LED cycle light advice

standard leds are pretty much useless. I've moved to the lupine edison 5 and haven't had any motorists try to turn in front of me (at night) since then.

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haven't had any motorists try to turn in front of me (at night) since then.

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They simply are not trying hard enough!

My understanding was that the LED lights were illegal, or is it just they do not conform to BS
xxxx?

Howard

"or is it just they do not conform to BS
xxxx?"

They are illegal as they don't conform, mainly becuase IIRC they tend to be directional and are not as visible side-on as they should be. Then again they are actually much more visible in other ways than normal lights, so they might actually be safer in most circumstances.

Overall I use LEDs. But then I have no spoke or pedal reflectors mo my bike so I am not BS compliant anyway.

Matthew

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Overall I use LEDs.

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Matthew

Which ones do you use?

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My understanding was that the LED lights were illegal,

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Some are now being sold which, I believe, ARE fully BS compliant????

As I said above, it seems as if the technology is moving quite quickly

Laurie

I use Cateyes. Can't remember the model numbers but the front is the one with the rechargeable battery.

Matthew

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My understanding was that the LED lights were illegal, or is it just they do not conform to BS

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not illegal but don't conform to the BS as, unfortunately, it was written in the dark ages (sorry about that) and nobody wants to update it. So you now have the ridiculous situation where compliant lights put out about 1W and LEDs and halogen/xenon lights aren't compliant despite being considerably brighter (up to 85W).

LED lights that use batteries? Crikey all that pollution, batteries are the least efficient form of energy storage known to man.
Martin

I use a Cateye HL-EL300 Front LED Light. It conforms to BS, and has been out for over a year. On Wiggle for £32.99, which I think is full price.
They also do the Cateye TL-AU100 BS Rear LED. £15.

Tony

I think it depends on whether your priority is to see, or be seen.
As far as I'm aware there has never been a prosecution in the UK of a cyclist for using LED or halogen lights. Therefore, all that matters to me is being seen and staying alive. I use the brightest halogens on the front, deliberately misdirected to catch drivers' attention and not the road, as I always cycle in good street lighting. On the back I use the Cats Eye unit with about 12 super-bright LEDS flashing in a random, annoying and hopefully attention-grabbing way.
A recent research article demonstrated that much the most important protection against accidents resulting in injury at night was wearing effective reflectors. As a result I have started wearing one of those Sam-Brown yellow reflective belts. Looks ridiculous and very uncool, but I was impressed by the paper's statistics. Actually, pedal reflectors were shown to be better than clothing.

I think the paper was in the BMJ, but I throw thenm away.

For the front lamp, avoid yellow or orange led lights, the new generation of white leds are much brighter. Check the side visibility since some led lamps are practically invisible from side-on.

For the rear lamp, a 5 led Vistalight is very bright and visible.

I use them in bright town areas, and switch on a dynamo to see where I am going when there are few street lamps.

Nick

I saw an article on bike lights on the TV news over here. A police officer was confirming that the light must be visible from 200 metres. AFAICR

Flashing lights were NOT acceptable under Danish law.

A good rear reflector is a vast improvement over diode rear lights no matter how many or how bright. Pedal reflectors are also excellent as attention seekers for dozy motorists.

I get a bit of practice spotting unlit and unreflected cyclists with a death wish. A big rectangular reflector is much brighter than a rear light and can be seen from well over half a mile! And well before the five diode UFO 'motherships' that I see quite regularly. Though the lights are still necessary!

I've never found a front bike light that would show me the way on unlit rural roads. Except for the huge 4" Lucas "King of the Road" dynamo set on my original Dursley Pederson. Later transfered to my touring trike. Both were used for a daily 35 mile commute.
I sometimes used to carry a hand torch to light the verge as well. But it ate batteries.

Isn't it sickening when you can still remember carbide bicycle lamps?

Nime

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posted Sun 21 November 04 23:18
LED lights that use batteries? Crikey all that pollution, batteries are the least efficient form of energy storage known to man.

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By changing to LEDs, and hopefully rechargeable bateries, I will reduce pollution to a minimum

Rockindoc

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think it depends on whether your priority is to see, or be seen.
As far as I'm aware there has never been a prosecution in the UK of a cyclist for using LED or halogen lights. Therefore, all that matters to me is being seen and staying alive

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ditto......as all my nigt-time riding is on roads (mainly lit) my overiding priority is visibility



Thanks for all the replies

Laurie S

I use a BS approved Cateye LED. plus two non-BS approved Cateye LED's on the rear. Up front I use a non-BS approved Lumicycle setup (20W & 12W) plus my road bike has wheel reflectors and reflective strips at various points on the frame (and on my helmet).

I'd rather be seen than be legal...

One potential down-side to not using BS approved lights:insurance companies will wriggle out of paying if an insured driver knocks down a cyclist using non-approved lights.

Tony

I keep an eye on the cycling press, and I don't believe it has actually happened, yet.

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One potential down-side to not using BS approved lights:insurance companies will wriggle out of paying if an insured driver knocks down a cyclist using non-approved lights.

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no, can confirm that they don't - and that the police only check that the light works not whether it meets any standard. Given that, who's to say what light was on your bike anyway?

Some interesting points here:

http://www.audax.uk.net/lights/legal.htm

Tony

As a driver and a cyclist I use flashing LED's at the rear as I know they are more visible and attract attention.

In London the mountain-biking bobbies use them too!

One tip, if you really are concerned over legality, then wear it on your person, with a solid light on the bike, the flashing unit is not a bike light then! The downside is the narrow angle of some of these lights requires careful alignment, which is less practical if worn.

I use the relatively heavy, but otherwise bloody useful (and now obsolete) B-Seen 101. This has a rechargeable front unit, with a non-rechargebalke rear unit. The two are linked, using wireless, which allows some clever functionality.

They have a standard halogen at the front (with which I can see where I'm going) and LED's everywhere else, including some incredibly useful, but slightly nerdy, indicators and a brake light!

The indicators are incredibly useful, allowing you to navigate junctions with both hands on the handlebars. The sole design flaw is the inability to switch directly from L-R or vice versa, without recourse to cancelling the currently activated function, which makes turning right at roundabouts a PITA.

I've two sets of these and hope to convert one to an LED front light, just haven't had time yet.

They pop up on ebay cheap as new old stock, now the company have gone bust, they retailed for the stupendous price of £95, eBay will get you a brand new set to play with for about £20.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040124012533/http://www.bseen101.com/

Andy.

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I think it depends on whether your priority is to see, or be seen.

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I've just managed to get the best of both worlds now and for those not immune to a bit of DIY you can modify an existing incandescant front lamp to make a highly effective LED-based one.

Whilst perusing eBay recently I found this guy, based in Hong Kong it seems: -
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=warden_jp2002&item=3861985506&iid=3861985506&frm=1883&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:SID

selling what are claimed to be 20,000 mcd white LED's. Since a pack of 50 was a very reasonable £7 + £4.50 carriage, making them only 23p each, I bought a pack (I've since bought another 100!).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=66954&item=3861985506&rd=1

As these LED's have a higher operating voltage than normal LED's (the Vf figure) at around 3-3.5V, which means two in series can be run from a 6V nominal battery pack (i.e. 4x AA alkalines, or 5x NiCD / NiMH rechargeables).

As an initial test I made an array of 16 of these LED's, consiting of 8 pairs in series running from an 1800mAh NiMH pack, and fitted them in place of a 5W halogen unit in on of my front cycle lights.

Frankly I think I may have overdone it a little

The unit throws out a very nice White beam, which floodlights the area in front very effectively, far more effectively than the 5W halogen spot. The light has a blue tinge rather than the yellow of a conventional incandescant lamp, which further helps the 'being seen' element of the light.

Close in, the LED is dramatically brighter (painfullly, possibly harmfully(!) so), but loses the intensity off-axis, compared to the less focussed spot of the halogen, but at any normal distance the LED wins by a large margin, the nominal 20degree viewing angle of the LED's is more than enough to ensure that under normal road conditions other vehicles will always be on-axis and the light is considerably more intense and viewable.

If I get a moment later, I'll try and take some pictures of the two units, in the dark, side-by-side.

My only concern at present is whether it's too bright and potentially dazzling


The best bit is the 5W halogen draws over 800mA, which means in reality about 1.5-2 hours cycling depending upon battery state, the 16 LED combination draws less than half this and will run for >4 hours continuously from the same pack. The LED's will last longer and won't catastrophically fail at some inconvenient point before a ride and the LED's have inherent redundancy if one should fail.

I have to confess their effectiveness surprised even me, well worth a punt for those up to the task.

Andy.

Thanks for a useful thread chaps, I've recently been into a bike shop wondering about LED technology as I return to a bit of cycle commuting, and came away a little stunned at how things had moved on.

On the subject of laws and lighting, I have been using flashing LED rears from well before dusk for many years now - regardless of being supported by law or not - on the theory that following the law will not revive me after a bounce-off... and any member of the law that might take issue with my switching the rear light on to flash in error would surely spend the time they had for cycling infringements talking to the deadheads sans-luz.

In addition to the rear flasher I also wear an uncool "bumflap" - worn around the waist this reflector hangs over yer ass and has the usual assortment of rescue-red, yellow, and that silvery micro 3m reflective stuff; very visible in car headlights from around 100m back (although the windey nature of roads here 100m vis is an unusual situation). What many cyclists often fail to recognise is that any reflective or saftey lighting worn above the wiast is usually radically diminished in effectiveness as soon as the rider takes hold of the handlebars - Bromptons and bolt-upright styles excepted.

Andy, do you reckon I'd get any major benefit in modding my old trusty Vistalite Road Toad to take the HI LEDS as mentioned? Easy enough to do?

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

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Andy, do you reckon I'd get any major benefit in modding my old trusty Vistalite Road Toad to take the HI LEDS as mentioned? Easy enough to do?

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The only possible problem with that light is the 2.4V operation, you really need to run these LED's at 3 - 3.2V ideally, otherwise they'll be less bright and a little blue in colour - I'll try them on the bench, if they're OK I'll send you some to play with, save you buying 50!

I had chance to do a quick'n'dirty photo shoot tonight, which I think usefully illustrates how LED's have moved on. The state of the art by the way are the Lumiled's range, there's a 5W(!) white LED available that is astonishing, but requires a little thermal management to use, so it's not really drop-in.

Attached are some reduced photos showing the 5W halogen, the LED-based unit and a full frontal shot.

Andy.

Next piccy...

Full frontal...

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The only possible problem with that light is the 2.4V operation

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Rico,

I registered this morning that the light is 2.4W, not 2.4V!

As it runs from 4 AA cells the LED's can be configured to run nicely from it, I suspect.

You could run two LED's in series, which would be fine across a 6V supply, but might be a bit dim if using rechargeables (1.2V / cell against 1.5V / cell for Alkalines).

You can then add more pairs in parallel to create the level of illumination you want. Each pair should draw only 20mA or so, so should last ages even on alkalines.

Drop me an email, I'm happy to stick a few in the post for you to experiment with.

Andy.