LED spotlight update
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 8:29 pm
The bloody things are brilliant ! Literally.
I went for a 150 km ride last night, a nice long curvy road unfortunately posted with lots of "you're going too fast signs" and big arrows telling you that the corner goes that way >>>>> .Terribly helpful, I've never been able to work it out previously .
Back to the LED spots . As some may remember I have 2 x 2000 lumen Chinese made spots mounted, the cheap ones, not the good ones.
The light is brilliant, WHITE and wonderful to ride by.
Advantages ... I can see a LONG way ahead and because optics of these "spotlights" are so bad the beam spreads over a huge area and lights up all the little suicidal wallabies sitting in the long grass on the road side thinking black thoughts and waiting for a way to end it all.
Disadvantages...... It's horrible when I have to dip my lights halfway through a long sweeper, the world suddenly goes from wonderful WHITE to dim yellow and it takes my eyes longer than I'd like to change phase.
Those bloody reflective signs really reflect back at me and if there are a group of them hanging around a turn off, the kind of place our traffic authorities think drivers and riders should be distracted by a dozen signs, advice boards and big arrows, it gets silly.
This comes back to the lousy optics , if the beams were a nice flat wide spread that shone below the signs and just showed the roads and the verges all would be fine but the beam seems designed to light up any koalas in the trees as well ( which is interesting but not necessary ). Out of town and with no signs this pair of cheap LEDs are great and well worth the money ... about $100 for the 2. If the roads you ride have lots of reflective signs look for beams you can aim low and wide without the up bit.
Sibbo.
I went for a 150 km ride last night, a nice long curvy road unfortunately posted with lots of "you're going too fast signs" and big arrows telling you that the corner goes that way >>>>> .Terribly helpful, I've never been able to work it out previously .
Back to the LED spots . As some may remember I have 2 x 2000 lumen Chinese made spots mounted, the cheap ones, not the good ones.
The light is brilliant, WHITE and wonderful to ride by.
Advantages ... I can see a LONG way ahead and because optics of these "spotlights" are so bad the beam spreads over a huge area and lights up all the little suicidal wallabies sitting in the long grass on the road side thinking black thoughts and waiting for a way to end it all.
Disadvantages...... It's horrible when I have to dip my lights halfway through a long sweeper, the world suddenly goes from wonderful WHITE to dim yellow and it takes my eyes longer than I'd like to change phase.
Those bloody reflective signs really reflect back at me and if there are a group of them hanging around a turn off, the kind of place our traffic authorities think drivers and riders should be distracted by a dozen signs, advice boards and big arrows, it gets silly.
This comes back to the lousy optics , if the beams were a nice flat wide spread that shone below the signs and just showed the roads and the verges all would be fine but the beam seems designed to light up any koalas in the trees as well ( which is interesting but not necessary ). Out of town and with no signs this pair of cheap LEDs are great and well worth the money ... about $100 for the 2. If the roads you ride have lots of reflective signs look for beams you can aim low and wide without the up bit.
Sibbo.
