Anyone know of a decent helmet light that has the right vertical spread for mtbing?
There's all sorts of toss spouted in reviews etc about a broad beam spread, but almost no mention at all about having a decent vertical spread.
The Moon Adj 950 was brilliant for this as it had two adjustable lenses side by side. You could orientate one of the a few m in front of the wheel and the other further ahead. It gave and excellent spread where you needed it. None of that bullshit broad spread onto the sides of the path where you have no intention of actually riding.
But my adj950 died, so I need something else. Is there actually a company out there making a decent helmet light?
Just mount one sideways?
Or strap it to your ear.
I use the bar light for broad spread and helmet light as a spot?
Aren't virtually all mountain bike lights just cone-shaped beams, so as tall as they are wide? I suspect reviewers talk about 'broad' beams because mostly your field of view tends more towards a letter-box shape, maybe they should be using 'flood' as opposed to 'spot'?
I've always found Exposure's helmet lights good because they're spotty and illuminate what you're looking at rather than a more flood-like beam, which is what I prefer on the bars.
I guess if you ride with just a helmet light requirements are slightly different. Silva does a range of pretty bright lights with a dual spot/flood twin-beam combo btw, not sure what's what atm, but they have a new-ish, inanely bright one.
Just mount one sideways?
Or ride with your head on one side?
Or ride with your head on one side?
Ridiculous idea. Better to have your eye-sockets relocated in a vertical plane.
Aren’t virtually all mountain bike lights just cone-shaped beams,
My bar mount cheapo special has two lenses - one does flood one does a narrow beam. You can cover each lens separately and see the difference quite markedly.
My bar mount cheapo special has two lenses – one does flood one does a narrow beam. You can cover each lens separately and see the difference quite markedly.
But neither is a vertically-orientated elipse? I guess you're simply getting more light in the central area, but a powerful flood would arguably do the same job. Maybe. Some Silva trail running lights have a similar flood/spot combo and, to be fair it works really well. The traditional spot on the head / flood on the bars combo does a similar thing, but means you always have light where you're head is turned plus, subjectively, gives better depth perspective on trail obstacles so you can tell the difference between a small ripple and a proper deep rut more easily, Maybe...
Ridiculous idea. Better to have your eye-sockets relocated in a vertical plane.
Maybe your whole eyes, not just the sockets? Or better still, get them mounted on stalks.
Personally, I just prefer 'wide' beams on helmet and bars. Nitefighter BT70 on the bars with a Hope mount, and a MTB-Batteries Lumenator 2200 on the lid with the mount removed and stuck on with epoxy putty and zip ties to keep it a low-profile as possible.
Never liked the narrow beams of some lights. Half the time you're looking closer to the bright spot obliterates everything else, and the other half they mean you have to move your whole head to point it at things rather than just be able to see them.
gloworms used to have swappable lenses so you could tailor the beam pattern.
Maybe your whole eyes, not just the sockets? Or better still, get them mounted on stalks.
Can you imagine how long you'd spend in the morning untangling them. And what about when you're drunk and can look in every direction? No, eye stalks don't work for me!
Can you imagine how long you’d spend in the morning untangling them. And what about when you’re drunk and can look in every direction? No, eye stalks don’t work for me!
A smarter idea would be wireless eye sockets which you could mount differently according to application. Maybe on top of your head for greater visibility in crowds or lower down when working on awkward areas of your bike for example. On the bike you could simply stick them on your bars so they face the way your wheel is turned. Obviously you'd want a secure mounting mechanism and some sort of modular eye-lid system, but it seems like a more sensible option than stalks. At night you could stick 'em in a glass beaker by the side of your bed.
At night you could stick ’em in a glass beaker by the side of your bed.
I don't know about that, if dipping your fingers in water overnight makes you wet yourself I dread to think what your eyes would do.
Even if you held everything in I think you'd just have drowning dreams all the time.
A smarter idea would be wireless eye sockets which you could mount differently according to application. Maybe on top of your head for greater visibility in crowds
You could attach them to selfie-stick type things when you can't see the stage because a 7ft bloke has chosen to stand in front of you. Like happens to me every time I go to a gig.
Certini have the Moon ADJ1300 on sale at the moment
https://www.certini.co.uk/accessories/lights/moon-adj1300-front-light--black__55101
You could attach them to selfie-stick type things when you can’t see the stage because a 7ft bloke has chosen to stand in front of you. Like happens to me every time I go to a gig.
https://amzn.eu/fs9Lex 7">You want some of these, also useful for beer whilst the support act is on
Gloworm is the answer. They have spot, wide honeycomb and flood optics they you can switch out on each led (3 on the XS and 2 on the X2).
I run 2x wides (horizontally) and a spot on the bars and 2x spots on the helmet.
No reason you couldn’t run the wide optics at 90° I guess but don’t really understand why you’d want to.
That was a great advantage with the Ay-Up lights you could adjust the two lights to increase vertical beam, shame they are a bit weedy in the lumens
There is a downtime podcast by the owner of this company.
https://www.outboundlighting.com/
If you go on the website and look at engineering tab there is some information which goes beyond the average 'best lights of 2022' articles you find in the mags.
Not sure whether is is better than an exposure but worth a punt in my view.
