Temporary Blindness

[Deleted member 803]

My Neo Carbon can be hard wired for lights but I am considering not doing that and just adding an aftermarket light. Went to the store and made the mistake of flashing a Motion & Light 1200 lumen headlight in my eyes. Holy crap is that thing bright!!!!!!

Can we have some discussion on the pro's and con's of having a wired solution or a battery solution. I've trying to decide whether the convenience of having a hard wired light outweighs the drain on the battery since I ride both night and day with front and rear lights on.

 

[Brambor]

from my experience the effect of the wired lights on the battery drain is negligible and definitely worth having them wired as opposed to battery or rechargeable solution.

 

[Charly Banana]

The lights available for wiring into the bikes system are few and usually pretty expensive. On the other hand, there are lots of choices when it comes to stand alone aftermarket rechargeable lights. It's very little extra work to plug in the chargers for the head light and tail light at the same time as you are charging your bikes battery and they will be done way sooner than the bikes battery.

 

[Deleted member 803]

I think I am gong to go with a Light and Motion Taz 1200 handlebar mounted light. Bright enough to light up Cleveland.

I would consider a 1200 to 1500 lumens wired solution if available

 

[MarcD]

To get an idea what the SuperNova E3 and taillight draws, the Turbo S manual states that the assist cuts off at 4% battery remaining, but lights will still work for another 3 hours. So on a typical e-bike ride, that light only draws about 1 or 2% of battery capacity. For other e-bike solutions you can check out Peter White's page on an e-bike light. I am running a Luxos U light on my non-electric off a hub dynamo and it casts an insanely wide beam, but you would need an AC/DC inverter. The other big bonus of that light is that it has USB charging. I can charge about 50% of an iPhone 5s in about 6 miles on that bike, from pedal power alone. If I could find a hub dynamo with a 15mm thru axle, I would likely have one on the Turbo too.

 

[Deleted member 803]

I went to a bike shop to check out a wired vs standalone solution. I came away with the opinon that I get signficantly more for my dollar by going to a standalone solution plus I don't have to spend additional labor dollars to have my bike shop install the wiring harness and then install the light. My bike shop charges $60/hr and they anticipate at least one hour for a proper install. I'd rather take that money and get a brighter light. Ironically I do most of my riding in the day and use the headlight strobing feature to draw attention to me, I do the same for the rear tailight.

 

[Deleted member 803]

I also like the idea of taking the light off and putting in my pocket if I am in a highly populated area where security might be an issue.