Hi, I need help finding a bike light that I can build or modd into a 2000 or higher lumens. more of a flood style rather than straight out pointer. Keep in mind I`m not electronically educated when it comes to boards and circuits so modding in probaly best.
I was thinking of wiring my 18v Ryobi nicd battery to a light and using it as a the power source.
I would prefer a 2000 or higher lumen mod but any help or direction is greatly appreciated, I do not have $500 plus dollars to buy one of those fancy bike lights that look so pretty…
Thank you for your time and help. Sorry I`m sure it is posted somewhere & I did read throught some posting but I`m completely lost on the forum.
How do you know you need 2000 lumens? That seems overkill. Have you ever seen a hard-driven (3 amp) XM-L? It puts out A LOT OF LIGHT!
There are plenty of these types available ($40 to $200). Try one of these and get a second if you need more light. Or talk to kbark who builds custom lights (see thread here). If you're really on a tight budget, get a couple flashlights with mounts and be done (many flashlight recommendations for biking here on BLF).
There are a plethora or bike light threads here on BLF!
The Ryobi 18v P100 I have taken apart and warmed up the cystals inside each cell using another battery to surge them. It worked great and I have also brought back to life my energizer nimh rechargeables AAA AA D C 9V
I also have a new Milwaukee M18 Lithium-ion battery that is really light and small that would be a perfect candiate for this project, I would just need to find the right plug to fit it…
It`s not the XC high capacity.
Hey Garry, thanks for the reply and info. It looks like I left out some imortant info, I would be using this light for mountian biking in the woods down mountians at speed with alot of rocks roots and drops.
this is why the high lumens and the more the better… Thanks again.
there are lots of different options out there, depending on your skills/tools/budget, so I’d recommend heading over to the MTBR DIY light forum and reading through a bunch of builds on there.
2000lms is perfectly reasonable - together my 2 lights put out ~3000lm theoretical and that’s just about right, although adding another 500lm to my helmet light wouldn’t hurt The more light you have, the faster you can ride and the less likely you are to crash!
Agreed, have a read on mtbf, also think about what sort of beams you want, most go for floody on the bars and a thrower mounted on your lid. So for example a multi xm-l with floody lenses mounted in a head on the bars, a stem/bottle holder mounted battery pack them something like a c8 sized light in a mount on your helmet to give you long range light wherever you look.
I have a fluxient bar mounted light, with a pack that fastens to the bar stem, its a single emitter, but pretty much insane on high for on the road. If I was mountain biking, I’d add a single cell 18650 thrower onto my helmet, probably with an xm-l emitter so I also get more spill, rather than a pencil beam q5 based light, something like an xintd c8 or kd c8 size.
that plus a 35mm Easy2LED housing and the OP’s battery would be about as easy a build as you can get. It’ll completely drown out all but the most powerful helmet light though and balancing the two is just as important as total output. It’s one reason why I rarely run my bar light on high (and another reason for using a decent quality programmable driver).
I do when I’m not working Seriously though, I ride almost exclusively in the evenings due to having kids etc, so that inevitably means 2/5 to 1/2 of my riding is done at night. I love night riding though, it’s a complete rush and sometimes it’s actually easier than riding in daylight, plus you get to see and hear some very cool things (flying squirrels, nightjars, owls etc).
to be honest though, to answer the OP’s question you’re better off either buying a couple of XM-L torches or one of the many cheap chinese bike lights. If you’re on a tight budget, DIY won’t even come close, especially if you’re not especially confident with soldering and electronics.