Cycling/Camping Trip Flashlight Preparations - Reccomendations

LED Flashlights – General Info
16

Hi there!!

I am not a night time cyclist, so I will leave that part of the discussion to someone else. I do all my mountain biking in the light of day, although night riding is something I want to give a try. As far as camping and night hiking here's how I look at it. First of all, if I'm are doing "civilized" camping at a camp site... I can pretty much go HOG wild, bring whatever I want to horde at the site and stowe it at base camp. That includes 12V SLA HID spotlights, too for seeing stuff WAY out. From there, night treking and overnight excursions from base camp weight and efficiency become more paramount. I limit myself to single AA and 18650 lights.

Headlamp is a Zebralight H501, its floody enough to be used as an area lantern or I can wear it around my neck. Eneloops work great in this light.

For hand held duties I bring one bomb-proof P60 host and stowe 2-3 P60 drop in module pills in my pack. That way its light weight, easily packed and I have redundancy. Host is a Surefire 6P, bored for 18650, with a shatter-proof polycarbonate lens. The tailcap gutts have been swapped with an over-ready zero resistance mod, that way theres no switch or spring (or anything complicated) to fail. Its just a brass "slug" in the tailcap that touches the battery tube to activate the light. P60 module pills are multi-mode DIY builds... MCE-2.8Amp, XRE-1.4Amp. I only bring one reflector though. The brass pills are inter-changeable, practically weight-less and don't take up that much space. My absolute SHTF 18650 failsafe is a Malkoff M60 for backup. I pack these with foam in a small plastic zip-lock food container. Using P60 pills and one bomb-proof host can pack 2-3-4-5x the redundancy (whatever I can carry) in a smaller volume and less weight than packing multiple 18650 lights. The drawback is if something does fail, I have to take the host apart in the field.

I also have a Fenix MC-10 I will use as a kind of lantern / flashlight combo. Its versatile enough to cover near-field flood if the Zebra should fail, and can throw longer distances too should the 18650 host fail. It tail stands and I can flood its light to wherever I need it, in lieu of a lantern. It runs optimally on the same eneloops that the zebra uses.

The other thing too I have found is I just don't really need more than ~250-300 Lumens... I mean yeah its nice to have more, but at the expense of weight and volume? Its a trade-off that I have not seen the value in. Same goes for far-reach thrower. I had an XRE Tiablo A10 I used to bring, and I just never really used it for anything other than Oooh look at that tree at 200 yards, ooh nice beam in the sky. (but thats just me, opinions will vary widely)

Some pics for fun!!

If I really wanted to stream-line things I could ditch the 18650 setup and go all-eneloop. Not a bad thing to do, eneloops are GREAT cells. I can still almost get my ~250 lumens if I use the Quark XPG-R5 with the Fenix at the same time. (FWIW I have never actually used this setup in the field... I'm too psychologically attached to that surefire-18650-DIY setup).

Good Luck with whatever you chose!! and enjoy the outdoors

17

Thanks for the input. I should have clarified that we don't plan on riding at night, but it inevitably happens. Flat tires, mechanical problems (broken spokes), taking too long at lunch (you sit down to rest and don't want to get up), etc. . . We do go through a few tunnels (but they aren't too long and could be done without lights).

Last year my biggest disappointment was with the general campsite lighting. I was trying to hang that Rayovac lantern up on a tree limb and put something reflective behind it (ie. my dry sack) but that wasn't working well. I think that UF-H3 with the headband around a tree might be the best option for area light.

-Garry

18

Sure np Garry... yeah one thing I have come to expect in the outdoors... Trees and overhanging branches are EVERYWHERE, except where you really need them to be at any given time. A floody headlamp I think is indispensable tool. It puts a wall of light exactly where you need it... in your field of vision every time.

The other thing I don't think I made very clear is I try and stick with one (maybe) two cell types at most. IMHO thats the easiest way to reduce weight and volume. I demo'd a Spark 18650 headlamp at a CPF night hike once and I found it just a little too heavy for my comfort. So I stick with the AA on my head, and 18650 in the hand. Don't get me wrong though, ~450 lumens shining from my forehead was pretty F-ing amazing.

19

I’m not comfortable with li-ions on my head. I know it’s not likely to be a problem but…it’s my head :slight_smile:
Personal preference, but I don’t like a lantern around camp trying to turn nighttime into daytime. A headlamp works best for me in that environment.
I think it’s easier to just take Eneloops for everything. If you run out you can always stop at any stop for alkaline AA’s. It just keeps things simple.
When weight isn’t an issue I’d probably carry one 18650 hand held otherwise I wouldn’t. I use very little light at night.
For a minimalist trip I’d take 2 Zebralight headlamps and one Proton Pro and several extra Eneloops. In the mountains I try to take my 18650 P60 sized (well slightly larger) aspheric to check out what I need to check out.
Sounds like a fun trip.

20

i like this HeadLight,but it's too expensive

21

Thanks gcbryan. So far I'm not afraid of an 18650 on my head, so long as it's only one and it's protected. One thing I'm unsure of is whether I should carry a multimeter with me. I don't see any information concerning whether or not the UF-H3 has low voltage warning/protection.

-Garry

22

Garry - I picked up a small (3x4") DMM at Harbor Freight a couple of weeks ago, $4.99.

23

Yeah I have that one (most likely the same - think I got it at $2 on sale). That would be the one I would carry since it's small. It's useless for current measurements (at least for flashlights - see here), but I would only be measuring voltage anyway on the trip (and it seems fine for voltages). I guess it won't be that heavy to carry for the assurance of being able to measure the cells.

-Garry

24

It may sound silly, but a white balloon is a near-weightless option for a campsite lantern.

An empty milk jug with a scratched CD inserted at an angle has done decent lantern duty as well. Use the cap to make a light holder, point at CD, et voila.

25

Chicago X, yeah I've actually seen balloons suggested as light diffusers (over at that "other place"). Guess I could carry a few and test it out. I like the milk jug idea (although not too practical for the bike trip) esp. using an old CD to reflect light.

-Garry

(Not my pic. Found on this page.)

-Garry

26

ok, i might get chastised a bit for this...

but I can't give up my old school lanterns. They just put out sooooo much light. I have the big 2 mantle dual fuel, regular size 2 mantle, a single mantle, and a backpack single mantle. all coleman.

Granted, when I camp, my gear is transported by boat, or dog cart/sled, so I don't bear the weight much, like you would on a bike...

A pint of fuel and you're easily good for the weekend.

27

Yeah dthrckt, I was wondering about going with a simple small propane lantern like this one. But now that I am changing up the camp stove I'll be carrying I'll be using these smaller fuel canisters instead of the big ones (I carried the big ones last year and hardly used one.) I really don't want to carry the big one just for a lantern. I also have no idea how to judge how much fuel I'd need. Do they make mantel lights for these smaller fuel cans? EDIT: Quick search turned up this one, but it's too expensive! Know a cheaper alternative?

-Garry

28

my dad has a coleman propane lantern, and my camper has a single mantle propane light. I don't have experience w/ others, but those two aren't as bright as the ones that use naptha (aka, coleman fuel, white gas, etc).

but, that's not to say they aren't superior to electric lanterns - depending on your application/taste of course....

I don't know of cheaper alternatives. but i just checked coleman's site to show you the backpack, single mantle, liquid fuel lantern I have and they don't list it anymore (it is smaller than the standard single mantle).

they do have that one cheaper on their site, but I didn't check shipping

http://www.coleman.com/Products/24757/backpacking-lighting

I looked at them, long ago, and decided the one i have would be as small as I'd go - ie I'd go w/o if I wanted to save weight/space. I also use an msr dragonfly, or big 2 burner coleman stove, so I can go all liquid fuel...

29

This might help as well:

RC 1S-6S Lipo Battery Voltage Indicator Checker Tester 2.8V -25.2V

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330694238863?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_4588wt_1165

30

Garry, this might be an "old idea" but I might still link it:

http://www.solarforce-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=FA&s=19&id=445

They seem to have new Camping Lantern available with tripod stand and the price is a bit lower!

Otherwise, if you don´t have Solarforce compatible host, I would just go with Zebralight AA and sufficient amount of Eneloops.

If only 18650 were available, I would pay attention to modes. Especially that I could have a-low-enough -mode available to maintain maximum runtime if needed.

31

I wondered about this Sipik as a cheaper alternative, although it's only 3AAA.

-Garry

32

If you have a P60 host, this here fits perfectly on a L2P:

Can be found here:

http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/portable-beam-soft-diffuser-for-flashlights-318mm-inner-diameter-p-4439

And it's only 4 bucks.

I like it very much, I use it with a warm white XP-G drop-in. Just like having a handheld incan bulb.

33

BTW Garry, great pics.

I especially liked the one where past flood peaks were painted on the wall of a house.

34

Yeah, where that building of the flood levels were was always a favorite stopping place. It's a little convenience store/grill. We had timed it to get lunch there and were so disappointed when we found the place cleared out! There had been some area flooding weeks prior. Oh well, dug some energy bars out of the packs and moved on.

BTW-that flooding was one of the reasons we ended up riding in the dark. We arrived at a campsite right at dusk (arrived late due to some flat tires) and it was flooded! So we were forced to ride on another 5.5 miles to the next site and hoping it wasn't flooded! (It wasn't.)

-Garry

35

i got buy , but not in this store