Wednesday, January 03, 2007

And then there was light!


UPS just delivered my new Lights & Motion ARC HID headlight system and I am pumped! The guys on the team have been putting in night rides every Wednesday night for the past few weeks. It has been killing me not to be able to go ride with them. This is going to give me a whole new perspective on riding. I have got to get used to riding at night because my first 12 hour endurance race is in April.

The HID systems are the brightest on the market right now. This light is so bright, you will go blind if you look at somebody wearing one at night. Do a road ride at night and oncoming traffic will be blinking their brights at you! Brightness comes at a cost though... they are also the most expensive. But if I am going to be barrelling down singletrack at 25 mph in the middle of the night, I want to make sure I can see where the hell I am going! Trees move the same amount, whether it is during the day or night, so avoiding them is highly recommended.

After doing an extensive search on the internet on lighting systems, I finally decided on this one. It has gotten excellent reviews and I think I am going to be very happy with it.

Light & Motion set the standard for HID lighting systems with the ARC. This year they have refined it and made the light that Mountain Bike Magazine called “the best out there” even better. It comes with the new compact Slimline NiMH battery doesn’t take up a water bottle cage. The High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamp provides 13.5 watts of intense natural light that is 3 times brighter than comparable halogen systems. A NEW light weight battery, multiple output levels, low battery warning and auto shutoff are just a few features that make the ARC better than ever.

The Light & Motion ARC uses a proprietary peened aluminum reflector to ensure a super clean, even beam pattern with no jagged edges or dark spots. While others are satisfied to use integrated lamps and reflectors originally designed for movie projectors, we spared no expense to give your eyes the best quality light available. Whether you mount the ARC on your head or bar, the bright center spot and clean fill light will give you the confidence to ride any trail, or road at speed and with complete confidence.

Two output levels provide multiple burn times. Start up the ARC by double clicking the new more positive power button on the rear of the light. The light comes on in the full power mode; putting out a jaw dropping 675 lumens of clean, daylight balanced light and giving you 3.5 hours of run time. Press the button again for low power and the slow flashing LED confirms the low setting for 4 hours of a still incredible 550 lumens of even light output.

The Light & Motion ARC comes standard with our Turbo Charger. The Turbo Charger quickly charges your battery in 3.5 hours and ensures optimal battery life by not overcharging the cells. LED indicators signal the charging is complete and batteries can be left on the charger indefinitely to maintain their maximum charge state. Charging is monitored by measuring the change in temperature over the change in time (dT/dt), which is the method recommended by all NiMH battery manufacturers. Additionally, the Turbo Charger accepts wall voltage from 100-250 volts, so charging in the United States as well as Internationally is not a problem.

ARC Battery Pack
Water bottle cages are becoming valuable property these days especially on the new generation of full suspension mountain bikes, so we eliminated the need to use one to carry our new Slimline battery. Whether you mount it on the top tube, seat post, or slide it easily into your jersey pocket, or hydration pack our 10.8v NiMH battery is incredibly small yet powerful. Now you can bring enough water to actually ride for 3 hours after the sun sets!

Burn Times:
Light Output (lumens)/ Burn time (hrs.)
13.5 Watts- 675/ 3.5 hrs
10.0 Watts- 550/ 4.0 hrs