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Vicious FAQ
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READ THIS FIRST:
Vicious Power lighting products have always been largely hand made in Australia. During 2007, it has been difficult for
Vicious Power to match demand with local production. At times, there have been long waiting
lists. It has been decided that until
the popular Vicious lighting designs are in mass production they will no
longer be offered for sale.
NB: Vicious Power will remain immersed in the lighting industry and
technical / lifetime warranty support for existing customers will remain
unchanged. Parts including batteries,
chargers, and small parts will be available for sale but no new lighting sets
will be available until further notice.
In the meantime, we would like to refer all new customers to Australian
brand NiteFlux. The 2007 NiteFlux
range is full of Vicious technology and in terms of lighting performance and
battery management is either equivalent or better. Details can be viewed at http://www.niteflux.com
or ask you local bike store
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Vicious
press release: http://viciouspower.com/pdf/Vicious_press_release_161106.pdf
This page is a work in progress and will be updated from time to time.
Most of the questions below relate to the Vicious Arc and portable HID and
LED lighting in general.
Meanwhile, if you have queries not dealt with here. Please contact us.
?
Got a different question? Contact us.
Do you have stock?
The pricing and how to buy section
of our Vicious Arc page is kept up-to-date with stock status. Production is ongoing and so far we have
been able to keep to a level where there is no delay in meeting orders. NB:
demand is rising all the time and waiting periods may apply in future.
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HID lights are rather
expensive. Should I wait a while until
the price comes down?
Although the use of HID lighting systems has become increasingly popular,
the cost of key components has not reduced in recent years. Also, the Vicious Arc has been designed and
built to be top of its class. Those
who want a great light are advised not to wait. It is very unlikely that the Vicious Arc
will ever come down in price.
(top)
Should I buy a LED
light, or a HID light?
Many lighting companies around the world are making this issue confusing
for consumers through extravagant marketing claims, however, we feel there is
a very clear and sensible approach that can be taken to this important
decision. Vicious Power sells both
these types of lights and so we can give unbiased advice. Both types of lights have different merits
and people should choose based on what they want the light for:
If someone wants maximum amount of light, then the Vicious Arc gives more
light output than any LED system on the market today and will continue to
outshine all LED systems for some years to come. Although many other bands are making claims
that LED lights can be as bright as HID lights, this is maybe because some
cheap HID brands out there are not performing very well really. However, if done properly, good HID lights
will outperform good LED lights for the foreseeable future. Although LEDs are improving in performance
all the time, they are not well suited to high power applications, because
they suffer severe performance reductions when hot.
Where LED really shines is in the ability to give excellent light output
at low powers. This allows a system
that can give very useable light for extended periods. For example, the Vicious LED gives enough
light to run and ride by for 20hrs from just one 200g battery. This makes it a true all night performer
and a real asset to any adventure racer or long distance point-to-point
rider. Also makes an excellent
all-week commuter.
To summarise; if you want maximum light for sports such as high speed MTB
riding, or fast alpine descending on road, then HID is a clear winner over
LED. If you need to go all night such
as in a point-to-point adventure race, then the Vicious LED will give useable
light for a long runtime, at a very light weight.
(top)
How bright are the Vicious Arc
and the Vicious LED compared to an equivalent halogen light?
This is a question that is not straightforward to answer. Comparing different lighting technologies
is somewhat like comparing apples with oranges. The colour of the light is often different
and beam patterns play a large part in determining the useable light. In short, we will not make comparisons to
?equivalent? amounts of halogen power.
What we can do is give some outline of what some people find them
suitable for:
.
At Vicious Power, the two company directors are regular night riders. One of them is happy to ride with a single
Vicious LED on a road-bike through the Adelaide
hills at 60kph. The other really
prefers the Vicious Arc for that sort of speed. Experienced adventure racers tell us that
the Vicious LED is a generous amount of light for that sort of racing. It is adequate for riding most of the time,
including single-track MTB riding and is ample for running over all terrain,
and for paddling. The low power is not
too bright for map reading. NB: in a
24-48hr AR event, riders are not sprinting the single-track in same way that
a rider might do in a 24hr MTB team event.
These short anecdotes do not say how bright the lights are and it should
also be stressed that these are not recommendations for individual
users. What we can say is that Vicious
Power lights are satisfaction guaranteed.
We guarantee that the Vicious Arc is the best light you will ever use for
high speed riding on road or off. It
doesn?t matter what sort of halogen you compare it to, the benefits of high
intensity output and low weight make it a joy to use. We also guarantee that any enduro athlete
will be delighted with the amount of light they get from the Vicious LED when
the system weight and runtime are considered.
We realise that the above paragraphs do not answer the question as
frequently asked, but this is the most sensible answer we can give to that
question.
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What second light should I use to supplement my Vicious Arc?
While it is always good practice to carry a spare of all critical
equipment, it is usually pointless actually powering a second light when the
Vicious Arc is running. The effect of
most other lights will disappear when the Vicious Arc is on. The only other light that will add
significantly to the total illumination is another Vicious Arc light. While there are a few special people out
there that do run two Vicious Arc lights at a time, most people are more than
happy with one.
When it comes to choosing a spare, we could recommend the Vicious
LED. It uses the exact same batteries
as the Vicious Arc so there maximum system redundancy in this choice. In the event of a serious accident or
injury, or a bike failure, the LED has ultra-long runtime to help you limp
home slowly. In the unfortunate event
that you cannot make your own way, the Vicious LED has a highly striking SOS
beacon pattern that will last for over 100hrs (from fully charged 200g
Vicious Li-Ion battery).
(top)
What second light
should I use to supplement my Vicious LED?
The Vicious LED and the Vicious Arc have been designed to share the same
battery systems. This means that if
you want to use the LED for a long trip but you want to use a brighter light
for some portions of the journey, you can use the Vicious Arc without the
need to carry more than one battery.
This strategy is popular with some adventure racers who like to use
the Vicious Arc for some very fast MTB riding. NB: many other racers find that the Vicious
LED is already adequate. Another good
reason to switch a Vicious Arc on occasionally is to aid navigation. Some racers find that the large flood lighting
effect of the Vicious Arc helps in navigation and it certainly true that
errors in this department can cost hours of wasted time in events where
participants have to choose their own course.
(top)
Are Vicious Power
lights waterproof?
All Vicious Power racing lights are water resistant and are suitable for
use in all water conditions including heavy rain.
The battery connectors are not waterproof but will not normally be harmed
by a bit of fresh water. If you intend
paddling in salt water, then please contact us
regarding waterproof connectors.
(top)
Should I use my light
helmet mounted or handlebar mounted?
Generally speaking, we recommend helmet mounting for off-road use and bar
mounting for on-road use.
This is because helmet mounted lights allow the user to see regardless of
where the bike is pointed. For
example, when jumping a MTB, it is not usually the case that the handlebars
are pointing towards the landing area.
Some people find that bright helmet mounted lights can make terrain
look flat and adversely affect depth perception. This can be countered to an extent by
making sure that the light is shone far ahead of the bike. With the immense light output of the
Vicious Arc, it is not necessary to have the light too close to the front wheel
so this usually works very nicely.
In road riding, it is quite common for the rider to be head-down, looking
very near the bike (staring at the top tube, gasping for breath etc). The ultra-bright light of the Vicious Arc
makes this sort of thing dazzling.
Also, in contrast to MTB riding, there is not usually any need to be
spotting landing areas for jumps or tricky lines etc. so handlebar mounting
is fine and more aerodynamic.
NB: For adventure racing, we strongly recommend that the Vicious LED should
not be consigned to the handlebars of a bike.
The Vicious LED can be forehead or helmet mounted and used for the
entire race. It is a waste to just
leave it on the bike.
Having said all that, the issue of helmet vs. bar mounting is a personal thing
for many people. The Vicious Arc comes
with both helmet and handlebar mounts as standard. The Vicious LED comes with helmet and
forehead mounting strap as standard and handlebar mounts are available on
request (free of charge).
(top)
Why are you selling to Australia
and NZ only? Why not worldwide?
The main reason is that demand in Australiais already enough to take care
of all the stock we can make in the short term.
(top)
How do Australian taxes
affect pricing for other counties?
Most things sold in Australia(everything
except essentials like fresh food, medicines, etc) are subject to a Goods and
Services Tax (GST) of 10%. For
example, a price of AUS$800 incl. GST equates to $727.27 + $72.73 GST. The GST part only applies to sales in Australia. If you are buying from overseas then what
we usually do is charge the full Australian price but throw in delivery by
express international courier for free.
(top)
It looks like the pricing is
the same for buying a complete lightset or if buying in bits and pieces. Is there any discount for buying the
complete set?
The pricing of Vicious Products is organised in a modular sort of
way. This means that you can add
things like extra lighting units or extra batteries to your existing system
without paying a price penalty.
The main advantage of buying all together is that the excellent packaging
that comes with the complete sets.
As of March 2006, all Vicious Arc and Vicious Duo sets (lights + battery +
charger) come with a free Pelican case. These
indestructible cases are the gold standard for storage and transport of
anything that you really want to keep safe.
(top)
In some places, you refer to 10W HID, in others, 12W; what power are you
really running?
The lamp we use in our Vicious Arc light was designed to run 10W
power. That is 10W to the lamp. Arc lamps do not connect straight to the
battery terminals though, the require ballast electronics to boost the
running voltage up to between 60V and 100V, plus there is an ignition circuit
too. In practice, ballast circuitry is
never 100% efficient. In our case,
when we run 12W power out of the battery, we get a little over 10W to the
lamp. Those figures actually represent
good efficiency, so far as most HID ballasts go. The efficiency of our ballast is certainly
much higher than that of other miniaturised ballasts used in portable lighting
designs.
(top)
Why is the Vicious Arc
only 12W, when others are 13.5W?
Wouldn?t more power be better?
12W input power to our high efficiency system gets the lamp running at the
power is was designed to work at. The
fact that other brands require 13.5W input power (Niterider and L&M both
run 13.5W power into their arc light products) to achieve this same operating
point just illustrates the fact that they are using less efficient
electronics. So this is a case where
higher input powers do not always translate directly into more light. No other bicycle lighting brands ever
discuss the issue of efficiency, so it is always hard for consumers to make
judgements based on the claimed power of the system.
12W into our electronics
gives a strong white light.We could run more power and get even more light
out but then the runtimes wouldn?t be as good.For cycling we feel that 12W
yields the right balance between light output, runtime, and weight.Now in the
case of our Vicious Dive, we have opted for a bit more input power (15W) and
the light is fantastic.The flipside is that we then need to spec a bigger
battery as standard, but this is OK because ultra light weight is not
important for divers.
(top)
You claim that the Vicious Arc is brighter than other HID lights. Where are the numbers to substantiate such
bold claims?
Many other lighting companies like to list various numbers regarding the
total lumens, the candela or candlepower, equivalence to a certain wattage of
halogen lighting power etc. etc. but there are so many ?methods? (some
appropriate and others not) of producing these numbers that meaningful
comparisons between brands are impossible and the data virtually meaningless. Also, such figures are impossible for the
average consumer to verify.
Accordingly we don?t list any such statistics.
The simple test that we recommend is that the user should take two
lighting brands out on a dark night and see which one gives the best
illumination on the road or trail where they are to be used. This somewhat subjective test is the only
one that really counts for the user in the end. For example, our claim that the Vicious Arc
is brighter than the 17W Cateye Stadium III is based on a side by side test
at a recent 24hr race and feedback from Stadium III owners who have also test
ridden the Vicious Arc.
You don?t need to just take our word for it though. Buy the Vicious Arc and compare it to
another HID yourself and you will soon see what we mean. If you are not 100% happy with your
purchase, return it for a refund. No
risk, no problems.
(top)
Why isn?t the Vicious Arc
light blue like most other HIDs
Arc lights have different colour characteristics to halogen lights and often
have a bluish tinge. This blue colour
gets quite pronounced when the lamp is running below it?s optimum power
level. So, when other brands of bike
lights give a blue colour, it is because the lamp is running
under-powered. Thus, the blue is not a
good sign. This is usually caused by
inefficiency in the electronics, and depression of battery voltage throughout
the running cycle.
The Vicious Arc regulates power to a constant level and the light is kept
very white for the entire running cycle.
The only time the Vicious Arc will look significantly blue is when it
is running in low power mode.
(top)
Sometimes the lamp
seems to flicker a little, is this normal?
It is normal for discharge lamps to flicker a little from time to
time. This is a characteristic caused
by the gasses responsible for the lighting mechanism. The behaviour is much more pronounced
immediately after ignition and also with low running power. It is rarely a problem in use.
(top)
Should I get the 6°
arc lamp or the 13° arc lamp?
We normally recommend the 13° beam for off-road riding as the extra
peripheral light is an aid to riding single-track, even when the light is
helmet mounted.
We normally recommend the 6° beam for road riding as the light penetrates
a little further into the distance and the tighter beam is less likely to
blind on-coming traffic.
Having said that, choice of beam pattern is a fairly personal choice and
we are normally prefer to let the buyer choose. If you buy a Vicious Arc light and think
that you may have made the wrong beam choice, we?ll happily swap the lamps
over for you free of charge.
(top)
What is the difference
between the 200g carbon covered battery and the 200g rubber coated battery?
The cells in these two different pack builds are the same quality.
Both these batteries weigh the same (the carbon is extremely light).
Both are waterproof (although not intended for underwater use).
The carbon casing can be dropped onto the road at 60kph and will still be
OK whereas any rubber coated battery would be scraped back to the metal by
this sort of abuse.
All batteries suffer reduced performance in very cold conditions, if left
exposed, the carbon battery will fare better because it is better
insulated. If kept in a pocket
backpack, then both batteries will perform the same.
The rubber coated battery is cheaper.
(top)
I already have my own battery pack; can I use the vicious power controller
with that battery pack and therefore save a bit of money on the full system
price?
We can customise the firmware in the power controller for such requests
but there are a few considerations potential buyers should consider:
- The available battery
range is 10-26V. This means that
you can set-up for 10-cell NiMH packs, 11-cell NiMH packs, 12V lead acid
batteries, 4-cell Li-Ion batteries and other combinations of higher
voltage. We do not recommend pack
voltages lower than 10V.
- The Vicious Arc uses
a unique three-pinned battery connector that provides a very secure
connection. We will not put any
other connector on the Vicious Arc because we feel that the majority of
commonly available connectors are of insufficient reliability and
security. If any buyer wants to
change the battery, they will be responsible for the connector. Cutting off the Vicious connector and
putting your own connector on is a job that many hobbyists could manage
easily but it should be noted that any user modifications will void the
warranty. We will supply spare
Vicious Power three-pin connectors if asked at the time of purchase.
- As for all systems,
best value is usually gained by buying all system components together,
rather than splitting the system up into separate bits. Also, the Li-Ion batteries in our
system are very reasonably priced.
However, feel free to contact us and
discuss your needs and we will give you a quote.
(top)
Why does Vicious Power
sell only HID and LED lights? Why
don?t you offer a wider selection such as (less expensive) halogen lights?
At Vicious Power, everything we make is designed to do the job reliably
and safely. Some people think that
poking around in the bush with piss-weak lights adds to the excitement (ie
the danger, the suspense etc), however we disagree. Weak lights force a
person to ride slower than they might like to and safety can be
compromised. Riding at night with good
lights can be exhilarating, and the different ambience can make it very
special. The enjoyment is maximised
when you have enough light to ride just as fast as you want. This is certainly the safest way to
approach night riding and safety is always worth investing in.
Now halogen lights can be made to give out a lot of light, but there are
certain disadvantages. There are two
main methods.
1)
Halogen lamps can be run hot (over volted) in order to produce fairly good
amounts of light. This is what most
commercially available halogen light-sets do to make them brighter than your
average DIY halogen light-set. Only
problem is that this strategy shortens lamp life and such a halogen lamp may
fail after 100-200hrs of use (check manufacturers data). The filaments of halogen lamps are
susceptible to breakage from shocks and trauma and could fail while riding
down hill at speed. This is obviously
not desirable. HID lights are arc
lamps; they have no filament and are less susceptible to failure due to
physical shock than halogen lamps.
This makes them more reliable than halogen lamps. The usual mode of failure for an arc lamp,
is that it gets harder and harder to start over the life of the lamp
(typically 1000hrs). Once started, the
arc is unlikely to ever go out during use.
2)
A method to get good reliable light from halogen technology is to a use a
high-wattage lamp such as 2x20W, 35W, or 50W.
This strategy is popular with people making DIY systems. Only problem with this approach is that
these combinations require large batteries to achieve modest runtimes. Pack-horses may be required!
Based on the limitations, outlined above, we have no immediate plans to
release any halogen lighting systems.
(top)
I gather the lamps in
HID systems are expensive. How long
will they last? Are they fragile?
The arc lamp itself is by far the most expensive single component in any
HID system and many people are nervous that they will break. However, because there is no filament in an
arc lamp, it is actually more robust than a halogen lamp of similar
size. In 5 years of product testing,
we have yet to see a single arc lamp fail because of (and despite) physical
abuse.
The median life of the Solarc? 10W arc lamp is 1000hrs. This is enough to last most riders several
years.
(top)
Vicious Power offers a
30-day satisfaction guarantee. Is
there any fine print there?
The only fine print in this deal is that cost of postage is incurred by
the buyer.
If you've got a big weekend of riding coming up or a race and you want to
buy the Vicious Arc with a view to getting a refund when the event is over,
then go ahead. We dare you to try it!
Once you try it, we are confident that you wont want to give it back.
(top)
Vicious Power Products
are not in shops, where can I get hold of the Vicious products to have a look
or test ride?
Vicious Power has ambassadors in most states throughout Australia
and also some in NZ. Contact us and we may be able to put you in touch
with someone local to you who has some of our gear to show or trial. Having said that, the majority of people
just buy the Vicious light that they want with the confidence that they can
return it after 30 days hard riding if unsatisfied.
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