Light and Motion Vega

[Veronica]

I just got this light today. I'll be testing it out when I ride out to meet Thom at BART. With the time change I'll be riding solo in the dark so I switched from two Cat Eyes to this. It seems to be about as bright as Thom's Surefire flashlight and has rechargeable batteries. The real test will be if I can see the pothole I hit last time. Before I hit again that is.

V

[Veronica]

This is a great light. It has 3 different light settings, plus a flashing setting. I tended to keep it on the medium setting for most streets. I used the high setting on the bike trail, the section of road with the deep pothole and the streets with crummy pavement. On the high setting the battery only lasts for about 2 hours, but the medium was fine for streets with good ambient lighting.

One thing - it drove my speedometer crazy. I averaged 75.9 mph on the trip. A little more separation on the handlebars seems to have solved that problem.

V.

[Adventure Girl]

One thing - it drove my speedometer crazy. I averaged 75.9 mph on the trip.

A friend told me that his light screwed up his wireless computer, but I didn't believe it until I experienced it myself. I'm not "Mr. Science" and I don't understand how the light waves (or whatever) do that to the computer...

[Cari]

Light and Motion addresses the issue in their FAQ page: http://www.bikelights.com/Support/Faqs.htm

Here's what they have to say about the issue:

Why doesn’t my wireless computer or HRM work when my ARC HID light is on?
The ARC HID light produces a weak EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) that interferes with most wireless transmitters on cycle computers and heart rate monitors. You will need to either move the computer away from the light, approximately 12”, use a hard wired computer, or ride without that annoying training device and just enjoy the night!

Moving the light and the computer/HRM away from each other has worked for me. Or if you use any model other than the Vega, you can use the cabeza mount to attach the light to your helmet and that will do the trick as well. Usually when I ride at night I like to pay attention to my surroundings and enjoy that cool feeling of "people must think I'm crazy but this is sooo much fun and they don't know what they're missing." So I just click my computer out of its mount, toss it in my jersey pocket, and check the data *after* I've enjoyed my ride.

Hope this helps,

~Cari