Help choose a budget light for daily commute on a bicycle

Nope. Some lights (especially aspherics) specifically avoid reflecting any light, and coat everything inside (except the emitter) with matte black paint. This helps avoid weird rings around the beam while zoomed to a tight spot.

For example, here are a couple SK-68s which didn’t prevent reflections well enough, so they have rainbow rings around the hotspots:

Oh, and here’s what it looks like if you use an aspheric lens and a reflector (orange peel reflector):
A bit weird, no?

i like that, a bit of free spill from otherwise wasted lumens, and the pattern is fun too
which reflector and light is that?

It’s a Convoy S3 with XP-G2 (sold that way from Intl-Outdoor), and I took the aspheric from an Ultrafire 838. It was just kludged together for a quick test:

i wonder if that aspheric is available on its own

Thanks a lot for the clarifications. It makes sense now. The reflector+zoom combo does look strange.

So excited. They are here!

I was expecting the flashlight today as tracking was showing the in Pittsburgh already, but magically the batteries were delivered today as well, even though they were still showing up in the Kuala Lumpur airport. 24 days for the Convoy S2 and nitecore I2 charger from fasttech and 23 days for the protectec 3400 mah panasonics from wallbuys.

S2 looks and feels great. My DMM showed 3.6 volts for the cell. It’s currently sitting in the charger. Can’t wait to use the light for my ride home from work today.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.

I’d love to hear your thoughts after you’ve tried using it. :slight_smile:

I’m pretty happy with my 2100mA T6-3C S7 for biking (same reflector as S2, IIRC), though the stainless steel body doesn’t dump heat very well. It can only maintain “low” in stagnant air or “medium” while I’m biking, with “high” reserved only for short bursts. It looks nice, but aluminum would be a lot better at shedding heat.

That’s a good combo you got there!

I have used the light for three days now on short commutes, about 10-12minutes each. I have been running it on high and two days ago when it was –8C the light didn’t even get slightly warm. Today the temp was 13C and the head got slightly warm at the end. I have the 2.1A, AMC7135*6 version.

I find it great at slow to medium speeds and a bit lacking at 18+mph. At higher speeds I look further ahead on the road, and if I tilt the light up a bit to illuminate further ahead, I feel like it I could use a bit more throw.

One small thing I didn’t like is that the end of the spring at the head is not bent inwards, so when I tried to screw it on while the battery was in the light, there was some resistance and it scratched the nipple a bit. The tip of the spring at the tail is bent inwards, so it rotates smoothly against the battery.

Overall very happy with the light.

I may try some kind of a thrower on my helmet and see how I like it. One thing I worry about though, is what that will do to the drivers when I term my head back to check on cars behind.

I have tried searching but haven’t been able to find an answer. What does the low voltage warning look like on Convoy S2 (from FastTech)? Does it give a warning or does it turn off the light? What is the voltage when this happens?

3V it switches to low and flashes once per second

Thanks!

Glad you like it. I can see it not having enough throw for you at higher speeds. I wonder if you should increase throw slightly to get a "best of both worlds" kind of light or if you want to keep the S2 on the bars and add a thrower to it (either bars or helmet mounted). I'd suggest the Convoy M1 for more throw, though many will recommend the Convoy C8 (I don't own either). Remember the larger the reflector diameter the more throw with less spill you'll get.

If you're ever coming over east I could show you a few lights to give you an idea. I also have a bike trail right down the road from my house capable of 20+ MPH speeds (though it's pretty unusable until Spring now). I have a KD C8 which will have about same output at the Convoy. I also have OP and SMO reflectors. Also have a C8 with an XP-G to show off difference from XM-L to XP-G. My intended bike light is sitting on my bench waiting to get modded (SkyEye F13 with NW XM-L2 on copper with Dr. Jones programmable driver).

-Garry

Fine tuning…

My S2 is bright; it lights up a block on high. I’m running at 2100ma and an OP reflector, but if your S2 came with an OP reflector, changing to a smooth reflector will help the throw and that might be enough.

The M2 would be the next step up with better throw and more spill than an M1 running solo…running two lights is the Cadillac way.

I like the M2. It’s the largest light I can EDC but any thrower in combination will get the job done.

If running with a single M1 or M2 you will want an OP reflector.

Interesting. I find that the medium setting is fine (~30% of 2.1A, IIRC) even when I’m going downhill at 30mph, and I almost never use the high setting. Most bikers around here still have oldschool lights made of several 5mm LEDs with a combined output of maybe 30 lm… so my ~225 lm medium mode looks blinding in comparison.

In any case, a head-mounted C8 would almost certainly give you enough throw. My main concerns there would be whether the beam would be wide enough to be useful, and if it might be intense enough to make your pupils contract further. Avoid aiming it directly at cars and you should be fine, because the spill isn’t intense.

I take my XinTD C8 biking with me, but I don’t normally leave it on… I just pull it out when I want to see something far away. A Convoy S2 XM-L at 2.1A should get somewhere around 4 kcd of lux, and the XinTD C8 gets more like 30 kcd or 35 kcd. Plus I hear I can get that up to 125 kcd with some mods, and I’m tempted to do so. When I’ve compared these against car headlights aimed at a wall, it looks like cars typically get around 3 kcd to 15 kcd. My car is toward the low end of that range, so most of my Li-Ion lights (even fairly floody ones) put out a brighter beam than my car. I’d like to get a lux meter though, so I can get some real numbers.

For quick reference (if I remember correctly), here are a few common lights in order of least to most lux/throw and overall size (at the same total lumens and power level):

Convoy S2, S3, M2, M1, C8.

The S2 and S3 may be swapped sometimes though; people have reported getting different results with those, or even different results within a single model.

I’m also assuming that lights like the HD2010 are too big (and too throwy) for biking, and a Jacob A60 would probably throw a beam too narrow to be useful. However if narrow is okay, you could mount a cheap SK-68 (or a similar cheap aspheric headlamp) on your head if you just want to see farther in one small area.

Since my last post I have riden my by with the new lights and have to agree that the S2 gives plenty of useful light and is definitely enough. I still run it on high (2.1amps) just because my commute is short enough that I don’t have to worry about depleting the 3400mahs in the cell. On one occasion when I rode for considerably longer, I did switch to medium, and I would say it was definitely adequate. BTW, my S2 has an OP reflector.

Since getting the S2, I got two other lights as well (so much for staying under budget).

I got an UltraFire WF-502B CREE XM-L T6 from the Greed Pays thread Greed Pays ... for $3.46

and

a Tangsfire C8 XM-L2 U3 reviewed here Tangsfire C8 XM-L2 U3 Review

I tried these both mounted on my helmet. I first used the a velcro mount like this one http://dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-flashlight-lamp-nylon-velcro-clip-mount-holder-black-2-pcs-252680#.UtmGePhOmb8 but that put the center of mass too high up, and the helmet not very stable. I switched to these silicone mounts https://www.fasttech.com/p/1140013 and the 502B was very comfortable. I hardly fealt it. The C8 is a bit heavy, and uncomfarble when the helmet is loose, but when the helmet is tight (not too much, just as it’s supposed to be), even the C8 is quite comfortable.

The 502B was all right, but gave a me a bit of a tunnel vision. The C8 is a completely different story. It’s plenty bright, with a good through and spill. I would even say it’s too much light, and an overkill for what I need. I currently have the S2 on my handelbars and the C8 on my helmet, but mostly leave the C8 off. I only turn it on when there is less light and not much traffic, but mostly just for the fun of it.

At some point I may try the C8 on the handlebars, but I quite like the ability to point my head to whatever I like to illuminate.

To Garry: Thanks for the invitation. That sounds fun and if I am ever in the area, I will get in touch. Not very likely though, since we’ll almost certainly move ot of PA in the next couple of months.

Thanks again to all the contributors to this thread for the excellent education on flaslights and batteries.

Glad to hear things are working out for you!

-Garry

Thanks for the follow-up! :slight_smile: