Where to buy a Halogen bulb

[mattc]

_{Look: it's Friday, I'm tired, and my (normally great) LBS sold me the wrong rating bulb. So give me a break:}


APART FROM A BIKE SHOP; where is likely to stock 6W 3V 6V 3W Halogen bulbs?

[Brucey]

_{Look: it's Friday, I'm tired, and my (normally great) LBS sold me the wrong rating bulb. So give me a break:}


APART FROM A BIKE SHOP; where is likely to stock 6W 3V Halogen bulbs?

do you mean 6W 3V or 3W 6V...?  If the former, the LBS won't have one, probably. If the latter they may do.

try

http://www.reflectalite.com/halogenpage.html

BTW Halfords sell a few BC bulbs (suitable for maglites etc) but they may not be halogen lamps.

cheers

[Cudzoziemiec]

Modelling shop? Maplins or similar?

[rogerzilla]

I've got one if you want it.

[mattc]

do you mean 6W 3V or 3W 6V...?  If the former, the LBS won't have one, probably. If the latter they may do.

Yes, of course I meant 3W 6V  I said I was tired.

Well-deserved smug point to Brucey!

Anyway, I mean a bricks-n-mortar shop. If the next nearest LBS doesn't stock them, I'll try Halfords ... and then mail-order.

(LBS sold me a 2.4W bulb - which I understand are correct if you also have a rear-light plumbed into your dynamo)

Thanks for trying, folks 

[Kim]

Woolies, obviously.

[andrew_s]

(LBS sold me a 2.4W bulb - which I understand are correct if you also have a rear-light plumbed into your dynamo)

A 2.4W bulb is usable, and may well give a better light than a 3W bulb, but it won't last as long - maybe 3-6 months.

Bike shops mostly don't stock the bulbs because almost everyone has switched to LED lights. Even the bottom of the range are as bright, most are substantially better, and they free you from having to pay £5 for a bulb every year or two.

[Pickled Onion]

3-6 months? You can expect about 10-20 hours from a Philips GH90, substantially more from a Reflectalite equivalent, but definitely measured in hours not months!

[mattc]

(LBS sold me a 2.4W bulb - which I understand are correct if you also have a rear-light plumbed into your dynamo)

A 2.4W bulb is usable, and may well give a better light than a 3W bulb, but it won't last as long - maybe 3-6 months.

I got less than 5 hours out of it
(can't be more specific, as I was riding in daylight and can't remember if light was ON/OFF/AUTO )

[JohnL]

Have you tried the 1980s? 

John

[mattc]

Have you tried the 1980s? 

Yes - in a shop called "Illumination" in Wallingford. An Emporium of all things lighting-related.

I'm dissapointed that noone here suggested them.

[andrew_s]

3-6 months? You can expect about 10-20 hours from a Philips GH90, substantially more from a Reflectalite equivalent, but definitely measured in hours not months!

That was using an original black centre SON dynohub and Lumotec Oval, and 3-6 months was elapsed time, not riding time.
I'd have been doing something like 5-6 dark hours a week - call it 70 to 150 hours use.
The 3W bulbs generally didn't blow, but got replaced after a year or so because they'd got dimmer.

[mattc]

After a small saga getting this running (the fork-crown bracket sheared off on first commute  ), this is now working with SJS-supplied bulb. Hoorah!


They're not very bright, are they?

Hard to believe that just 10 years ago I did much of PBP on (battery-powered) halogen light.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Why didn't you simply swap the halogen bulb with a LED replacement?

http://www.reflectalite.com/LEDpage.html

[Ian H]

They're not very bright, are they?

I was wondering why you were persevering with old technology.

When a friend and I went touring last year, she had an old halogen set-up whilst I had LED.  The disparity was enormous.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Most folk don't think that their vision (particularly night vision) degrades with age but they're wrong.

[Brucey]

...The 3W bulbs generally didn't blow, but got replaced after a year or so because they'd got dimmer.

ironically the filament itself may get brighter and brighter as it thins down from evaporation losses. However the light output of the bulb gets to be less and less, typically because the filament material ends up deposited over the inside of the glass capsule.

I've done many miles using pretty feeble lights; a little over half the power of a 3W halogen.  On darkened roads even a low powered light with a good beam pattern is enough to see by, but these day the 'arms race' of lighting is just stupid; any passing vehicle is enough to make your night vision disappear completely, and almost any bike light is unable to compete.

Age pays one's eyeballs no favours too, 'tis true....

cheers

[campagman]

Why didn't you simply swap the halogen bulb with a LED replacement?

I looked into this earlier this year but was put off by reports that if the LED bulb light source is not in the correct position to be properly focused by the reflector and lens then the LED may be no better or even worse.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

With close to six times the output, you want the beam to be less focussed than the original beam pattern. I did this and didn't think it was a waste of money. A Cyo is better though.

[Brucey]

Why didn't you simply swap the halogen bulb with a LED replacement?

I looked into this earlier this year but was put off by reports that if the LED bulb light source is not in the correct position to be properly focused by the reflector and lens then the LED may be no better or even worse.

that is a legitimate concern; there are two aspects to it:

First the emitter may be in the wrong location w.r.t to the original filament.  This will cause the effect of a parabolic type reflector to be not as intended. However if the position of the bulb can be altered, this can be mitigated to some extent.

Second, a typical filament bulb emits strongly in all directions; a significant amount of the light is thrown backwards and is reflected forwards by the reflector. However with an LED 'bulb' the light is typically thrown forwards only, because the LED device is mounted on a flat substrate. With a typical parabolic reflector, this leaves a 'hole' in what would normally be a focused beam. However provided the focus is adjustable, a satisfactory beam can usually be obtained.

This means that for example with maglites, the beam is far from perfect with an LED drop in bulb, but can usually be adjusted to be satisfactory.  I'd image that the same is true of most bike lights provided you can adjust the focus.

In comparable lamps that are designed to accept LED bulbs from the start, the shape of the parabola is different, so that the focal point of the parabola is only a little way above the reflecting surface; this allows the entire reflecting surface to be illuminated (in a way that is impossible with conversions) and allows a good beam to be made.

Bike lights are different to this, in that the ideal beam isn't a focused beam from a parabola anyway. Usually it is a 'suck it and see' business; with more light available the beam shape doesn't have to be perfect.

However a decent LED light (more powerful and with a better beam shape) is now only about £15 so why bother with an LED conversion (that is almost the same price) anyway...?

cheers

[mattc]

They're not very bright, are they?

I was wondering why you were persevering with old technology.

When a friend and I went touring last year, she had an old halogen set-up whilst I had LED.  The disparity was enormous.

oh, just because the light came free with a 2nd-hand dyno-wheel; so thought for a fiver it was worth keeping it running (possibly swapping 1 wheel between 2 bikes, or just as a spare). And saved me paying much more for a  modern light to try out the Dynamo lifestyle.

Why didn't you simply swap the halogen bulb with a LED replacement?

http://www.reflectalite.com/LEDpage.html

Simply because I didnt know they existed! I sort of assumed that they would be mentioned in this thread when I first started it ... 

Thanks anyway

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I didn't see the thread earlier.

[Brucey]

the link I put in my first reply directs you to a page that concerns halogen bulbs, because that is what you asked for.

 However if you click the tabs for 'bicycle bulbs' or 'led bulbs' on that page you get to see lots of (mostly LED) alternatives to halogen bulbs.  I thought that you would either be aware of them already (hence the specific nature of your enquiry) or that you would see the other pages and act accordingly.

cheers

[mattc]

the link I put in my first reply directs you to a page that concerns halogen bulbs, because that is what you asked for.

...

And much appreciated it was too 

[this really was simply a case of not looking for something that I assumed did not exist! Plus it is VERY rare for internet responders to all actually answer the question - folks nearly always point out how stupid your question is if they can ]

[rogerzilla]

I did like my old halogen E6 lamp but it was a bit disconcerting on tight bends, because you couldn't see a thing outside the very narrow beam.

New cars seem to be about 50% LED headlamps now.  HID lights are on the way out; they're not especially efficient, the burners cost a fortune to replace when they die and you need all sorts of HV electrickery to make them work.  Hopefully the £30 aftermarket HIDs fitted to chavmobiles will also die out - they're completely illegal and hugely dazzling but MoT testers don't do their jobs properly.  I suppose they'll just buy 3 million-lumen LEDs iinstead