Thursday, August 27, 2009

Night Ride




Now that the days are getting shorter and the 24 Hours of Moab is fast approaching, it's time to get the lights out and hit the trail. I rode the Shoreline last night to see how my Princeton Tech Switchback 2 performed as a handlebar mounted light source. I found it worked well where it was real dark, but not so well where there was a lot of ambient light. I have a 6 year old Nite Rider HID that has a large water bottle cage battery and want to transition to something smaller, so the SB2 will be my primary bar light. Maybe it will work.

I'm thinking of either a Nite Rider MiNewt variation, or, DiNotte Lighting has a sweet 200 lumen setup that runs on AA batteries that looks real interesting. If anyone has input on either, let me know the pros and cons please.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have the night rider minewt dual and the tri newt. I love them both. You have two settings when you ride dim and bright. The batteries last a long time. If you want to check them out let me know.

kendra

KanyonKris said...

I've been happy running some bright LED flashlights. $65 buys 2 lights, batteries, charger and mounts. I get 2 hours on high. Read more here:

http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/2008/10/mountain-bike-lights-for-under-65.html

Recently I noticed the place I bough those flashlights now sells a really bright bike light kit for $80. I mentioned it in my blog post today.

KanyonKris said...

I'd be happy to let you try my lights any time.

Brad Mullen said...

KK, I read through a lot of the reviews and it looks like one may need a certain level of electrical knowledge to keep the DX running. My expertise is limited to plugging something into a wall outlet. Sounds like QC is an issue too, but maybe that has been addressed. Keep me posted when you go out at night again and I'll try and hook up with you.

KC, I may take you up on your offer.

KanyonKris said...

There can be some tweaking involve, but the 2 small lights I ordered worked fine and needed no modifications - I run them as-is. I've had over 15 hours on these lights with only minor problems at first and none since. Not for everyone, but an option for some.

I have 4 lights so you can use 2 to try (helmet and bars).

The Newt lights look nice.