Can anyone suggest an upgrade of cateye's SLA battery. It seems every one is in agreement with the outstandinly poor battery life of said battery. Maybe if Cateye were blanket emailed by everyone who baught these lights they might within reason do some kind of discounted upgrade or something. Or may be the guys at Bike Magic could add some weight to the upgrade argument. Put simply these lights put out good light but the battery is not up to the job. I have spent money on these lights simply because that Cat Eye lights are everywhere so you would think....Should have read the reviews first. But I realy do believe that We the consumers should.. erm put some presure on the Manufacturer. It's an idea. What do you all think
i agree fully that the cateye ( i have an RC220) has a pants battery. if you do start hassling them, i'll throw in my penn'orth of annoyance - i bought an RC230 which had such a sh1t battery i sent it back after 2 days.
you should be able to better it with some decent small cells soldered together, as seen in radio control magazines, but i found it incredibly confusing when it comes to amp-hours and so on...
(i just bit the bullet and bought a light and motion solo logic. my credit card co. love me, my wifes not so totally happy about it...)
if you've got £50, want a NiMh, 9Ah or something, with replacement leads to suite that light, they've got them here www.therush.uk.com over volted so will be brighter to :)
it's a 7.2 on that site, made to upgrade Cateye systems, so got the right lead, using a SLA charger would likely kill it though so ?? it'll reduce bulb life but brighter.
is the 3300mAH any better than the 4.2AH of the existing battery? i would expect that to give an even shorter run time... which is already the major problem i've been having with the RC220 (and i presumed that was the usual complaint)
if you want run time, get something else, HID preferably, or that battery, think it's 9Ah, so double your current battery life, IF the SLA worked to 100%, NIMH work to 100%/
Have to agree with the line that anything over £100 is not an option. Looked at Lupine and there is no way I am going to spend upwards of 200 note on a torch. The technology is there and I feel it is just not packaged in a cycling product.Yet There fore any thing that is bright and has a long burn time will be in total rip off teritory. A s I said before the Cateye's work it is just the power pack that is rubbish so when mugs like me come accross a lighting set at around fifty quid.... well fools easily parted from there money and all that.......Rant ...Rant....Rant. Email Cateye with a similar rant and will see what they say.
You'd of been better of with the Smart with the NiCad battery, but never mind :)
I'm spending, to much on light, but do ride alot at night, so it's worth it to me, over the winter I'll rarely get to ride in the day, definately finish all rides in the dark.
I am assuming you are getting the burn time stated in the cateye manual? Personally i don't think the cateye is a rip off because you just can't buy a lightweight high capacity battery on the cheap. Last year i bought a 12V 4.2Ah NiMH pack for my homemade bodge helmet light. This is essestially the same as a 6V 8.4Ah, which will give double your run time. It set me back £50. I have also got a 6V 10Ah SLA battery (£13)for another light (20W 3hr burn)- great burn time but it weighs over a kilo!
More run time will cost you something, either in weight or wallet, the choice is yours!
Give Strikalite a call if you want a NiMH or NiCad pack made up, never had any problems. Just remember you will need a new charger unless you get a bigger SLA, in which case use the cateye one for a longer time.
(..actually i went and paid out several of your earth pounds on a light and motion solo logic li-ion. which gives a genuine bright light and keeps going for longer than i do...)
