Lighting on a budget

[SpeedyManiac]

Alright, I have 2 weeks to put together a lighting setup for a night race (2 hour harescramble at night - yeehaw!). I have the stock headlight on my EC250 and will probably leave it that way. Seems to give off decent light.

Now, for the helmet. Unfortunately I don't have the money for an HID setup from Cyclops. Those things are sweet, but super expensive. So, I'm going to try to make my own setup for cheap.

The goal is a usable night setup for under $100 that is battery powered and bright enough to run at race pace in the dark without killing myself.

Suggestions? Right now I'm thinking about getting some bicycle lights and rigging a bunch of those up. Oh yeah, the race is about 2-2.5 hours long.

[GMP]

If you can swing a little more coin, check out the Trailtech stuff. You can get a single integrated HID helmet light for around $130. Now you need 12 - 16V @ 35W for 2.5 hrs, thats about a 7.5A/hr pack minimum. Maybe buy the light and try to borrow and rig up some batteries. I'm thinking four R/C model packs of 7.2V 4A/hr, in a series-paralell configuration should do it, and fit in a fanny pack or cammelback. At a constant power of 35W, 14 V should run at 2.5A give you a little extra capacity, theoretically 3.2 hrs.

Why buy bicycle stuff that you will probably be unhappy and replace it anyway? I suspect you go just a little faster than mountain biker.

[SpeedyManiac]

Well, I do have a headlight on my bike so the helmet light is more as auxillary lighting than primary stuff.

I do have a spare 6V motorcycle battery kicking around...might be able to hook that up. My uncle is an electrician so I'll see what I can rig up for cheap.

[sprocket74]

Speedy, my buddies that rode Vernon last year said that the helmet light light were way more important than the bike lights. SPend the coin on the helmet lights.

BTW no rain in weeks here so prepare for dust

[REVERUP]

Steve, In my experience skimping on lights is not a option if you want to be competitive. you will out run your lighting power.

It starts to become a safety issue and doctors bills and pain and suffering will be far more costly than the price of good lighting.

I suggest you save your coin and buy a trail tech scmr 16 HID helmet light with the li-ion battery. Very good and powerful unit and customer service is excellent. I actually run one of these off of my handlebars plus my stock headlight. I also run a couple of night rider HIDs on my helmet for the sharp corners and cresting hills. They also help fill in color in the whoops.

The nice thing about these lights is you will always have them as you can move them from helmet to helmet or from bike to bike.

You should get a Canadian team together and come down and do the Buttstomper at Reiter its a 24 hour that is very tough terrain. The same club that puts on the Desert 100 puts this one on but it is on the wet side in the trees so it's a different animal.

Good luck at the night hare scramble race.

Roscoe

[NerdFrog]

Speedy, as a weekly night rider (my wife lets me get out on a day ride once or twice a year...) I can vouch for the above comments on the value of a good helmet light. For the super-tight conditions of my usual haunt at Blue Mountain, I've actually left my 8" 55W Trailtech halogen bike light at home and used only my McGuyvered helmet light for our 4-hour Wednesday night rides.

I use a $6 37W 12V MR16 spot halogen with mirror reflector glued into a 2" PVC coupling pipe which is fastened in my helmet visor with zap straps. I've set an on/off switch in my mouth-guard (activated by my finger from the outside, not by my tongue on the inside!). The electrical cord runs along the top of the helmet to the very back and is held in place by fashionable duct tape. At the end of the cord there is a coupling to separate the helmet from the battery. I use a 12Ah sealed lead-acid 12V battery ($50) originally intended to power back-up lighting devices for buildings. I use a $30 trickle charger to keep the battery topped up 'till I need it. The battery barely tucks into the mesh of my hydration pack.

This cheap set-up provides an intensely bright spot of light that is 4m wide about 10m in front of the bike. It works great up to speeds of around 30km/hr but lacks the power to light up further for faster riding. You will definitely need more than this for the Vernon night race. My set up works for me because it has a wide enough beam to show me where the trail is turning, yet focused enough to maximize the brightness at my usual 15km/hr average riding speed.

Compared to all commercially available bicycle lights: my set up rules, and for a lot less money to boot. It is much heavier though.

Compared to the Cyclops halogen: similar light quality, just different focus. The cyclops is a narrower spot and is better for faster, straighter trails.

Compared to the Trailtech HID MR16: This is the ultimate helmet light. Period. My night riding buddy uses one and when his is on, it's as if mine has run out of battery! The HID has a much whiter, and brighter light than any halogen. It is also a flood - lighting up a much wider angle of vision in front of you, yet still packs the punch to illuminate the trail for decent speed.

Recommendation: HID helmet light AND a powerful bike light. More is definitely better! Get an HID bike light for day-like lighting at night!

[SpeedyManiac]

Thanks for the info JP. I have a fairly bright headlight on my bike so maybe it combined with your setup might work. How heavy is that battery?

[NerdFrog]

Originally Posted by SpeedyManiac

Thanks for the info JP. I have a fairly bright headlight on my bike so maybe it combined with your setup might work. How heavy is that battery?

The battery is about 2kg... so keeping it close to your centre of gravity is key to not noticing it.

Here's a bad shot of my light setup:

[snoogans]

At a budget there is nothing that beats 12V Halogen spots, run them at 14.4V and they will be a bit brighter. I run home made Osram 35W HIDs they are the best i´ve tried, but they are more than 100$.

[SpeedyManiac]

I'm going to run 1-2 35W MR16 halogen bulbs unless I can find some HID bulbs locally (not promising).

Now, battery suggestions. Lead acid could work, but it's heavy. Mind you, if I race without my tool pouch and only a half full camelback, I won't notice the battery as much. Any suggestions for batteries? I'm trying to figure out what rating I'll need to power 2 35W bulbs for 1-1.5 hours (I'm thinking about swapping batteries when I pit for gas). Thoughts?