(no subject)

[armb]

Tried the SolidLight helmet mounting last night (just to the Park and Ride). It's a bit fiddly to screw onto the bracket, and a bit bulky once in place. I've never felt a need for a helmet mounted light, but my Specialized did come with a helmet mount (and belt with battery pouch) that seems to work better. The battery is a lot heavier of course, the SolidLight you can just strap the battery to the helmet too if you want. (See pages 6-8 of the user manual)
Tonight I cycled home with the Specialized and the SolidLight. (I redid the replacement for the broken Specialized cable on Sunday, this time without the metal clamp on the new barrel connector cutting into the wires and shorting them.) With fully charged NiCds, the Specialized is putting out more light than the SolidLight - the central spot appears as bright (though yellower), and it's broader, and it splashes more light around outside the spot. The Specialized is about 11W then, but was 7.2W when I compared it part charged with a SolidLight at the manufacturer's house, and the SolidLight central spot was brighter then. (The SolidLight central spot is not as tight or sharp edged as the EL-300, but not as spread out as the Specialized.)
An LVR would help even out the Specialized power (with an extra cell, and a new battery holder), the SolidLight is regulated.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Saw someone using a hole in the wall bank machine a few nights ago wearing a helmet with flashing red light and skin-tight spandex shorts. Really looked bizarre, somehow...

[armb.livejournal.com]

Red rear-facing helmet lamp I have considered - maybe this (which will give you a bogus message about cookies unless you go to their front page first). I have shorts, but wear longs at this time of year.
Some more on splashing light around - there are a couple of places where it's nice to be able to see the low overhanging trees, or that there are no rabbits on the verge about to leap onto the path, but mostly it is wasted. A bit of side visibility at some junctions helps, and the EL-300 has side facing bits for just that reason - ideally perhaps a couple of small white LEDs like those on the smaller EL-200 but with no focussing into a beam at all would do that job, mounted on the side of a light.
And having some light spilling to the other side of the road does encourage oncoming motorists to dip their headlights (while at 110W being much less antisocial itself than 110W of main beam car headlights - something like the Cateye Stadium I think would not be suitable for on-road use (not that I've ever seen one in real life)).
But both the Lumotec and SolidLight spread enough peripheral light around for me. The EL-300 does feel a bit claustrophobic though - there's enough spread light for people to see it, but not for the user to see anything except a patch of the edge of the road, at least at times. (If there is either a visible moon, or streetlight glow reflected from cloud, it's not so bad.)
But the EL-300 does provide a useful addition to the Lumotec (and provides a standlight for when you aren't moving, though I could have bought a Lumotec Plus instead), and even a bit of a useful addition to the SolidLight if you angle them so one spot is a bit beyond the other (as well as providing a BS6102 approved light).

[armb.livejournal.com]

P.S. If I did want a white helmet light, the EL-400 looks plausible. But off-road (the SolidLight's main market) would probably be different.

[armb.livejournal.com]

while at 10W being much less antisocial itself than 110W