building bike lights...

[shiato storm]

just wondering if there's anyone else out there into mountain biking could offer some help on this...I;m trying to put together a set of my own homemade lights, quite simple but necessary after some theiving pikeys made off with my last set.
I'm not talking about little led ones but proper halogen ones...
my question is on choosing the right type of bulb; how wide should I go for the beam? there's things of 12degrees and upto 35degrees...just not sure what would be best. oh and I'll probably be going for 20-30w bulbs too. according to my moderately accurate conversions and numbers jiggery-pokery I can get about 3hrs out of a 25w bulb using an array of 22AA 2500mA batteries (two blocks of 11 each giving 13.2V but in parallel to extend burn time)...just not sure what width to go for...

[Rave]

I reckon the 35 degrees would be your best bet, that's still only 17.5 degrees either side of dead centre (although presumably there'd be some spill further out than this). Can't say I'm speaking from experience though I'm afraid.

[5lab]

i'd run 2 bulbs, one spot and one wide. have an ask on singletrackworld

[TheAnimus]

i'd be tempted to use the luxon LED 3whatt type, very high MCD rating.

[tiggerai]

My mum sells the bulbs for the CATEYE stadium bike lights. She's quite good at all the science too.

Proper arc lamps, if you wanna be hardcore!

[jonjayal]

hehe on STW there's a thread every other day on bike lights. Seriously, check out the forum there - you'll fin loads of info. I built some for a third year engineering project from some info there but using the Uni CNC machines

[Zad]

It might be easier to cannibalise a Maglite, that way you can choose whether you have a spotlight or a wide beam.

Mike

[shiato storm]

yeah but arc lamps need balast and cost LOADS at the mo...

[noah]

i'd run 2 bulbs, one spot and one wide. have an ask on singletrackworld

for sure, thats what i run. one wide pointing down and one spot pointing forwards more. both are 15watt and nice and bright. one thing to be very carefull of is overheating - never leave them on when you are stationary (except the nice new posh ones that turn themselves off).

ive sold heaps of different light sets over the years and to be fair, most could be made better by someone at home willing to spend the time. there are only one or two sets that id consider buying these days.

good luck to you shiato, and let us know how they finish

[shiato storm]

it'll be a joing effort by b&q, maplins and good old bodgery by yours truely