Night Riding
 

Going to start weekly or every other weekly night rides up here On Vancouver Island. Bunch of us got some Trailtech HID helmet lights coming and hope to get the first ride in this week.
Been looking forward to this all summer long , should be a blast as everything looks way different in the Dark.
Fortunately here on the Island we don't get much snow , mostly liquid sunshine in the the winter , so we should be able to a lot of night riding in this winter


Steve

Night riding is great. You'll find that the reflection from the raindrops is more of a bother than the lack of sunshine. You can actually see the trail better at night with an HID than you can with the sun creating varying light and casting shadows.

Hey Steve did you shop around for your Trailtech HID helmet lights.

I have a different brand I'll check when I get home. It's ok for the tight woods but not enough for open trails and fire roads.

Yeah we looked around at a lot of stuff and went direct with Trailtech MR11 spot/flood combo . we will be riding mostly single track and we also have the Full stock head lights on our bikes too as a added bonus . the open stuff will be logging roads to and from the trails , so i think we will be good to go. I'll let ya know after tomorrow nights ride, the lights arrived today :cool:

Well I dug up the box my helmet light came in. More for Mountain biking.
But the price was right and it is 900 Lumins.
It just called a Bicycle Light from Magicshine

Thats the same emitter thats in my VisionX lights. Two spots are fine for night backroad riding, should be OK for all but really fast stuff.

I got two rainy rides out of my Magicshine before it shorted out. I sent it back for an exchange or refund and never heard from them again. My friend fared better and has about 20 rides on his now. It's still a far cry from the Trailtech HID setup!

The best I've found though for overall performance and functionality was the Cyclops Solstice HID. The slim battery packs with dual connectors, the industrial velcro, the wiring and switch are all more user friendly than the Trailtech setup (I currently run the Trailtech...)

A good bike light is also mandatory for fast and straight sections and important for the tight stuff. Without the bike light, you don't get a good sense of "perspective" as the helmet light "flattens" the terrain. The bike light, at a lower angle of incidence, casts shadows in the dips allowing you to better judge the terrain. (The helmet light then allows you to see what you're getting into when diving down into these dips!)

I'm currently running the Baja Designs 8" Halogen with a 55W bulb. It's a little heavy and you do notice it on your forks (had to get used to it) but it has been litterally bombproof and the deep reflector has proven to produce an excellent light pattern and has made the 55W bulb seem much brighter.

I've got a Trailtech X2 offroad halogen in customs right now. I'll pick it up this weekend and test it out on my next wednesday night ride. I'm hoping it'll be lighter in weight and illuminate as well as the Baja light does.

Here's the link to my night ride "blog" on our local hill: at www.bluemountainmotorcycleclub.com
(You might want to skip to the more recent posts...)

The Trailtech HIDs have a very poor reliability record from the guys over on ADVrider. Those guys tend to rack up the hours on them so flaws will show faster. While the LEDs don't have the punch of an HID they are at least as bright (and much whiter) as a 50W halogen, bulletproof, and only need 10W each. Two on the bike and two on the helmet should be fine for all but real fast stuff.

Cheap fun lighting to give it a try is available. The Magicshine has improved since Geomangear has been working with the Chinese maker of the product. They are now water tolerable, and the connectors have improved. New from Magicshine is a 1400 lumens model. Geomangear.com sells a combo kit(they call it the 2300) for $214 U.S. You get the 1400 lumens unit for the bike, and the 900 lumens unit for the helmet. Pretty low cost lighting, and quite effective. They work great for night mountain bike riding. I'd guess they're good for motorcycles too, but cannot verify, I have not run the 1400 unit myself yet..

Same Seoul Semiconductor emmitter as in the VisionX. The VX has a really nice alloy case, waterproof, with a waterproof connector system. Three beam patterns are available. I've had them on my Duc all year running day/night and they have been flawless. I see these high power LEDs as the future and the power rating will go up even more, good stuff!