The BEST dynamo lamp, part trois: Philips Saferide v BUMM Luxos B, first ride

[Andre Jute]

From a reliable source, a tester without an axe to grind, not in the pay of any of the manufacturers, known not to be an impressionable fashion victim:

http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/koplampen/BM_luxos/index_en.html

Busch & Mueller Luxos B tested against Philips Safe Ride 60. Video of a ride on a narrow road, very interesting, just below halfway down the page.

Test is of Luxos B. Test of Luxos U(SB) coming; note that it is a different lamp to the Luxos B.

Hotspot that irritates me so about the current Fly/Cyo still there in Luxos but said to be less annoying because there is more light generally. Luxos has wider beam but it is too far up the road at 20-25 metres to be really useful in cramped ways. Tester on the whole, as a preliminary conclusion, prefers Safe Ride as a more even and comfortable lamp.

Andre Jute

PS If someone put this up previously and I missed it, apologies for the duplication.

[Danneaux]

Thank you very much for this, Andre.

My! I do wish B&M would get over putting hot-spots in their beams or noticeably segmenting them. It just kills the rest of the pattern once one's eyes have adjusted to the brighter area. The managed to do a superb job on my friend's IQ Fly a bit over four years ago...then got it all wring with my CyoR's hot-spot.

Ah, well. Still very helpful to see the beam of the Luxos B...too bad about those side segments being so..."segmenty". Looking forward to the test of the "U". Video looks a bit better than the stills.

All the best,

Dan. (...who is feeling a bit like Diogenes...not of Sinope, but of lights)

[Andre Jute]

My! I do wish B&M would get over putting hot-spots in their beams or noticeably segmenting them. It just kills the rest of the pattern once one's eyes have adjusted to the brighter area. [...]
 Still very helpful to see the beam of the Luxos B...too bad about those side segments being so..."segmenty".

My first impression is that there's a lot more light there, but it's the wrong colour, frosting the green grass over whitely and attracting the eye to the wrong place, and otherwise badly distributed too.

From those images, the Luxos throws a wider beam than the Safe Ride. I'd say that, with that amount of light, of the right colour, without the hotspot, BUMM would get my money. But I've learnt my lession with the Fly E; the hot spot ruins the utility of the lamp.

Presumably the Luzos U has the same optics/hotspot, but the fact that it is more powerful may redistribute the light. I'll wait for the images from this tester.

Andre Jute

[il padrone]

Checked out the video. I'm pretty sure I'd rather have the beam width of the Luxos. I really don't think that hot spot would bother me, nor the 'whitening' of the grass.