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Hi
I am entering as a solo rider in one night in thetford which is a 12 hour night ride.
I need to buy some lights for the ride and figure out how to get them to last 12 hours.
I was looking at exposure lights and was talking to exposure today. They recommended the maxx d or toro and suggested it would last 12 hours in reflex mode around thetford.
However having read some posts on the forum it seems reflex mode doesn't work as well as they claim.
Also I am not sure I like the idea of buying one light and having no backup.
I have seen I could get 2 races for the price of the maxx d but even then I am not sure I could get them both to last the length of the ride.
What setup do people have for these sort of rides?
I am able to charge lights in my van when they are not in use but charge time is something like 9 hours so dont think this will work.
The best light I have at the minute is a 500 lumen lezyne which I am pretty sure wont be bright enough?
Either a dynamo, or something with external battery pack (4Fourth, Hope, Lumicycle, Smudge, magicshine ...) Keep spare charged packs in the van. Or buy a battery holder and just keep charged batteries in the van.
Exposure also do light rental at some races.
My light has reflex and it works really well but there are another 7 modes giving a constant output for varying burn times, you don't have to use the reflex only.
Cable free is great too.
I use a reflex on the bars and an old joystick on the helmet (it's a spotlight type beam) to get some definition with different shadows.
Based on my one experience of a 12 hour overnight race at Thetford, it will be raining non-stop so you'll stop around 3am.
But if it's 8pm to 8am, it'll get light around 6, so not really 12 hours of darkness.
Good luck!
Whatever lights you have now + spare batteries? Even the now antique mj-808 would do 6 hours on the low setting.
Wouldn't worry about a bazillion lumens, half the time in big groups I forget to turn my lights on after a break and just ride looking over the person in fronts shoulder!
Dynamos will last all night, but aren't that bright. Give or take a bit depending on how much they're overloading the hub they're 3W. Most standalone lights are 15W+ on high. Although as above, you probably don't need a bazillion lumen.
I did D2D with a Dyno once. Not enough light and it got dimmer on the single-track when I slowed down.
Eventually settled on using ayups so I could do battery swaps easily.
My ayups a overpowered by other rider's lights these days but they're fine for riding alone.
Exposure Six pack will easily do 12 hours bright enough to ride with easily. The reflex bit is entirely unnecessary but you can set it to a fixed 12hr output.
I've used a combination of Lumicycle lights with several battery packs and a Joystick with a piggyback battery for 24 solos. Partly because they were what I had originally, but also because you can use as many battery packs as you need, have a spare one on the bike and just switch the lead when needed.
Your other option, if you like Exposure, but don't believe the lights will have enough burn-time, would be to buy or borrow one of their external battery packs. Er, Support Cell they call them now:
https://exposurelights.com/products/bike/batteries-and-chargers/support-cell-87-a
If the price is a bit much for you, Smudge at mtbbatteries will build you one at a lower cost. The downside is that you use the smartport for the external battery, so no remote, but it ups the burn-time considerably if that worries you.
Personally I'd aways run a helmet/bar-light combination, but I night ride a lot anyway, so had both already.
Eat more carrots, follow somebody with lights, suggest the run the event on the 21st June!!
I use the exposure six pack, it’s powerful enough to keep you well lit for 12 hours and keep your garmin charged.
mtbbatteries lumenator will supposedly do 10hrs at 70% and costs a whisker over £100.
Get one of those with a spare battery & you're more than sorted.
It can also be worth having a head torch in a pocket or your camelbak, even if it's just a cheap camping one so you can see what you are doing if you need to sort out a mechanical on the trail.
Nothing worse than having an issue, setting the bike down & realising that without the 2000 lumens strapped to your handlebars, you are blind.
I hope the weather holds out for you - I did the D2D as it used to be known at least 4 years in a row, perhaps 5 (as a team) & we only have one dry year. Every other year was proper lash it down rain!
Use a torch that uses 18650 batteries. Take a load of charged batteries with you. Only takes a few seconds to change them over. This worked for me at straffpuffa on the night shift.
Buy quality batteries and a charger. Not cheap ones off ebay. I use torchy. They've been brilliant.
what dynos were you using ?
biggest issue at events is the arms race - ifyou dont have brighter lights than the guy thats about to overtake you , your blind till hes overtaken you.
anyway for strathpuffer (18 hrs darkness) i ran a maxx D on the bars on low and a joystick on my head (with an external 3 cell pack in my pocket) on medium or high.
based on the one dusk till dawn i did at thetford youll die of boredom before you run out of light.
I have a lumenator I could do with selling if you fancy it.
Trail rat
based on the one dusk till dawn i did at thetford youll die of boredom before you run out of light.
😂 I found that dull too
the MAxx-D will do 10 hours on medium in Mode 6 which is about 1600 lumen, more than enough to ride an endurance race at, switching it down to low mode for climbs you still get about 800 lumen and that will give you 12 hours at least combined
CRC are selling Lezyne Deca 1500i (STW reviewed it here https://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/review-lezyne-deca-drive-i1500-led-light/ ) for less than half price. It comes with a battery pack, the run times with it look very decent!
I was thinking about buying different light, then I saw this last night... Purchased this morning...
Even Exposure's small lights will run for 24 hours on the lowest setting (which is still pretty bright). The Race or Diablo will work well, and you could grab a remote switch if you want to quickly flick between the full and dim settings, and they also make little piggy back batteries if you get worried about running low.