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.