Head torch

I got one about a month ago and very impressed with it, I also wear under my bike helmet when out early morning.

Great bit of kit.

Mine arrived on Saturday, and took it for an outing last night - superb. I'm not used to actually being able to see where I'm putting my feet when running in the dark! Completed a time on my usual circuit of only 30 seconds worse than my PB on the route when running in good daylight conditions, and way better than I've ever run it in the dark.

Thanks to all on here who recommended the Alpkit - spot on. No pun intended. Honest!

Note to Alpkit Marketing: Create link to this thread from website, job done, sit back and relax.

I just did this:

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/events/sleepwalker-night-race-2012/202101.html

wearing this

http://www.outdoorkit.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6143&category_id=38

and it was fine.  I don't know what's good about the programmability of it but I was amazed that even though it was nearly 3 years old Petzl replaced my old myo xp with this one because it seemed to have become a bit unreliable.  Used petzl lights for decades and never had a complaint about them .

there are lots of recommendations on this

http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showthread.php?15581-Head-torch-recommendations

Does the Myo not use a diffuser to give the 'wide angle?. Most of us running aren't direction finding so  don't need the distance from a spot, we just need the wide angle. Using a diffuser to spread the light can't be as efficient as a lens designed to throw wide angle in the first place.

So the diffuser turns more light into less. As LEDs are highly efficient (low heat output) already then more light uses more battery quicker. It is all a bit of a trade off.

On navigation events I often wear Alpkit on head and hand carry a Petzl which throws a spot of light further. When trying to find paths I turn on the Petzl for distance + extra light.

Petzl I think just get caught in the mainstream distance competition. 1 million candle power torch anyone?

Got my Alpkit today. Haven't used it in anger, but it puts out a reasonable spread of light without any hotspots. I reckon it will be fine for most events and after dark running. If I were running pitch black, I'd use the £23 deal extreme one which is like a searchlight.

For 15 notes though, it seems very well built and sturdy.

What are the three little tiny lensy type things above the main lens for though?

there is a diffuser on the myo to spread the beam.  For the sleepwalker I tried both and as before found that having it on spotlight mode worked better for me - you never actually look at the ground at your feet do you?  the way the brain works you're instantly memorising for a second what you've just seen and then stepping right.  So on a fast downhill i tend to move the beam slightly further ahead.  when the mist is down and you can't see more than a few feet i focus it close.

I've not compared other head torches so maybe I'm just poorer than I could be. The alpkit is incredibly cheap for the praise it's getting.  I'll have to get one just to see

I don't know what the battery life is like - except that I didn't have fresh batteries on saturday, and it took me more than 4 hours and everything was still fine for walking the dog this evening

 or for pretending to be Cylons