Editors Note: This is the first installment in a series on Grannygear’s experiences in building his own LED light set for mountain biking. Remember, this isn’t tinker toys here, you can get seriously injured if you don’t know what you are doing. So if you are not sure about your electrical knowledge, it is best to leave this sort of thing to the pros. That said, read on for Grannygear’s DIY LED light build.

Light my World DIY Style: Part One - Accepting the challenge of building your own bike lights.

The past couple of years have seen great advances in off road capable lighting for riders seeking to extend their riding time into night time hours. I remember the first series of commercial lighting from companies like NightSun, TurboCat and NiteRider.

Using halogen bulb technology and heavy lead-acid or Ni-Cad batteries, they were a revelation in fun. Night riding brings a whole ‘nother aspect into mtn biking. It makes the same old trail come alive with shadows, challenges and strange, unseen noises in the bushes.

The technology progressed into more advanced forms of lights such as HID, etc, and as the light output increased so did the costs to the consumer. Those lights got to be pretty costly.

Along the sidelines came rapid advances in another field of lighting: LEDs, or Light Emitting Diodes. The same old technology that provides that tiny red light on your radio button in your car was getting pretty bright and powerful. And there were other cool benefits to LEDs. They were small, they were efficient so battery packs could be smaller and run times were longer, and they were almost ready made for the tinkerer. A bulb is a bulb is a bulb, and except for over-volting (supplying more DC+ voltage that the lamp is rated for) there were only tricks like reflectors and such to play with.

Responding to this was a few brave and inventive souls that began to play with LEDs and create their own bike lights. Of course by now there were commercially available lights, but they were still kinda costly. The components to these lights are not very costly, but the trick is in knowing how to put it all together. It is not like a bulb where you just hook a battery to a halogen lamp through a switch and off you go. LEDs like a constant current so there are special circuits to use for this purpose. The batteries need to be sized according to run times and LED Vf measurements. You need good soldering skills. The heat that is created by high power LEDs needs to be dealt with. It can all go poof when the switch is thrown if you wire it wrong.

Fortunately there is the internet. There are two excellent sources of info: MTBR’s lighting forum and Candlepower’s bike lights forum.
As well, this website offers great info.

I spent a lot of time reading about what all this means. Buckpucks, Crees, lumens, heat sinks, Arctic Alumina, optics and more. I did this for one reason…I was going to build some lights. Now I am frugal (or limited in funds) so just buying one of the excellent pre-made commercial lights was not a reality. I already had a set of old halogen lights consisting of two lamps on the bars with a water bottle battery and one lamp on the helmet with a another separate battery pack. They were ‘da bomb back in the day, but halogen lamps grow orange in tint over time and the new bright white LEDs were kicking my butt on group night rides. Besides that, I was carrying around POUNDS of battery weight. Not ounces…pounds. That had to change.

I wanted to achieve several things:

*I wanted a handlebar setup and a helmet light. Some prefer one or the other, I like both, but more on this later.

*I was not ready to be cutting edge in light output, but I wanted the ensemble of lights to be bright enough to ride the faster descents we have around here.

*I was willing to compromise a bit with battery cost and such for my first light to see how inexpensively it could be done.

*I wanted the lights to be decent looking. Pride in ownership, ya’ know.

*I wanted a multiple hour run time. Most of my night rides are 2 hours or less, but I wanted at least 3 hrs on high.

*I wanted to reduce the overall weight of the system, especially the battery packs.

So, follow along as we embark on the quest to DIY a decent set of LED lights. I have one ride so far on the handlebar setup and I am quite pleased. I still have to build the helmet mount light, so that will add the final touch. Well, final being relative. I am already planning my next light build as this can be addictive. It can always be better!

Next article we will look at what you should be thinking about when you plan your light build, where to source the parts, and what tools you may need to get it all done.

Stay tuned for part two!