Like historians, who didn't know to number "The Great War" until the next one came along, labeling it WW-II, I find myself needing to update my helmet lighting again after just a short time.
I was ordering bar tape to match my new saddle and needed to order a few extra bucks worth of something to get free shipping, so decided to splurge and spend $37 at Amazon for a Fenix E25 2xAA cell flashlight.
I almost sent it back when it arrived, because it looked too big. Too big for the mounting system, and too big for the top of a helmet. In the end though, a frontal area only 26% that of a MagicShine was appealing, so I cut it out of the package and tried it in the mount.
Whoot! It fit. Just barely, but it fit. Tight enough I aligned one of the groves in the hand hold area with one shoulder of the clamp on the bottom, but it fits quite nicely. Even with the extra thickness of a star and cut-washer set of lock washers, the bolt was long enough I could get it started by squeezing the clamp shut lightly while starting it in the threads with a screwdriver.
Two layers of Velcro straps go on either side of the Volt's "V". Note topside position of the 3-position switch, sealed by the grey rectangular patch on top
Note how the back half of the shoulders on the shoe are cut away to improve the fit
The retention tab, covered by 2 layers of Velco straps, in addition to the Velcro stuck to the shoe and helmet, provides excellent front-to-back stability.
Light is mounted slightly behind the center of gravity to allow angling it up enough to point it well up the road when in the aerobars
Minimal frontal area and low-profile mount makes this aerodynamic, silent, and keeps the weight from shifting the helmet around.
The E25 is a little long. An E35, powered by a single 18650 LION cell would be better, but the price is close to that of a Cygolite then, and this mount doesn't allow you to slip the light off when riding in daylight. It does allow you to walk into "Bertha and Bubba's Bait Barn" anywhere in the US and buy AA alkaline cells on double centuries.
The involvement on the inside of the helmet is minimal, and being a soft mount, doesn't compromise the structural integrity of the helmet's protection in any way I can detect.
This shoe got covered with an inch of soft-side Velcro which added a lot of stability when interfacing with the scratchy side Velco stuck to the helmet
The "Velcro" comes in rolls, and isn't Velcro, but a Chinese rip-off with smaller loops and hooks. It is just a bit stretchy, which really helps when doing a soft mount like this. The Fenix LD01 is pictured here for scale.
I had already futzed around with the Velcro on the mounting system before trying this, but note that the new approach is cleaner and more stable. The changes to the system are as follows.
I cut the shoulders off of the shoe about half way from back to front to get a better straddle over the helmet's raised "V"
I ground the shoe's retention pip off on some concrete (crude, but effective) to make the shoe completely flat
I covered the flat part of the shoe with a strip of self-adhesive soft-side Velcro to interface with the scratchy-side Velcro already stuck to the helmet top
I ditched the red Velcro strap running side-to-side as the mount is completely stable side-to-side now without it
I added a 2nd layer of front-to-back mini-Velcro, running one layer on the right side of the Volt helmet's leading "V", and one layer on the left side
I added a star lock washer against the plastic of the mount, and a cut-washer type lock washer against the bolt head. This keeps the screw from unscrewing itself when you work the tilt mechanism back and forth when transitioning from the blocks to aerobars and back.
In the end, what made the decision to keep the E25 easy was it's extremely tight beam pattern - 1.5ft @ 25ft, and able to paint reflective signs at over 5 blocks. It lit up the dozens of trash cans in the bike lane on California Ave for 2 blocks ahead, and almost blinded me when I accidentally bounced the beam off of a 4x4' yellow speed caution sign.
I also appreciated that it was very easy to point away from oncoming riders on the ARPT by pointing it at the shoulder 20ft ahead, knowing that almost no light was spilling out into the oncoming rider's eyes. I had no difficulty at all seeing where I was going, even looking into lighting in the 2,000 lumen range from multiple bikes riding in a paceline. It's that bright! (rated at 156 meters, and it's all of that)
In talking to endurance riders, those that ride double centuries, Brevets, and 500+ mile rides, as well as devoted night riders and commuters, one thing comes up again and again. The battery life of headlights should be at least 2X your greatest need on the highest setting. The alternative is constantly 2nd guessing yourself about how much light you can afford to use, fearing complete darkness. The more challenging the ride, the less welcome this constant nagging thought becomes.
I'm going to try a single 18650 cell flashlight just for grins, as it
will be smaller and should last longer, having 1 X 3.7v X 3,000mAh or
11.1 watt-hours of energy stored, v.s. 2 X 1.25v X 2,700mAh or 6.75
watt-hours of energy, and will be lighter as well.
In the end,
everything is going to be powered by 18650 LION cells, because this is
what electric cars, like the new Ford C-Max Energi are using. CygoLite
uses these in removable packages in many of their lights, but as yet,
you can't walk into a gas station in a remote area and buy them like AA
cells.
If you give up on a battery solution for the duration of the ride, then by all means go with batteries that are readily available along the way. The 1st time you are humping a bunch of dead batteries up the side of a mountain 10-12 hours into a double century, this will become abundantly clear.
What started out as a map light to light the Garmin 305 Edge, thermometer, and the tops of the bars morphed into a headlight as well with the incredibly bright Fenix LD01 "pen light", which puts out 85 lumens on high.
The one frustration I've had with this light, is getting it to tilt up for lighting the road properly, especially when riding down in the aerobars, and down again when I want to read my Garmin or thermometer.
With an upcoming 25 hr noon-to-noon ride on the 4th, when we "fall back" to end DST for 2010, I wanted this problem solved. I started looking at the mounting options I had laying around, and in an epiphany, I realized that the body of the Fenix is the same size as the seatstays on most bikes, so by swapping the roles of the clamp and the mounting shoe, I could make a perfect flashlight holder, purpose made to tilt.
The first mount I made was for my Bell Volt Helmet, and then, just to test the flexibility of the Velcro approach, I did another mount on an old Bell Ghisalo helmet, where the shoe fits down into the vent hole on top of the helmet, so is VERY streamlined.
Despite the scale these close-ups seems to imply, these lights are not much bigger than the AAA cells that power them - very GOOD AAA cells would be my suggestion. I'm using mostly Sanyo 1000mAh cells, and carry 2 extra batteries in my saddlebag, in addition to the 6 that power the taillights.
The red Velcro I got from an auto parts place, and the black from Amazon. The black version is not Velcro, but some "hook and loop" system, which scaled down in every way, and doesn't interface well with the normal sized Velcro. Both work well, and it's nice to have the flexibility of 2 sizes, but they won't stick to each other properly.
I've also replaced the Blackburn Mars 3.0 with a 4.0. It's easily 3-4X as bright, about half the size, weighs slightly less, has the same mounting system, but is sans the rarely used "marquee" flash mode. It still, stupidly, uses colored lenses when LEDs already produce the proper color all on their own, so the colored lens just blocks light needlessly. Planet Bike has wisely used clear lenses, and a translucent white body so the whole case turns red in constant-on mode.
On the plus side, the Mars lights have a simple flash pattern that can be tracked, not as well as in constant-on mode, but still trackable in a pinch. Their hose clamp mount makes for easy helmet mounting, and they have amber lights on each side to properly indicate to traffic they're looking at you from the side. (reflective tire sidewalls and wheel reflectors do this too)
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Before, with Blackburn Mars 3.0 taillight and Velcro mount
After, with Blackburn Mars 4.0 and Velcro-ed PB seat-stay mounting system with dyslexia.
Velcro running in both directions for a good anchor. Note the lock tab forward where the back Velcro passes over it before being threaded into the inside of the helmet.
View of the inside of the Bell Volt helmet. Always run Velcro UNDER the helmet's sweatbands.
2 layers of Velcro under the shoe. One sticking to the helmet, and one on top of that (red) running under the PB mounting shoe
Close-up of mount. Easier to do the Velcro work with the clamp OFF, especially when running the black Velcro across the top of the red.
Note the receiving slot of the PB mounting shoe clearly visible here. I may cut the vertical part of the shoe off later and put some adhesive Velcro on the then flat shoe to make this an even more stable mount.
Fenix LD01 flashlight is mounted right at the balance point so it will have no tenancy to tilt up or down
The lock tab on the PB mounting shoe is clearly visible on the front side here
Bell Ghisallo helmet with PB receiving shoe mounted down inside the top vent hole
Black Velcro holds the shoe forward, tightly against the tapered front of the vent hole
Note rubber spacer wrapping the flashlight. Its cushion is required to allow the teeth in the tilting mechanism to slip past each other. Also note that the slotted holes in the wide part of the red Velcro were both worked down around the leg on the shoe that holds the clamp to it. With Velcro running in opposite directions, this makes for a great side-to-side mounting system.
These Velcro straps have just the right amount of stretch for this application, although the mount benefits from a rather tight cinching. It's also worth noting that using this same approach, a pretty large flashlight, or headlight, could be mounted if the small clamp were replaced with the large clamp.
As an update to my G.I.T. Lit lighting system, I'm issuing this warning to cyclists, that claimed operation times for taillights, are wildly exaggerated. Simple math you can do in your head reveals them to be overstated by 10-20X - about equivalent to claiming you can drive cross-country on a quarter tank of gas. You can prove them false by simply putting freshly charged batteries in your light, turning it on, and waiting.
The longest duration of operation was found on my Blackburn Mars 3.0 at 12 hours, followed by the Planet Bike SuperFlash Stealth (not the Turbo) at about 8 hours, and finally the Turbo at 5 hours. This represents the amount of time before the light's performance is so degraded it's no longer effective. All times are for constant on mode. Expected Flash mode times should be roughly double, but the Turbo's effective run-time is about 8 hrs.48 hrs. (see UPDATE note at bottom)
This research was prompted by an incident that happened a couple of weeks ago, when I arrived home and found that 2 of my 3 taillights were down, which made sense, as a van seriously crowded me approaching a 4-way stop intersection. My pilot training prompts me to take such breaches in protection seriously. Over the last 2 weeks, I've been doing a lot of testing of my taillights.
Simple algebra reveals claims of 100 hours of use to defies physics. Totally, completely, utterly impossible. As ridiculous as claiming you can drive cross-country on a quarter tank of gas.
To be clear, Planet Bike's Super Flash Turbo is a great light, and more importantly, PB is NOT unusual in making these claims. Blackburn, and most other mfgs make similar claims, which are equally ridiculous, erroneous LIES.
Far from the 100 hours claimed by Planet Bike, the Turbo is effective for 5 hours on constant. In addition, while employing a 1W LED, that primary LED cannot possibly be using 1 watt in the taillight's circuit. The claimed performance would require TWO of GeoMan's best LION headlight battery packs - over $150 worth at mail-order prices.
Two AAAs supply 1.8 - 2.5 watt-hours of power max. Using 1W, max burn times would be 1.8 to 2.5 hrs. The light may be employing a 1W LED, but it's utilizing less than half that in the circuit. In my tests, it was completely dead in 7 hrs. As a guide, go with 5 hrs on constant, and less than 10 60 * flashing, as flash mode uses 2 additional LEDs in combination with the main LED at about 50%10% * duty cycle.
Common practice in designing conventional, high-power strobes, is to use the bulb beyond 100% of sustained power for short bursts, which I believe PB has done with a twist - utilizing only 30% of the 1W LED in constant mode , and 100% plus in flash mode, but for only 8-10% of the time. Non-LED strobes typically run 20-120%, in part to minimize thermal shock, and in part to allow tracking by eliminating light voids. LEDs don't have thermal shock problems, but they do have heat dissipation problems. Using the LED at high output, but for short durations, or a fraction of rated capacity in constant mode, eliminates the need to use an aluminum body to dissipate heat - a strategy that will eventually fail as customers demand brighter and brighter lights.
At full brightness, based on a Fenix flashlight killing an AAA cell in 3hrs, this light's primary LED produces 20-25 lumens in constant-on mode, and to be clear it is lumens output, NOT watts input, that is the relevant metric.Because LED emitters are quickly becoming more powerful, as well as more efficient, it's important to realize that your 1W light will be brighter in a couple of years than it is now, and your current light brighter than those of a few years ago, even scaled for watts of power consumed.
These measurements should be DOT-regulated, as cyclists are using them on public, DOT-regulated roads to deconflict themselves from motor vehicle traffic. This is a serious oversight on the part of DOT - due I'm sure to the speed with which cheap, effective lighting has become affordable to millions of cyclists. Until then, carry spare batteries, or end up FUBAR.
My testing was done with Sanyo eneloop 750mAh, Sanyo 900mAh, and Duracell 1000mAh batteries, with the expected increases in burn time. The latter are no longer available, but Sanyo now makes a 1000mAh AAA cell. I would recommend the eneloop as they don't self-discharge over time, but if you're using these lights regularly, and recharging every few days, go with the 1000mAh for 25% more time.
In addition to truth in advertising, I hope the next PB light will have 7 additional features.
1.) An amber LED on each side with a small wide-angle lens to keep motorists at bay when closing and passing
2.) 7.4v LION power via 10440 LION cells, which store 2.5X the energy
3.) 7.4 volts, so compatible with my MagicShine light, and Shimano's Di2 system
4.) An option to power the light from internal batteries, or from an external 7.4v system, or both with a fail-over to internal power if the external power fails.
5.) A full-power, wide-angle lens, constant-on LED for Tracking in flash mode.
6.) A medium Pace-Line power mode for riding in pacelines
7.) Flat ribbon cables that stick to, and hug the frame
A lighting system should be judged by how motorists react to it, not technical specs. It takes (at least) 5 lights to ride safely in urban environments. 3 taillights and 2 headlights. One white headlight, and one taillight with 180 degrees of coverage should be up on your helmet to keep high-profile vehicles from looking right over the top of you and running you over.
* UPDATE: 3/20/2012
I've been writing Planet Bike and we've had a nice dialog. They have admitted that the Turbo's constant-on mode burn time is 6-8 hrs, but insisted the flash time was 100 hours. Based on testing with a DuraCell Alkaline AAA cell, I would put flasher time at 48 hrs. I let it run for 60hrs, and it still flashed, but so weakly it would been seen at maybe 100-250ft, depending on ambient light. Inside the 48-60hr interval, the flasher is more effective in dark conditions than a reflector, but probably not more effective in a light-saturated urban environment. A couple of take-away points here.
The Turbo's flash pattern is excellent, drawing your attention better than any other pattern I've seen
It does this employing a pattern that is remarkably energy efficient
It's also the most effective light I've used in constant-on mode
Since you need a flasher to Grab motorists attention, and a bright, 180 degree coverage constant-on light for tracking, this makes an excellent choice for lights #3 and #4, and their interchangeability is a big advantage.
A couple of years ago I put some ideas together about what a good lighting system should do for cyclists. That work I called G.I.T. Lit. It doesn't describe a lighting system, but rather, the criteria any good lighting system has to meet. It's a meta-level lighting RX.
Over the last 3-4 months I've had occasion to work out the details of a real-world system I think satisfies these requirements, because of the way motorists respond to it, and that's the only criteria that counts. This 5-point lighting system will allow you to ride a road bike in urban or rural environments, at up to 25mph solo, without issue - faster if riding in a pace-line.
To understand better why 5 lights are needed, check out this YouTube video that demonstrates the eye's blindspot, the way the brain attempts to work around it, and keep this in mind when maneuvering in traffic at night. You have to give motorists the tools they need to be a good partner in safety.
1st, and most obvious, is the handlebar headlight, which is the foundation for any good lighting system. This light has to light the road far enough ahead so you don't overrun your headlights, even during club sprints.
Its beam must also be wide enough to light both sides of a bike trail, pick up garbage cans left in bicycle lanes, and light both white lines on common 2-lane roads. It's also crucial to pick up the glowing eyes of deer and other large game in time to avoid hitting them. They're completely unpredictable, so hitting the brakes is the best defense.
The primary headlight should have several power settings, so light can be maximized where needed, and minimized when battery life becomes important, or riding in pace-lines at night. It should also have a flash or strobe mode, critical when cycling just before sunset, or just after sunrise, when motorists are looking into the sun. Motorists behind you will also notice the flash of reflective signs, strobing in your headlight, up to a mile ahead at night.
The MagicShine 900 lumen lights meet these requirements, especially with a special wide lens I've been using. It's also proving very reliable, which is critically important for primary lighting like this. It's reasonably priced, and the separate lighthead is light enough to carry a spare needed. It allows many battery pack options, with many different mountings, and allows you to swap out a fresh pack quickly and easily.
If it's not 1,000+ lumens, or very close, you're just wasting your money, as those are "be seen", not "see" lights. They're dangerous, and motorists hate them because they're dangerous - because it's too much sustained workload, coming at them too fast. It's their opinion that counts, because your safety depends on them being able to notice, identify and track you quickly, and easily. (G.I.T lit) When they're happy, waving, honking and giving you the thumbs up, you have a great system. Until then, keep improving your lighting.
Any lighting is better than no lighting, but you're being foolish taking these kinds of risks when you can get a 900 lumen MagicShine for $90 from Amazon. I now have 2 full systems and a spare lighthead, and all of that cost me less than $250 delivered to my door. Have you priced a trip to the ER lately?
2nd, you need a helmet headlight with most of the same features. You need a helmet headlight to see through turns, up and down hills, and to "flash" motorists poking out of driveways, intersections, or looking into the sun. It goes where you're looking, not where your bike is pointing. The more twisty and hilly the road, the more critical this 2nd white light becomes. It's also a great "good citizen" light on night club rides, where it's used to light obstacles, signs, and riders under threat, whose clothing comes alive when bathed by bright light.
Helmet lighting is particularly important in getting noticed by drivers of high-profile vehicles, like SUVs, trucks, and heavy equipment. Because the drivers are sitting up so high, they can, will, and do look right over the top of bike mounted lighting. Sitting up and looking right at them until they respond is the only way to stay safe.
Watch for brake lights. That's the response that tells you the motorist is paying attention, and nothing short of that. My headlight has enough back-scatter to light the back of my gloves, and PI is now selling neon green Cyclone gloves. Sometimes waving your hand will get someone's attention when all else fails.
3rd, you need a powerful, flashing rear light that motorists can pick up from a long way off. This is theGrab light for motorists approaching from behind. To make this light as bright as possible, the light is focused into a very narrow beam, and it gets noticed because flashing lights work with the very primitive part of the brain, going all the way back to dinosaurs, that sense changes first and foremost. The Planet Bike Super Blinky Turbo is excellent here.
4th, you need a similar light, facing backwards, that does NOT flash, but is in Constant mode. This light's purpose is to make Tracking easy. Flashing, and even strobing lights, are almost impossible to track in the complexity of urban light-scapes. Even in my 20s, I found it almost impossible to track aircraft over LA at night, even with powerful strobe lights. So do commercial pilots, which is why most large aircraft now light the tail of the plane in bright, white lights, AND open all the windows in the passenger compartment with the cabin lights on.
As the saddle bag mount is often 8-12" higher, it's at motorists eye level, doesn't require them to look down and back up to drive, mount #4 here - but zip-tie the clip shut so it can't fall off as it will get bounced around quite a bit back there. The PB Turbo's opaque body lights up all over when in Constant Mode, and because it's unobscured from the side by legs, motorist can see it when overtaking you too.
I have settled on the Planet Bike Superflash Turbo for both #3, and #4 - which are mounted on the seatpost and saddlebag respectively. It has one primary, high-power LED emitter, with a high quality narrow-beam lens, two additional LEDs with a wider spread below, and an opaque body. The PB's flash pattern is simply spectacular. I really wish they'd patent it and then put it in the public domain. It would quickly become a standard that motorists would identify with cyclists.
It's counter-intuitive, but you need more powerful lighting in urban areas where there's much more lighting for motorists to contend with. Take note the next time you're out driving near dusk. It's almost overwhelming. More is more here.
I really thought I had my lighting down with this 4-light system - until I had a very close call with a SUV. He looked right over the top of me as I was making a L-hand turn from a busy 4-lane street with a protected turn lane, onto a 2 lane street with a protected L-hand turn and protected right hand turn lane leading into a bus stop lane. He almost ran right over me!
I had also read just a week before that motorists tend to lose sight of those narrow beams when overtaking cyclists, and have been running them over at the last moment. This led to some head-scratching, and eventually, the realization that a 5th light, one with 180 degrees of light, with a flash, should be mounted on the back (or top) of the helmet, facing backwards, but shining brightly to the sides, at motorists eye level, even if riding in high-profile vehicles.
As luck would have it, the Blackburn MARS 3.0 (and sadly, NOT the newer 4.0) satisfied all of these requirements with a staggering 7 LED lights, red to the back, and amber to the sides, and with a mount that puts it a full 3" behind the helmet, so it can easily be seen for almost 270 degrees. Paired with the front helmet light, this provides a full-height 360 degrees of coverage with white forward, amber to the sides, and red lights to the rear.
The only caveat is the Blackburn slip-in mounts are not compatible with Planet Bike's. Unforgivable they can't work that out. Those 3 rear lights should work as backups for each other in a pinch. We, as consumers, should write nasty-grams to both companies until this is resolved.
I would add only one thing to these 5 lights - neon green outer clothing with well-designed reflective piping. While REFLECTORS WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT KEEP YOU SAFE, piping really helps motorists Identify you as a cyclists. Neon green because when headlights, or fellow rider's lights hit you, you'll light up like a Christmas tree, and neon green because it's become the unofficial safety color of cycling. I think 100 of 100 motorists will tell you exactly that.
I'm careful to say "well planned", because I have seen some extensively piped clothing that makes you look like a monster from a bad SciFi movie, and while very distracting, still didn't silhouette the rider well. If I hadn't seen it myself I'd have said that's impossible, but it made it clear that slathering a bunch of reflective tape on your clothes isn't automatically going to make you easy to recognize.
I keep stressing fast identification as a cyclist because the driver, almost instantly, then knows what to expect from you and your bike. They know you aren't going to be blowing past them and changing lanes like a motorcycle (which have headlights, but not elevated, and never flashing red lights), and aren't going to take 20 seconds to cross the road like a ped, and aren't another car with a bad headlight.
Identifying you cuts their stress level in half immediately, and that makes them better decision makers, more level-headed, and grateful to you that you're meeting them half-way in trying to keep everyone safe and whole.
Case in point. After mounting light #5 I was flying down a shallow -3% grade, and got passed by a Quad-Cab dualie F-350 towing a BobCat on a 30ft Low-Boy. He gave me the full 8ft of lane when passing, watched me in his huge West Coast rear-view mirrors for clearance as he pulled back in, and gave me a big "thumbs up" as he got back into the power and went flying down the road. Now THAT'S a great feeling!!!
PS: The helmet headlight causes a lot of neck strain for me, due mostly to craning my neck to point the light where I want it, so I have been riding without it, using my handlebar MagicShine in flashing mode near dusk on city streets to Grab motorists attention. It's passable, but not as good as having a few hundred lumens up on the helmet. Don't skimp on the other lights. It's just too dangerous.
Partially as compensation, I have ordered a small, single AAA-cell Fenix E05-R2 light I plan on wearing on the backside of my L glove to help with hand signaling, Garmin reading, and flat fixes after dark. Stay tuned for results.
PPS: I ended up Velcro-ing my Fenix E05 to the top-front of my helmet so that it lights my cockpit, and the road just ahead of my front wheel. At 27 lumens it's excellent for that, and to be seen by motorists near and after dark. The Fenix LD01's 1 hour (85 lumens), 3.5 hours (28 lumens), 11 hours (9 lumens) is the same size and weight, and it's output will get me seen near dark, light the road as well as the 2W Planet Bike Blazer, and at 1/5th the weight, and 1/10th the size.
This 3-stage approach makes it very versatile, and with a spare AAA cell in the seat bag, and 2 potential spares in the PB SuperFlash Turbo, it will get me home even 4 hrs after dark on full brightness. I have decided to use it as my primary headlight in the summer, when I only occasionally get caught out after dark.
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I continue to use, and refine my G.I.T Lit lighting system, and have added a much more powerful light to my helmet after a SUV looked right over the top of me, and pulled out into an intersection I was making a left-hand turn through. That's the Universe giving you a warning shot across the bow. Ignore such warnings at your own peril. You often don't get a 2nd chance on those.
At the end of the day, what makes any system a success is the way motorists react to you. I almost always get 5 ft, and many times, as much room as a small car now. What makes the addition of this Blackburn MARS 3.0 light so effective, is it's made to provide good lighting as motorists close and pass.
Taillights with very narrow beams are exactly what you want for the "G" in G.I.T - to Grab motorists attention from a long way off, and for that I just upgraded my half watt Planet Bike Superflash to a 1 watt Superflash Turbo, and it's a substantial upgrade. In fairness, the Blackburn MARS 4.0 looks comparable. The mounting bracket slots aren't compatible though, so it was easier for me to stick with PB.
As drivers close to within 100 yards, they start to fall out of the field of view of those very narrow beams, and cyclists are getting hit in spite of having bright taillights because the motorists lose sight of them as they come along side to pass. The MARS 3.0 was designed to eliminate this lighting system weakness.
I left the optic fiber ribbon on the helmet, but turned it forward so it silhouettes the helmet, thus addressing the "I" in G.I.T Lit - IDENTIFY. With both the helmet lights flashing in synch, and with the PB Superflash Turbo flashing it's own separate and distinct pattern, and the MagicShine lighting the road and front of the bike, it's obvious from the way motorists are reacting that they understand within a second or two that they are looking at a bicycle.
This lighting system has produced a bigger change in motorists behavior than anything since wearing a helmet and Spandex shorts back in the late 1970s. When Quad-Cab diesel dualies towing backhoes are leaving 8-10 feet when passing, and watching in their mirrors before pulling back into your lane, you've got yourself one hell of a lighting system.
A jersey or jacket with reflective piping would only add to that, but at this point, it's really unnecessary. This system IDs you as a bicycle almost instantly, so motorists know what to expect from you, and how they might need to react. You can almost hear the sigh of relief as they pass. Lots of friendly waves, smiles and curiosity. They really don't want to run you over on the way home, and they seem to genuinely appreciate how easy this system makes their job.
Spongy rubber strip rolled up and wrapped in electrical tape, and a wooden dowel. No beauty awards, but very, very effective and helps keep the front of my helmet up in the bargain!
I have tried to show the details of how I mounted the Blackburn MARS 3.0 light ($17)on my helmet, but all helmets are different, so be gentle so as not to damage your helmet, and expect to use some trial-and-error to get a good mount. You may also like the MARS 4.0, but it relies on only 2 LEDs, so not sure that's the best choice.
Mount the light facing straight back. As you lower your head, down in the drops (or aerobars), you're still be looking straight ahead, so the helmet's always going to be level. Your neck makes the adjustment for you.
When you turn your head to clear a turn, or look at a driveway, a helmet light queues motorists about your intentions, and the ribbon's silhouetting really improves this feature of helmet-mounted lighting. Just remember, you can always turn your head sideways to make the helmet more visible to oncoming traffic, or cars coming out of driveways. It works like magic!
The metal pin shown here allows you to turn the light slightly towards the driver. A good idea IMHO.
Like all taillights, the light slips right out of the mount for turning on or replacing batteries, although I can turn this one on without stopping or removing just by reaching back and pressing the button twice (1st press is solid, unlike the PB, which is flash) to get it into flash 1 mode (there's also a flash-2 mode), which is in perfect synch for the PB optic fiber ribbon.
Light turned slightly towards motorists so they don't lose sight of me while passing. The Blackburn MARS 3.0 light is engineered for 180 degrees of visibility, but mounted this far back, provides at least 220 degrees, and can almost be seen from head-on.
Do yourself a huge favor, and order some Sanyo eneloop NiMH rechargeable batteries. They don't self-discharge like regular NiMH, so if you don't use the light for a month or 6, no problem, the batteries will still work just fine for 150 (lying bastards!) 12 hours or more. It really sucks to go for a ride after a week or two of foul weather, only to discover that all of your carefully planned lighting is DEAD.
UPDATE: 3/8/2012: The claims that this, and many other taillights, will go for 50 hrs in constant, and 150 hrs in flashing mode are complete and total lies. You can easily prove this for yourself. Simply turn the light on and observe that after 12 hrs the light is so degraded it's no longer effective. Since flashing mode uses 2 additional LEDs on Planet Bike's SuperFlash, and SuperFlash Turbo, don't expect more than 24 hrs out of those in flash mode.
After doing my own fatigue test, my life flashed before my eyes about a dozen times as I realized that on those occasions, the reason cars crowded me is my taillights were far, far too dim to provide adequate coverage. Not a great feeling.
