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Light and Motion Solo Light

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
Anyone have any experience with this light? Seems like a decent buy:
  • 13w hallogen
  • 7.2v NiMH battery (2 hour burn time) I'm betting these are pretty similar to the batteries used in RC cars and such, so easy to find spares/replacements
  • helmet mount, bar mount, and trickle charger
  • $120

Link

 

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
Pretty sweet, I thought the Solo was only 10w..

Solo Logic ($199) is a little brighter and has adjustable brightness for a longer burn time.

Get the Solo Logic Turbo includes the better charger that you can leave the light on the charger w/o screwing up the battery.

The turbo charger alone is $100, get it with the light and its less.
 

adurham

Monkey
Jun 9, 2005
192
0
honestly HID is the way to go it may cost a lot more but the difference is amazing
 

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
The turbo charger is definitely nice, but my goal is to get out of this cheap without ending up wiht a crappy light. I can deal with the trickle charger assuming it's as easy/cheap to get new batteries as I need them. For the extra cost of the turbo charger, I'd spend the extra $40 or so for an HID with a 4 hour charger.

I'd love to go HID, but no way am I spending that much money on something that I'm not 100% sure is going to get much use. If I end up using it a ton and decide HID is worth it, I'll use the hallogen as a second light in a bar/helmet 2 light setup.

ghostrider - are you getting about the cliamed 2 hr burn time from the battery?
 

ghostrider

7034 miles, still no custom title
Jan 6, 2003
964
1
Shadows of Mt Boney, CA.
2 hours is about right. All of the night rides I do are less than that, and I've only had one problem with the light running out of juice. In that case I think it was my own damn fault for not plugging it in. Then there was the time I forgot the battery altogether.
 

BigMike

BrokenbikeMike
Jul 29, 2003
8,931
0
Montgomery county MD
jacksonpt said:
I'd love to go HID, but no way am I spending that much money on something that I'm not 100% sure is going to get much use. If I end up using it a ton and decide HID is worth it, I'll use the hallogen as a second light in a bar/helmet 2 light setup.

Don't even bother. You can take it with you as a backup, or let a friend borrow it, but if you have an HID on, you won't be able to see your halogen.
 

splat

Nam I am
BigMike said:
Don't even bother. You can take it with you as a backup, or let a friend borrow it, but if you have an HID on, you won't be able to see your halogen.
:stupid:
I have a HID helmet Mount, and at first I had my Trail Rat ( 10 Watt Halo ) mounted on the handle bars . THe HID over powered it so it made no difference.

THe only One I have seen that Makes a difference is Ben-o approach a HID on the Helmet and a HID on the Bars.
 

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
I've heard good things about an HID on the bars and a good halogen on the helmet

On a side note... anyone know if any 7.2v NiMH battery will work with this thing? The LM battery is $100 - can I pick up a regular 7.2v at radio shack or wherever and have it work?
 

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
jacksonpt said:
I've heard good things about an HID on the bars and a good halogen on the helmet
That's a waste of the HID. You can ride with only a helmet mount HID, but it is a bit sketchy with just one halogen, though, the jet lite 20w was decent.

jacksonpt said:
On a side note... anyone know if any 7.2v NiMH battery will work with this thing? The LM battery is $100 - can I pick up a regular 7.2v at radio shack or wherever and have it work?
Maximum Current Draw
Calculate the current draw of your lamps (Amps=Watts/Volts). Try not to exceed 70% of the batteries AH rating per hour. I.e., on a 5AH battery, try to keep the current draw at or below 3.5A (42 watts of lamps @ 12 volts). For a 10 pack of 2000mAH AA cells (2AH), try to keep the current draw down to 1.4A (16W of lamps @ 12 volts). On my 30W system, using a ten pack of 2000mAH NiMH AA cells did not really work. The current draw was 2.5A, 125% of the AH ratting of the battery. The batteries were unable to supply that much current so the lamps were not at full brightness (and the batteries got very hot). However if I turned on only one of the headlamps the NiMH batteries were fine. To use NiMH cells with 30 watts of lamps I would have to use two packs of AA cells in parallel, or use C or D cells.

****http://nordicgroup.us/s78/#Battery ***** Don't open at work. The sight has good info on lights, but for some reason they think it is cool to put some pics here and there.
Min AH = 13w / 6v* = 2.17 A So using the 70% rule, you will need a 3200 mAH battery.

*remember they use a 6volt light then overvolt it with a 7.2v battery to increase brightness.
 

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
splat said:
I don't see why it wouldn't , a basic halogen Light and a Battery is not exactly rocket science.
Yea, that is my thought as well. Would probably have to change out the connector(s) on the battery to fit the LM setup, but...

I was looking at these if I decided I need backup batteries:
two 7.2v 3300mAh for $35
 

DHS

Friendly Neighborhood Pool Boy
Apr 23, 2002
5,094
0
Sand, CA
i've had my ARC since it came out. love the thing to death. the turbo charger really takes about 4-6hours to fully charge it. and the light on low burn is still stupid bright and lasts over 4hours.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
I have the Solo Logic with the turbo charger. Best bang for your buck...awesome light. I race 24 Hr with it on the bars and have never had any issues, and the burn times are as advertised. I think I had mine go for 6 hours on the "low" setting.
 

ito

Mr. Schwinn Effing Armstrong
Oct 3, 2003
1,709
0
Avoiding the nine to five
blue said:
I have the Solo Logic with the turbo charger. Best bang for your buck...awesome light. I race 24 Hr with it on the bars and have never had any issues, and the burn times are as advertised. I think I had mine go for 6 hours on the "low" setting.
How fast are the recharge times on that light? Would it be enough for a solo 24 hour race?

The Ito
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
ito said:
How fast are the recharge times on that light? Would it be enough for a solo 24 hour race?

The Ito
I'm not sure, I've never been stuck in a jam with it not having charged in time. Running it on low and medium on the downhills I got through a solo 24 with 2 batteries.