Strengths: Great light. Small, light, precise, and best of all German! This light is very well thought out. The helmet mount is cool, the bar mounting is stable and the battery last forever. This type of light is not your first light, but it will be your last. I have had lights since the early 90's. We have Night Sun's, Jets, and Night Riders. The Lupine's are the best I have ever seen. I just bought the Tesla 4 for my wife and it's awesome. The combination of a Wilma and Tesla works very well.
Weaknesses: The cost is a little high. But working with Todd at Gretna has been a lot of help.
Bottom Line:
After doing night rides since 1992 I have seen it all. Lupine is the best I have owned and the best I have used. Can't wait for MTBR to make a category for Tesla 4. The review will be the same, spectacular. Thank you Todd and Lupine for making such a great product.
Similar Products Used: Night Sun, Jet,and Night Rider
Bike Setup: Trek Top Fuel, Fuel EX, Elite, OCLV, and old school Paramount
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
kevvwill
a Racer
from Highland Park, IL. USA
Date Reviewed: October 30, 2008
Strengths: Size, brightness, utility, ease of use, mounting system.
Weaknesses: None.
Bottom Line:
Lupine has done it again. This review is of the new Wilma 5, with the switch on the lamphead. This feature gives it a whole new degree of utility. Before, to use a Lupine light on the bars, you had to deal with that o-ring switch clamping system that comes with the light, or buy a Peppi remote switch holder.
Now, just o-ring the light to the bars, strap the battery to the stem and you're off.
The new Wilma has 920 lumens, which is a significant upgrade from the 830 lumen variant, sold as recently as a few months ago. Not having seen its predecessor, I can't vouch for that light, but this light, as with all Lupine products, is bright, stable and built to a fare-thee-well. I've been getting high beam run times of more than 4 hours, which is (typical of Lupine) over spec.
The lamp head is also very small, and the large switch is easy to operate. The quality of light is whitish-blue, without a lot of weird shadows and overshoots that you got with HID systems such as the Edison. It's more of a blanket of light. I have mine set at 100% for the first click, and 40% for the second click. The "low" setting is plenty of light, but for those very dark nights or lightless trails, full power turns night into day.
I run Wilma on the bars and a Lupine Betty on my head. Betty is a LOT brighter, but at 1400 lumens vs 920, it should be. Wilma is a narrower angle beam, that throws quite far.
Lupine makes, in my opinion, the best lights out there. Wilma is yet another hit. No, it isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for. NiteRider has a system with as many lumens, in HID with less than 2 hours run time. Light & Motion has a system almost as powerful, that is bigger and a bit heavier, with less run time. There really is no choice in the matter if, like me, you believe that light=life.
Strengths: Incredibly bright, even light; small and lightweight so it isn't affected by vibration. It's programmable so it can be customized to the individual. Comes with both handlebar and helmet mounts and an extra cord for helmet use as well as a nice padded carrying case. The charger has LED's that flash to show how much charge the battery required. All in all, a very nice package that works extremely well.
Weaknesses: Price.
Bottom Line:
Overall this is a great light. I would recommend this light to anyone that wants excellent lighting in a reliable package and doesn't mind paying for it.
I got to tell you this light is amazing. I have it mounted on my helmet. The equipment I have used over the past 4-5 years as evolved as such: A Night-Sun handlebar (crap and poor Read More »
Does the world need another LED x HID or another Wilma 6 X ARC comparative? I dunno, but since this is a lighting forum I decided to post my first impressions after riding with the Read More »
Obvious differences:
1. $! $695 for the Wilma 6 and $499 for the wireless TriNewt.
2. Lumens! Wilma-830 Lumens :eek: and TriNewt 486.
[B]TriNewt[/B]
Wireless
(3)LED Li-Io Read More »
Wilma 6 for sale- perfect shape. Here is a link to the ad:
[url]http://classifieds.mtbr.com/showproduct.php?product=29872&cat=500[/url]
Also selling a Moots.:eek: Read More »
I have a Wilma 6 and I've just recently run into problems. First, my battery was dying. I generally got 4+ hours of burn-time on high, but it started dropping to 1.5 hours.
No Read More »
