Vicious Arc

  

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The Vicious Arc is radically different to all other HID bike lights on the world market.  We are not niggling about little details here, the list below includes 7 key ways that the Vicious Arc is significantly different and better than any other bike light:

  1. The Vicious Arc features a customised, regulated power controller giving light output that is constant, and with excellent electrical efficiency.  In a brightness vs. run-time comparison, the Vicious Arc is a long way ahead of the rest.  (Read more about our electronics).
  2. The helmet-mounted part of the Vicious Arc is 1/3 the weight of other HID systems.  (Read more about weight).
  3. The entire system weight for the Vicious Arc is less than any other on the world market.  (Read more about weight).
  4. The Vicious Arc is powered by Li-Ion batteries and features the Vicious Charger.  At 2hrs from empty to full, it is the fastest charger for bicycle lights on the world market.  It is also very safe.  (Read more about batteries and the Vicious Charger).
  5. All Vicious Power products carry lifetime warranty and 30-day satisfaction guarantee.  (Details)
  6. Vicious Power is a 100% Australian company.
  7. The best 24hr racers in Australia ride with the Vicious Arc. (Read more about our sponsored riders).

Pricing and how to buy.

Electronics

All HID bike light systems on the world market today, feature the 10W Solarc™ lamp from Welch Allyn (Cateye Stadium III no longer in production).  The Vicious Arc uses this excellent lamp too, however where the others use an off the shelf ballast solution, the Vicious Arc uses purpose built electronics that are more powerful, more efficient and more versatile than the rest.  The Vicious Power controller (patent pending) differs from other HID ballasts in two key ways:

Other HID systems use the Solarc™ 10W lamp and an off the shelf ballast in a can from Welch Allyn as pictured to right at bottom.  The Vicious Arc system features revolutionary split system (patent pending) ignition and power control (patent pending) electronics as pictured to right at top.  The vicious system offers two main advantages over other systems.

 

 

  1. The light-head of the Vicious Arc contains a Solarc™ lamp and one very small ignition PCB.  Other HID bike lights carry a ballast can (pictured right) and many models also add another batch of electronics for high-low power selection.  All this extra circuitry makes the light-head long and heavy.  The head unit of the Vicious Arc is very light and this is of great benefit in helmet-mounted systems (read more about weight).  The power controller in the Vicious Arc system is separate to the light-head.  The controller is small and can easily be kept in a pocket, clipped to the strap of a backpack, or handlebar mounted.  Because we have not attempted to squeeze all the power electronics into a can in the head unit, the Vicious Power controller can afford to use better componentry in key areas of power management.  This allows the Vicious Power controller to be more powerful and efficient than others. Better power handling and efficiency makes our 12W light brighter than other HID systems.  In a side by side comparison, the Vicious Arc is significantly brighter than the many other 10-14W HID systems currently on the market.  It is even brighter than the Cateye Stadium 3 (a 17W HID system)! The light from the Vicious Arc will make riding more fun and safer, whether riding technical off-road single-track or screaming down an alpine road on the tarmac.

    Better efficiency also allows better runtimes from smaller batteries.  The Vicious Arc features a default power of 12W.  With a 200g Li-Ion battery, nominal runtime is 2 ˝ hrs.  A 400g Li-Ion battery runs over 5 hrs.  Low power mode of 7W extends runtime even further giving runtimes up to 4 ˝ hrs from 200g battery and over 9 hrs from 400g battery.

    Check out the runtimes from other brands and do the weight vs. runtime comparisons.  Because the Vicious Arc can get optimum brightness from just 12W input power, the Vicious Arc will always come out on top.  NB: Some other brands seem to have difficulty in publishing realistic runtimes for their lighting systems.  There is a very easy way to check the realism of published runtimes:

    The total amount of energy in a battery is the product of battery volts (V) and charge capacity in amp hours (Ah).  The result is the number of watt hours (Wh).

    Runtime is the battery watt hours divided by the power that the lamp consumes.  The following examples look at the bigger Li-Ion batteries from some leading brands:

    Example a)

    		The Vicious Li-Ion 400g battery is 14.8V, 4.6Ah. 14.8 x 4.6 = 68.0 Wh.
    At 12 watts, nominal runtime = 68.0 ÷ 12 = 5.7 hours.  At 7W, runtime = 68.0 ÷ 7 = 9.7hrs.

    Example b)

    		Light and Motion have got the maths right and publish realistic runtimes.
    Their Arc Li-Ion Ultra battery weighs about 475g and at 11.1V battery, around 6.6Ah, the total energy is 73.2Wh.
    At 13.5W system input power, nominal runtime = 73.2 ÷ 13.5 = 5.4hrs.
    This time is less than the Vicious system but the battery is bigger and heavier.

    Example c)

    		The Niterider MOAB Li-Ion battery has a claimed charge capacity of 7.2Ah and at 11.1V has total energy of 79.9Wh.
    The weight is not specified but the MOAB battery would be very similar to the Arc Li-Ion Ultra as per example b) above.
    At 10W, the runtime would be 7.99hrs, at 13.5W, the runtime might be about 5.9hrs.
    These figures are a lot different than the extraordinary runtimes claimed on the Niterider site. 


  2. The Vicious Power controller features power regulation; meaning light output from the system is constant throughout the battery discharge cycle. The Vicious Arc light is not brighter at the start and dimmer at the end, it is an even brightness all the way through the whole runtime.  Now some other HID systems do also achieve regulation, but they do it by tacking a separate input voltage regulator onto an off the shelf ballast.  Whilst this approach can achieve constant light power, it does it at the expense of electrical efficiency.  The Vicious Power regulator is regulated right at the primary power stage of the switch mode controller so does not suffer any loss of efficiency.  This is one of the key reasons why the Vicious Arc is the most efficient 10W HID system in the world.

    The Vicious Power controller maintains regulation across a wide range of input voltages.  By default, the system is configured to run from 4 Li-Ion cells but it can easily accept input voltage as high as 26V.  This flexibility allows a great number of battery combinations to be used straight out of the box.  All of the power management is done digitally so if you have any special needs, different power levels can be programmed in at the time of production.  Please contact us for custom settings.

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Weight

The Vicious Arc is the lightest and most compact HID system in the world.  The light-head of other HID units on the market today typically weigh around 180g - 300g (including the mounting gear).  The light-lead of the Vicious Arc weighs less than 80g (including the mounting gear) and is not much bigger than a golf ball!  The split system design is what makes this weight saving possible.  The lightweight carbon fibre shell helps too.

Total system weight for the Vicious Arc is 400g for the 2 ˝ hr Li-Ion battery option and only 80g of that is on the helmet.  Compare the Vicious specs to the various offerings from Light and Motion (the ARC Li-Ion is their lightest offering) and the Niterider (the FLITE is their lightest).  Both come in heavier than the Vicious Arc and the most significant thing is the massive helmet mounted weight in these units.

Weight weenies will say all this light-weight talk is a good thing.  There is little point spending $$$ on a lightweight bike just to weigh it down with heavy lights and batteries.  However the benefits are more significant than weenyism.  Whether you are an extreme free riding dude or an ultra-endurance racer, a lightweight helmet mounted light has big benefits.

Dudes who ride at night know that if you want to jump (and more importantly, land it), you really need a good helmet mounted light.  HID is the best in high performance lighting but heavy helmet mounted gear can cause helmets to move around over rough terrain.  Because the light-head of the Vicious Arc is so lightweight, and is also nice and short, helmet positioning and stability is not affected.  With the Vicious Arc, you can land jumps, hit ruts, and brake hard, without your light falling off your helmet or your helmet tipping over your eyes.

Other than better helmet stability, the main benefit of lightweight helmet mounted gear is a reduction in neck stress compared to other HID systems.  Heavy helmet mounted lights put great stress on neck joints and muscles.  This can cause injury to extreme free riding dudes, (or anyone with a history of neck injury or pain) and can also add to the fatigue of endurance riding.  The Vicious Arc has been tested with great success by elite endurance racers and if you are planning to do any 24hr or multi-day event, every bit of energy saved can make a big difference, especially when the pixies come out at night.

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Batteries and the Vicious Charger

The foundation of any portable electronic system is the power source.  In future years (decades), this may be a fuel cell or a nanotech motor/generator but for the moment it is a battery.  The Vicious Arc features lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery technology, which offers the most lightweight and compact solution of all rechargeable batteries.

Li-Ion batteries are not commonly found in bicycle lighting systems because of the need for extra regulation to manage the voltage options available in this battery type.  Because the Vicious Arc incorporates a regulated power controller, voltage options that are awkward for other manufacturers are no problem at all for us.  New battery technologies will emerge over the years, the Vicious Arc is ready.

Before Vicious Power started making bike lights, we were already designing high performance, smart battery chargers.  The Vicious Charger comes standard with all Vicious Power products and is not an afterthought.  It is a state of the art device, engineered for absolute performance and safety.

The Vicious Charger has two speeds.  When powered from the 240V mains adapter (included), it does a complete charge in 2hrs or under (depending on the state of battery charge).  You can safely charge our batteries in the same time or less than it takes to deplete them.  When powered by the 12V car adapter (also included) charge time is cut by half!  Take two small battery packs and a charger to a 24hr race and you can go all night.

The Vicious Charger can be powered from any DC source of 12V-24V (rated at 50W continuous power) and can step up or step down to delivery charge voltage as required.  This makes it perfect for use in the field, away from mains power.  No inverters or other cabling is required for 12V operation.

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Warranty

All Vicious Power products are designed to perform over a lifetime of rugged use and carry lifetime warranty.

However, all batteries deteriorate with time, even if kept on the shelf.  Battery warranty is 1 year only.

All lamps deteriorate with use.  The median lamp life of the Solarc 10W lamp is 1000hrs, this will last most people several years.

Warranty on lamps is 1 year only and excludes breakage due to trauma.  During 5 years of off-road testing with Solarcä lamps, there have been plenty of heavy crashes and we are yet to see any lamps fail due to trauma.

All Vicious Power products carry 30-day satisfaction guarantee.  If you are not 100% happy, return (used or unused) for full refund, no reason required (postage excluded).

NB: Customised products can not be refunded, however we will make every effort to get the product setup to your liking and lifetime warranty applies as normal.

All Vicious Power products are designed in-house so we know our products intimately, absolutely.  Please feel free to contact us with any technical queries.

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