Some Follow Up--Beams!

The weather gods have been kind to me. Not only have I been able to enjoy relatively mud free rides, but I have been able to take beam shots. Normally, this time of year, I am either waiting out rain or fog. Earlier this week, I had neither. Therefore, I grabbed the camera and set off for my favorite spot to shine the lights.

Man, I have a lot of pictures of this one spot of the county park. Which is closed at night. I keep waiting for the local constabulary to tap me on the shoulder and ask what I'm doing at night in a closed park, but so far, no-one has.

Let's run through the Ay-Up lights first, then we'll hit the upgraded Lupine's and see how they fair against NiteRider's best.

Here is the spot beam:

As usual, click on the image for the bigger version.

Intermediate beam:

And, the first time for us, wide:

As you can see, as the beam spreads out, it loses its throw. That's just the breaks of having a finite amount of light to work with. So far, I like the wide beam off the bike best, with the intermediate and spot beams handling bike duty.

Now, on to the Lupines. These are the lights that I upgraded in my last post. Let's start off with the Wilma (now with a claimed output of 1100 lumens). To compare to the older set up, see HERE.

As you can see, it is still a bit of a spot... but brighter. The Betty was also bumped up in specs:

My initial thoughts are that I can't help but think that Lupine could have taken all of that light and spread it out more. It now has a (claimed) 1750 lumen output. I kept expecting the tree in front to catch fire. It is crazy bright, but all that light is placed dead center. To be fair, when paired with the Wilma, it makes a fantastic set up that allows you to ride as fast as you want. But I was hoping for something more like NiteRiders Pro1200 (below). You know, good projection and some beam spread. There are 7 LEDs to work with after all.

What do you think?

Upgrades

As I mentioned last time, we received the upgrade kits to Lupine's Betty and Wilma. I've now had a chance to perform the operation, and both patients were a success. The last time we did an upgrade it was to an older Wilma, so I thought that this time I'd document the Betty.

First make sure that the light is disconnected from the battery!!

Thanks.

Now, remove the front lens by unscrewing the bezel--righty tighty, lefty loosey.

Next, remove the screws using the included hex key and remove the lens/collimator.

I tapped the light head on my palm--face down--to dislodge the circuit board that contains the emitters.

The new one is on the left and the old one on the right. I found the differences in emitter size to be amazing. Not only are the new emitters brighter, they are much smaller. This is why the old lens doesn't work. The new one is made for the smaller LEDs.

Reverse the process to put the light head back together, lining up the collimator over the new LED board and screwing in the screws.

After the light head is back together, plug in the battery and make sure that everything works as it should--that is, that the light actually turns on.

That's it. It took longer to type this up than it did to perform the upgrade. It's that simple.

New Lupine and Ay-Up

This week we had a visit from both UPS and FedEx. Anytime that happens, it's a good week. Especially when what they bring are lights.

First up, Lupine.

Rather than send along totally new lights, Lupine sent us the upgrades for the Wilma and Betty.

I haven't installed the new emitters, yet, but I'll document the process when I do. Like I did with the last upgrade kit we looked at. I should have that up shortly after MLK Day.

Next up, Ay-Up.

Ay-Up sent us their latest in a killer box. Their new case is the toughest I've seen, by far. I'd have no problem dropping this thing off the roof of a moving car*. It's that tough.

This is their V4 Adventure kit and comes with two light heads, two bar mounts, a helmet mount, the Gecko battery mount, headband and three batteries. Oh... and the Saxon cap, to turn the lights red. The charger can charge two of those at once.

The lights included in the kit are the same intermediate and narrow beams that we looked at last winter. They also sent a wide beam light head, so I'll have that in the beam shots, too. The batteries are their new High-Low-Flash batteries. No longer are they just on/off.

Low

I've been asked to determine the run time of the Magicshine on low. And so I did. But before we go there, I'll explain why I normally don't do run times on any setting other than High.

First, it takes a very long time. Running the lights on high allows me to test more than one in an evening. The low beams can literally run all night.

Second, the data is noisy. Very noisy. This is due to what's call pulse width modulation. Essentially, the lights are not dimmed like a light in your house, but are turning off and on very, very fast. This can yield interesting results.

The voltage from the photo-voltaic cell--the lights shine on the cell and I log the cell's output voltage--started out looking like this:

The horizontal spacing is 0.333 seconds per square. So here, the computer is sampling the light very quickly, 240 times per second.

Once the light warmed up, the pattern settled to look like this:

Our eyes cannot see this pattern--though sometimes it appears to give a spinning tire the "strobe" effect.

The problem with this is that for graphing purposes, I log every minute. Depending on where in the cycle the light is, this could be at a peak, a trough, or somewhere in between. This results in a graph that looks like this:

As you can see, it's a jumbled mess. However, the light ended up lasting a whopping 14 hrs and 10 minutes before shutting off.

If you are walking, you could use the light to walk all night long. If you aren't riding singletrack and/or are doing a lot of slow speed climbing, dropping the light to low will really extend your riding time.

WIWTBT Vol. 11

Wow. Winter again. For some reason, while I'm enjoying beautiful mountain passes on my road bike or pristine singletrack on my mountain bike in the Summer and Autumn seasons here in Utah, I forget about Winter. Winter can really suck. If I do nothing, I get fat[er] and lazy[er] and, most importantly, slow[er]. What's worse, I never really got fast this year, so I know that if I let myself slack off over the winter months, I'll be super slow. This is not good.

Of course, there are things I can do. I can do some cross-training (read: not cycling). I can get on my rollers more often. Ultimately, of course, the best solution is to spend a lot of money to solve my problem.

Which brings me to what I currently want to buy. This:

(photo courtesy of Speedway Bicycles)

I give you, the FatBack. Yes, it is a snow bike. Very similar, in fact, to the Pugsley I reviewed a couple of seasons ago. There are a few differences, though. Most notably is the complete lack of asymmetry. That is, instead of using asymmetric wheels (with the stays and fork matching) in order for the chain to clear the tires, the FatBack uses a 160mm rear hub and a 135mm front hub. Wide. Fat. Good for snow.

But, I'm not really willing to stop there. Oh no. I also want to build up a second set of wheels (with similarly-sized hubs, of course). This second set, however, will be built with some Stans 29er rims (which would fit nicely in this frame). A second set of rotors bolted to these wheels would be nice, too.

See, it's hard to justify a bike just for the dark, dismal winter months. So, why not spend even more money to get a bike that's Mr. Hyde in the Winter, and Dr. Jekyll in the Summer?

Cue the evil laughter in the background.

Riding in the South: Road

Last week, a wedding dragged me and my family out to the beautiful South. I say dragged, but I was glad to get away from the sub-freezing temperatures of Utah and see some family I hadn't seen in a while. It was just pure good luck on my part that Terry (http://ridesandroads.blogspot.com/) lives near-by and through various connections and under-the-table deals was able to hook me up with a nice 56cm Scott CR-1. Though it had seen many, many miles, it was in fantastic shape. It was much nicer than I had dared to hope for in a loaner bike.

Though I usually look forward to dropping down in elevation and riding with people, I'd been down in the lowlands for almost a week before I did any riding--which was more than enough time for my blood to get weak and thin from all the oxygen in the air. I expected to suffer--what with my general lack of fitness and such--but I had banked my hopes on the general dearth of "mountains" in that area. I knew none of the climbs they'd subject me to would be longer than a mile or so.

As it turns out, they make roads differently in the South. Whereas, here in Utah we concern ourselves with such trivial matters as snow and ice when planning out roads, they don't seem to do that in the South. Might be because of the lack of snow and ice, but who knows? What this means is that they make roads steep in the South. Very steep. Steeper than they really ought to make them.

The ride started out innocently enough--for the first 1/4 mile anyway. After that, it quickly ratcheted up to a 8-9% grade. No big deal, really. I mean, We get that around here lots of times. What caught me off-guard was when I realized that was the easy part of the climb. That's right, within a mile of starting the ride, I already was looking at 9% grades as easy. This particular road jumped up to 16-18% right away. Soon thereafter, it managed to show us just who's boss by reaching a grade of almost 25%! Sure, the whole climb was pretty short (less than 1.5 miles, I think), but when you're going that steep, an inch feels like 25.4 millimeters! Or, possibly even 26!

Actually, it feels more like a mile.

After that, there was a nice steep and short downhill. Looking at the road ahead, I learned a valuable truth about road riding in the South. There are NO flat rides. Sure, we never climbed what I'd consider to be mountain, but there were hundreds--nay, thousands--of tiny rollers. The thing is, they weren't like the rollers here in Utah. No, these actually got quite steep. They just were short enough that you didn't really think about them. Until you were about 25 miles into the ride and you started to do some estimating in your head.

I couldn't find a nice rhythm because there was no consistency. I never got to just spin in a single gear, but was constantly working to find a good gear. It wore me out much more than I would have expected. Overall, in the 35 miles we rode, we gained about 2750' of elevation--none of which was gradual.

But it was such beautiful riding, I couldn't get angry. The sun was out, the temps were up (around 60-ish). The trees, the rolling hills, the exposed rock down by the river. It was an incredible ride! And, thanks to some going easy on the part of my riding companions, I was able to stay with them most of the way.

Thanks to Terry and the Beast for the spectacular scenery and the hard workout. And thanks for hooking me up with such a nice bike to pedal around on.

Short Day = Long Night

Today is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. What better way to celebrate than to charge those lights up, and see how long they last. Take your time, these newer lights run for a very long time.

I'm out for the rest of this week, and all of next, but I'll be back in the New Year with more light news. Enjoy the holidays and from us here at Lactic Acid Threshold:

Quick Update

First off, there was supposed to be a post last week, but it never happened. The reason it never happened was that I was taking some finals and they drained me. You see, I am back in school--have been for a year--and getting a blog post out just wasn't in the cards. Now, on with the post!

I'm getting the first round of run time graphs complete and I'm happy to report that so far, every light is beating their run time claim.

It seems like--when it comes to batteries at least--manufacturers are more conservative. Keep in mind, though, that I test the lights in a room temperature environment and more than likely, you'll see less run time out in the cold.

Here's an example. The Magicshine 900 is rated at 3hrs, but I ran it for 3:42--quite a bit longer.

Not all of the other light's run times exceed their claims as much as the Magicshine, but any time a light runs longer than claimed I am happy.

I've also had the wonderful opportunity to use all of the lights in the rain--something we get plenty of here in Oregon--and aside from some fogging of the lenses, I've experienced zero problems with prolonged rain use with any of the lights. None have cut out and not one has refused to work after a good soaking.

Aside from the NiteRider Pro 600 and 1200, Exposure accessory lights and the Magicshine 900, I'll be checking out the upgrades kits for Lupine's Wilma and Betty lights and Exposure's Diablo.

Look for more info on the new lights in the coming weeks.

Storm Damage

I'll be the first to admit that winter is not my favorite riding season. However, it is the BEST time--at least in my neck of the woods--to ride during or just after a storm, be it a wind storm, rain storm, or the occasional snow storm. While I try to avoid riding in the worst rain storms, riding in the forest during a wind or snow storm can be... interesting.

A few years ago, Jon and I rode a section of the North Umpqua trail on New Years Day.

One of the nice things about the North Umpqua Trail is that it drains well, so year round riding is usually just fine, especially on the sections at the lower elevations. We thought it would be fun to ride one of the lower sections (I can't recall which one, but not the lowest or Western-most section) so off we went.

It was quite cold for that part of Oregon. The roads weren't icy, and the trail had running water on it, but there was ice buildup on the trees and it was snowing. It wasn't getting any warmer, that's for sure. We had to ride a section we didn't plan on due to a downed tree that took out a power line, leaving it draped across the road. We knew that this would not be a normal ride on the trail.

There was so much water on the trail that we were soaked in short order. Oh well, we were having fun, so we pushed on, heedless of the cracking and popping of the trees around us. There was quite a bit of ice piled up on the branches and they couldn't take the load. Trees were, literally, cracking around us.

The danger of the ride was driven home on the return leg of the out and back. There was a new tree across the trail. To date, this is the only ride I've ever been on where there were more trees across the trail coming back, than heading out.

We were frozen and even though the ride was short, it highlighted the danger of riding in the forest during a storm.

Not that that's stopped us since.

And it took us the whole way back to town to thaw out.

Jon--who has images to prove it--should relate the time we were caught in a flash flood in Moab. He and I are usually together when semi-dangerous rides happen.

And when I get speeding tickets.

My driving record has improved greatly since he moved to another state.

Be Prepared

So there I was, grunting through another climb with a huge grin on my face. I was surrounded on both sides of the trail by golden grass dried stiff by the season. Above me, a cloudless deep blue sky hung bright. It was cool, but definitely not cold with the sun out in full force. I was glad for my gloves, but the winter shoes were probably over-kill.

It actually took me some time to prepare for this ride. I haven't been out in this cold of weather yet this year. A few weeks ago, and just before I left on a trip to the southern hemisphere, I looked at the weather and saw storms and cooler weather on the way. I remember on my last ride that week saying to those riding with me, "Well guys, this is probably it for me for the year. What a great ride." (And it was!)

After a week away, I came back to find that, though the temps had dropped, the trails were in excellent condition and neither mud nor snow was a problem. So, here I was, out in 38-degree weather with a silly grin plastered across my face.

Was that my last day out on the trails for this year? Probably not. I'm determined to milk this season as long as possible. And thanks to this ride, I feel just a little more prepared for tomorrow.

For the feast. I mean, The Feast.

Exposure Eyes

Yes, it's true, I was planning on having this up last week. But... well, it didn't happen. That's the bad news. The good news is that I am posting it right now! With beam shots! On with the post...

Lets say that you picked up an Exposure Joystick MaXx 2. You wanted a helmet light that was lightweight and didn't have a separate battery. Now, about a year later, you're finding that it just isn't quite bright enough. Or, you need a new tail light... what do you do?

Exposure has just the thing for you. These are add on lights that are powered via the charging port on the Joystick, and clip onto the body of the light.

First up, the WhiteEye (silver light above). This little light doubles the output of the Joystick MaXx, upping from 240 lumens to 480 lumens (all lumen ratings are claimed).

Without the WhiteEye:

With the WhiteEye:

The larger red light, the RedEye is plenty bright (85 lumens), it'll get you noticed, but doesn't flash.

Or, if you only need a small light, the RedEye Micro:

This tiny light weighs hardly anything at all!

The other plus? These accessories are inexpensive. The WhiteEye and RedEye are $45 each, and the RedEye Micro will only set you back $15.

These accessories are just the thing to extend the usefulness of the Joystick.

A Few Beam Shots

You've asked.

I've heard.

There was a lull in the weather, allowing me to run out and get these. I had to change the camera settings a little, since the lights are so stinking bright. (My settings were: F5.6, shutter at 1.3seconds and an ISO of 800. I just now realized the ISO bit, and since I am a rank amateur with the camera, I'm going to have to read up on how to change that.) Here's the lineup:

Lupine Tesla

Magicshine 900

Lupine Betty*

NiteRider Pro 1200

NiteRider Pro 600

*It may seem like I am picking on Lupine. I'm not. The Tesla is in here because the Magicshine is a knock off of it and the Betty is included because it is the brightest headlight I've got laying around and I had to have something to compare the Pro 1200 to. Note though, that this is an older Betty, not the new 1750 lumen (claimed) version.

Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, on with the images.

The Lupine Tesla:

The Magicshine:

The Lupine Betty:

The NiteRider Pro 1200:

The NiteRider Pro 600:

And there you have it. I'll be back later this week with some Exposure Light stuff.

With a Name Like Magicshine...

Last time we looked at NiteRider's new entrants in the crowded LED light market. This time we're going to look at Magicshine's latest.

What... you've never heard of Magicshine?

Don't feel bad, neither had I until recently. Turns out, Geomangear.com is importing these lights to the U.S. market at a very low price.

There are two things that I find very interesting about the Magicshine. 1st, it seems to be a direct knock-off of the Lupine Tesla. I mean, you'd have to try HARD to get it more similar.

As you can see, while the Magicshine is slightly larger, both sport the silver bezel, black body, and O-ring attachment. Both locate their switch on the back, dead center. Both use a similar emitter, though the Magicshine's appears to be a lesser bin. The reflector on the Lupine is--in my opinion--better, but the Magicshine does have an "orange peel" type finish, to help smooth out the beam.

There is, though, one HUGE difference between the lights. The Magicshine is $85+shipping. The Lupine is $420.

Yes, the Tesla is made in Germany and the Magicshine is from China, if that matters to you. To be honest, I'm a little torn about this light. On the one hand, it's a bit of a rip off of Lupine's work. On the other hand, it seriously lowers the cost of entry for real night riding lights--and I consider that a good thing. At $85, nearly everyone can afford to run a light that is bright enough for real riding at night.*

*I define real riding at night as riding the same trails and very nearly the same speed (or faster) than you ride the trails during the day.

This light, I am sure, will introduce many mountain bikers to the joy that is riding after dark. It will also cramp the style of the do-it-yourself crowd, since--and let's be honest here--you, the individual, cannot build a light for what it costs to buy this one (don't forget to add in the batteries and charger).

Have you got any questions? Post them in the comments and I'll see what I can do.

I know you want beam shots. I can hear you chanting "beam shots, beam shots, beam shots." I'll have some later this week or early next, of the Magicshine, the NR Pro series 1200 and 600 and the Exposure stuff I'll talk about next time.

Do It Yourself

As some of you have noticed, thus far there hasn't been a whole lot of talk about lights this Fall. There is a very good reason for this.

A VERY good reason...

And I'll tell you about it another time. But for now, I've got some light news to share and that will have to take precedence. This week I received lights from NiteRider, Exposure Lights, and Magicshine. Today, I'm looking at the new NiteRider lights, then we'll go through the rest in turn.

So, on to the NiteRider Pro 1200 and 600.

I previewed these lights way back in May, and now I have them in my hands. Both of them.

My first impression is one of quality. These are well made lights. Each of the reflectors is different. The Pro 600's reflector is optimized for its single emitter, while the Pro 1200 has two different reflectors, one wide and another narrow.

The light head itself is a massive heat sink with channels for air flow. In some ways this is similar to Light and Motion's Seca lights. There is a lot of room for air flow to keep these lights cool.

The battery uses a cradle attached to the bike. The cradle has the cord attached, so removal of the battery does not require undoing any cords or Velcro; just slide the battery out of the cradle.

The charger, as seen above on the left, is unlike any other. This charger doesn't just charge the battery, which slides in from the top, but has a port for a USB plug, and a connector for the light head. This is command central for the Pro series. Using the NiteRider DIY software, you can change how you, the user, interacts with the light.

You can store up to 4 different programs in the light head--that can be used at will--and each of these programs is totally custom. You set the low and high intensity, up to 6 steps from low to high, and what the run time will be for each setting.

I like keeping it simple, so my first program for the Pro 600 is a simple high and low beam. According to the software, my high beam is 600 lumens, while my low beam is 200 lumens. On high, the software says that I can expect 5hrs and 40 minutes from the 8 cell battery, while on the low the light should run for a staggering 16hrs. That's long enough for even the longest nights.

Unless you are living in Alaska. Then you might want to get a second battery, should you decide to ride all night long. In the winter.

Downloading the software took no time, and I've got it running on a netbook, so it's not exactly a resource hog.

NiteRider has taken an interesting approach on separating themselves in the crowded LED light market.

Next time, we'll take a look at the Magicshine. A new entrant that defines inexpensive.

Testing a 29er

There's still so much talk about 29ers these days. Frankly, I was hoping they'd have gone away by now. Life was simpler with one wheel size for mountain bikes. However, being a professional, I wasn't about to let my misgivings get in the way of true investigative journalism. Therefore, today, part way through my ride on my 26er hardtail, I decided to give this whole "movement" a try. Did I switch bikes? No, that would possibly insert additional variables (such as a different frame and components) into the equation (and we all know how bad that would be). Instead, I swapped out the only component I could fit on my current set-up. I took out my front wheel inner-tube and swapped it with a 700c inner-tube.

(Okay, technically, it was a 700c x 18-25mm, but I believe the diameter--not width--is the key to 29ers.)

Now, I would have changed out the tire, too, but then I would have needed a new wheel. A new wheel, as you might suppose, wouldn't work with my existing fork. So, as you can see, I changed what could be changed without having to re-architect my whole bike. By doing this, I feel I've struck a balance between embracing a new standard and running my existing set-up so as to not introduce additional factors.

Also, technically, I was riding a 69er since my rear wheel's inner-tube remained the 26" variety.

How it rode
Well, I did the majority of the ride on this set-up (all the remainder, if you must know). To be honest, I don't know what all the hype is about. I mean, it worked, but the whole time I felt a little less confident. My wheel (the front) would squirm a bit around corners and going over obstacles. It felt as if it would roll off the rim quite easily. Now, perhaps this is what some proponents of 29ers have called, "rolls over obstacles more easily," but for me it really felt like it should be described as, "rolls right off the rim more easily." Now granted, I didn't actually try both wheels. Perhaps it would roll completely differently with two 700c inner-tubes. (Actually, I probably could have fit two in the front tire alone. Maybe 4 is the magic number.*

Verdict
I wouldn't go this route if I could help it. I mean, it's fine in an emergency**, but I don't think I would chose to run with this configuration on purpose. It _still_ remains to be seen if this will catch on.

* Okay, no one better run out and patent running four tiny tubes in your standard rims to use in a "run flat" setup. I thought of it/you saw it here first.

** Here's the type of emergency I could see it working for. Say, for instance, you're about to start a ride with a friend. He turns to you and says, "Do you have any 29er tubes? I'm all out." To which you respond, "No, do you have any 26er tubes? It looks like I don't have any of those, either. I'll just bring along my lone road bike tube in case I needed--but I'm sure I won't." You then pump up your skinny tires to about 30psi--wishing you had tubeless like your 29er friend.

After only a couple miles into the ride, you roll casually around a seemingly harmless corner and get a snake-bite puncture somehow. Good thing you have that road tube. You and your friend laugh as you put that tiny tube into your 26er tire. Then you pump and pump and pump until it feels like most of the tire is full of tube, but not down by the rim. No, the part down by the rim was empty. Huh. I guess that's what happens with a larger diameter tube.

Okay, with that in mind, what would you do? trace back the way you came or press on? If you're the inquisitive type, you'd press on the remaining 6 miles guessing that "It'll all work out." Corners are scary. Steep rocky descents are scary. It works in the end, though. "Not to mention," you say to yourself, "it's much lighter than before so it climbs with ease!"

A lesson you might learn from all this is, the wrong tube is better than no tube.