500 - 1000 lumen Super Bright Led bike lights

M

MotorizedEtc.

Member
I have been doing a little searching for a new light and came across a few interesting options. They range from DIY to complete ready to run systems. At first I thought my only option for super bright led bike lights were going to be the really expensive Night Rider ones in the $400-500 range. But further searching yielded some much cheaper but just as bright options.

Here is a DIY that I think Silverbear would like. It boasts 500+ lumens and its contained in a copper housing. High power LED bike head light with integrated heat sink

Here is a site that you can get LED supplies from based in the USA. They even have enclosures and complete prebuilt kits so all you need is a power supply and wiring. LED : LEDs : LED Drivers : Cree LEDs : Luxeon LEDs : LUXdrive : LEDSupply

Here we have the place of cheap Chinese goods. Though quality will probably be not the greatest they do have some very bright led bike lights. Bike Light, Torch, Flashlight: Dynamo Torch, Bicycle Light, Flashlight, LED Bike Light, Hand Crank - DealExtreme

Here is some of those same lights from DealExtreme but sold here in the USA and some have better battery packs made in the USA. Note the recall section, some DealExtreme batteries may be affected as well. GeoMan Gear, The best products, the best prices, & Lightnin Fast service!

Well that's What I found so far, not sure which one I will go for yet. Hope this helps some of you out looking for a good lighting solution for our bikes.
 
here is an option. You can get everything you need from Walmart.

12v 100 watt headlight $15 Walmart.com: Blazer 100 LED Baja Off Road Quartz Halogen Light: Automotive

12v tail light $10 Walmart.com: Blazer LED Round Stop, Turn and Tail Light Kit, Red: Automotive

12v 18amp battery $60 Walmart.com: Pramac 12 Volt Battery - 18 Amp: Tools

12v/6v 1.5 amp charger/maintainer $20 Walmart.com: Schumacher XM1-5 Maintainer, 1.5-Amp: Automotive

Your looking at a total of $105. at 12 volt 100 watt head light , and 18 amp battery your looking at about 2 hours of use before the battery dies.

If you want to be really cool you could use this solar charger Walmart.com: Wagan Solar Power Battery Charger: Automotive
 
2X Cree WITH heatsink wired in parallel using UNRECTIFIED ac current, and then add another series of cheaper LED's/resister-combo behind a 5-volt regulator that feeds off the opposite polarity.

essentially 2 legs of circuit. THe crees with heatsink powered off of one half of the cycle do not need a regulator or resistor when wired directly to a 6-volt hub or a 12 volt bottle generator. SUPER BRIGHT!

Luxians are the same. Any star-backed LED wired in parallel can eat the bike circuits for breakfast and keep on blazing.

I have over 2500 miles on a single pair in this config.

Have fun!
 
Fulltimer said:
I just bought this lights: DRL-CW5-BM Daytime Running Light Kit Specifications The set of 2 running lights put out 800 Lumen. That is 80 Lumen per LED. I just finished a mounting bracket for them but I don't them mounted on the bike yet. They have mounting tabs, heat sink. Just hookup to 12v. Just another option.

Terry
Click to expand...

Just a question on this one. What power source are you using and do you have any night shots with the lights on? Im really diggin' this light but I want to see how bright itll be.
 
800-1,000 Lumes?
Try 3,800 ;-}

SUCCESS![/size=5]

I just finished my first custom retro bicycle headlight and it is just flat awesome for ~$60.

The retro bicycle light was nothing, it originally came with 2 flashlight bulbs and ran on a pair of AA batteries.

ArmyLight1.jpg



I pulled the reflector with 3 high power CREE MX-L T6 LED's that pump out over 3,800 Lumes from this flashlight:

TrustFire CREE XM-L T6 5-Modes 3800LM LED Flashlight Electric Torch - Tmart.com

88006517-2.jpg


LEDs 3
Luminous Flux 3800 LM
5 Modes High-Mid-Low-Strobe-SOS
Light Color White
Body Color Black
Power Supply 2 x 18650 3.7V battery (not included)
Flashlight Life 100,000 hours
$49.

And fit it inside the original lamps reflector and managed to wedge in a pair of 3.7V Li-Ion batteries to make this.

This is the old style bullet with new flashlight head in it.

FeltCREE1.jpg


This in the same position turned on.

FeltCREE2.jpg


It completely washed out my cameras ability to see any other light than the bulbs.

To emphasize just how bright it is, it's mid-morning, I have sunlight coming into my shop from a window and big sliding glass door, and that ceiling light has a pair of 100W incandescent bulbs in it.

FeltCREE3.jpg


Yes, that is the beam above and brighter than the ceiling lamps in a lit room from 15' away. It even washes out the softer yellowish light on the ceiling on the way there!

Not bad for ~$60 including the Li-Ion batteries ehhh ;-}
 
Darn pic image limit for tutorials...

The flashlight I used comes apart in 5 pieces, I just put the outer side of the reflectors end piece over the back of the Bullets back housing and marked a circle.

CREEbullet1.jpg


Then used my 4" angle cutter with a thin cutting wheel on it and held the original housing up and sliced down through the back like I would slice the end off a Lemon.

CREEbullet2.jpg


A little light file work and the flashlights housing 'business end' fit right in perfect and tight.

CREEbullet3.jpg


That black between the two parts is not glue on the old bullets outer shell, that is sharpie mark ;-}

And before putting in the case it looked like this.

CREEbullet4.jpg


There is more to it than that like the Bullet light housing wiring which was a joke, and the High/Low/Off rotary switch on top doesn't do anything now.
It is just the On-Off toggle switch on the back of the bullet that turns it on or off but there in lies a rub...

The flashlight came with 5 modes but only has a single on/off push button.
To turn it off you have to cycle through all 4 other modes by turning the switch on and off to turn it off.

That circuit is inside the flashlights housing so you can't change it.
You would think that removing the batteries would reset it to go to Mode 1, Brightest and Solid when you hooked it up right?
Nope, when you hook up power and turn it on again it goes to whatever the next mode is in line. How? I haven't clue unless the thing has non-volatile memory to remember the last mode it was in and maybe why it's so cheap but I can sure live with having to toggle power 4 times to shut it off.

One last note is riding with this light on in Mode 4 fast strobe in bright daylight is a good thing, trust me on this, you be noticed ;-}
 
KC I am completely blown away, this is exactly what I've been looking to do for my build. I love the bullet lights, but have been disappointed by the performance. Could you maybe post some more shots? Like how the wiring is switched from the flashlight to the bullet switch and how the batteries get crammed in there. I'm all thumbs with most wiring and electrical stuff, but would this be something I (electrical prowess of a cro-magnon) could do?

Thanks!
 
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