Hemlet Light Articles

Helmet Lights for Off Road Riding

2007-08-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

After market 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, atv’s 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 helmet lights 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 helmet lights generally have a very strong secondary beam, that provides a strong glow around the primary beam. That makes halogen powered helmet lights 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 helmet light. 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 www.cyclopsmotorsports.com.

ATV Illustrated: Product Review

2007-03-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

Cyclops Motorsports Helmet-Mounted Nightlight
By Robert Scott

For off-road enthusiasts, the enjoyment of reiding quads doesn't fade away when the sun goes down (and for those of us living in the southwestern US, where the cooler winter months offer prime riding weather, it seems like the sun sets entirely too early). Although many of today's larger utility and sport/utility/ATVs come factory-equipped with multiple headlights, the majority of purely sport ATVs come stock with very limited lighting. Adding to this lighting problem is the fact that headlights on all the sport models are mounted in a fixed location, meaning that the focus of the headlight is not always where the front wheels are pointed. The ability to see in the direction you are traveling is a necessity for riders wishing to spend a significant amount of riding time after dark. Cyclops Motorsports wants to solve that problem, and to that end has developed a helmet-mounted halogen headlight. We got our hands on one of those units and gave it a thorough test run. Does it live up to the company's claims? Let's see!

Kit Contents

The first thing you will notice as you remove the parts from the package is the robust construction of the light and cables. The 35-watt halogen light is installed in a hard rubber casing with Velcro applied to the bottom. This doesn't mean the light will weigh down yoru helmet when attached to the top, though. On the contrary, none of our testers noticed any difference in how heavy the helmet felt once the Cyclops light was mounted on it. The power wires are contained in a thick rubber insulation of more than sufficient length and a large headset-type jack on the end. The mating electrical jack and an inline fuse holder (with fuse) are also included in the kit. The instruction supplied with the kit, provide wiring for ATVs with or without a battery. The wiring diagrams also provide instructions for using the existing headlight switch, or adding a separate switch (not included).

Installation

We installed the wiring on the 2006 Honda TRX450R we chose as a test unit. Using a voltmeter, we found the wire that powers the high beam on the stock headlight. WE decided to connect power through the high beam, since we figured the helmet light would illuminate any objects immediately in front of us. This also gave us the ability to turn off the light without having to unplug it. The wires were routed under the quad's plastic nosepiece, and the jack was secured to the existing bundle of wires and control cables near the base of the handlebars.

Cyclops Night Light Helmet Light

2007-02-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

How often have you gone for a night ride and wanted more from your stock lighting system? You probably noticed that the stock headlamp wasn't bright enough and didn't always aim where you were looking, especially in turns, whoops, or on jumps. We know from entering the 24 Hour race a couple of years ago that the stock headlamp was just not enough. The Cyclops Night Light is the solution. We found it during our visit to the 24 Hours of Glen Helen race.

The Cyclops Night Light connects to the existing lighting system of any motorcycle or ATV. Compared to other helmet lights on the market this is the least expensive at $99.95. And it doesn't require that you wear a heavy and bulky battery on your back.

Installation:

The Cyclops Night Light comes with just about everything you need to install. It comes with all the wiring, a fuse holder and a 10amp fuse, velcro, and ty-raps.

Installation is fairly simple. There are instructions included for wiring bikes with or without a battery.

Time Required:

Depends on application and how comfortable you are with wiring. It took about an hour on our Yamaha WR.

Difficulty Rating: lllmm

What do we think?

After seeing the Night Light in use at Glen Helen and trying it out for ourselves we are definitely going to use it on future night rides and races. The only drawback is that it is designed to work with a motorcycle or ATV that is equipped with an existing lighting system. Well worth the $99.95.

For more information about helmet lights and helmet light solutions, visit http://cyclopsmotorsports.com.

Dirt Rider Tested RATED 9.5 CYCLOPS MOTORSPORTS

2007-02-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Nightlight Helmet-mounted Lighting System
June 2004

Half the allure of the Dirt Rider 24-Hour is riding the night loops, even when it's cold. But this experience can quickly turn sour without a good lighting setup. And having a bike with a headlight is only part of the battle. Stall or crash once in the middle of nowhere, and you'll rapidly notice it is dark out there. Additional lighting via helmet-mounted systems is nothing new, but it's an oft-overlooked aid that allows you to look ahead on the trail and maintain the good riding habits you use when the sun is shining.

During our 24-Hour, Washington-based Cyclops Motorsports hooked up a bike and rider with a system connected to the bike's wiring harness and a light on his helmet. After some minimal adjustments, he was plugged in and ready to ride off into the darkness.

Cyclops' unique light uses a halogen bulb that comes in a 35-watt configuration, with a 50-watt bulb available (higher-wattage units may require lighting-coil modifications, especially if you're using other power- hungry devices, such as grip heaters). Its bright light blended into the headlight beam, effectively doubling the area and intensity of the light coverage. Our tester rode with a 35-watt unit and had nothing but praise for the system. Not only was the amount of light supplied sufficient for basic night riding but the setup had a side benefit we weren't expecting: You don't get hypnotized by the bouncing white light from your motorcycle's head-light. The Nightlight attaches to the helmet with some hard core hook-and-loop closures; this allowed easy adjustment of the light's position on our lid, which in turn aligned the beam and ensured an iron grip on the light so it didn't fall off, even under hard riding conditions. Of course, you'll have to duck a bit more when dashing through branches. Since the Cyclops light attaches to the top of the helmet, its weight didn't cause your brain buckett to pivet into uncomfortable positions, something we've occasionally encountered with other helmet-mounted lighting systems.

The unit plugs into a motorcycle's or ATV's existing headlight wiring harness-- saving weight since it doesn't use a battery. The kit uses a thick coil wire to connect the rider and light to the bike via a quick disconnect plug-- for those times when you take dirt samples. Depending on the power output of your lighting system, the nightlight may dim when the rpm drop, as when entering tight corners or steep down- hills. This tends to create a slight blind spot. Your options are to go faster, keep those revs up, get a coil rewind or wait until Cyclops introduces its optional battery pack (likely to be available by the time you read this). One minor addition we'd like to see is some type of on/off switch. It's a necessity for a battery-based configuration but would be welcome even with the stator powered system. The bottom line is all of the components were well-made and worth the wallet friendly $99.95 price tag; it even comes with a lifetime warranty.

For more information about helmet lights and helmet light solutions, visit http://cyclopsmotorsports.com.