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TECH NEWS

Shield your eyes! Man creates 90,000 lumen LED front light + video

How bright is too bright. 90,000 lumens probably is, but an amazing sight to behold

We’ve tested some bright cycle lights here at road.cc, but nothing even comes close to the staggering claimed 90,000 lumen LED front light created by Daniel Riley of Stratus Productions in the US.

It hasn’t been designed as a cycle light. No cyclist really needs that much light (or do they?). But we thought it interesting enough to share with you all. Light technology has advanced significantly in the last 10 years with LEDs getting bright every year and run times getting longer.

- Your guide to the best front lights for cycling + beam comparison engine

There’s a healthy market for homemade LED lights, but we’ve never seen anything this ambitious before. The homemade light uses a row of ten 100W LEDs, each outputting  9,000 lumens. Altogether, that’s a mighty 90,000 lumens. Each LED has its own lens which generates a 60-degree beam pattern.

90,000 lumen light 2.png

Don’t expect much in the way of battery life, though. With two batteries running in tandem, the battery life is a piffling 10 minutes. Better make sure the ride home from the office is a short one! That sort of lighting capacity generates a lot of heat, so each LED is directly mounted to a heatsink.

The LED lights are mounted to an aluminium frame to hold them all together. It’s so wide that you might struggle to fit it to the front of your bike. It neither is it very light, due to the complexity of the design, weighs 10lb (4.54kg).

90,000 lumen light 5.png

While we’re clearly not going to see this light on a bicycle any time soon, it does show what is possible with a bit of creative thinking and a load of the latest LED lights. And no gaffa tape was used in the creation of this light

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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10 comments

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MNgraveur | 8 years ago
2 likes

But does it conform to German regulations?

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ridein | 8 years ago
0 likes

"I see", said the blind man.

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don simon fbpe | 8 years ago
2 likes

Firstly, get rid of those sodding pop ups or whatever the fuck they are!!! I know how to navigate and find stories of interest!!

 

Secondly, the problem with high lumen lights is not the amout of light they give the rider but how much they dazzle oncoming traffic.

 

Thirdly, when can I get some of these for my 4x4? They're AWESOME!

Avatar
Tripod16 | 8 years ago
2 likes

Crap! There is another K-Edge adaptor I'm going to have to buy...

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pruaga | 8 years ago
1 like

"What if we tried more power?"

https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

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pakennedy | 8 years ago
2 likes

I just need it to come on for a second when oncoming cars don't bother to dip theirs.

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bikebot | 8 years ago
2 likes

Does it have a strobe setting to extend the battery life?

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the infamous grouse | 8 years ago
2 likes
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jollygoodvelo | 8 years ago
0 likes

Astonishing.  We didn't have toys like this when I was a kid, he's pretty much a danger to aircraft.  Fantastic.

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Yorky-M | 8 years ago
4 likes

get him 2 of the following:

a box set

a girlfriend

a bicycle.

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