ride with just a bar light. Basic high speed off road will be fine with bar light but as soon as it gets twisty i would miss the head torch.
Think about it. A head torch lights up whatever you are looking at 100% of the time (granted rain limits it). Your bars can be pointing in completely the wrong direction to the way you are looking. I find i have to be much better prepared when night riding which means when entering a high speed berm etc i also want to be looking at its exit if possible. How can you do this if you only have a bar light?
FWIW i ride with both.
Brant - seen this?
[img] 
[/img]
as featured in the recent Fellrunner mag.
That's cool - does it talk?
[i]helmet mount for off road, bar mount for road [/i]
crazy man. Helmet mount is ideal for road use. You can give any driver who is thinking of pulling out of a side road in front of you the full benefit of your 1400 lumens directly into their eyes. Try saying 'I didn't see you' now, f*cker... 😉
I ride exactly the sort of twisty trails you're talking about LittlestHobo and still prefer bar mount...
ThelittlestHobo, it doesn't really happen like that though, bike lights are floody, they light up "an area" in front of your bike, but also to the side as well, and the times when the light isn't pointing where you're going are so few, that it actually makes little impact. I ride in the Chilterns, and having ridden Drumlanrig, it's not massively dissimilar, I'd have no worries riding around there with a br light
[i]Helmet mount is ideal for road use. You can give any driver who is thinking of pulling out of a side road in front of you the full benefit of your 1400 lumens directly into their eyes. Try saying 'I didn't see you' now, f*cker... [/i]
+1. No-one ever pulled out in front of me when I was using my helmet-mounted NiteRider Storm. 🙂
Even had drivers slow to a virtual standstill, dip their lights etc and best of all if you're using it on narrow country lanes you can often see (and be seen) over the hedges/walls.
both, big powerfull flood on the bars, smaller head torch.
I'd always ride with something on the bars, even if it was just a cheepie cateye to be seen by.
But if I only had one light it'd be a head lamp.
has anyone got/or used a hope LED1 adventure light?
i like the idea of it taking AA batteries. i realise to get a useful batterylife, they will need to be expensive high power AAs, but i think i prefer this idea, as i reckon the light will go for long periods of not being used, and probably misuse of the battery.
AAs are much easier to replace than inbuilt LiIon i think.
the battery pack on the new one, its seperate from the lamp, so it can be used on a helmet.
does anyone know if there is a split in the cable between the battery and the lamp?
or is it all one unit?
i reckon as a lid mounted unit, with the battery in the ipod compartment of the camel back, it could be quite neat, and not heavy.
i understand that the 1LED ones are quite a tight beam?
any thoughts?
any other AA battery compatible off road suitable lights out there?
tbh, ide quite like just the lamp unit, and then build up my own battery pack from AAs, or off the shelf 6v LiIon units.
anyhoo, bit of a hijack.
Home time!
x
Ok so I went out last night on my own (first time night ride)
My only light was attached to the bars - I found -
1/ I did have trouble on tight switch backs with not being able to see round the corner (luckily I knew the route well)
2/ I had real trouble judging how big dips were and how high I was manualing to go over obstacles.
3/ A branch stuck in your rear derailer makes a rustling sound in the leaves that freaks you out quite a lot, then stops when you stop, then carries on when you carry on....
4/ Don't switch your light off in the deepest part of the woods for a laugh to see how long that scary noisy will be - it happen far sooner, be far closer and far louder than you expected.
All in all a great time, now I wish dx/postie would hurry up and deliver the helmet light!
Glad you had a good ride - don't forget, there's nothing out in the woods at night that's not there in the daytime.
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Although at night, it's awake.... and it's hungry.
😉
🙂 By adding a head torch you'll get better cornering ability but you're going to lose your depth perception even further. You get used to it though!
The good old rustling monster syndrome - we all get it! Last week I was out slowly plodding up a hill at walking pace and heard something, I turned round and just over the hedge were ~20sets of eyes staring at me. I spooked the cows, they spooked the hell out of me for a second or two!
last winter i used my 'caving light' taped to my helmet..(i have to say it was abit heavy tho.... this year ive cat a cateye on my handlebars...
i ride with my son and he bought the 'Hope vision 2' helmet light... looks very good !
has anyone got/or used a hope LED1 adventure light?i like the idea of it taking AA batteries. i realise to get a useful batterylife, they will need to be expensive high power AAs, but i think i prefer this idea, as i reckon the light will go for long periods of not being used, and probably misuse of the battery.
AAs are much easier to replace than inbuilt LiIon i think.
Isn't the Hope basically a very very expensive version of the £10 torches that you buy from dealextreme? Which conveniently run off AA batteries, and are an all in one package.
If you want to spend that much, you'd be better off buying a much brighter lithium-ion based system. If you want cheap replacement batteries, the batteries for the dealextreme.com torches cost £5 for a set of 2, and the P7 torches will be a lot brighter than an AA based torch.
They even say about it that it isn't bright enough for running, which is crazy - £80 for a light that is only good enough for road biking and walking?
[i]For technical off road biking and running and for competative orienteering you may want the higher light outputs of either the Vision 2 or Vision 4, see related items below. [/i]
Joe
Remember the chances of coming across an axe wielding psychopath are very rare. To reduce the possibility to zero carry an axe with you. The chances of two axe wielding psychopaths in the same woods are so high as to be virtually impossible.
Helmet Mounted Light.............
but only if it is an LED light (Specifically a Joystick...it's the only one I've tried).
I found that a halogen Niterider and a halogen Lupine both reflect off rain and snow too badly to be of real use in poor conditions as a helmet mounted option. The Joystick seems not to suffer from this problem, and it also seems to cut through the water more effectively to show the ground beneath on lakeland tracks when they turn into a stream.
i think tesco might have run out of the AA torches. anyone know of an equivalent?
those DX lights look great.
and at that price, seems daft no to.
thought:
reviews say its a fair flood, im guessing this would mean riding without a lid light would be easier. (i rode bikeradar with a 900lumen hope light on low mode without any problems at all)
i guess the cheaper "torch" one wont last as long in the battery department?
i was thinking, for the price of one of the bike ones, one could get one of the torch ones, and a whole heap of spare batterys?
could be mounted quite nicely under the stem with a bit of crafty zip tieing and mount making?
and then combine it with a slimmer helmet mounted one of the same make?
Isn't the Hope basically a very very expensive version of the £10 torches that you buy from dealextreme? Which conveniently run off AA batteries, and are an all in one package.
Show me a £10 light that outputs 240 lumens!
In response to Joe the hope led1 is fine for running. I ran the adidas thunder run 24 hour this year using one an had no vision issues!
The cable is one piece so if using on the helmet the pack must also be used on the helmet.
Flood on bars for me seems to work just fine...
I've got two 900lmn DX lights, one on my head and one on the bars. If I had to choose, i'd go helmet every time. But to be honest just spend the extra, it is so much better with two. You don't need too powerful a one on your head really, just enough to give you a hint on the corners.