Not-so-quick overview:
Went out with a set of Solarstorms on lid 2 night rides ago – more power needed.
Last ride I had said lights as well a Troutie Liberator on bars – MUCH better!
Seems everyone runs their more powerful lights on bars.
Problem I have is a really short on the helmet light (small battery actually strapped to lid as not quite long enough for backpack, whereas the lead for the Lib on the bars is about 50 metres long (well, a metre) with the bigger battery strapped to top tube. Makes much more sense to swap them – assuming it won’t unbalance the light if you know what I mean. Solarstorms are claimed 5000 lumen but prob much less whereas the Libs were apparently spec’d to 2500 lumen when built. If ok, anyone know how to helmet mount the Liberator?

Sorry, can’t answer your question but a 5000 and a 2500 lumen light? Blimey. It was very different back in the day of 5w halogen lights 🙂

Brighter one on the bars and you can easily achieve lumen overkill and its not as much fun

Has to be best one on the head for riding singletrack. Your bars are not always pointing where you need to be looking when weaving through the trees.

The classic set-up is spot on the helmet, flood on the bars and it works pretty well ime. The lack of cable is one of the reasons that Exposure Joysticks, Diablo etc make great helmet lights.

As per Simondbarnes; back in the good old days of Lumicycle halogens being able to see anything was considered cheating… this modern thing of creating a day-time environment is pretty much ‘Luminal Doping’ and not at all in the real spirit of mountain biking. 😉

I can’t remember how powerful my nightsuns were but I think the torch function on my mobile phone is brighter.

Big olde torch that took 4 D cells tied to handle bars and a under BB dynamo that ran on tyre tread was my best set up when riding the lanes n tracks of Zomerset back in the 80s.

Far cry from my cree lights of today .

does your pack not have a key fob clip or strap etc… or something else similar near the inside top of the pack you can attach the battery to with a bit of thought?

Get an extension lead.

Has to be the best one on the bars for riding singletrack, you don’t need half a million lumens if you are looking where you are going, a 3-500 lumen spot on the helmet is more than enough. And when you are tanking along, and need the bigger light, your bars will almost certainly be pointing the direction you are going.

(300 lumens on my head, about 2000 on the bars. Even done a few XCO night races, so not hanging around.)

Take the solar storm (it’s not 2500, more like 1500 at best), cut the wire on the light (NOT THE BATTERY) and pop down to maplins and get 1m of similarly sized wire (preferably slightly thicker to compensate for the longer wire, I just used 13A mains flex) and some heat-shrink tubing. Splice the bit of wire in, shrink the tubing (hold it a safe distance over a gas hob if you don’t have a heat gun) and bobs your uncle for about £3.

My big floody light is on the bars (note fighter bt71 with the diffuser lenses), MTB batteries lumenator on the head which is a bit bright and floody, but just left on a fiddling setting so it ballance the bar light.

As above, you need more of a spot on the helmet light for it to be effective. Don’t think anyone will stop being your mate if you start riding with a brighter light on your helmet, but lumens aren’t everything. I can ride pretty much daytime pace and technicality with 850 on the bars and 500 on my head – definitely don’t need more on my head with a spot beam, the only limitation I have is when it gets misty and becomes very tunnelly, you’ll want bar lights that are up to the job when this happens (as they’re further from your eyes so will give less of a reflection back from the mist.)

Brighter light on the bars means you’ll maximise the relief you see on the trail. With the brighter light on the helmet you’re more likely to blaze out all the shadows and find it harder to spot some rocks etc.

200 lumens on the helmet and 1200 on the bars here. More than enough, but I did start on 2x10w halogens.

MaxxD and Joystick combo here – have used this setup for last 6 or 7 years, replacing the units with current models every 2nd winter.

The MaxxD on auto goes up to 2600 lumens on fast and bumpy stuff, but backs off to around 1200 on slow climbs.

The joystick on helmet is 800 on full, which I tend to use on faster and twisty wooded stuff, toggling it down to medium on other stuff.

Indeed a far cry from the old days with 10w bulbs 🙂

You’re a newcomer to mountainbiking unless you had a set of these bad boys:

Indeed a far cry from the old days with 10w bulbs

A single 10W flood and a 2.4W ‘spot’, or was it the other way around, it barely made any difference. The full moon could overpower those things.

I upgraded mine with bigger bulbs and 2x batteries, they were still rubbish.

You’re a newcomer to mountainbiking unless you had a set of these bad boys:

Really? My earliest off road riding experiences were with two every ready night riders (with upgraded bulbs) strapped to the bars…….. used to take about 3 spare sets of batteries for a “night ride”

Which usually lasted less than 2 hours before the batteries were all flat.