Premium Headlight (for Radcity 5)

[RadPaco]

hey there. anyone has upgraded from the regular headlight to this Premium headlight which is rated at twice the brightness of the standard? Just curious if upgrading would drain a lot more energy from the battery...I know LED technology is efficient.Just wondering...I also wish there was a larger capacity battery in the future! But the cost may be prohibitive!
anyways...the headlight...maybe too bright?

[inoxa]

FYI I have read recently upgrading lights can cause the controller to fail.  Sorry I don't have the source.

There are aftermarket batteries but not RAD.  Another RAD option is to add a second RAD battery.  But honestly you will get a larger battery for about the price as the smaller RAD battery.

Just make sure you look for Samsung or LG battery cells.  Otherwise you get what you pay for.

[DickB]

In comparison to the motor, headlight current is negligible.

If upgrading to the Rad Premium headlight, the controller can handle it.

[JimInPT]

hey there. anyone has upgraded from the regular headlight to this Premium headlight which is rated at twice the brightness of the standard? Just curious if upgrading would drain a lot more energy from the battery...I know LED technology is efficient.Just wondering...I also wish there was a larger capacity battery in the future! But the cost may be prohibitive!
anyways...the headlight...maybe too bright?

If you're referring to Rad's own "premium" optional headlight, I found it to be better-looking than the stock unit, but otherwise absolutely useless to the point of being dangerous on our rural roads where a moonless night means you're in dark-dark with only your headlight.  The beam pattern is a tiny postage-stamp piece-of-crap rectangle that won't find potholes or critters until you're on them and maybe too late to slow or stop.  So I kept mine on the bike to use occasionally as a daylight running light or emergency night light, but long ago switched to this for both day and night - it's pretty amazing and with internal rechargeable battery won't affect your bike's circuits.  Plus, it has several modes including a daylight slow-stobe that is highly visible to oncoming traffic and easily removes to use as a pocket flashlight.

https://amzn.to/46CyM84

[RadPaco]

the upgraded light looks nicer for sure but I won't depend on it for my night biking...I live in a big city. Always some light. I imagine that for rural areas or not well lit streets much better lights are needed. I have a cygolite also that I use for daytime cycling. Thanks for the ideas...I think I'm fine for now but if the current headlight fails in the future I will try the official RAD upgraded, brighter headlight. About a battery of the RAD...I'll stick to the official RAD battery.

[Omidia Ramin]

So after also finding the premium headlight ridiculous, I bought this one (it?s plug and play and doesn?t draw Too much power) on my rover step thru?. It?s great. I?m glad I went with the yellow? it?s fine and less blinding to others.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/234738995390

As for more capacity, I got a second battery from rad and the datex2 which lets you use both batteries at the same time. It?s also mostly plug And play except you have to figure out all the mounting yourself (which is not hard but not easy!)

[JimInPT]

So after also finding the premium headlight ridiculous, I bought this one (it?s plug and play and doesn?t draw Too much power) on my rover step thru?. It?s great. I?m glad I went with the yellow? it?s fine and less blinding to others.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/234738995390

Thanks for the tip; I'll give it a try as well to have a wired headlight that actually works at night.

[JimInPT]

Got it and installed it yesterday, tested last night on my 2021 MiniST2.  I'm impressed!  Bright, good beam pattern, decent price and very ruggedly built from the looks and heavyweight feel of it.  The yellow light takes some getting used to, but it's no different from blueblocking sunglasses I suppose.

Thanks again for the tip!

[JimInPT]

WARNING - I just got a reply from Area 13 saying the 35A controller upgrade is limited to 5w headlight power and can only handle the stock 5w headlight, not even the "Premium" Rad headlight.

I checked with them after reading this:

Will only work with stock 200 lumen headlight, will not work with the 500 Lumen headlights. THE 500 will burn up your controller.

from here:  https://area13ebikes.com/products/radkit

I assume this applies to the upgrades sold by ElectroBikeWorld and other vendors as well.  This seems like a ridiculous design spec on an "upgrade" controller, but Area13 is adamant about this.

I haven't had a problem, but I almost never ride after dark, so my use so far was limited to a few minutes after installation of this 10w unit to get it aligned to the road:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/234738995390

So it looks like I'll be removing this one and leaving both it and the Rad "Premium" headlight in my spare-parts box.

Sigh.

[Paco]

In comparison to the motor, headlight current is negligible.

If upgrading to the Rad Premium headlight, the controller can handle it.

HI there...6 months later...I got the upgraded light installed and it sure looks nicer than the stock light-much bigger but the beam is not the greatest. However for a general light for morning/evening/night use is good (I still use a Cygolite light on my handlebar)- I like it. I don't think it will drain the battery too much. Otherwise I'm not in search of good ergonomic grips...