Next Generation LED Flashlights: TerraLUX Lightstar 220

Since I've been riding around on my electric scooter and driving a pedicab downtown at night, I've taken an interest in bicycle lights and flashlights. Getting a small, light weight, bicycle light that is bright enough to been seen at night was relatively easy. But getting a light bright enough to see out night was always tough. The bicycle lights have been heavy (battery the size of a water bottle), expensive, and/or had short run times.

But I have discovered that the new generation of LED flashlights are far superior to the old flashlights we are use to. They are small, lightweight, relatively inexpensive (less than $50), and throw off a beam that is orders of a magnitude brighter than your typical household flashlight or even something like a Mag flashlight, which I thought were never that impressive to begin with. Most of the new LED flashlights are built around a CREE lamp. Most of them are regulated which means the maintain consistence brightness with varying battery voltages. They are sold under brand names you probably never heard of like Fenix, TerraLUX, ITP, EagleTac, and others. They are built with anodized aluminum instead of the cheap plastics that most flashlights and bicycle lights (i.e. Cateye) are made out of.

They are powered either by lithium cells or the more common AA/AAA batteries. The ones powered by lithium seem to offer better performance. Either they are smaller or lighter or they are bright and/or last longer in a given size. However, AA/AAA cells are much easier to find (in virtually every store) when the batteries do die.

The flashlight I have here is a TerraLUX Lightstar 220. It has a claimed brightness of 220 lumens. It is the brightest flashlight I have ever owned. It is powered by just 2 AA batteries and will last about 2 hours at the high setting on a set of AA Energizer 2500 NiMH rechargeable batteries. It claims to have a 6 hour run time on the low setting. It's pretty easy to carry an extra set of AA batteries in your pocket or find a set if the run times aren't long enough.

It's bright enough for cycling at night with a flashlight handlebar mount and will easily light up 50 yards in front of you. If you want more light, it would not be hard to mount two of these on a bicycle handlebar because they are small enough. It seems to be sturdy built out of anodized aluminum. There are 2 settings high and low. The low setting seems to be about half as bright and is useful since the high setting may be too bright for close up work.

It comes with a wrist strap and pouch. I got a $2 flashlight handlebar mount from MeritLine.com that seems to work well enough. Assuming this flashlight proves to be durable enough, I recommend it as a cycling headlight (any taillight usually works fine) or as a general purpose flashlight. If you've never seen one of these, you'll be amazed to how small and bright they are. The lithium powered versions are probably smaller, lighter, brighter, and/or last longer, but I like using AA cells as I know I can get them anywhere.

Australia Interesting Facts...

It's been about a month since I got back from Australia. It's a great little (in terms of population) country. Great weather, affordable (a little less than the US at the current exchange rates), with a diverse population. I would consider moving there and definitely plan to visit again as long as airfares are as cheap as they are. The culture seems to be close to British and European with an Asian influence in the big cities (i.e. Sydney). I saw a lot of Europeans and Asians and very few Hispanics (didn't see any in fact) and Blacks (very few).

The mass transportation system seems better developed than the US. I spent 10 days there and never needed a car. I only took a taxi twice. I got everywhere I wanted to go on planes, trains, buses, ferry, and foot. Of course, I stayed near the cities. If you want to go explore the Outback, then you would definitely need a car. Gas (or petrol as the Aussies call it) was about AU$1.10 per liter. That's over AU$4 per gallon or US$3.32 per gallon. It's probably more now since gas has gone up since I've been there.

I liked Brisbane more than Sydney. It's cleaner, not as crowded, and a lot prettier. Gold Coast is also a great place to hang out as it is the vacation hot spot for Australia with lots of high rises, beaches, restaurants, souvenir shops, and other attractions. You will definitely want to check out Surfer's Paradise while you are there.

Traveling in Australia is easy. If you are comfortable traveling in the US, you shouldn't have any problems in Australia. It's not hard to buy a plane ticket and figure everything out when you get here. There are plenty of places to exchange money, eat, find accommodations, and buy whatever you may need.

Talking to some of the locals, it seems Australians get paid better than Americans. The minimum wage is AU$14.31 per hour, but it seems that many low level workers make more than this. That is much higher than the US$6.55 per hour here. Also, it seems non skilled workers get paid substantially more there than in the US. When you factor in that the country has universal health care while most of our non skilled workers are uninsured and have no health care coverage, they earn substantially more than Americans.

I'm not sure how they do it. Things don't seem to be anymore expensive than what they are here. The only thing I can think of is that their government does not have the massive debt that we do and they aren't spending hundreds of billions fighting wars like we are. Or perhaps its because there is far less corruption and special interest groups in Australia compared with the USA. There are only 22 million people there, which is fewer people than there are in Texas.