Light and Motion is significantly lighter at 112g which should make it more practical as a helmet light. However, I suspect that someone thinks otherwise.
hehe
well look this is what i use:
and i also have a 85 gram Red Zone 8 on the very back of the helmet, which combined work out to over 200 grams, but i don't feel them.
on the other hand last year when i used this:
i did NOT find it comfortable, even though it was less weight. but the problem was that the center of gravity was HIGHER because i had the battery on the very top of the helmet.
by comparison now i use two lights of similar weight on the helmet with one on the front and one on the back which works out to a better balance of weight.
it will probably also depend on how your helmet fits your head. if it fits very well you will probably be able to use more weight and not notice it, but if it is loose even a small amount of unbalanced weight may get annoying.
so i don't think it is the weight that counts, but how it balances on your head. it would be ideal if you could try the light for a few rides mounted in different positions on the helmet.
I'm leaning toward an Exposure Joystick. It's expensive, though not as expensive as some other options but, at 87g it is substantially lighter than even L&M and they seem to be serious about helmet mounting.
if it gives you lower weight and lower center of gravity ( shallower mount ) and a mount with less wobble then it is probably worth it. if its purely about saving a few grams then i wouldn't think it is that important.
visualize where the light will sit on your helmet and think which ones will have their center of gravity closer to your brain. the further the center of gravity of the light is from your brain the more tippy it will feel.
because i don't think you feel the weight of the light so much as you feel the moving around of the light and / or helmet.
if somebody asked you to walk on ice for an hour or so you would probably be exhausted - not because you gotten any heavier - but because you couldn't relax your muscles due to constantly being off balance. so i wouldn't focus purely on the weight alone here.
i think if you're hell bent on self-contained helmet light and not particularly concerned about things like light output and will mainly use the light to point at at motorists ( as opposed to illuminating the trail ) and you don't mind the price then you probably won't find a better light than the Joystick.
in his review Francis pointed out that the beam of Joystick is narrow and has no halo - which normally would be a terrible thing - but considering the low output of the light it would probably be hard to have a wide beam of any usable brightness.
not that something like Stella would be much brighter ...
the Joystick looks like a well designed product. not something i would use, but considering your specific desire for a low-lumen self-contained helmet light i don't think you will find a better designed / made one.
frankly i think Exposure is the only maker that even takes the idea of self-contained helmet light seriously. Light & Motion self-contained offerings seem to be geared towards bar use ( unless i am missing something, it seems they would be sitting quite high up on the helmet ).
make sure to check out NiteRider Lumina Flare though ! looks like an interesting product and Luminas seem to have a very cool, low profile / shallow helmet mount with quick release ! as i mentioned before NR seems to do helmet mounts better than most.
