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Lupine Lighting Systems
Hi all
Looking in a splurge for Chrissy on some new lights for the bike.
Can anyone give me some 'real' feedback on either the Wilma 7 or the Wilma 5 from Lupine Lighting Systems.
Would be good for someone who has had some hands on experience on either of these systems to provide some feedback on how these systems function, operate, reliability, battery life etc.
For the $$$ I would like to know if I am getting what I am paying for.
D
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He has a couple of sets of Wilma4s (erm - is that right?) and they do look top quality gear.
If you don't want to DIY I'd also take a look at HID Technologies who despite their name do a great range of LEDs.
These are fantastic lights / battery’s and overall system.
The Wilma 7 and 5 are the same light system just with different battery’s.
The Wilma light head is fantastic a nice even spread with a huge amount of throw you don’t need more light than these put out the Betty to my mind would be just plain overkill.
The battery life as stated on the web site is conservative I found in reality I get a longer run time than they list.
The lights are programmable and the system is easy to follow and fairly straight forward to set up how you like.
The mounting system is simple and works well.
I have run two Wilma's (15watt version) now for over 18 months I have one on the bars and one on the helmet and they have not missed a beat.
I have 3 of the 6 Ah Li-Ion battery’s and two of the 8Ah Ah Li-Ion bottle battery’s the run times are longer than where stated at the time on the web site. I get 4.5hrs out of the smaller battery’s and 5.5 hrs out of the bigger batteries with the lights on full power I have never bothered to program them to run at a lower setting.
The only problem I have had is with one battery but that was my fault for not looking after it as well as I should of. The problem was I discharged it fully over a couple of rides and then left it in storage for about 4 months after which it wouldn’t charge so my own fault. I now look after my battery's and store them charged in the fridge as recommended and keep a record of where each battery is at in terms of its usage and charge / discharge state.
As for durability / reliability my light on the handlebars smacked the ground quite hard on a ride down at Menai but has not had a problem at all so I guess they are durable and will survive a good crash / bash.
Off course you can build a set of lights for much much less right Rob but basically Lupine have all the boxes ticked and all the details worked out they are worth the money as long as you’ve got the cash to spare.
Lupine also bring out upgrades for the light heads from time to time I belive there will be an upgraded LED kit availble soon that will boost my lights by about 20%.
There are I think three versions of the Wilma system so far the first ones that put out about 450 lumens then mine the 15watt version about 750 lumens and the current 17 watt head rated at about 900 lumens. The different numbers 4,5,7 and so on refer to the different battery's that ship with the light heads.
And a soon to be released LED upgrade kit that will boost the output again so I guess 4 versions of the head unit.
http://www.troutie.com/mainpage.html
have a browse on his site, also check out MTBR DIY light forums, search for posts by troutie
any questions send him an email and tell him emu sent you.
Quality lights hand assembled and sensibly priced from DIY kits to complete lights.
Have fun