It was suppose to be raining this afternoon but the skies were sunny and the temperature was quite warm. I decided to do the mountain bike ride I often do on Thursdays at the Harvey Bear Ranch. The start location is very close by, only a 15 minute drive from our house to San Martin. There are lot of great trails to ride. We have moved the start time for the ride to 4:30 pm since the days are getting shorter. That means not as many people can make it since it is a bit early for some that work for a living. Today it was just Jim and I that showed up. We had a easy ride and spent much of the time talking about lights.

The subject of lights came up because I had ridden the night right last night up Henry Coe.

Categories: Mountain Biking
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I ride with a group called the Nightriders, who both road and mountain bike. Tonight I decided to join them for a night time mountain bike ride up Henry Coe, the largest State Park in California. I wanted to join the ride tonight because we were going to have guests from BR Lights come join us and bring some of their new lights for us to test out. I was in the market for a new light, needing something I could use for the Furnace Creek 508 in October and other events I want to do, in addition to the night mountain biking.

They let me try both the handlebar light (C2.1-H model) as well as the helmet mount light (Jen-H model) with the auxilary battery pack. I got the lights setup quickly due to a clever design for both the handle bar light and the helmet light. Unlike my existing lights that required me to first put an a handlebar bracket, attach the battery, attach the light, connect the light to the battery and finally attach the control buttons to the handle bar; this unit is all self contained so the battery and control switches are all in one unit. It makes the design look a bit boxy but I was pleasantly surprised that in the field when I had mounted the unit on the bike it didn’t look as big as I thought it would after looking only at their website.

The helmet light is a nice looking design, again all self contained. The only downside of this is that it is a bit heavy on the head, but not unreasonably so at only 300 grams.

We took off soon after 7 pm, with plenty of light to make the first climb. Kyle and Jeni, from BR Lights, were out in the front and I struggle to keep up with them even though we were on a fire road. I realized they were great mountain bike riders in addition to knowing a lot about LED light technology.

Kyle and Jeni from BR Lights

Franz with BR helmet light

As we reached the first regroup area it was getting dark and we had a chance to finally try out the lights.

After the rest of the group arrived we had a chance to compare the lights. Jim had a triple shot on his handlebar so we pointed it ahead to the right and I pointed the BR handlebar light to the left. You can see the comparison in this photo.

Comparison of BR Light (left) and Triple Shot (right)

The BR light was clearly brighter, not only over the wide area, but much brighter in the spot area.

Jim also had on one of the BR helmet lights while he hammed it up for the camera.

Jim with BR Helmet Light

We made our way to the tricky single track. Not being a real experienced mountain biker, I normally would have been very nervous doing this single track in the dark but I found the combination of the BR handlebar light and the BR helmet mounted light illuminated up things fully. I usually was running the handlebar light on half power and relying more on the helmet light, which seemed to work fine.

Both lights have a stealth mode, that sas some extremely long battery life. I tired that mode but found it too weak for anything other than maybe climbing on a road bike.

Some of the riders in our group were using HID lights. I didn’t see that they were any brighter than what I was using, which is quite a feat considering the BR Lights use CRED LEDs, are all self contained with a total weight much less than the HIDs and much greater durability.

It was well past 11 pm when we finished about a 20 mile ride.

I was so impressed with the BR Lights that I ordered the handlebar version (C2.1-H model) right away. I would like to buy the helmet light also but that would be a bit much for me right now, but I am tempted. I hope I get my new BR light quickly before the our big night mountain bike adventure in September.

Franz Kelsch

See also:
http://www.swim2bike2run.net
(my personal endurance sports website)

http://www.actc.org
(primary cycling club where you can contact me at webaster@actc.org)

Categories: Cycling Equipment, Mountain Biking
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Ann and I took the tandem up Henry Coe earlier today and got back home in plenty of time for me to head over to Harvey Bear for a mountain bike ride at 5:30 pm. We had a large turn out today. Including a couple of riders were just there at the same and decided to ride with us, we had 9 bikers. The hot and dry conditions, couple with some grading of the road, lead to some different conditions that the last time I was there a few weeks ago.

The climb up on the road had a lot of gravel so it was tricky keeping enough traction while climbing. I was able to make it up okay, but it took a lot of energy and I didn’t have my usual reserve after being on the tandem for the climb today. The other trails were real dusty and with 9 riders there was quite a dust storm. On the tandem ride today I think I swallowed a fly and this evening I know I swallowed a lot of dirt.

When I got home I was covered with dirt, especially my legs where the dust clinged to the sweat. I think we rode about 14 miles and returned just as the sun was going down. Some of the paths were in the deep shadows and with the surface conditions it was tricky. But any day on a mountain bike where I am able to keep both tires on the ground all the time is a good day. It was a real fun ride but I had enough of biking after that.

Categories: Mountain Biking
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