New B&M IQ2 headlight with 'bar mounted remote USB charging

[jags]

thanks for that looks like a great light expensive but what the hell if it does what it's supposed to do it will be worth it.

[George Hetrick]

Dang it! Even though I told Bilenky to order the light 2 months ago, apparently they didn't get around to it -- so they say a 1-2 month wait.

waaaaah!!!

[Danneaux]

Ohhhhh, George!

The sweet agony of it all!

Sympathies!

Nothing is worse than waiting...except waiting in vain.

All the best,

Dan. (...who, as a kid, couldn't figure why the mail truck didn't deliver his whatzit 10 minutes after the envelope with the cereal box-tops went out...and who still can't!)

[il padrone]

bike24 offer it for just 124.90 Euro (including shipping to Australia), but delivery date unknown.

 

[edit] Just ordered it. We'll see what the story is about delivery timeline.

[jags]

wow thats a great price 

[il padrone]

There is some very tricky electronic circuitry happening in the Luxos U

And here is the Luxos U beam at low speed. It reduces the power to the primary LED and sends it to two other LEDs which project light close to the bike and to each side. This happens automatically, and gradually. In other words, there isn't a speed above which the distance beam is on, and just below that the near beam switches on. Oh no. At about 15kph, as you go slower, the distant beam gradually dims, while the near beam gradually increases. It's a very smooth transition as your speed changes.

Taken with super-wide 16mm lens, panorama beam at <15kmh. It lights up the whole car-park!!

[Andre Jute]

Thanks for that, Il Padrone. It's looking more and more like a quantum step forward even over the Cyo. The question is, how will the other lamps lurking just over the horizon be better, rather than just cheaper. €124 or whatever is around 25% of the price of a decent enough mountain bike!

Andre Jute

[jags]

so you guys that know about dynamo and head lights are the Bush n Muller reckoned to be the  overall best.how does the other brands stand up .

[George Hetrick]

The Schmidt eDelux at 70lux is also excellent. It's what I've been using.

[il padrone]

The Philips is rated by some as having a better beam than either the Cyo or the Edelux. Then there are the Axa lights (Nano, others?). I've never seen either of these in the flesh.

[jags]

thanks lads good info  at the end of the day it's all about who shines the brightest
i shall bide my time..

[il padrone]

I'm pretty sure that currently B&M are 'kick-ar$e' when it comes to development of lighting technology for the market. There will always be something new on the horizon, but B&M always seem to be on top of it.

Buy what you need, when you need it. Waiting for 'the next big thing' is an endless loop.

[il padrone]

Quite a detailed review of the light is given here - it sounds very promising.

This comment sounded quite interesting:

What I particularly like is that because the dynamo charges the internal battery and not the light directly, you get full brightness when stopped (e.g. at traffic lights or when fixing a nightime puncture). This is a huge improvement over my Solidlights 'standlight' which was pretty feeble in comparison.

Also as I suspected, the light can be operated directly from the control switch on the rear of the lamp. So even if your handlebar remote switch fails, gets lost or damaged, you still have a functional light.

[jags]

the tester seems well pleased and tested them against a few top lights as well so great news for the new kid on the block.

[Andre Jute]

.... as you increase speed, the beam moves forward lighting up a longer strip in front of you.

This overcomes a serious complaint with the Cyo, all models, that it lit up the road in approximately the right place only at one speed.

Ugly bugger though, the Luxos. And the USB fitting is awkward and ugly too. Mind you, I managed, eventually, to hide most of the ugly wiring of the pedelec, but that was the most frustrating of fitting it, and it looks like the USB Luxos has the same problem.

In theory you can add internal cable runs to the tubes of a bike, but I'm leery of doing it on a steel bike. On the other hand, the bottom of the steering tube is open, and the top of an aheadset can be fixed with a hollow bolt, or the steerer can be fixed in the head tube by a lockring around the outside, as I've done, and then it is hollow all the way up, a perfect conduit.

Andre Jute

Andre Jute