[Closed] Head mounted night riding lights

I like my Moon Vortex Pro on a GoPro Mount on a helmet. Battery lasts well and it’s light weight. I had a cheaper but near enough equally bright torchy tc12 on there before, but I found it a bit heavy after an hour or so.

Latest exposure joystick, brilliant wee lights.

Exposure is where I went

Exposure is where I went

Been doing this night riding lark a while, Exposure (joystick or diablo) is the almost inevitable conclusion 🙂

Moon Vortex Pro.  Couldn't find any way to justify nearly three times as much for the Exposure equivalent.

Been doing this night riding lark a while, Exposure (joystick or diablo) is the almost inevitable conclusion 🙂

Yup.

I have a Diablo, but prefer a more focused beam pattern, so I'm going to get a new joystick for the helmet and relegate the Diablo to the bars. I have a mk7 joystick I'll sell of to put towards it.

And that's another advantage of exposures, selling them on is very easy too.

Moon looks not too bad btw, mibbe a bit bulky for the helmet though.

Ok, so best place to buy (joystick?)?

I "might" have a MTB Batteries Lumen 800 for loan......  😉

(and a Lumenator, though the battery pack is a bit big for helmet mounting)

'might'? taken to riding the 'puffer loop with a guy through work. Need something when I hit the trees (and it won't be long before the whole thing will be in the dark...)

You got a route for our autumnal bivvy yet? Saudi Dave interested if he can manage back in time 🙂

Ok. When do you want the light?

Still loving my Troute SpiderEyes 🕷

Like a personal sun on my helmet.

Evolva X8 here, and one on the bars.

Diablo and joystick here

former for MTB, floodier bean. Latter for commuting, narrower beam

can also bar mount the Diablo for summer lightweight bikepacking

Just can’t beat Exposure in my experience. Apart from their Reflex settings. That’s pants.

Evolva X8 here

Do you find the weight ok on your head? I've got one and pondering helmet mounting it but it's pretty weighty...

It's not light. Well, it is, but you know what i mean.

Previously had a non integrated light up there which was heavier, so the weight of the X8 isn't a problem.

The Moon vortex pro isn’t particularly bulky and it’s not heavy on the helmet. Way cheaper than an exposure and I’ve not found anything wrong with it for it’s use. When I forgot the mount for my bar light the other week (left it on the hardtail) the Moon did a good job on its own. When paired with the 1600 lumen light on the bars there’s more light than you can shake a stick at.

Both lights are fully enclosed (no separate battery packs), both bought from uk shops without dodgy chargers / dodgy batteries and combined they cost about £90.

I've just weighed my Moon Meteor Vortex Pro, it's 117g on it's own, 145g with go pro mount.

Don't really notice the weight on my lid and no wires is good.

Beam is tight and throws a long way, with a floody bar light it's great.

And it's cheap and robust.

As well as using it as a helmet light for mountain biking I use it on the bars of my gravel bike for commuting.

Moon looks not too bad btw, mibbe a bit bulky for the helmet though

It really isn't. It's built around a single 18650 cell, just like the joystick, so it's a very similar size.

And unlike the joystick, it's got a removable battery so you can get a second if you want to double the run time.

Joe, out of interest, what is the 1600 lumen light you run on your bars?

Diablo here, run them for last few years.  Great lights and the tap function is brilliant IMO as is the program function.  I can set the light so I maximise power based on how long I will be riding for.  I use it with a One23 bar mounted light which is also fantastic, but I need to sus a better way to mount the battery!

Exposure axis mk5 is £125 at sigmasports (another £5 off with new5 too). In case anyone's looking 🙂

Jmac- the light on the bars is a Ryder Alumia 1600 from Cycle Republic. I got it in a sale for £50. Meant to have a long guarantee according to the paperwork it came with but there isn’t much info online about them. It’s brighter than both the brite r duo and the Torchy Bk 6ix I used on the bars before and it’s a pretty good colour match for the moon on my helmet.

i think on the highest setting it might burn through the battery fairly quickly but I haven’t run it out on a night ride yet and only used it for 3 cycles. It’s much nicer having no seperate battery pack to fiddle with 😃

Thanks all, decided to order a Diablo (with a support cell in case madness overtakes me and I enter the puffer one of these years....).

Niterider Lumina lights are very good. I've got 750 and 400 (the 750 used to be my bar light for the last 3 years, until very recent upgrade). The helmet bracket came with the 750 (not included in the lower models, but it is available and not expensive) and it works ideal with my A1 helmet.

Solid construction (more than a few crashes and drops on concrete floor), great beam pattern, not scared of the worst weather conditions (tested daily on commutes) and even the top-end models are quite cheap!

I have an Exposure Joystick, which is a brilliant light for mounting on a helmet. Only issue I've come across is the mount isn't great with my Fox Flux helmet. Anybody know of any alternative mounts that I can use so I don't have to stick the mount to my helmet permanently?

I've got a mtb batteries lumenator. I like it because it's not as spotty as some head torches are but 2000 lumens is still plenty to see a long way even when spread out.

When helmet mounting it (or any other bar light adapted to a helmet), bin the daft plastic adapter and just work out where on your helmet is pointing forwards whilst riding (it's usually quite a long way back) and just zip tie the hooks on the light body around the helmet ribs/vents. It won't move, it wont hit half as many branches, and it puts far less strain on your neck being closer to your skull and further back.