[Closed] Old Bike Lights

It's odd how what we need now is way off what we had back then!

my first offroad light was a home made MR11 20W halogen bulb in plumbing pipe wired up to a 4Ah SLA battery shoehorned into a bottle cage.

couple of lumicycle lights from then, 10 and 20W I think, spot and flood. then I started to mess about with HID. got a 10W MR11 HID from trailtech, then upgraded to a 50mm MR16 30W HID. they reckon it was about 1800lumens. way brighter than anything out, bar the very expensive lupines. That was quite temperamental, required a resistor on it to start otherwise the Li Ion battery would cut out from high current draw! so moved back to the MR11 and made a LED helmet light from a lumicycle halogen case and a triple LED kit from Cutter.

still have the cutter light, works pretty well, kicks out about 1000 lumen But now have a bikehut light, at circa 1600lumen and a vicmax A8 at about 3000 lumen.

I'm still convinced my 30W hid was the brightest light I'd had though. the reach was phenominal.

I swear it's because LEDs aren't that great for seeing by - see car headlights these days where everyone seems to drive round with full beam on even at 30mph. Keep upping those lumens and you just get a whiter and whiter glow. The old halogens were much better, but obviously it's all about the battery life. (Dunno why they use LEDs on cars, I really don't)

my first night riding in about 1992/93 at my local woods was done with a Petzl Zoom headtorch. Had to ride there from the house so used the normal bulb to get to the woods to save battery (about 40 min ride) then swapped to a halogen bulb for the woods. I couldnt afford to keep buying the big flat batteries the zoom headtorch used so i had an adaptor that took 3 AA rechargeables, i think these lasted about 60 mins with the halogen bulb, so i used to take about 12 charged AA's and keep swapping them as they ran out!

I still remember it being brilliant fun.

Got some BLT nitesun halogen lights after that (about 1997) that used a lead acid bottle cage battery, i was amazed how bright they were at the time.

It isn't just how bad the light was but how unreliable they were. I've lost track the number of times I made my way home in the dark because the light had packed in.

The old halogens were much better, but obviously it’s all about the battery life.

Hmmm , maybe rose tinted specs help bring clarity in the dimness? My abiding memory of things like Cateye Stadiums was that on a clear full moon night you'd see more with the lights turned off.

my first bike lights were something like this:

https://road.cc/content/feature/did-you-use-ever-ready-lights-268225

They weighed more than the bike, fell off all the time (though they were hard to remove on purpose to prevent theft), rattled louder than the traffic, took huge expensive batteries that lasted about 40 minutes, and broke after a few weeks of riding. No way could they be used off road, they could barely cope with tarmac.

My first head torch was actually bought for mountain climbing, though I later tried it for cycling. It weighed more than my head.

*Dunno why they use LEDs on cars, I really don’t*

I thought it was because they last forever, Unlike halogens, and you need a degree in engineering and 1000s of pounds worth of specialist tools to change the bulbs on modern cars.

I swear it’s because LEDs aren’t that great for seeing by ........................ The old halogens were much better,

Dunno how true that is, you can get LED's in all sorts of tints, rather than the default halogen yellow.

The only place they fall down is where they use PWM to dim the LED, then you get the star wars effect in the rain, or computer-generated grass as your eye perceives the effect of the flicker, but cant actually see it.

Dunno why they use LEDs on cars, I really don’t

It's down to type approval. If you use a halogen bulb it has to work with any compatible bulb, so they're all univeraly the same brighntes (ish, yes you can get a Philips +100% bulb that lasts untill you hit a pothole, but it's still 55W). LED's let them make them as bright as they like as they can put their own emitter in that works perfectly with the reflector/lense to give the correct cut off etc because the whole unit goes through the aproval process as one.

Also, 200W of headlamps is 1/4 of a horsepower, which isn't insignificant when you're trying to squeeze your cars through the various emissions and economy tests.

of course, back in the day no one really rode at night offroad. my first plumbing pipe light back in the early 90's got me a conversation with Malvern police as they'd reports of motorbikes/aliens on the hills.

My first "proper" light was a plumbing fitting with a 12v halogen. It was nothing like the lights of today but way better than anything else I'd ever ridden with. A few led home brew lights were made after that then the cheap Chinese lights came along and made all that redundant. I don't really see the need for super bright lights. I quite like that it's different to daytime riding. In fact my most memorable night rides have been unplanned ones where we end up getting home late with an old torch or some other bodge.

Fond memories of the Lumicycle LED conversion threads on here. One of mine is still going strong!

My current MTB light is a more recent DIY job, and I deliberately went for a warmer tint, and I do think it provides a more useful light.

In fact my most memorable night rides have been unplanned ones where we end up getting home late with an old torch or some other bodge.

Ah yes. Cycling along an unknown trail with only my red rear light held in my hand for illumination was a highlight for me.

My first off-road night experience was a night race in puddletown forest around 1988/89. Start straight a blaze of tripod halide lamps run of gennys, then a huge pile up as everyone plunged into absolute black with a subtle glimmer of ever-ready nightriders, which could just about illuminate your front tyre. It wasn't a huge success.

I'm quite fond of my current Exposure lights, having regularly explored the limits of cateye 10w halogen with massive SLA, then the ubiquitous lumicycle twin setup, and homebrew LED conversions before things got properly useable. Upgrades generally followed having serious contact with a tree/branch/fence/pony and associated physical and mental scarring.

My old Cateye front light was barely bright enough to let me see the puddles right in front of my tyre, I don't miss it one bit

Cat Eye Stadiums. Only didn't work on 24hr races........

Then onto Lupines at NWMTBs suggestion and the guys and gals at Lupine treat them like Trigger's broom. The internals have been upgraded as part of their '20 euro care package' and occasionally damaged bodies replaced.

Made me wince when I paid for them, but the last 15 years of upgrades for very little mean I think they're good value.

Running Ravemen on the gravel/road bike as they've got a road friendly lens and you can charge your Garmin off them and charge the light off the dynamo. Also an Exposure Joystick, because it's light, bright and Rory's ace.

Those smart twin halogens with a lead acid battery and a spare in my camel back! Those were the days!!
Then some ****er ( yes you Dave) bought cat eye stadiums and I couldn't see a thing!!

I've still got a set of Vistalite VL400s in the garage. Upgrading them to LED and replacing the battery would cost more than a couple of cheap Chinese lights though, so that's where they'll stay.

Similar to OP with the 5/10W setup, and some bulb upgrade kit I recall. Mugdock was proper dark and scary ! Then the HID which was like night into day, till it broke. Then some early Aussie LED things that were actually pretty good, forget the name ?

10 plus years later, old man eyesight and 2022 Six pack and Joystick combo seem just about bright enough still..

Vistalite VL400s

I had a single one and rated it highly for a solid build and eyecatching design, if not for brightness 😬

Can’t remember if you could twist the lens and focus it though. So long ago. I remember that it got replaced with a Smart Alloy Halogen about 15 years ago, which was a weird but neat little unit and not a bad beam. This was a massive step up from those old Smart twin headlamps. Basically a bulb with a small alloy cowl over it. It got so hot that could warm your hands on it. In fact you could probably burn them on it/cook a quail egg.

The rechargeable battery pack that came with it was a sealed lump of grey-brown plastic that was concave along the length to fit snugly against a frame-tube without slippage. It had thick elasticised velcro straps

Then after about 10 years I’d upgraded to Exposure MaXx D. Then ‘downgraded’ to Solarstorm X2 and also carried an RSP Asteri 3 for a self-contained unit/torch/urban option.

Around then I sold the old Smart Alloy kit on to a riding buddy and he was still (happily) using it until the bulb finally conked a year or two ago.

I had a pair of mr11 somethings. They were amazing as they opened up nightriding. No one in our group had anything more powerful so it all worked. The supplied battery pack only gave 45mins run time though so I made more packs with cells from Maplin in a length of drainpipe.
This was a bit risky, not because the dodgy homemade packs would catch fire, but because I was charging them at work which meant carrying them in a bag through Manchester Piccadilly. I had a couple of stop and searches around that time, but luckily not with the battery packs in my bag.
Then I got a very low powered led from planet X. No better than the mr11s, but smaller and lighter. It liked to cut out on downhills though. Needed regular repairs with a soldering iron. Then I splashed serious cash on a Hope Vision 2 with twin leds and a massive 300lumens. This was night to day stuff!
Modern era indeed.

I remember our club getting support from lupine(through zyro) for a 24hr event. In the form of them bringing a selection of lights to light our way.

Every single one failed on every single lap - they would repair them between laps but we were like....urm probably not for us.

Possibly why HID never really caught on. Spare balast was hideously expensive as well.

Those smart twin halogens with a lead acid battery and a spare in my camel back! Those were the days!!

They were hopeless! My first decent set was a 20W lumicycle halogen with bottle battery. I later upgraded it with a MR16 led and housing I got off ebay.

I had a pair of 10W and 30W Cateye somethingorothers in about 2004/5.
If I remember right they were absolutely fine for seeing by but had two enormous heavy batteries mounted to the bottle cage mounts and the batteries themselves would last less than an hour on a useful power setting.
.
it's the way batteries have changed in the last decade or so that impresses me most.

Made from drainage pipe and lead acid battery in the cage.

Worked though 🙂

Bristol Moutain Bike Club recipe..

https://web.archive.org/web/20041213020032/http://www.bristolmountainbikeclub.com/workshop/workshop_lights.htm

http://www.bristolmountainbikeclub.com/workshop/workshop_lights.ht m">Bristol Mountain Bike Club MTB Lights

PDF with pix

https://web.archive.org/web/20041213020032/http://www.bristolmountainbikeclub.com/workshop/MTB%20Lights%20v.1.0%20Bristol%20Mountain%20Bike%20Club.pdf

Lumicycle halogens here, no one else I knew rode at night, just folks on here. Then did the LED conversion mentioned up there, they were great, still actually really good over 10 years later.

Gave them to a forum member for his kids a few weeks back, so they're still going!.

the first lights i got for my bike if i remember were those huge duracel bohemoths that you locked onto your bike with a key. they came in a pack (one front/rear) and had as much power as a small firefly.

Admittedly i never went offroad riding at night though.

i still have my hope vision 2 led that still works fine (with big enduro battery).

i now have a diablo sync mk 11 that i use both offroad and on and it is great. the rear is a 20/30 led that i bought on amazon that i bought for about £20 that is great also.

I started about twenty years ago with a twin Cateye set up, the cable would sometimes pop out of the remote unit when descending. Used to do most of our night riding at Glentress in those days so a lighting fail wasn't a complete disaster just cruised back with a mini maglite. Then I got a halogen lumicycle set, definitely an improvement but you knew when you were out with an HID rider. Then we started trying more technical stuff and realised a helmet light was needed. So it was Ay-Up lights next, that must have been about 15 years ago, not the brightest but really reliable, long lasting, light and bombproof. I still use one as a helmet light. I now have an MTB Batteries lumenator on the bars.

My timeline goes: Petzl Zoom / Lumicycle halogen / Lumicycle HID / homebrew LED Lumi halogen conversions plus a couple put together by the late, great Troutie, which I still have / then two factory Lumicycle LEDs, which are still my barlights today.

On the head, graduated from Lumicycle halogen through to a first generation Joystick, which I cackhamdedly uprated with a better LED then two or three later Joysticks plus a Diablo.

I kind of mis the whole LED DIY scene thing. I still have one of mine which was a red ano Lumicycle halogen can with a RC car motor heat sink bonded to it. Looks ace and still works. If ony I could remember how to reprogramme it, it'd have more than two settings.

I love Lumicyle, partly because it's one of the few lights that allows you to flick sequentially up or down through the settings thanks to the toggle switch rather than being stuck in an endless loop of ascending levels until you return to low again. Stone reliable and just great, functional lights.

@lakesrider I had that exact same set up. It was bleeding awful, but I was 17 and didn’t know any better. Had two adapters and 6 rechargeable batteries which took 14 hours to charge to give the 1 hour battery life.
Found it the last time I rooted around in the garage. Can’t remember if I kept it, would be hilarious to try a ride with it now!

Lumicycles were the game changer for me. First the twin halogen, then the HID (really liked it but heavy and and not dimmable), upgraded to lithium battery pack, then finally LED. Must have had that 8 years and still perfect for me. Ran that with a Mk1 Joystick on the helmet, which was upgraded couple of years ago to an Axis. Difference in 10 years brightness is unbelievable.

Zoom +Wonderlights to start with then some halogen thing backed up by a home made MR11 in waste pipe job. Various cheap torches as well. A used early Exposure was great but it died several times. Chinese LEds took over and now its a Halfords 1600 l plus a Flux LED torch from Torchy the batteryboy.
Dynamoy on the woodland commute bike.
Often thought of bunging some new LEDs in the old Exsposure body but too lazy.

I remember my 80s Ever Ready lights bouncing out of those dodgy brackets many a time!

I'm trying to remember the brand/model, in the late "noughties," I had a double halogen(?) light that came with a seriously heavy (~1Kg?) battery "bottle" that fitted in a standard bottle cage, very similar to NiteRider but I swear the bottle didn't have anything like that amount of white writing on it.

I was only thinking the other day, somewhere hidden away I've got a Moon Nebula rear and a Moonshine 900 front from ~2017, that fell out of favour when I bought the Lidl set in March '20.

I swear it’s because LEDs aren’t that great for seeing by – see car headlights these days where everyone seems to drive round with full beam on even at 30mph. Keep upping those lumens and you just get a whiter and whiter glow. The old halogens were much better, but obviously it’s all about the battery life. (Dunno why they use LEDs on cars, I really don’t

Was driving back from a night ride the other week, got utterly soaked and it was peeing it down, because of the wet kit in the car steaming up was an issue.
The car has halogen h4 headlamps, clean and properly adjusted. At one point the car behind me with I assume LEDs, had a beam cut off which I swear passed mine, it was insanely bright. They did fall back a bit when I went a bit sideways after hitting an unseen lake in the road

I was tempted to hold my bike light out of the window to see by or shine it at the car behind.

But yeah I had access to lots of SLA batteries so used car foglights and taped a 7ah batt or similar to the bike. I moved on to a set of BLT lights, which weren't bad, till I lost the charger and I'd lost interest in night riding

I’m trying to remember the brand/model, in the late “noughties,” I had a double halogen(?) light that came with a seriously heavy (~1Kg?) battery “bottle” that fitted in a standard bottle cage,

BLT? The lamps were on stalks a 5w and 10w iirc with a switch on each lamp.

Not BLT, but googling that gave me a photo of what it was, Electron 5W+10W. 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electron-Double-Ni-Mh-Lighting-System/dp/B000NOPVWA

My first was much later than some of these but it was still rubbish- those tesco cree LED torches that were all the rage for about 5 minutes. Good fun to ride with low power lights though!

But newer more powerful lights meant instead of going for a "night ride" I could pretty much just go for a ride at night- raced enduro and dh a couple of times in the dark and I wouldn't have wanted to do that with less than a billion chinese lumens.

Cateye daylites ‘upgraded’ to 6w & 10w. Then BLT with the bottle battery running 10w &20w. Excellent lights and better battery then the Cateyes.

There was a homemade 50w using a tow ball cover for housing and an old house alarm battery. You had to turn it off when stopped as the lack of air flow meant it started melting the housing! It weighed a ton….

first led we’re the original Hope 2 pot, WOW! they were bright, all 240 lumens….

the Hope 4 pot replaced them and it’s probably all the light I ever needed. They were on my CAADx when it got stolen.

it’s mad to think what I rode with the old lights compared to modern lights.

I had those Electrons with a Ring 1w 50 lumen headtorch strapped to my helmet. I thinking about this on the headtorch thread the other day when someone was saying that a 450 lumen headtorch wasn't bright enough to run off road despite being brighter (and much cheaper) than the Hope HID which was the dogs when it came out.

I recon one of the few things that genuinely orders of magnitude better now than when I started proper cycling in the early 80s is lights.

Lots of things have improved but riding a bike was still riding a bike back then… in the daylight at least. By night though we had awful metal ever ready lights until Wonderlights came along. They were still crap but we thought they were a great. They still didn’t last long and the batteries cost loads and they were dimmer than the light on my phone. To save batteries we used to ride by moon light and just switch them on if we heard a car on the road.

Lumicycle halogens here, no one else I knew rode at night, just folks on here. Then did the LED conversion mentioned up there, they were great, still actually really good over 10 years later.

Started off with Lumicycle Halogens, then onto HID, before converting them over to LED during the "great conversion" event of 2009/10, with blackcat drivers and LED boards from Cutter. Still got these, and still got the Lumicycle NIMH batteries which are now 18 years old.

Did a bit of cheapo Chinese lights, before the current set up of Moon Meteor 1700Lumen/Halfords 500Lumen lights.

I remember in the early days of Mountain Mayhem, borrowing every single set of decent lights from the bike shop where I worked and spending a couple of days with them all charging up. Usually VistaLite ones with a 5W & 10W lamp and the two "stick" batteries that sat alongside the bottle cage.

I had a NiteRider Digital Pro 12 which was vastly more expensive but also far superior. One of the very early light systems you'd look at and go "HOW much?!!" but they were excellent. Bottle cage battery and a really neat head unit containing a 12W & 20W all controlled off a single button remote with a battery level indicator. For a year or two it was the brightest light at 24hr races - you'd ride up behind someone and suddenly they'd be riding into their own shadow, their own paltry 5W unable to compete with the 32W bean behind them!

Then I got a NiteRider Storm HID light. Helmet mounted and about a 40W equivalent. Once again, the brightest thing at any 24hr race bar the few people who had Cateye Stadiums which had just come onto the scene. The HID would last 4hrs on a single battery though, unheard of on previous halogen lights.

Those first few years of 24hr races - you'd encounter someone with a failed light system on pretty much every lap! Or trying to get round with a Petzl headtorch back up.