# Lights to a Bosch cx system 2020



## Geoff666 (May 4, 2020)

has anyone put lights to a ebike with the bosch cx 2020 motor?
Are there any plug and play systems?
My bike is the Scott aspect eride 920


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

There are some German made lamps designed to work with voltages used on ebikes but whether one of those works with your bike would depend on whether it has an output port on the bike designed for providing an output voltage for a light. Wish my ebike had one but no big deal for me since the amount of time I spend riding at night wouldn't really make it worth while to spend the money for the extra setup. ( Note; my road ebike does have a built in front light on the head tube and while it's not bad ( ~ 400 lumen ) kinda sucks that it doesn't help much when you are making sharp turns. Most of the time I don't even use it as I prefer my handlebar mounted Raveman lamps and the wide beam pattern they provide.


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## MRMOLE (May 31, 2011)

Geoff666 said:


> has anyone put lights to a ebike with the bosch cx 2020 motor?
> Are there any plug and play systems?
> My bike is the Scott aspect eride 920


Thinking about this Cat-man-do and my dentist are the only people I know of with ebikes. If you haven't already done so, posting your question in the ebike section might get you better response results.
Mole


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## biking_tg (Dec 27, 2018)

According to this document(pdf) provided by lupine lighting, the gen4/2020 CX bosch systems provide 12V/18W max from the dedicated light port (which your bike dealer might need to activate via software first). You have to dismantle the motor housing or ask your bike shop to connect the light for you.
So any light which accepts 12V DC supply and doesn't require more than 18W is compatible. Here are some european companies that provide plenty of choice: B&M (Busch&Müller), Axa, Hermanns and Spanninga. If you are willing to pay premium: Supernova (M99 Mini 25/45) and Lupine (SL, SLF, SLX).
Recommendation for CX compatible and reasonable priced (if bought from a german retailer) lights with solid output : B&M IQ-XE (cut-off only) or B&M IQ-XM (dipped beam and high beam). Outbound Focal Road/Trail is also able to accept up to 13V DC supply voltage, although you can't use the highest two modes (adaptive, hig, those draw up to 20W, you would have to switch quickly to the med-high mode which draws ~13W), the light head alone is available for 140 USD (send a request for this to Outbound)


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## Geoff666 (May 4, 2020)

Great infos.. Thank you !


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

MRMOLE said:


> Thinking about this Cat-man-do and my dentist are the only people I know of with ebikes. If you haven't already done so, posting your question in the ebike section might get you better response results.
> Mole


:lol: MRM, you gave me a good laugh. Likely you are right if talking about MTBR forums but if you ever peruse the "Electronics and Lighting" sections on Bike Forums, they talk about anything having to do with bike lighting regardless of what type of bike you ride ( although they too have an ebike sub-forum ).

Interestingly enough last night I pulled up to an Urgent Care that I had to go into in the course of doing my job. Parked outside on the sidewalk was one of those foldable E- fat tire bikes similar to some of the stuff I've seen on Amazon only this one was much nicer and setup rather well. Not to mention had a couple lights on it. When I went inside I found the guy who owned it and we must of talked for about half an hour about bike lights in general as well as ebikes. I won't be surprised if he ends up joining us here on MTBR.

Anyway, I'm glad the thread starter got the answer he was looking for. I knew someone would chime in that knew more about lights designed for ebikes than me. Yes he might of gotten the same answer in the ebike section but when it comes to bike lighting there is always going to be a lot of cross over no matter what type of bike you ride.


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## sandyman44 (Jun 15, 2020)

Geoff666 said:


> has anyone put lights to a ebike with the bosch cx 2020 motor?
> Are there any plug and play systems?
> My bike is the Scott aspect eride 920


happened to come across this whilst browsing for some other info so thought I'd add my results of research. I have a bike that is almost identical to yours, Scott Genius E-ride 2020. If you have a nosey around your bike you will find an unterminated cable inside the down tube (where all the cable runs are behind the down tube battery), and another one along the wheel side of the chainstay , unterminated near the dropout. If you activate the lights on your bike. you will get 12v out of each of these cables. They are already connected to the motor. So you just need to put some appropriate electrical connectors onto these and extend them to where you want to put your lights.

As for choice of lights, I've done a lot of research of the german ones. There isn't enough power output from the ebike light port, to run any decent MTB night riding lights. The lights with high beam (lupine SL F, SLX, Supernova M99's are expensive, and the high beam still wouldn't be powerful enough for night MTB riding, so I am not sure they are worth having. So for that purpose I think will stick with lighting designed for night MTB use, that runs off dedicated batteries.

however for road riding with Dipped beam the convenience and beam shape of the german stvzo stuff wired to the ebike output can't be beat. So At the moment I'm thking to try to get a B+M IQ-XE from germany, together with the go-pro mount adapter, and bar mount it with a gropro clone barmount. Its reasonable value for the lumens output (at least for something for stvzo) and its under the power output level of the bosch CX .


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## Geoff666 (May 4, 2020)

Thank you. Very usefull infos.


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## biking_tg (Dec 27, 2018)

sandyman44 said:


> [...]
> As for choice of lights, I've done a lot of research of the german ones. There isn't enough power output from the ebike light port, to run any decent MTB night riding lights. The lights with high beam (lupine SL F, SLX, Supernova M99's are expensive, and the high beam still wouldn't be powerful enough for night MTB riding, so I am not sure they are worth having. So for that purpose I think will stick with lighting designed for night MTB use, that runs off dedicated batteries.


I'd like to add to this: a modern e-bike light connection with 18W delivers plenty of power for proper mtb night riding. It is all about beam shape. That said, i own a Lupine SL F (as a battery version). The beam is plenty wide and plenty bright. If used in combination with a helmet light (which is anyway useful for turns), you can do mtb night riding. Same applies to the supernova M99 Mini Pro 25 series.
I compared my SL-F with a Lupine Blika, and the latter just spills more light in areas where you do not necessarily need that much. With both lights you can see at least 170 ft in total darkness.

The downside of the SL-F is a quite cold beam tint due to the double lens system (~7200 K), the M99 is notably warmer (since it uses a reflector). The SL-X will have a warmer beam tint than the SL-F (no lenses).
here is a video of the Lupine SLX used for some serious downhill at night

Especially the Lupine E-Bike lights are still designed for MTB riding, the supernova lights are maybe a tad more towards road riding designed. whether one is willing to spend that much is a different topic....

back towards the topic of "not enough power for proper mtb night riding": read the customer reviews for the the outbound focal trail edition on outboundlighting webpage, most people don't even use the high mode (which has "only 1500 lm" from the LEDs, optical losses not even accounted) and are plenty happy with those lights for night riding. It is really about beam shape...


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## angerdan (Sep 18, 2017)

sandyman44 said:


> There isn't enough power output from the ebike light port, to run any decent MTB night riding lights.
> The lights with high beam (lupine SL F, SLX, Supernova M99's are expensive, and the high beam still wouldn't be powerful enough for night MTB riding, so I am not sure they are worth having.
> So for that purpose I think will stick with lighting designed for night MTB use, that runs off dedicated batteries.
> 
> however for road riding with Dipped beam the convenience and beam shape of the german stvzo stuff wired to the ebike output can't be beat. So At the moment I'm thking to try to get a B+M IQ-XE from germany, together with the go-pro mount adapter, and bar mount it with a gropro clone barmount. Its reasonable value for the lumens output (at least for something for stvzo) and its under the power output level of the bosch CX .



Bosch Performance CX 2020 has 18W output. Enough even for the new Lupine SL X as well as the Supernova M99 Mini Pro.
For night rides a second helmet light would be useful.
Lights with optional high beam aren't expensive, they are worth the costs. 
The B&M IQ-XM, IX-QL and IQ-XS High Beam are below 250€.
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/b-m-neuheiten-2021-ixon-rock-iq-xl-iq-xs-high-beam.932991/
For offroad use, a second bike light would be a good choice - in addition to a pedelec-battery powered one.


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