[AZmuchacho]

I'm looking to upgrade from a headlight with a wired battery pack to a self contained light.

looking for a nice super bright unit.

1) Exposure appears to have brightest light output. Is anyone running these, are they worth the money?

2) looking at the NiteRider Lumina 1800 and the Light and Motion Taz 2000. Any one have these that can speak to mount quality, light out put, battery life?

3) i have compact tactical lights. assuming i could find a solid mount, what would make those not a good night trial riding option?

Thanks,

 

[Vancbiker]

While the Exposures have high output they are really heavy last time I looked at their specs. They have a reputation for being very high quality.

I have not seen an output chart for the Lumina 1800, but all the rest of the Lumina family have pretty quick drop off of their output. I'd look closely at that. IMO it would suck to have lost 25+% of the output in the first 30 or so minutes of a ride. The Light and Motion lights typically do a much better job of maintaining their output over the runtime.

A couple pretty nice references....

We Test Lights | Bike Tests and Teviews

https://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/self-contained-z-1105995.html

 

[MRMOLE]

Here's a link to a UK site (road.cc). Contains all the light reviews they've done for the last few yrs. and a lot of Exposure information.
Mole

https://road.cc/category/review-section/accessories/lights-front

 

[AZmuchacho]

anyone running this Knog 2000 lumen

https://www.knog.com.au/bike-lights/hi-power-bike-lights/pwr-mountain.html

 

[woodyak]

I've been running the Exposure Diablo as my only light on my helmet for the past several years. I got 4+ years of heavy use out of the first one and I'm on about 3 years with my current light. I forget which version, but it's rated around 1300 Lumen I believe. When I purchased the last one it was pricey, but it was the only self contained light of any real quality at the time. I can see their price remains high, as other lights have been playing catch up but for much less $.

As far as usage goes, you get just over an hour when running it on high and just around 2 hours when running it on medium. When using it as your only light the high mode has been sufficient for my needs, but the medium mode is not enough light. I was running mine on high with their small piggy battery attached to the helmet. The combo is on the heavy side but manageable and it gives you 3 hours of light running on high. Recently, I purchased a Lumina 1200 for the bars and I've been running that light along with the Diablo on medium. This combo does give me more overall light but I do miss running the helmet on high, so I'm not 100% sold. The Diablo does seem to burn super bright for about 15 minutes or so then I notice it fade a bit. I also notice a bright spot in the middle along with a pretty big cutoff around the edges. The Lumina on the bar helps fill in the blanks.

Overall I've been very impressed with the quality and reliability of the Diablo. That being said their pricing is high compared to their competitors, which are catching up quickly. I was considering upgrading to the latest, but I'm going to give the Outbound Lighting Hangover a try. I've read their data and it seems legit. I could see running the Hangover on my helmet and the Diablo on the bars. I did order 2 of them, so maybe I'll run both of them instead of the Diablo and just use that as a fancy flashlight. Hope that helps.

 

[angerdan]

You don't need many lumens with an effective reflector.
To archieve good illuminance (lux) on the road/pavement, it#s important to direct and concentrate the luminous flux towards it's needed.

There are few american light companies and many european ones building self contained reflector lights.
Outbound Lighting Hangover
https://www.outboundlighting.com/hangover/

B&M Ixon Space (150lx)
https://www.bumm.de/en/products/akku-scheinwerfer/parent/196/produkt/196l.html?

Trelock LS 760 (100lx)
https://www.trelock.de/web/en/licht/batterie/LS_760_Vision.php