Thinking strongly to buy the Lumicycle light, 12 20 W combo, could you let me know what is wrong with this lights (apart the price), if there is something wrong? A review in WMB said there was no switch for the 20 W...i'm not quite sure to understand this, does it mean you have to plugged - unplugged if you want your light on/off? bit strange to me. Thanks
I've got a set and think they're great. If you do go for them then get the "smart" charger, more cash but far less hassle than the cheaper charger.
Oh, regardless of the bulb wattage, the same type of bulb housing is used for each light and does have a switch. So each light can be turned on/off independently of the other (using a switch, not pulling out cables).
I like the mounting method of a rubber strip and reusable zip tie. It doesn't require tools to fit and the lights are easy to move a little by hand whilst on the trail to repoint them indepently - which is important in my view. They also don't vibrate or bounce around like some lights giving a distorted beam.
I haven't yet found any downsides having used them most weeks for 6 months. If you can afford it buy them.
there's no doubt the lumis are excellent. myself I find the zip ties ideal, so easy to remove for the weekend day time rides. 12w spot and 20w flood is the standard config, and is just about right. Get them!
The zip tie mount isn't elegant but it does work, definately get the smart charger and consider one or two extra bulbs for the hell of it. The 20w spot is an excellent all purpose single lamp and the 35w semi-flood is worth it just for intimidating car drivers.
A year on our test set hasn't had any serious problems. A couple of irritating things have happened over a year though: * The rubber on both swtiches has worn right through * The main wire had an intermittent fault
Apart from that they've been great: the battery lasts as long now as when new, the lamp bodies have survived a few big stacks (mostly by rolling around the bars), and no bulbs have blown.
Can they be mounted under the handlebars and what adavantage is the smart charger?
I am thinking of buying as well but was think of the nightstick type. I need a light that I can use for 3 hours on the trail and with additional batteries manage a 24 hour race. Can you buy the battteries seperate and how long do they last in reality? I have a cateye at the moment and its not managing 2 hours on trail quest events.
Its a hit an miss affair charging batteries with a normal charger because there's no way of knowing when the battery is fully charged. This means in order to avoid killing the battery by massively overcharging it by mistake all "dumb" chargers use a small current which means a typical bike battery will take overnight to charge. Even then there is still the chance of overcharging. Smart chargers pump a larger current into the battery thus charging it faster but they can sense when the battery is fully charged by checking the voltage. When the battery is charged they then switch over to trickle charge to keep it topped up. Upshot is you get faster charging and less damage to your battery using a smart charger.
If you are thinking of buying Nightsticks check the fit on your bike before you buy them. The bottle cage fittings on my road bike are low down on the frame which meant that when I fitted nightsticks, which are long and stick out more than a bottle, they either fouled the front mech or the chainrings.
Steve, you can mount them under the bars: just zippy them on however you like. The Lumicycle burn times quoted on the website are pretty accurate in my experience: if I run the 12w spot alone for commuting I get 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 hours burn time. Even offroad, the 12w spot is what you'd use most of the time anyway: you only need the flood for the most tricky sections or if there's absolutely no moonlight etc.
They can be mounted under the bars, but as they're so compact and sit so close to the bars, they tend to interfere with the cables, and it's impossible to point them properly. I've got round this by zip-tying a length of 22mm plumbing pipe (same size as handlebars) underneath my bars, with some bits of foam to pad it out. Attaching the lights to this moves them away from the cables.
If you want to know why I went to all this bother, it's so I can have a mapboard. A Petzl Tikka on the head then fits under the helmet to give a map reading light.
Yes, I use a Petzl mini for map reading and with my map board on the handle bars there isnt enough room for lights unless they go underneath. I think my Cat Eye fixing will do the job though - looks ugly but works fine.
Think I will start with a 12W spot and buy the rest for xmas present :-)
I have a 35 w helmet lumicycle light and its extremely powerful. But the 35w does overheat and I have had some problems with the connections inside melting. Will have to fix it at some point.
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