Battery Powered Headlights

[Salty Gator]

Hi everyone,
I'm tired of my POS headlight.....it's totally unsafe at night when you have no streetlights to navigate by.....what in y'alls opinions are the best for the buck ?...I'm not speaking of generated headlights but just the kind where ya slap in some AA's......let me know please ?


Thanks,
Salty

 

[bseelbach]

I have had good luck with these.
Waterproof 5 LED Bike Head Light + Rear Safety Flashlig - eBay (item 250519358300 end time Oct-28-09 04:33:46 PDT)
Thus far I have purchased 7 for friends and family. At the price it is nice to have some spares around. Shipping takes a bit of time- check different sellers. A word of caution as I haven't been able to get the headlight strobe to work with my MB's. It works for a few minutes and then the vibration from the bike turn it off. I have never had a problem using the headlight in "constant on" mode. The 7 function strobe tail light works fine.

 

[happycheapskate]

This uses 3 AA or AAA, $15 from Walmart. Bell white 3 LED light/flasher. Its worth buying because its a lot brighter than expected (useable light to maybe 20mph on road for just in case you get caught after dark). Its worth $15 because its a great visibility flasher or backup to a serious road light.

 

[golfer]

go to raido shack and get a feit 12v 50w halogen lamp. what i did was superglue it to a old broken speedometer mount and mouted it on my handelbars. then i got a green toggle switch from radioshack also and connected the red wire leading from the lamp to the switch. for a battery Cabelas has a 12v 8amp an hour battery for 15$ ("used for sonar") and connecteed the red to the other prong on the switch and connected the black wire from the lamp to the black terminal on the battery. works great.

 

[Salty Gator]

go to raido shack and get a feit 12v 50w halogen lamp. what i did was superglue it to a old broken speedometer mount and mouted it on my handelbars. then i got a green toggle switch from radioshack also and connected the red wire leading from the lamp to the switch. for a battery Cabelas has a 12v 8amp an hour battery for 15$ ("used for sonar") and connecteed the red to the other prong on the switch and connected the black wire from the lamp to the black terminal on the battery. works great.

Can you send a couple snaps of it ?......sounds like it would work great...

Thanks,
Salty

 

[skaliwag66]

Hi,

I am interested in this too but I can't find a lamp like this (taken from another thread) http://motorbicycling.com/attachmen...-post-photo-your-first-mb-eric-s-bobber-2.jpg or a fixture for a halogen lamp. How do you charge the battery? Will this battery do? Genesis - Genesis 12 Volt 7 Amp hour Sealed Lead Acid Battery with 0.187 inch Tab Terminal - NP7-12 - Home Depot Canada

 

[2door]

Salty,
You're never gonna get respect at night with anything powered by a couple of AA batteries. I've seen some very nice hand held 12 volt spotlights, usually in the 30 to 50 watt catagory that will light up the night for you. They wouldn't take much to mount to your bike. Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries are cheap and easily mounted. An inexpensive trickle charger will keep them charged when you're not riding and a battery in the 7 to 10 amp hour range will give you over an hour of usable light. I run a 30 watt one one of my bikes and a 55 watt on another. The bats are 7.5 amp hour and I've never ridden out the light.
Tom

 

[gudenarrd]

Hi guys I have a spot light i bought at home depot it quit workin on me so i took it apart and as luck would have it i had a trailer tail light that was the same as the light so i wired the light and also had another 6volt 4 watt battery mounted it over the front tire and out the battery in the bag i hang from my handle bars this is a million candle watt bulb and really lights up the road at night my question is can this be hooked up to the white wire and the other wire grounded and will that work without blowing the magneto

 

[GearNut]

The mag is only good for 3 watts max. I bet your 1 million power light draws more that 3 measly watts.

 

[EnFlaMEd]

I basically use two of these. One is a different brand but same deal.

MTE P7 900 lumen LED Torch Kit - bikelights.com.au

Not all that cheap really but the light output is crazy. Its seriously like having a car headlight and 40mph plus riding through the hills with no other sources of lighting is not a problem.
The only issues I have with mine is that they switch modes to the first mode by themselves all the time which is annoying.

 

[Salty Gator]

Salty,
You're never gonna get respect at night with anything powered by a couple of AA batteries. I've seen some very nice hand held 12 volt spotlights, usually in the 30 to 50 watt catagory that will light up the night for you. They wouldn't take much to mount to your bike. Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries are cheap and easily mounted. An inexpensive trickle charger will keep them charged when you're not riding and a battery in the 7 to 10 amp hour range will give you over an hour of usable light. I run a 30 watt one one of my bikes and a 55 watt on another. The bats are 7.5 amp hour and I've never ridden out the light.
Tom

Thanks Tom.....I may very well look into those.....as it happens last night I was swapping out my four AA's in a cheapo Bell headlight and SNAP it simply broke in two ( the casing ).....so a new light is needed now anyway....LOL!

Thanks,
Salty

 

[happycheapskate]

Gudennard, be very careful with a handlebar bag. If it uses fabric or velcro straps, reinforce or replace them with heavy duty zipties (multiple!) or metal hose clamps (bend them after install to prevent loosening), and use a metal flat bar (or a piece of rebar, or a piece of fence picket) to prevent the fasteners from tearing through the bag.

I use a Bell black zipper handlebar bag holding tools and a 7.2 A/H SLA battery. It launched off the front wheel after a week, but after using metal hose clamps and a aluminum bar, it has stayed put for month or more.

 

[warner]

I use something similar. I bought a pair of those cheap 55 watt driving lights from the auto parts store (I think the pair was $20), then bought a SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery and hooked it up with a switch. Of course I have a spare headlight as well, as I only used one for the bike. It is about as bright as a motorcycle headlight - you can ride safely in total darkness, absolutely. My battery is 7.5 AH and will power my headlight for over an hour (never ran it all the way down to find out). This also will give you adequate power for a 12v scooter horn. The previous deal from Cabelas was a great one.....Here's the link to it:

Cabela's Rechargeable 12-Volt Battery

During my winter time upgrades, I also found and bought a handlebar switch that will control my headlight, horn, and kill switch...as well as providing an additional 12v switch that I may use with a cigarette lighter adapter. I'll wire the high beam for the headlight, and the parking or low beam switch for the 12v lighter adapter....that way I can turn the lighter adapter on without having to turn the headlight on. Slick. I'll use the start switch for my horn, since it's a momentary switch. Here's the switch that I got....it was less than $10 INCLUDING shipping, and it will clean up the bike and put all the controls in one convenient location:


On/Off start light kill switch dual sport yamaha wrf wr : eBay Motors (item 320483773439 end time Feb-10-10 14:36:16 PST)


Good luck and light it up!

Warner

 

[Salty Gator]

Much obliged Warner......sounds bright and safe to me .....I will look into it....

Thanks,
Salty

 

[warner]

Much obliged Warner......sounds bright and safe to me .....I will look into it....

Thanks,
Salty

No problem, Salty. You'll be pleased with a similar setup. I actually think riding at night with this headlight and one of the super blinky lights out back is SAFER than daytime riding...cars see you BETTER than in the daytime.

I'll let you all know how the handlebar switches work....I just won the ebay auction last night so I won't have the handlebar controls for a few days at least. The seller wanted something like $18 to do a buy-it-now on them, so I just sat back and used my bidslammer account to put a snipe at the end and won the item for about $4 plus $4 shipping. Not bad!

Attached are a couple of photos of my current setup...which will be updated once the new switch arrives:


Warner

 

[2door]

No problem, Salty. You'll be pleased with a similar setup. I actually think riding at night with this headlight and one of the super blinky lights out back is SAFER than daytime riding...cars see you BETTER than in the daytime.

I'll let you all know how the handlebar switches work....I just won the ebay auction last night so I won't have the handlebar controls for a few days at least. The seller wanted something like $18 to do a buy-it-now on them, so I just sat back and used my bidslammer account to put a snipe at the end and won the item for about $4 plus $4 shipping. Not bad!

Attached are a couple of photos of my current setup...which will be updated once the new switch arrives:


Warner

Warner,
What's that holding your battery to the top bar? Looks like something I've seen in my wife's bathroom.
Tom

 

[warner]

Warner,
What's that holding your battery to the top bar? Looks like something I've seen in my wife's bathroom.
Tom

Hahaha.....good one Tom! LOL! I don't think anyone would want to use them in place of what you've seen in your wife's bathroom....especially if they are rather hairy....as those are big, wide, industrial stips of velcro! Hahaha! That keeps the battery from shifting around much. The other thing holding it up are super duty zip ties (rated at something like 200 lbs each). It's very secure.

Warner

 

[2door]

I'm glad you took that the right way, Warner. I was just being silly.
What do you use to charge with. I found a nifty little 6/12 volt battey charger at Ace Hardware that will charge a 10 amp hour battery in less than 30 minutes. On a full charge I've run my lights, head and tail lights for over 90 minutes with no discernable loss of brightness. I think the SLAs are the way to go for good lighting.
Tom

 

[warner]

I'm glad you took that the right way, Warner. I was just being silly.
What do you use to charge with. I found a nifty little 6/12 volt battey charger at Ace Hardware that will charge a 10 amp hour battery in less than 30 minutes. On a full charge I've run my lights, head and tail lights for over 90 minutes with no discernable loss of brightness. I think the SLAs are the way to go for good lighting.
Tom

I've been married to a Serbian girl for over 10 years Tom....no place for thin skin! Hahaha! I bought the battery 7.5 Ah and charger (trickle type) from Batteries Plus two years ago. That deal from Cabelas is really good though....$30 for the battery and charger! I carry the charger in my bags with me, although I've never really had an opportunity to charge it anywhere else. I put the charger on it when I get home from work and let it charge overnight (and then some). I've never ridden it to work 2 days in a row (it's 40 miles round trip), mainly because of the riding position. But now that I've made significant changes to it (higher bars and suspension forks) I may actually use it on consecutive days.

Like I said, I've had the light on for an hour straight, with no noticeble loss of brightness (although to be fair, it's usually dark when I leave the house but the sun rises on my way in to work). My tail light is battery powered (this guy - a GREAT little light...SUPER bright! Amazon.com: Planet Bike Blinky Super Flash 1/2-Watt Blaze LED Plus 2 eXtreme LED Rear Bicycle Light: Sports & Outdoors ). I also have a horn that's connected to it (hardly ever use it though). I bought a handlebar mount for my GPS (just for fun...and to check the accuracy of my speedo) and may install a cigarette lighter adapter, to power anything that you can plug into a cigarette lighter socket - small electic light for fixing night-time breakdowns?).

Warner

 

[2door]

Just thought I'd throw this picture in the ring to show what can be done for some real serious night riding. The big sealed beam is the 12 volt, 55 watt I mentioned earlier in this thread. The two smaller ones are Norm's lights but they run off a small, 4.5ah 6 volt battery and not the white wire. This thing looks like a motorcycle coming at you and I can see for a block in front of me on a street with no street lights. Like I said...serious night riding.
Tom