LIGHTS MEGATHREAD - all questions on riding lights asked and answered here!!!

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
One thing I do like with the Glowworms is the ability to change the lenses in lights. I setup my 3-LED bar light with two flood beams and a diffuse spot for a mostly spread beam but with a touch more depth to it, and the helmet 2-LED light with diffuse spots for better projection, but with a little spread (which is handy when you hit a switchback and your helmet light is doing all the work). It's a very good combo.

Personally I just use the extra-low setting while climbing most of the time, the low setting is perfectly adequate for moderate blue trails, and medium is heaps of light. Haven't felt the need to run them on high yet, doubt I will either.

Worth noting, the more you diffuse light, the more it's "power" is lost (as it's the same amount of light spread over a larger area), hence running the larger 3-LED with the flood beam lenses for a good balance of light between bar and helmet.
Copy. Paste. Presto, that's my set up.

I raced it into the darkness and like Beeb, middle was plenty of light, even at 40km/h down the (straight) fire trail.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
One thing I do like with the Glowworms is the ability to change the lenses in lights.
They are very nice lights, that XSV looks awesome, also the XS. Maybe an Alpha or X2 on the helmet.

Then 2 faces look at me as if I have starved them of light, riding Cleanskins, making me feel guilty if they crash on a night ride as I 'could' have provided them with the same amount of light I have :p
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
They are very nice lights, that XSV looks awesome, also the XS. Maybe an Alpha or X2 on the helmet.

Then 2 faces look at me as if I have starved them of light, riding Cleanskins, making me feel guilty if they crash on a night ride as I 'could' have provided them with the same amount of light I have :p
There's two versions of the Alpha, the cheaper one won't connect to the remote, if you go that way.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
There's two versions of the Alpha, the cheaper one won't connect to the remote, if you go that way.
If you had a choice, would you rather have the older G1 battery/light set up or the newer G2.

Non compatible now, which is a bit of a shitty move for people sharing batteries, they should provide a changeover plug so the 2 can be run together.
 

DMan

shawly the least hangeriest guy on rotorburn
If you had a choice, would you rather have the older G1 battery/light set up or the newer G2.

Non compatible now, which is a bit of a shitty move for people sharing batteries, they should provide a changeover plug so the 2 can be run together.
Compatibility shits me. What I really want is a 2000ish lumen 3.7V head unit so I can use my 21aH 3.7V battery packs we have. But I can't find anything of quality of 1000 unless you go 7.4V
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
If you had a choice, would you rather have the older G1 battery/light set up or the newer G2.

Non compatible now, which is a bit of a shitty move for people sharing batteries, they should provide a changeover plug so the 2 can be run together.
G2 for the remote control, although it wasn't that big of deal not having it at Fox. And the fast charging, but I'm not sold on the usb-c plugs.

Magicshine batteries look to be in my future.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
G2 for the remote control, although it wasn't that big of deal not having it at Fox. And the fast charging, but I'm not sold on the usb-c plugs.

Magicshine batteries look to be in my future.
So the Magicshine batteries are the same plug as your V1's ?

Seems strange a premium light manufacturer would shit in their own nest by making a V2 of their lights and not making an interface to keep them compatible for loyal followers, sending them to buy a competitors battery.

BTW the Magicshine battery is a nice piece of kit... just the alien looking light and the unnecessary dumping of light in every direction.
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
So the Magicshine batteries are the same plug as your V1's ?
I'm 90% certain. One of our guys up here has them, I'll double check. From what I've read the voltage etc is the same.

For what it's worth, its the same plug as the Ay-Ups, just don't know about the volts.
 

cokeonspecialtwodollars

Fartes of Portingale
I purchased a couple of GloWorms recently, my only bugbear with the design was that they couldn't be recharged via USB. It's a step in the right direction but at a huge cost in backwards compatibility, would've been nice to know USB-C was in the works, I could have easily held out if I'd known it was coming.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
I'm 90% certain. One of our guys up here has them, I'll double check. From what I've read the voltage etc is the same.

For what it's worth, its the same plug as the Ay-Ups, just don't know about the volts.
AyUps have the male connector on the battery, the light has the female inbuilt.

Opposite to the chi lights and Magicshine, the female is on the battery side, the light has the male on the end of the cable.

You will need a gender-changer (actually a real thing) to make them work.

AyUps are 7.4v
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
AyUps have the male connector on the battery, the light has the female inbuilt.

Opposite to the chi lights and Magicshine, the female is on the battery side, the light has the male on the end of the cable.

You will need a gender-changer (actually a real thing) to make them work.

AyUps are 7.4v
Well then, guess I'm currently using the Ay-Up extension cord backwards :p
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Hmmmm, now I've sat down it appears I was slightly incorrect.

Magicshine = 7.2v
Gloworm = 7.4v

Just happen to have an electronics guru who says they might work, it would depend on what electronikery is inside them to regulate the voltage. I'll hit up my mate and see what I can borrow.
 

dirtdad

Wants to be special but is too shy
Magicshine = 7.2v
Gloworm = 7.4v
Nah. It'll be fine. They'll both be 2S cell packs. But you need to look at polarity of the connectors carefully.

To nerd it up... Lipo cells are nominally 4.2v fully charged, and drop down to 3.6v when used.
When putting cells into series and parallel configuration, you sum the series voltages. If some manufacturers use 3.7 and others use 3.6, then 2S cell packs will be marked as 7.4v and 7.2v respectively. (The chinese 2S packs are often marked as 8.4v because higher volts is more better right!? But they're just summing the fully charged voltage figure.)
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
I'm a sparky but I'm not up on these low voltage stuff, it new stuff to me... any bike light info I can get is awesome ! 7.2V and 7.4V will only be the actual volts, the charging volts will be way higher. Up in the 8's or 8.4v as @dirtdad says.

I'm learning good shit here, that's why I am a dedicated member of RB.

Wanna get close to 500,000v, I can assess you competent.
 
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