A bit late in the season for ride reports I guess (do you go to summertime this weekend in the US?), but I've only just got the Superflash, so this was my first chance to try it out. It's branded as Smart in the UK, but is the same thing as a Planetbike one I think. Also this was my first ride on my new winter training bike, which I've finally built up First time I've tried the Joystick on the road too - normally it is on a helmet mount - but it seemed convenient to strap on to the bars with some zip ties and some foam padding. Not quite a standard Joystick, as I've upgraded it from the stock Luxeon 3 to a SSC P4, for an estimated 200+ lumens!
Have to say I was very impressed - can't necessarily put it all down to the Superflash, but everybody overtaking gave me loads of room, and I didn't get cut up once - I'm sure I don't normally get that much space. Meanwhile all cars coming the other way instantly dipped their lights, and there was plenty enough light to see even for 30mph descents on unlit roads. It may not be designed as a road light, but it certainly does the job well, and whilst I've got used to a separate battery, there's definitely something to be said for an all-in-one unit - I might just have to make myself a dedicated road bike all-in-one light.
Unfortunately I have no comparative beamshots - though I don't see why that should make my other, admittedly subjective comments worthless.
For a subjective comparison, when I first got the Joystick I tried it on the helmet mount for rollerskiing at night - something where I only get up to 15mph or so generally. However I found it inadequate and scary. Now having upgraded, not only is it fine for that, but also up to 30mph on the bike. I should point out that one thing which I think has helped is that the beam's got wider with the upgrade - it was excessively spotty before.
I still hope to get some comparative beamshots when I get together with other members of my race team who have standard ones (the Joystick was a prize for a race series we won). Since my camera is fully auto with no manual exposure it wasn't possible to get meaningful before and after shots.
Unfortunately I have no comparative beamshots - though I don't see why that should make my other, admittedly subjective comments worthless.
For a subjective comparison, when I first got the Joystick I tried it on the helmet mount for rollerskiing at night - something where I only get up to 15mph or so generally. However I found it inadequate and scary. Now having upgraded, not only is it fine for that, but also up to 30mph on the bike. I should point out that one thing which I think has helped is that the beam's got wider with the upgrade - it was excessively spotty before.
I still hope to get some comparative beamshots when I get together with other members of my race team who have standard ones (the Joystick was a prize for a race series we won). Since my camera is fully auto with no manual exposure it wasn't possible to get meaningful before and after shots.
How much detail do you want - I can give you a full walkthrough? In brief, there is an alu plate underneath the PCB in the light head. You unscrew this and pull it out. Then desolder the emitter from the power wires and break the thermal epoxy holding it on to the plate using a knife. Stick on a new P4 emitter with thermal epoxy, solder on the power wires and reassemble. No other modding apart from swapping the emitter.
How much detail do you want - I can give you a full walkthrough? In brief, there is an alu plate underneath the PCB in the light head. You unscrew this and pull it out. Then desolder the emitter from the power wires and break the thermal epoxy holding it on to the plate using a knife. Stick on a new P4 emitter with thermal epoxy, solder on the power wires and reassemble. No other modding apart from swapping the emitter.
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