900 lumen flashlight under $60

In my never ending search for an affordable bike like, I came upon a website that sells LED flashlights advertised up to 1000 lumens for under $100. The company's name is DealExtreme. It's a Hong Kong based company.

I bought the Aurora AK-P7-3 SSC P7-C 900-Lumen 2-Mode LED Flashlight advertised at $50.02. The reviews say that it's not a total 900 lumens but close to around 800 lumens. 800 lumens is still allot. Plus, compared to some high end LED lights such as the SureFire E2D LED Defender (120 lumens/over $100) it's a steal.

So what do I get with this little toy:

• Seoul Semiconductors SSC P7LED emitter
• Powered by 4 x 3.6V CR123A or 2 x 18650 batteries (sold separately)
• Input voltage range: 7.2V~17V
• Maximum brightness: 900 lumens on high, 230 lumens on low (manufacturer rated)
• Maximum circuit outpet: 2800mA
• 2-mode tail cap clicky switch: Hi > Lo
• 1~1.5 hours total estimated runtime (manufacturer rated)
• Regulated driver circuitry
• Glass lens with alumium textured/OP reflector

Pros:

• Very bright (I can aim the light at a room ceiling and the reflection fills up the whole room to about the amount of a low watt bulb)
• Gives off a white light
• Aluminum body (well crafted)
• Low price for the amount of lumens
• No shipping cost
• Can use PayPal services to buy

Cons:

• From reports that I have read it gets warm after a while, but I'll be using it on my bike so it's a non issue with me.
• Shipping takes about two weeks (it's coming from China)
• Packaging is so-so (mine came in a brown envelope, flashlight in a plastic wrapping inside a paper box. The box looked like it had be crushed, but since the light is made out of aluminum it didn't suffer any damage)
• It uses very expensive/uncommon batteries (18650 or CR123A)

The length of the light is a little bit over 9 inches and the width of the lens is about 2.1 inches

The main issue I have with the flashlight is the uncommon battery size (18650 or CR123A) and price. The CR123 size is common in cameras, but at a cost of around $6-$12 for a pack of 2. I searched online to get better prices and was able to find it at cr123batteries.com for $0.92 each. I waited another week for these to arrive.

Keep in mind that on HIGH the length of run time is about 60-90 minutes. I guess that's one of the drawbacks of a hand held flashlight. Light and Motion HID ARC's battery life is hours compared to the Aurora. It's too bad that Light and Motion has discontinued the HID ARC line.

I wasn't disappointed when I first tried out my new toy. If I was in a search and rescue team, this would be the light I would have with me (plus extra batteries). The spot area was definitely above 800 lumens and the fill or flood area was bright as well. Aiming the beam at a wall 16 feet away the overall coverage was about 20-25 feet.

Two 150 LED flash lights mounted on bike above.

One 900 lumen LED flashlight mounted on bike above.

Twofish flashlight holder.

Click on the images above to get a bigger view.

360 degrees view of 900 lumen flashlight on bike from glenn m on Vimeo.

Information on how I mounted the lights to my bike is posted on my "Thursday, October 16, 2008 - Poor Man's 300 Lumens Lights". If you're looking for a very cheap way of riding in the dark, but don't have $300 lying around, don't mind the uncommon battery sizes and run time, then tryout the system that I created.

• $50 for Aurora 900 lumens LED flashlight
  
• $13 for Cycloblock (plus shipping)
• $40 for (Optional if you have a recumbent bike) TerraCycle Mount (plus shipping)

The downside is, cycling season is pretty much over, unless you're a hardcore rider that doesn't mind the wind chill hitting your face at 18 mph. Until spring, it's the bike trainer for me, because I'm not that crazy anymore to be riding in freezing temperatures.

I'm so impressed by this light that I'm thinking about getting another one for use around the house. Just last night I helped my neighbor with raking up his leaves late into the night by using my flashlight. And yes, he said "wow" when I first turned it on.

Indian Summer Weekend

It was 72 degrees and sunny on a Sunday afternoon when we started our group bike ride from Newtown Ohio to Loveland Ohio. Indian summer is a name given to a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn. This was definitely an Indian summer weekend.

Click on the photos to view a larger image.

This is a photo (above) looking north up the trail towards Camp Dennison. It was taken on the return ride back to our cars.

We finally got Jeff (white shorts) to come with us. This is his first time this year that he has ridden his bike on the trail.

We prepared for our ride up to Loveland in the very southern most part of the Little Miami Trail, which was the parking lot of Newtown golf course. Just $5 gives you a pass to park at any Hamilton county park for the whole year.

Jon broke his valve stem and took a little bit longer to get ready. He also decided to remove his areo bars off his bike which took more time.

I saw Ray, a fellow recumbent rider that I have met via the recumbent forum websites. He showed off his new composite bike that only weighted around 19 pounds. Learning from us that this parking lot was (for now) the southern most tip of the trail. He and his friend rode back up north to their cars.

Ray showed me his thumb shifters that he preferred over the other shifting options.

Ray's bike also sported ZIPP wheels, which are not cheap.

It was a great day to be riding. The trail was clean of any debris, there was hardly any wind and lots of other cyclists on the trail.

Jeff was definitely not in shape for the ride. He had been busy all summer working on his house that he and his wife bought. On the way back he commented that he was all out of "juice", halfway down. He made it back to our cars though without a scratch.

We ate at our usual restaurant in Loveland and the kids had a great time at the park playground. It gives them something to look forward to when we go on a ride.

This time I dedicated the ride to our friend Dave, who is out of town this week. Dave spends all of his time on riding his motorcycle than riding on his bicycle.

This weekend may have been the last friends and family group ride this season. It is forecasted that the weather will soon turn chilly as the week progresses. But, what a great day to end the season, with friends and family.

Dave C Bike Ride Event from glenn m on Vimeo.

Light and Motion ARC

Last Wednesday night my buddy Jon and I rode on the Little Miami Bike Trail. We averaged a round trip of 26 miles. Starting from Newtown Ohio we rode to Loveland and back. By the time we reached Loveland sunset was 10 minutes past. This was a great night to test out Jon's new cycling light that he bought, the Light and Motion ARC. It's a HID bulb light with multiple output levels (13.5 watts – 675 lumens, 11.0 watts – 550 lumens). Run time is 3 hours @ 13.5 watts, 3.5 hours @ 11 watts. Weighs 456 g. Battery spec: Li-ion 11.1v, 4.0ah, 300 charge cycles. The cost for this light system is around $300 on up. I believe Light and Motion has discontinued this line, since I don't see it on their website, but it's still can be found on sale at the major cycling retail sites. The downside is that the replacement bulb and battery are expensive.

Here I am at Loveland's Nisbet Park. Jon's bike is on the right. My bike is outfitted with my two (150 lumens each) flashlights, that I bought from Sam's Club. Also, attached under my seat are two Blackburn Voyager 3 lights (17 lumens each). The Sam's flashlights cost me $30 for two.

I was pretty much impressed by Jon's light. At around $300 it better impress me. The 675 lumens really illuminated the paved trail and the shoulder area. Think of it as a car light shining down the trail. I pretty much didn't need to use my own lights. For riding out in the back country or on a local trail under the canopy of trees, this setup is what you need to see everything in front of you.

My previous post, on the two 150 lumens flashlights, there is a photo of my lights aimed at a hill showing the light distribution. The center area where the flashlights converge equaled to about 300 lumens and that's only on the center, the rest was a diluted flood. Compare that to Jon's ARC light, his light's area of intensity was basically about the full width of the trail or more.

Some parts of the trail we averaged around 17 mph and slowing down to 13 mph on sections where were know a herd of deer graze around. I would constantly make loud noises to warn any deer in the area that we were passing through. On the downhill portion of the trail we kept a speed of 22 mph. The ARC light was fast enough to keep up with our speed, meaning that the light illuminated the trail far ahead to where we would see any surprises that might suddenly come up.

The image above shows the bikes and myself (with my Princeton Tec Fuel helmet light) on the bridge over the Little Miami River and just 300 feet from our parked vehicles. You could see the difference in light intensity from our lights.

Another view from behind. The image doesn't do justice to the actual illumination of the ARC light.

Here Jon took the photo with his flash on.

If you have $300 to spare (with some internet searching) get the Light and Motion ARC. From what Jon told me the model has been discontinued and prices should be falling down a bit. This should be the only main light you'll need on your nightly excursions.

Meeting Bob and Jeff

This is a photo of Bob and Jeff (coming towards me) that I happen to take on one of our weekend rides. I would meet them again on an evening ride going south at the very same spot on the trail.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Last night I went on a night ride at my local bike trail. At the halfway point, turning back to my truck, I saw a couple of fellow recumbent riders going my way. I struck up a conversation with them. Their names were Bob and Jeff. They were a couple of retirees, who ride on the trail a couple of days a week.

Jeff was riding a RANS Stratus XP and Bob was riding a Taiwan made bike with "lightning" decals on the side. The "lightning" bike was a short wheelbase compared to Bob's Stratus XP which was a long wheelbase bike.

They were coming back to their vehicles at the very southern end of the trail, a 70 mile ride. The sun was setting and they were worried of being caught in the dark and Jeff only had one light on his bike. I volunteered to ride with them back to their cars, since I was parked nearby, and use my lights to illuminate the trail ahead of them. This worked out better for me since I get to test out my new lighting system and have company in the dark.

We exchanged cycling stories, especially about being caught on the trail at night without any lights. We also talked about how eerie it is riding at night, but it also makes it more exciting. One of the dangers on the trail is mainly by deer that would suddenly jump in front. As I said before on the blog, if you're by yourself at night it's down right terrifying. But, if you're with another rider it becomes an adventure.

Fifteen minutes after sunset we start to hear allot of rustling along the side of the trail. Jeff commented that this is the hour the forest nocturnal creatures come out. We saw allot of rabbits running across the trail and a herd of deer running off the trail towards the river.

A little bit of history told to me by Jeff, is that the Little Miami Railroad was started during the year David Crockett fought in the Alamo (1836). The railroad was also the same one that President Lincoln's death train traveled upon.

Even though the ride back was not on the fast side, it was a pleasure riding back with these fine gentlemen. I like riding on my local bike trail, because I'll never know who I'm going to meet.

Poor Man's 300 Lumens Lights

I was shopping at Sam's Club and I happen to come across their Element K2 Super Bright LED Flashlight. I had bought the earlier model that put out 80 lumens, but this new generation puts out 150 lumens! For around $30 for two lights, it was a decent buy. Each light was powered by three AAA batteries.

Then I thought to myself, what if I used these as my main lights on my bike? I already had a TerraCycle mount that held two Blackburn Voyager 3 lights. The Voyager 3 lights put out 17 lumens each. It was no contest to replace these with the Element lights that combined, puts out 300 lumens.

The next step was how to mount the flashlights to the TerraCycle mount. TWOFISH Cycloblocks Bicycle Flashlight Holder Cross Channel solved that problem. I bought two from Battery Junction for about $8 each. It's basically a rubber block that is secured by velcro straps.

I installed the two Cycloblocks and the flashlights on the TerraCycle mount. My mount had an extender in order to accommodate two lights. I then took an extra velcro strap and wrapped the two Cycloblocks together so that the one piece on the extender side would not slip off.

The lights were a bit heavy due to the aluminum case and on the bike it looks a little bulky. I took it out that same day to see how it illuminated the bike trail at night.

I also found a great place to attach my two Blackburn Voyager lights! On my Strada I have a Euromesh seat. Under the seat there is a bar that connects the seat frame to the seat mount. With some tweaking I was able to mount the two Voyager lights right underneath the seat.

These lights I aimed at an angle to illuminate the sides of the bike. This setup I hoped to extend the width of coverage.

Now for the field tests. I took my new lighting system to my local bike trail to see how it preformed.

I aimed my bike at a grassy hill to view the coverage. The two flashlights gave a really bright white spot beam and you could see the two other beams of light coming from my lights under the seat. The picture above doesn't really do the lights justice. With the extra lights under the seat, they gave out an extra arch of illumination that started from the hub of the front wheel with a width of about 20 feet.

The picture of the lights on the trail shows that the setup easily illuminates the bike trail. I should have placed the bike in the middle of the trail, but I didn't have anything to lean it against and I had to have a steady hand to take the photo with the flash off the camera. The front lights were aimed at about 30 to 50 feet down the trail.

This is a front view of the bike taken with the flash on the camera. You could see the difference in how much lumens are given off by the Element flashlights compared to the Blackburn Voyagers.

The photo above shows another view of the Blackburn Voyagers 3 aimed at an angle. Blackburn has updated the Voyager line with three LED lights instead of just one.

I also had a light mounted on my helmet, which helped me view my cycling computer and any surrounding areas around my bike. On the way back to my truck I was able to help out some cyclist on the trail. They misjudged the time of sunset and were caught without lights. Riding in front I escorted them get back to their cars.

I may have looked liked a Christmas tree on wheels, but I can surely say my path was well lit. The new lighting setup was a success. Other than the flashlights were a tad on the heavy side for bike head lights and bulky. It worked as an inexpensive way to get 300 lumens down the path.

• $30 for Element flashlights (300 lumens)
• $20 for Cycloblocks (plus shipping)
• Optional: TerraCycle Mount $44 (including extender)

Keep in mind that these lights are not regulated. Once you turn them on the dimmer they become until the batteries die. This is a non-issue for me since I change my batteries every few weeks and use the lights no more than 8 hours a week. Using rechargeable batteries could help in cutting the cost.

Jeff H. Memorial Bike Ride

Last year my friend Jeff talked everyone into getting together and riding in the weekends on our local bike trail. This is how our weekend family and friends bike rides got started. He finally got married last year and went off on his honeymoon. We named a Sunday ride after him, the Jeff H Memorial Bike Ride, since he couldn't make it this time.

It was about this time of the season that we rode in honor of him. The days were getting shorter and cooler. It was also on a late afternoon that we rode on the trail. This time we rode south of Loveland instead of north. The trail was very busy and the day was just gorgeous. Sunny and mild temperatures in the 70's. I wish we rode a little bit more further, it was just that nice to be outside riding a bike.

This time it was Jon, his daughter Violet, my wife Christine, my son Shawn and I that celebrated our Jeff H Memorial Bike Ride. The kids spent an hour playing in the park playground in Loveland. We decided to have dinner after the ride since it was well past lunchtime when we began our ride.

I rode my Optima Baron this time and was delightfully reminded that she is a very fast bike. I've been riding my Bacchetta Strada for most of the summer.

We choose to eat at Big Boys Restaurant for dinner and caught up on what's been going on with our lives. The kids are getting bigger now and soon will have to have their own bikes to ride on the trail.

Princeton Tec Fuel headlamp

Ever since my buddy Jon and I miscalculated how much daylight we had left on our bike ride and got caught riding at night without any lights on the bike trail, we've looked into various lighting equipment for night riding. Riding on the bike trail is way different than riding on a city street. At least on the streets you have the luxury of street lamps, cars or lights coming from windows to light your way, but on a bike trail it's like riding in the back country.

Jon first started off with two Cateye HL-EL220 LED's and once he saw how much my Blackburn X6 lights illuminated the trail he went looking for another lighting system. He finally bought a Light and Motion headlight that gave out 300 lumens, which cost him around $300.

I started off with two Blackburn Voyager 3.0 lights (17 lumens each) and then upgraded to Blackburn System X6. The X6 worked great with one spot light and one flood light. The only downside is that the battery is on it's last leg. It could only sustain 100% intensity until 45 minutes and then it would go down to 60% power. So I may be looking for another bike light soon.

The one thing that I was missing was that I couldn't see my cycling computer and since the lamps were positioned in front of the bike the areas behind was in need to be illuminated. I needed a helmet lamp to fill in that gap.

Enter the Princeton Tec Fuel headlamp. For around $25 you can get a small and compact little headlamp. It puts out 35 lumens and runs on 3 AAA batteries. The lamp is designed so that you do not get blinded by the light being projected from the LEDs. It didn't come with an attachment for a bike helmet, but I was able to cannibalize an old headlamp strap and attach it to my helmet with ease. If you don't have an old strap around, some velcro strips will work just fine. Being able to rotate the lamp up and down is a plus in aiming the light to a certain point ahead.

It has 4 settings, high, medium, low and blink. On high the lamp should last for about 74 hours, low 164 hours and blink 134 hours. The range of the beam is high (32-40 meters), medium (24-32 meters), low (16-24 meters) and blink (32-40 meters).

The only issue I might see is the plastic latch that holds the batteries. I just don't know how durable it is with constant use. There is a tab on the headband that is used for opening the latch. Don't try to open it with your fingers, unless you really have fingernails of steel.

In conclusion I love this little lamp. In an emergency it could be used alone as the main light on the bike trail.

North Meets South

Last Saturday I did my long bike ride (53 miles) after a week or so of non-riding. On this bike ride I rode with a recumbent cyclist that I met online at one of the cycling recumbent forums.


His name is Ray and we scheduled to do a ride together at our local bike trail. He lived north of the trail and I usually start my ride at the very southern end of the Little Miami Bike Trail. I met Ray on my return ride from Morrow Ohio. From South Lebanon we both rode south.


The ride started early in the morning and it was still dark. I forgot that the days were getting shorter and sunrise came around 6:40 AM instead of 6:00 AM. I took off from Newtown, with lights on, to Morrow Ohio. I was the only cyclist on the trail until I arrived in Loveland Ohio. I did met a group of runners coming towards me in the dark, carrying a flashlight. Their bobbing light gave me the clue that it was a runner and not a cyclist coming towards me.

By the time I met Ray my legs were almost spent. We rode between 18 to 22 mph. I didn't drink allot of fluids this time around and I guess that was my mistake. At times I couldn't keep up with Ray when he went past 20 mph.

Here is Ray getting set to turn around and head back up north to his car. Just 3 more miles south and Ray would have reached the southern most part of the trail.

Ray rode his Bacchetta Aero, a titanium frame recumbent. It had carbon fiber wheels that made a "whoosing" sound as he rode past. He recently bought the bike several weeks ago and is looking to upgrade it some more.


On the last half of the ride my legs were done. I didn't have an ounce of energy left to draft off a roadie that pasted me. The grade of the trail was at a decline and I could only get it up to 18 mph, that's how tired I was.

Video recording the ride, I passed by a cyclist with only one leg. I've seen him before on the trail, but this time I was luckily enough to capture him on video.


Ray Bent Ride from glenn m on Vimeo.

You may have to wait a minute for the video to fully buffer or download. It's about a minute long.