From: "Leonardelli, John" Subject: Reviews Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 09:13:12 -0500 BLT is a Canadian company located in British Columbia. The Norco company purchased them a few years ago. This seems to have given BLT a much needed opportunity to do some R&D. They have an extensive line up of bicycle lighting products. Their older series featured 6V Krypton type bulbs (6W and 10W), bulky lighting heads similar to Vistalites VL400 series, water bottle battery (SLA) and a regulated charger. They do have a nice quick release bracket but I still think its crummy for MTB bikes as the heads always get in the way of the brake/shifter cables. The beam pattern suffers the same as the VL400. Their new series all feature 6V MR-11 bulbs. The same water bottle battery, quick release mount and regulated charger. The Firefly ($120cdn) is a helmet mount system with a 10W bulb. The mount uses a Velcro strap with a nylon base and rubber underpad. The head seems lightweight. The battery pack is a rectangular SLA unit that fits in a jersey pocket or belt loop. The 10W bulb will run for 2 hours. 6W, 15W and 20W bulbs are available. The bulb is house in a compact resin housing. The switch, a toggle, is mounted behind the bulb. The angle is adjustable and is a nice feature. The Explorer ($150cdn) is a dual beam system with a 6W and 15W high beam. Again different bulbs can be substituted. The water bottle battery (SLA) uses an automobile type fuse for safety. This can be upgraded to a water bottle battery that features a resettable fuse. The compact housing doesn't get caught up in the cables as the older bulky ones did. They are not modular like Jet. Each lamp head is attached to its own bracket. Handlebar mounts would be placed with a head on either side of your stem. No Horizontal plane adjustment. Both lights had a nice clean beam (typical of MR-11s). There are some well though out features such as a fuse, optional bulbs and batteries, thick wiring (#18 I think), quick release bracket and a decent price. They seem to offer very good value. The Firefly's weight on a helmet was noticeably light. When comparing different features of MR-11 based systems it comes down to price and features and build quality versus the bulb itself. This product has all three. I liked it. The toggle switch is easy to use with gloved hands. BLT does offer a 7.2V Nicad pack as their only nicad battery option Best Brights is made locally by a mobile bike repairman. They are nicely CNC machined 6000 series aluminum housings with again MR-11 bulbs. Basically a helmet mounted system with a 20W standard bulb. 12 volts. Optional 10 or 35 watters available. Heavy duty wiring with soldered connections not crimped. The fuse is a poly-switch self-resetting. The fanny pack Panasonic 7.2AH SLA is very heavy, but Rob wanted to have long burn times. The beam pattern is broad and I would have preferred to try a narrower one, but again bulb replacement is not difficult to do. It sells for about $200cdn with a charger included. You can contact him at best-bike@shopcanada.com. Jet Lites is a California company that is creating controversy with their "Twice the power, half the weight" concept. Their resin type heads sure are light a 2oz each. Rubber sealing rings help keep water out. The heads are modular in the sense that they can be mounted together to form a two head unit. I think a 3 head unit can also be put together. (Hmmm that seems interesting). They offer 7.5W, 10W, and 20W MR-11 bulbs. I tried a 12w/20W combo. Jet offers nicad batteries versus the heavier SLA. The 12W will run for 2 hours on the nicad. They have a water bottle and fanny type battery. The switch is located on the lamp head similar to niterider. Jet also has a switch mounted on the power cord itself. I think this might be awkward to use in practice (handlebar mounted configuration) as it would appear easier to use the headlamp switch mounted on the light head itself. This may actually be more useful in a helmet-mounted configuration as it was harder to turn the unit on with gloved hands when using the headlamp switch. A Velcro strap with a plate is the standard helemt mount. I did notice that the angle was not adjustable and could be an issue depending on the helmet type. Their 12W bulb is a narrow 10 deg and an 18 deg width for the 20W. A lightweight (4 oz.) dual beam helmet mount system is killer with the 12W and 20W combo. The dual is about $350cdn. They are also overvolting the bulbs with 13.2 volt batteries. Thus their claims to light weight (2oz per head) and a nicad battery vs. heavier SLA, and brighter beams is true. I found them to be whiter and brighter than the Best Bright comparing the 20W bulbs side by side. Marwi is another manufacturer. Aluminum heads, MR-11 bulbs are different batteries are standard. I didn't really get a chance to try these. They are expensive $300 plus Canadian depending on the model. I didn't really see anything really outstanding or interesting about these lamps that would distinguish them from all the others. A quick summary: BLT: A good value if you want a 6V system. The Firefly has some great things. Better wiring and fusing. Adjustable angle on the mounts. Quick release brackets on the handle bars are easy to use. Compact. Best Brights: Custom made but only available as a helmet mount. Jet: Bright and Light. Expensive. Marwi: Expensive John ===================================================== Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 16:40:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Marty Goodman MD KC6YKC Subject: Re: Bike Light Review Marwi makes lighting systems for Performance. Their offerings include ones that are relatively inexpensive for what you are buying: $60 or so for a single lamp SLA battery-equipped MR11 system, or $90 or so for a dual MR11 bulb system with each head independently adjustable and a good solid mounting system (SLA 6 volt battery powered). Thus, I'd say John's claim that Marwi's products are "expensive" is incorrect, and a reaction to looking ONLY at the top of the line model from Marwi. John also in his otherwise interesting review did not evaluate ANY of the chargers included in ANY of the systems he mentioned... a serious oversight, for a bad charger can destroy your battery. Jet's lighting system is very similar to those from TurboCat and NiteRider: 12 volt bulbs overvolted at 13.2 volts for greater brightness. THey seem neither better nor worse, overall, than their competitors as regards bulb performance, tho it's my understanding their batteries are inferior in capacity and quality. Again, John did not address this issue in his review. Note that now-a-days the better of the 6 volt MR11 bulb lighting systems from Night Sun, NiteRider, and possibly VistaLite too all ALSO overvolt their bulbs, using 4.8 volt bulbs at 6 volts for much whiter, brighter light, more efficient bulb performance, and MUCH shorter bulb life. ---marty ===================================================== From: "Leonardelli, John" Subject: RE: Bike Light Review Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 16:02:37 -0600 My pricing is in canadian dollars and in many cases a $60US kit is $129 retail up here. I only saw their top of the line products as most dealers are reluctant to offer the complete line. Couldn't really evaluate the chargers properly. In fact I have no real concern anymore for the chargers because for most part they are all inadequate. And most tinkerers would chuck the wall wart in the garbage and use the Dewalt charger for nicad and something else for the SLA (I use a 6v and a 12V A&A Engineering one). Maybe next time I will add a disclaimer as to what assumptions or issues I am taking into account. A good point that I omitted. My reviews are not as critical or in-depth as they may need to be only in that they are very time consuming for me. I am offering first looks. However, my thoughts could be the start of a thread and thus engages us all into discussion. All 5 of us on the list. As far as over volting, thanks for the clarification. I was only looking at 12V bulbs in general which seem to be a true 12V bulb. It looks like it is different for 6V systems (which I don't really use that much except for a coupole of systems kicking around). I am a 12V guy (sans PWM for now). I focused I think more on ergonomics and such as opposed to battery and chargers. Curious question Marty How do you find the helmet mounted switches on those systems you have? Not sure by how the Jet Lites batteries are perceived to be inadequate or inferior? Aren't the batteries pretty much all generic now regardless of what you are buying? John ===================================================== Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 00:03:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Marty Goodman MD KC6YKC Subject: reply to John (assorted comments on lights) John, (1) I really haven't looked much into stock helmet mount light switches... I tend to provide my own cable and switches for helmet lamps. NightSun's is an easy to use push on push off button, but I don't personally like push on push off because it provides little or no tactile feedback on its status. Except for those that stay stuck down or up in on and off modes. (2) I seem to recall that Jet uses lower capacity NiCd batteries than some of its competitors, which both allows it to price its systems lower AND to boast a lighter weight battery. (3) Of course, in the light of my many posts on the subject, you are quite right in suspecting I'd agree with you that for most lighting systems one is best off investing another $40 to $60 in a third party high quality charger . ---marty