Helmet Lights for Off Road Riding,xenon headlight.
By Darryl VanNieuwenhuise
Aftermarket lighting has greatly evolved over the last few years. With companies offering many different options for off road riding the choices can become cloudy to say the least. This article will focus on helmet mounted lights for dirt bikes, atvs and snowmobiles. First, what use does a helmet mounted light have? Helmet lights provide light wherever the rider looks, this is very useful to spot landings, see around corners, view side trails or terrain, climb and descend steep hills, etc. Over all they make night riding much more safe and fun. For racers they can mean the difference between winning and being the first loser. Many racers actually see their lap times improve at night. Although that appears to be focus and concentration related.
Helmet lights are also incredibly stable, as your bike mounted lights bounce up and down, your helmet lights remain very stable, your knees and body are taking up most of the shock from the woops or rough terrain. A stable light source will allow you to ride with more confidence, therefore you will be riding faster and safer. A helmet mounted light should also be adjustable on the fly. It is amazing how much you look down while riding, the faster you go the more you look down. Not that your moving your light all around while riding the same track, but that you do adjust for different riding conditions. In tight trails it will be farther forward than on more open areas.
A helmet mounted light system should also not be hard mounted to the helmet .The lights need to come off during a crash or hitting a obstacle. A impact with a hard mounted light could cause serious injury or worse. That’s why some helmet lighting manufactures use hook and loop type fasteners, they hold very good and separate without the rider or the light being damaged. Some helmet light manufactures offer a chin mount system while others believe that top mount is best. A few manufactures allow provisions for top or side mount.
Helmet light technology
There are 3 basic types of technology used in helmet lights on the market.
LED - light emitting diode
HID - high intensity discharge
HALOGEN - halogen gas
There are pros and cons to each of these technologies
LED
In the future this technology looks promising. LEDs are very bright but offer little forward illumination. This is improving however is some time off for an affordable option. There are plenty available for the bicycle industry, But for off road motorsports they simply don’t cut it.
HID
Hid lights put out a very bright beam and use less power than Halogen lighting. The color temp of the available commercial HID helmet lights are from 5600k to more than 6500k. That’s the bluish light that you see when looking at the light. Although Hid lighting is brighter to look at than halogen it offers little in secondary illumination, that’s the light that spills over away from the main beam. The hid helmetlights will also have a tendency to create shadows from rocks, roots and jump faces. Hid lighting requires dc power You can run them from battery packs. Most machines require stator modifications to run HID lights. HID bulbs / ballast are very expensive to replace. Hid helmet lights are great for higher speeds where you already have a hid headlight.
Halogen
Halogen helmet lights require more power than HID lights. They can run off ac or dc power. They can run from a stock machine, provided that there is enough power to run them. The quality of a halogen light(any light for that matter) is largely due to the reflector. Good halogen helmetlights generally have a very strong secondary beam, that provides a strong glow around the primary beam. That makes halogen powered helmetlights much more useful in trails or for use as your only lighting source. Halogen bulbs are inexpensive. There are claims that HID lighting is 3 to 5 times more powerful than halogen. That may be true if your looking into the light. That’s due to the higher kelvin rating of the bulb. It absolutely is false when comparing beam usefulness. Its not about what light is brighter. Its about what light offers better overall illumination, and beam pattern.
Remember, we’re not talking about the difference in your automobile or larger lights here, only helmet mounted lights.
Take a serious look at what type off night riding you really do and look at what products are available. If you ride fast desert with 8 inch HID head light go with a HID helmetlight. If you ride trails or need a backup/single light source go with a high powered halogen system.
About the Author: Darryl is the owner and founder of Cyclops Motorsports, manufacturing the leading helmet lights for off road night riding. For more information visit http://www.cyclopsmotorsports.com
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