Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

Some Lupine news

24K views 146 replies 24 participants last post by  Diamondback_X6 
#1 · (Edited)
Some Lupine news

The boss of Lupine ("Wolf" in the forum) made some statements in the official forum:

- New lamps (improvement of the current models, as I understand it) with 20-30% more output compared to the current model, a new Betty torchlight ("BTL 2"), batteries with more capacity, option to mount all new lamps on a Go Pro mount.
? Thema anzeigen - Neues von Lupine

- There will be no Wilma R (with wireless remote), since it would cost too much and would push the price near a Betty R
? Thema anzeigen - Neues von Lupine

- Option for an upgrade for the current Betty R; for the upgrade the lamp must be sent to the factory. Said to be cheaper than to manufacture and sell DIY upgrade kits. New Betty R will light slightly less wide and with a stronger central spot.
? Thema anzeigen - Neues von Lupine

- Click mount system for the smartcore batteries, something of this sort: ? Thema anzeigen - Neue Akku-Rahmenhalterung

No release dates were mentioned ...

regards
 
See less See more
#70 ·
How's it going Flyer? I am still running my old Betty with the external switch that I bought in 2006. I did one upgrade to it and it is at 1,750 lumens which is still a lot of light. Surprisingly I am still using the 6.8 battery pack that it came with in 2006 and it still holds a charge just fine. Never had an issue with it or with my upgraded 1,000 lumen Wilma light I bought in 2006 either. In comparison I have a cheap magicshine that started having issues within a year which didn't surprise me. For me Lupine makes the most reliable best quality lights that I have ever used. For all the night riding I do I have definitely gotten my moneys worth out of them.

And androgen comparing Lupines to Chinese knockoffs is a really funny. Buy some Chinese lights and use them as much as I do and get back to me in 7 years and see if they are still going strong androgen. I use my Lupines for biking, hiking, whatever, rain or shine, in ice and snow and they never let me down.
 
#71 ·
Hey Maximus, it goes well...just been out of biking for a couple of years. I still have my original Betty (2008 maybe). I also upgraded it once and use the big water bottle battery pack. I sold the Wilma but kept the Tesla. I have used them for hiking and snowshoeing, as well as camping. The batteries are still 100% and I have had no problems. I am not buying the Chinese knockoffs...they are not my thing, and I don't want to be stuck in the middle of the mountains with a useless light at night. I'll keep these till I feel the need to upgrade to another Betty and maybe a Piko. For now though, they light up the night and work perfectly every time. I must say I am very tempted by the light weigh of the Piko for the helmet. However, I find the Tesla beam to be better than anything else out there. It has that L&M ACR type of beam (used the ARCs for two years) with the reflector it uses. The lighter peripheral light provides a great transition and I can see to the sides in those dark mountain forest twisty trails and tight/steep switchbacks, without turning my head much. I'll probably never sell it so I hope it never dies.
 
#74 ·
Well, seems we are in good company, I also still use my 22W Betty with the latest available upgrade, putting out some 1900 lumens. Using it alone on the bar on my mountainbike. And I still am almost entirely happy with it on my usual trainings started away from home. My routes are quite easy, most on cart road, kind of routes for retired people I guess. ;)
For that, definitely enough light, I don't really feel/see the need for some more powerful gear. And perfectly able to recognize in time all frogs sitting immobile on the tracks lately, even with light rain. :D
 
#75 ·
I just checked my receipts from when I bought my Lupines and it was actually 2007 and not 2006 like I initially thought. Still impressive though I think. I found some old emails between myself and Jay (Geoman) which made me remember how helpful he was when I bought my Lupines from him. I still remember receiving my first Lupine which was the Wilma and how impressed I was with it. I have nothing but good things to say about Lupine.
 
#80 ·
Has been a while.

I'm overly familiar with the fiberglass holes in the water into which one pours money - aka "boats". Most boat navigation lights are something like 10W bulbs so so. At least that's the case for anything that would be in the reach of any volume or consumers. So the lumen ratings of Piko, Wilma or Bettys are literally orders of magnitude of overkill.

I've used my wilma and piko on the water, but the beam is too wide to be useful - spill is bad on a boat, you wind up lighting up the boat and destroying your night vision and you don't have enough reach to find a navigation marker. So I guess I'd question the sanity of addressing the marine market. It's not my choice for marine light especially for the port/starboard navigation lights (red, green).

J.
 
#81 ·
Has been a while.

I'm overly familiar with the fiberglass holes in the water into which one pours money - aka "boats". Most boat navigation lights are something like 10W bulbs so so. At least that's the case for anything that would be in the reach of any volume or consumers. So the lumen ratings of Piko, Wilma or Bettys are literally orders of magnitude of overkill.

I've used my wilma and piko on the water, but the beam is too wide to be useful - spill is bad on a boat, you wind up lighting up the boat and destroying your night vision and you don't have enough reach to find a navigation marker. So I guess I'd question the sanity of addressing the marine market. It's not my choice for marine light especially for the port/starboard navigation lights (red, green).

J.
You're probably right. However that boating manual does say depending on the length of the boat the red and green light must be visible up to 2 miles away. Really doubt a 10W bulb will do the job if that was the distance required by law. Maybe marine rules will or have changed and Lupine saw an opportunity. The red, green and clear lens may tighten up the beam pattern but then again, I'm speculating.
 
#82 ·
No, they are pretty much the same. I was just looking at this for changing the nav lights on my sailboat over to LED based. All of the lighting for boats <65' is pretty much the 0.8A/10W light bulb (in incandescent). The LED bulbs are 0.1A or about 1W. Both of those satisfy the 2 mile requirement.

I'm wondering that since we're probably hitting the ceiling on lumens at 4500 lumens (and at that much, who cares about the beam shape), that they are starting to cast around for new attractive features. I have seen at least one photographer who uses a Betty to "paint" with light. Maybe adding the filter is in support of that. I would guess that if they get the filter ring to match the size of photographic filters, they have a ready market of add ons.

J.
 
#86 ·
Strange question I would say? The "4" in the "Piko 4" just refers to the battery capacity. Actual Piko model has 1200 lumen, with the same 13W as the previous model with 900 lumen had, but the price has not changed AFAIK.
So unless you can get a somehow enough savory rebated 900 lume Piko, I would clearly go for the latest version.
 
#87 ·
It's probably better to refer to the Pikos by lumen rating. I *think* this is how they break out:

Piko 1: 500 lumens
Piko 2: 750 lumens
Piko 3: 900 lumens (last year)
Piko 4: 1200 lumens (this year).

Gretnabikes just finished converting over everything to 1200 lumens from the 900 lumen version. Just noticed on their website.

It's worth noting that a two light system using two Piko 4's would be awesome. One on the bar, one on the helmet. Would be pretty hard to find a comparable system at that weight or brightness to match.

J.
 
#93 ·
Quite the video CHnuschti!! The HID's didn't look like they were doing much in comparison the the Betty-R's. I wonder how accurate that depiction is compared to real life. The betty-R's look close to what I see when i'm riding, however the BMW Hid's I've seen in real life looked brighter than that video's. Good Find!!! Cheers!!
 
#96 ·
Wow, I stand corrected. It is about 3000 lumens.

What is the brightest hid headlight allowed by law

But that's at the bulb.

Brightness is measured at various points in the beam and there is a profile that the mfg has to conform too. For example, you can't have a pencil thin beam at 3000 lumens. This probably translates into a lux measurement (i.e. lumens per square area) at spots in the beam.

That's interesting - I had been getting into discussions about bike lights blinding people and maintaining that at the current lights we are not even approaching (on average) the standard for car headlights at (what I thought) as 1300 lumens. Turns out this is far less of a problem than ever by about a factor of 2.5x.

j.
 
#97 ·
Yes those HID lumens are at the bulb i'm pretty sure but even 15% loss are still going to be north of 5K for the pair,, which sure looked a lot less bright than that in the video. I wonder if it was just an issue of the camera not making the adjustment between the two sets of lights. Anyway I can vouch that the two Betty R's are that bright to my eyes in the real world.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top