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AYUP Lights | Looking for advice
Hey guys
Looking for a bit of advice here.
I'm after buying a set of quality lights for both night riding and commuting. Has anyone experience with Ayups? I hear they are good, but before I pull out 400 of my hard earned, I was hoping to pick your brains and if you can offer any user advice.
Would you reccomend them?
Would you buy more?
What are the 3h/6h batteries like?
Is there a 'flash mode'?
x2 pairs Handle bar/helmet versus x1 pair on handle bars - pros/cons?
Are there better lights out there? Who makes them?
Anything else I need to know?
Thanks
Phil
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Q. Would you reccomend them?
A. If you cannot build your own - sure. However, I hear that someone not too far away is going to be making a kit so that DIY will be much easier very soon
Q. Would you buy more?
A. Never bought any, but I do know people who have bought a second set.
Q. What are the 3h/6h batteries like?
OK - the 3 hour battery is about half the size of a deck of cards. 6 is twice the size from what I know. They are very light as they are lithium polymer (not even lithium iron). Don't crash and get a nail stuck in this stuff... bang!!
A. One lasts 3hours and one lasts 6 hours
Q. Is there a 'flash mode'?
A. Nope. Note that the on/off switch is on the battery and a new invention. Older models you had to pull the wire out of the back. There is no dimming either.
Q. x2 pairs Handle bar/helmet versus x1 pair on handle bars - pros/cons?
A. x2 is twice as bright! I prefer helmet as the light always shines where you're looking. However, the shadows that are cast can confuse you a bit. Therefore light on the bars is good. It lights up the front wheel (peripheral vision even when you're looking straight ahead) and casts different shadows to allow you to pick out objects more clearly.
A. Are there better lights out there? Who makes them?
OK - commercially? Lupine make great lights but they are $$$. The LEDs Steve01 has are good, but also $$$.
Q. Yes. Me. And Gary. And Craig. And...
Wait till you see the new Ayup set that Dreggsy was showing at the 24. Bright light indeed!
MkIII Ay-up are physically the same with R2 emitter's aren't they? Or do they have triples jammed in each side?
For commuting, I would use a good led torch at a fraction of the cost of ayyups and carry a spare battery if needed. Convenient, cheaper, and certainly brighter and perfect for commuting. You could even afford to keep a charger, spare batteries at work for those days you might forget to charge up. Need more power ? Carry two!
Remember the torch is even more 'hightech' with several modes and decent controllers, not just a resistor which dissipates heat, and a switch you can easily access
Btw. I did see the lights at 24hr....suitably not impressed
But then again, I normally run lights more powerful that the betty 
I also rode a portion of a ride with some nobmobbers recently with NO lights...few folk succumbed and either refused or turned on their lights real quick...its a surreal experience 
This is CLEARLY NOT a recommendation !
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hanging out for a ride, throw me a bone, someone?
forsale! trek carbon top fuel, spare frame/fork combo
I commuted with cheap handlebar lights for about 4 years both in London and Sydney,and was hit 3x by cars, and smacked into a couple of pedestrians who stepped off the pavement before looking.
I am now loving the AY-UP's on my HELMET as the ability to stare at a driver that is waiting to pull out at an intersection while shaking your head, gets the drivers IMMEDIATE attention, and has saved my ass more than once. The same applies for daft pedestrians. I don't use the handlebar AY-UP's for commuting (only MTB) and think a cheap handlebar flashing light is fine for this.
I guess it depends on how far your commute is, what the roads are like, whether you cruise along or belt along etc.. but my attitude is that SAFETY is PARAMOUNT and a SUPER-BRIGHT HELMET light is a great addition. I can also highly recommend the Niterider Cherry Bombs as a rear commuting light. I run one on the back of my helmet and one on my seatpost.
The AY-UP batteries are supposedly good for about 500 charges so at 3 hours each, that will cover your next 1,500 hours of commuting or night MTB'ing.
Maybe one of the 24hour guys might know better, but I've had one of the Ay-Up 3 hours batteries burning for over 4 hours and it was still going strong when I limped home.
I've had Ay-Ups since they first went on sale and I then upgraded to the cree's and they have never missed a beat and never failed to deliver.
I can't recommend them highly enough.
as this is my set up.
Nice flashing light on the handlebars ~ $40
HID light on the helmet and this gives you the ability to tell everyone who might interfere with your intended "path" that you are on the bike.
Couple of flashing red lights for the rear
Lorrie
Check out mtbdirt.com.au for all the info on AYUPS you could want. This is a Brisbane based MTB forum which has followed the AYUP story from the start as the company is based up there.
Hope this helps.
I was testing some new bulbs from AYup which are 40% brighter.
But when plugged in they seemed to alot brighter than that.
That's all i'm allowed to say about them at the moment.
no flash mode, the batteries are very very light,
you only need one on the bars and one on the helmet for fun riding,
at times you wish they were brighter, but then again this is night riding, if you want bright spend $500+ on one light, or only ride in the day.
All of the home made lights I've seen look pretty ugly in my opinion.
Phil, I bought Ay-Ups for my first experience of night riding and have loved them for ease of use and light weight. I did however find NoBMoB in the first place when looking for ideas to build my own lights.
At the time an Ay-Up was the best bang for buck I could find as a finished product.
As Rob so kindly mentioned, I'm doing a run of housings for home assembly lights. I'll post some pictures of the prototype tonight if I get a chance. The final design has a lot less weight in it, just waiting for Cutter to get final tolerances sorted.
Bodies are tubular pairs, similar to an Ay-Up layout, but have removable end caps for upgrading, re-usable seals, and significant heat rejection capability.
This all means you can swap the internals at whim from a pair of single Cree XP-E R2s to a pair of Triple XP-E with max-Flex or bFlex etc, or even go to a pair of MC-E Quads like S.....M.
Battery packs etc are all up to the assembler, and there are a heap of options out there, from simply buying a set of Ay-Up batteries, through to a truck battery like Greg P runs.
The aim is to have the ability to either helmet or bar mount.
Anyone interested in these let me know by PM. (I don't want to use the site as a vehicle for commercialisation)
I get some great advice from Adam who works for City Bike Depot and last year he pointed me in the direction of the Stella by Light and Motion. This is a cracker of a little helmet mounted light that i use maily for commuting and somtimes in the bush. The battery goes for ever on flashing mode. I have a 40 min ride into and back from work and only charge it once or twice a week and have never run out of juice.
From memory it was about $300ish, but go in and check them out. They guys there are pretty quick to drop the price.
Benny
than the Ay-ups?
http://www.scvimports.com.au/images/catalogue/08...
My home made jobby
1 x 270 lumens globe from Jaycar $69 http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZD0352
1 x Berroca Tube
1 x toggle switch $5
2 x female spade lugs
1 x length cable
1 x roll self adhesive Velcro
1 x 12v charger $20 http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3517&C...
1 x 12v dry cell battery $25 http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB2482&C...
Burn time info http://jaycar.com.au/products_uploaded/SB2482.pdf
Aprox $130 for a six+ hour burn time.
Pic's to follow
Pikey
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Made from a Berroca tube. This I gotta see. Look forward to seeing the photos Pikey
http://nobmob.com/node/1043
innovative setup pikey has there, and its a nice beam.... would be better with him running one on either side ! think he said he was too lazy to bring the other one, the other night ?
cannot help but think the battery/charger setup could be improved and made a tad lighter eh pikey
btw. stella is well built and has a great beam, but prob. a bit outgunned amongst the more modern offerings out there. would expect its more than the other setup though.
talking about bang for buck, if you look at say the lumens output per dollars and weight in grams per dollars you will get an interesting result with the suggested ayyups not so high on the list
there is a reason that these guys have to offer so many lights. some manufacturers are able to offer better beams etc with one light...if you are not competing, then this is likely to be less of an issue as you may not mind having to monitor/use/charge two sets of stuff.
btw. dreggsie, I was the guy that lit up track as you went past the top of the last squiggle bit at the 24hr (with said torch)...if you remember this, the beam completely lit the track up...all from a single led flashlight with just one battery
at the end of the day, the OP must decide what kind of riding they do, light they want, convenience, etc.
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hanging out for a ride, throw me a bone, someone?
forsale! trek carbon top fuel, spare frame/fork combo
Hey Slowpup,
I've sent you a PM about your light kit.
Cheers
Phil