User Feedback Thread

[Nikolai]

I ride on local roads near my home during the week to prep me for weekend "mountain biking". I only can ride during dark hours (early morning (5 ~ 6 AM) or evenings (8 ~ 9 PM)) because of work schedule and to avoid the masses of zombie-like Miami drivers. For a long time I have been using anemic "blinky" bike lights (as shown on this picture) to avoid a very bad situation with these zombie-like Miami drivers but I have never been satisfied with them.



One thing that bothered me the most is that these drivers were over passing me very close, so close that I can easily feel the heat coming out from their engines! It did not matter if they had a full lane to over pass, they just wanted to "show" off that they "owned" the road. Add this issue along with recent road bike fatalities (read here (JAN 2010) and here (FEB 2012)) and you will understand how dangerous riding the roads in Miami could turn out to be. In my pursuit of finding a brighter rear self contained LED light I found the "DS-500" within mtbr.com forums. I was not sold at the idea of having an external battery but being an Electrical Engineer I knew that to get sustained high output light I needed to resort to an external power source. I made the blind jump and contacted Stephen whom amazed me with his knowledge of LED and battery technology along with his passion to bicycling. He poured details and superb attention to detail at each minute step that made me feel that I was setting these lights myself! I requested the front DS-1300 and rear DS-500 lights with a single 5200mAH 11.1v Li-Ion battery. The wait seemed to take an eternity since I did not venture out with my road bike until I received these superb lights.





The wait was worth each day that I waited "patiently" for them. I was surprised at how small these lights were, no picture did justice on the size, they are tiny and do not weigh much. The first thing I did was to connect them to the pre-charged battery and turned them on but guess what? They did not, why? I did not read Stephen's very detailed instructions that mentioned something called "Super-lock", I almost lost it but it was my bad for being too excited. Read the complete manual and tried again, "My God, It's Full of Stars!" is what came out of my mouth! These lights ARE bright, not just ordinary bright but it burns your retina BRIGHT!

I set them up on my road bike as seen on these pictures, with the 5200mAH battery fitting inside nicely into an Ibera IB-TB4 Top Tube bag. The DS-1300 front light was setup on the Ibera IB-PB2 Cell phone case with bar clamp and the DS-500 rear light on the seat post. I used zip ties to secure the power lines to-from each light. After securing the lights, cables and battery I decided to test drive them the same night I received them. I used mode #4 - L3/L5 for both the DS-1300 and DS-500 lights. I know Stephen does not recommend to use that mode on the DS-500 but I am still in the testing phase on how the local Miami drivers react to the different modes. So far (full week of night rides at the same time each day (8 ~ 9 PM)) these are my results on a one was two lane road:

- DS-1300: Side car traffic IMMEDIATELY STOPS when they get a glimpse of the lights and do not proceed to move forward until I pass! 100% EFFECTIVE! Front lighting/throw is superb for my night riding, for me it was like I was driving in the dark with my front "blinky" lights all these years and somebody just brought out a mini-sun! There is no RF interference with my wireless Bike computer (Sigma Rox 9.0)! This is a BIG plus since I always track my progress with Temperature, Cadence, HRM, Altitude and speed. I was unable to do this with my previous "blinky" front lights.

- DS-500: Rear car traffic slows down and wait for me or over pass me by a FULL LANE! I never had this happen! 95 ~ 98% of the traffic provides me this clearance and only 5% or less will attempt to overpass me by half a lane (which is still great compared to how it was before). Almost all the drivers either pass me by at the speed limit or slow down to find out what is emitting such a light! Many are surprised that it is just a bicycle, even motorcyclist and patrol cars! I agree with Stephen, mode #4 - L3/L5 for the DS-500 is very bright for night use (I have tested it myself by sitting in my car behind my bike) so I am testing alternative modes to fend of that 5% zombie Miami drivers.



I am very happy with these lights and my family feels better that I know have them to ride the streets at night. They are worth the cost to give me the privilege to ride safer at night on Miami roads. There is always room for improvement and these lights are almost perfect but having a bigger power button would make it easier to navigate and turn on/off the lights with gloves on.

P.S. - I really like the Cat-Eye clamps!

[Roger Huston]

Hello Nikolai,

Thank you very much for your post. I am in the same boat as you, I'm can't really ride until I get the lights as my family wants me to be safe.

Very cool setup. The cell phone case with the mini-bar is particularly interesting as it gives you the extra reach to move the light out of the way of the wires. *Damn Shimano, took them until the year after I got my bike to finally take after Campy and run the wires through handlebars* It is a very cool solution, it would be interesting to see what size of a cellphone you can put in there.

I really like your description of how the cars react to you, it would be interesting to see if you run the lights at the recommended night settings to see if the cars move over the same amount. I too am looking forward to that added respect on the roads. If you get a chance, go for a ride during the day and let us know if you get the same clearance by motorists. I will be riding mostly during the day, so I am anxious to hear how that works.

- Roger

[Nikolai]

Hello Nikolai,

Thank you very much for your post. I am in the same boat as you, I'm can't really ride until I get the lights as my family wants me to be safe.

Very cool setup. The cell phone case with the mini-bar is particularly interesting as it gives you the extra reach to move the light out of the way of the wires. *Damn Shimano, took them until the year after I got my bike to finally take after Campy and run the wires through handlebars* It is a very cool solution, it would be interesting to see what size of a cellphone you can put in there.

I really like your description of how the cars react to you, it would be interesting to see if you run the lights at the recommended night settings to see if the cars move over the same amount. I too am looking forward to that added respect on the roads. If you get a chance, go for a ride during the day and let us know if you get the same clearance by motorists. I will be riding mostly during the day, so I am anxious to hear how that works.

- Roger

Hello Roger,

Great to know that you found my quick review helpful. These lights do give my loved ones a peace of mind when I ride at night. I have a Samsung Galaxy II that fits snugly and securely into the Ibera IB-PB2 front pocket so a mobile phone that size or smaller can fit perfectly. They have a different mount system that fits on the stem if you are interested in that setup, here is picture:



I actually setup the DS-1300 on the mini-bar due to my initial concerns of RF interference with the Sigma ROX 9.0 wireless computer and brake cables getting in the way of the light pattern. Now I like the setup because the DS-1300 has a better air flow and none of the cables disturbs the light pattern.

I will be testing Stephen's recommended DS-500 night mode (#5 - L2/L3 Double Pulse) next week and will report back with my results. Will do the same with daylight rides during the weekend.

I now really enjoy riding at nights with these lights! They DO make a difference.

Respectfully,

Nikolai

[Stephen]

Wow! Thanks for the great review Nikolai! And especially for slogging through the minimum post requirement. I'll have to see about changing those forum settings. You're setup looks great on the bike. I hope you find the daytime use to be equally effective. You'll want to run one of the on/off level 5 flashing modes for sure, unless you have friends riding behind you, then L3 on/off might be a little more tolerable. Yeah, I can't even tell you how many hours I've researched a "larger" switch option but have completely struck out on every occasion due to the very shallow clearance requirement under the lid. If anybody finds a viable option... let me know!

Oh, and just for enquiring minds, the switching frequency for the boost controller is quite high at 1MHz, and the radiated switching noise levels do appear to be quite low from what I can tell with the unit on the test bench.

[Roger Huston]

Nikolai,

Thank you for the stem mount, that looks really cool. I wonder if the DS-1300 could be mounted on that thing? I think I like your option of having it further out in front, I will have to see when I get mine what I like. I use to have a niterider setup so I have always had my lights center mounted, I will have to get use to it off-center a bit. It is a symmetry thing, stuff like that bothers me.

My phone is a HTC Titan, a Windows Phone, so I would love to mount it on the stem and have it in GPS mode. Just need a case that can carry it and I can touch the screen as I ride.

- Roger

[Stephen]

Yes, those shifter cables can be a real pain. Even without an accessory bar like the one Nikolai used, the shadows aren't too bad since there are 6 different point sources of light (i.e. you don't get a hard defined shadow). If you take advantage of the offset mounting holes, in combination with a similar accessory mount, you can probably get right on the center line.
SP

[Nikolai]

04/17/2012 UPDATE

Funny thing, the other night I was biking on the local road and a super-cross "street" motorcycle road along me to ask what lights I was using! He was surprised that he was able to see me from a few miles away and how the high lumen output came out from such a small package! I was running the DS-500 on Mode 4 - L3/L5 Lightening Strike (not recommended to be used in the night by Stephen) and the front DS-1300 on the same mode.

Last night I used the recommended Mode 5 - L2/L3 Double Pulse (recommended for night use on the DS-500 (rear)) and received similar driver behavior as I did with Mode 4 - L3/L5 Lightening Strike but I need further field test to feel assured that this mode will deter Miami-zombie drivers.

Pending are daylight field tests with these lights. More to come soon!

P.S. - I am still trying to get used on setting different modes (standard and flash) between the DS-1300 and DS-500. These lights are great! It provides me with much needed night road riding respect and confidence.

____________


Stephen,

I am surprised that switch frequency does not interfere with my Sigma ROX v9.0 wireless computer; for me this is a BIG plus. I think it was one of the first questions I asked you when researching these lights. You probably could get a FCC certification for the DS-1300 and DS-500!



Roger,

I am using a Samsung Galaxy II and it fits snugly into the case I am using. There are others that allow full screen access if required (check out: http://www.ibera.info/products/handheld/handheld.htm). You may retrofit the clip on the DS-1300 to make it work with the Stem Clamp but it may sit too far back. Hope you get your lights soon so you can enjoy the pleasure of night riding as I am!

Here is video with some close ups for these cases:

[Stephen]

Very cool Nikolai! Enjoying reading your experiences!

Just as an extra point of clarification, it's always OK to use the "Lightening Strike" flash mode for the headlight, and pseudo-OK on the taillight as long as you're careful to do it with a relatively full battery before the low battery indication starts kicking in. That's where I get concerned because it will bump the light up to level 5 for about 3 seconds, periodically every 10 seconds, for the duration of the 20% and below battery level.

[Stephen]

Got permission to post this from a recent email exchange. Thought the forum readers might enjoy it like I did...

"Stephen,

I received the light package today. Wow! These things are a thing of beauty! One of my trike buddies said the lights are "elegant" -- and he kept touching them. I had to tell him to stop fondling my lights! Ha! You should be very proud of your product. The workmanship and quality of build and design are just awesome! Your hard work and attention to detail really paid off.

Now -- let's talk about the lights performance. Are you kidding me? These things are insane! I did a day ride and just finished up a night ride a few minutes ago. I know that I still must use my head for safety while riding. But I have to say, with these lights strapped on my Terra Trike, I feel like I have a big red "S" on my chest! These lights ROCK! Day or night -- I am now getting obvious attention from cars and pedestrians -- they just stare! I love it!

You had better plan on scaling up your production -- because I predict you will sell a bunch of these lights! These lights are worth every penny I paid for them. I'm heading down to my local bike shop on Monday -- I promised the owner to stop and show him the lights as soon as I received them.

Take care!
Ed"

[Nikolai]

That is a great feedback from Ed! Now, it didn't happen if pictures do not exists. Ed, show your trike! I always have a fondness with trikes and most likely purchase one in my later biking years.