Commuting lights - which are the best???

alfablue

Blue lights are illegal as far as I know. You may only have a white light on the front, red on the rear.

always_tyred

You could have an amber blinkie on the side.

demBones

@SINGLESPEEDEXPLOSIF Hi there nice to know there are local peeps on here.

Hi back What sort of time do you commute? wonder if we pass each other? I usually leave Uppermill by 06:00 and heading home..Staly around 16:45?[/quote]

set off at 5:15am usually and the train home gets into staly at about 15:45 or 16:45 if im on the late one. ride a white scott speedster hybrid usually in northwave skeleton tops.

won't be cycling everyday this week as im resting up ahead of the great north run next weekend.

hope to see you around

TheRevOlutionary

NitrousOxide wrote:

They are more expensive than the Fenix, but they claim 670 lumens :shock: for £120 inc. postage...
http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/?p=1121

There is a place (Deal Extreme) that does torches claiming 900lumens with just 2xCR123 batteries I think. Will try find it and post the link. They only charge about £30-40 with free shipping 8)

alfablue

TheRevOlutionary wrote:

NitrousOxide wrote:

They are more expensive than the Fenix, but they claim 670 lumens :shock: for £120 inc. postage...
http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/?p=1121

There is a place (Deal Extreme) that does torches claiming 900lumens with just 2xCR123 batteries I think. Will try find it and post the link. They only charge about £30-40 with free shipping 8)

There are P7 emitter torches at Deal Extreme for around $50 dollars delvered (so about £28 delivered). The 900 lumens is theoretical, they will put out less than that, probably nearer the 670 of the Airbike ones at On-One, which also use P7's. The CR123 batteries require a specific charger, and run time will b fairly short, maybe 1 hour. They are probably fine, but not a direct equivalent of the Airbike, which has a dedicated lithium battery pack and charger that will give about 4 hours run time included in the price. I think they represent good value for the output, however they are just about the first P7 bike lights available, I would expect there to be more options appearing in the next year.

The Q5 emitters on the Fenix are very bright, I actually think the P7's may be too much for on the road, obviously off-road you can't have too much. For now I still think the Fenix L2D CE's represent the best solution for the money unless you are a mountain biker (IMHO).

Mithras

Stanley222 wrote:

Kushtrim wrote:

This is a really silly idea I know but...

I have a Cateye Ld-610 rear light which is really good and I would recommend to anyone. I was thinking of combining it with a blue led light (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250294951707&ih=015&category=22689&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1) that should give a red and blue police type affect, which might put drivers off passing so close however they might knock me down for being such a c**t. Not to mention the fact that it's probably illegal.

Any opinions???

Surely having a blue light is asking to be stopped by Plod?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh! Yeas..If I found you I'd probably confiscate them! And stick them on my job bike because I don't have any yet!

Kieran_Burns

I was cycling in near full dark last night for the first time this year and was finally able to see what the Cat eye Single Shot plus can do.

What a great light! Lit the road up in a great pool in front of me and had my wife peering through the windows of the house when I pulled up - she thought a car had pulled onto the drive! 8)

Feltup

My Fenix arrived today so I will try it in anger tonight for the first time. Just putting it on in the dark office it is 10 times brighter than my cateye EL410. Will report tomorrow.

Scrumple

Mine arrives tomorrow.

I coveted the Ay Ups, then the P7's. Now I have bought the L2D for £42 all in, I'm happy. I realise the rest are overkill for road use at night. Best isn't always needed!
I like the all in one package, that clips on and off. Can't be doing with extra battery packs and gubbins hanging everywhere!

Feltup

Cycled home in the dark last night with the new Fenix and I have to say I am impressed. I set off at 8.30 and my ride is along country roads with no street lamps and a lot of it is overhung by trees i.e. proper dark! The Fenix gave me enough light on the max normal setting i.e. 107 lumens to spot all the potholes early enough to avoid them and there was enough spread of light to give some peripheral vision too thus avoiding the tunnel vision syndrome. I was typically sat at 20-22mph average. For fast descents the extra light in turbo mode would give you even more piece of mind.

I think my cateye is good to run alongside as it is visible from wider angles. I shall be running both; the cateye flashing to highlight me to traffic and the Fenix to see where I am going.

btw cars dipped their lights a lot earlier when I had the Fenix on

alfablue

Feltup wrote:

Cycled home in the dark last night with the new Fenix and I have to say I am impressed. I set off at 8.30 and my ride is along country roads with no street lamps and a lot of it is overhung by trees i.e. proper dark! The Fenix gave me enough light on the max normal setting i.e. 107 lumens to spot all the potholes early enough to avoid them and there was enough spread of light to give some peripheral vision too thus avoiding the tunnel vision syndrome. I was typically sat at 20-22mph average. For fast descents the extra light in turbo mode would give you even more piece of mind.

like we said 8)

c12345

Heres my homebrew solution. 2 Luxeon star 3W leds and a sealed ledacid gel battery. The battery is quite heavy, but its got a runtime of 5hrs (I slightly underpower the leds to get better life). Its also not so critical about being charged from half discharged like Li or NiCd, and I carry it in my shirt back pocket or a rucsac.

Anyway, total cost is £14 for the tourches (£7 each) from HK via ebay. £8 for the batery. Very bright. Only downside is that beacuse it is helmet mount you get no shadows, so you're depth info is messed up, so potholes are hard to judge (but at least you can see them from a mile off).

Now for the pics (sorry bout the size)






EDIT - smaller pics

singlespeedexplosif

I can't quite make those out...any chance of a bigger pic?

TheRevOlutionary

I went with the Fenix L1D Q5 in the end and some 2700 rechargeable AAs, figured the 120ish lumens should be enough for what i'd use it for and it's small enough to hardly notice strapped with the TwoFish mount. All the reviews said that the Fenox were far better build quality and more realistic lumen rating with other claiming 200+ but not getting near that in reality. Will hopefully recieve them tomorrow

c12345

... yeah, the size is a little large: it was straight off my phone unfortunately.
The two tourches togeather are 160 lumens, but you can drive them upto 280 lumens if you don't mind you're batteryrunning down in an hour. Not bad for £21.

daniel_b

c12345 wrote:

... yeah, the size is a little large: it was straight off my phone unfortunately.
The two tourches togeather are 160 lumens, but you can drive them upto 280 lumens if you don't mind you're batteryrunning down in an hour. Not bad for £21.

c12345, I've resized the 4 pics for you, if you pm me an e-mail address, I'll punt them over to you, and you can edit your post further up.

Nice looking setup btw.

Dan

paulintheforest

I've just commuted for the first time all the way home (30 miles) and used my lumicycle lights. A friend from work rode with me (and back again to collect his car to rub it in how bad I am :oops: ) He's an experienced roadie and was impressed with the lights. They are about equivalent to having a car light on the bike to my eyes, and cars assume it's another car or motorbike coming. Tonight we were on a narrow road and cars kept pulling over for us thinking it was another car

They are not cheap, I got two front lights and the rear with the endurance battery, total cost about £270 a couple of years ago, but I've been night riding in the new forest and the lighting is brilliant. I think my friend might be online buying a set right now since I insisted he use them to ride home as was 30 miles of unlit rural roads. He's already called to say he's back safe and that the lights were impressive.

here is their site http://www.lumicycle.com/ designed and assembled in the UK as well.

girv73

TheRevOlutionary wrote:

I went with the Fenix L1D Q5 ... strapped with the TwoFish mount.

Is there much adjustment possible with that mount? It doesn't seem like there's much from the interwebs photos and the Fenix mount is out of stock everywhere.

I'm currently running an old CatEye HL-500 but I'm thinking of upgrading to a L2D Q5, CatEye EL610 or 600 for the winter.

[edit]

@c12345 you must look like a Borg or something with all those wires and lights going into your head

TheRevOlutionary

girv73 wrote:

TheRevOlutionary wrote:

I went with the Fenix L1D Q5 ... strapped with the TwoFish mount.

Is there much adjustment possible with that mount? It doesn't seem like there's much from the interwebs photos and the Fenix mount is out of stock everywhere.

I'm currently running an old CatEye HL-500 but I'm thinking of upgrading to a L2D Q5, CatEye EL610 or 600 for the winter.

I'll let you know. Not got it yet...

alfablue

There is unlimited adjustment up and down, none really in the lateral plane. Seems fine.

Anonymous

Commuter lights show down

Verb

As usual, no review/comparison of the torch approach, despite it being in common use.

alfablue

Verb wrote:

As usual, no review/comparison of the torch approach, despite it being in common use.

Maybe because they are unlikely advertisers / not bike brands? Maybe I am being a little cynical here :oops:

or maybe more generously, many are still unaware of this type of solution.

TheRevOlutionary

alfablue wrote:

There is unlimited adjustment up and down, none really in the lateral plane. Seems fine.

About right, but you can angle the torch slightly to one side laterally as the torch mount is rubberised and will grip at the angle it's put in at. Forward is the basic angle though

Pleased with the L1D though low power would only be useful off the bike, medium and high at dawn/dusk and will last longer that way, but impressed with turbo may not light the trails for 100m but look more than good enough for darker roads/paths unlit by streetlights etc for a way ahead. Will give updated reviews once ive taken it out properly! All this is just from opening the box at work and blinding guys at 30m

biondino

My mum just came back from Tokyo and instead of the usual "my mum went to Japan and I all I got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirt, she brought me a pair of bike lights!

The reason, I discovered, is because she was with another colleague (I work for the family business) who is a keen cyclist and she thought something useful for the bike that you can't buy in the UK would be an ideal gift. So I know own a set of these - they are tiny - only 25g each! And so easy on and off, and they last ages, and they seem pretty bright. Anyone have any thoughts?

Anonymous

alfablue wrote:

Verb wrote:

As usual, no review/comparison of the torch approach, despite it being in common use.

Maybe because they are unlikely advertisers / not bike brands? Maybe I am being a little cynical here :oops:

or maybe more generously, many are still unaware of this type of solution.

Point taken. We're trying to get them in for test...

always_tyred

very similar to these:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Knog_ ... 360032637/

They are good, but it would appear that Knog's design rights don't extend as far as Japan! Before I spent a fortune on a Dinotte rear, I had a couple of red ones in the rear vents of my helmet.

biondino

Hmm - from the Knog page - "This is a safety light and should be used in conjunction with a regular rear light."

alfablue

M.Cole wrote:

alfablue wrote:

Verb wrote:

As usual, no review/comparison of the torch approach, despite it being in common use.

Maybe because they are unlikely advertisers / not bike brands? Maybe I am being a little cynical here :oops:

or maybe more generously, many are still unaware of this type of solution.

Point taken. We're trying to get them in for test...

Maybe have a word with Rob at The Photon Shop. He sells Fenix and he made this page

always_tyred

biondino wrote:

Hmm - from the Knog page - "This is a safety light and should be used in conjunction with a regular rear light."

I figure that's a "so we can sell in the US" type of statement.

I tend to have an array of lights on my bike in the winter. Interestingly (pre DiNotte) I was followed the last few years home by a neighbour with one of these in my helmet (fnarr) and he made a point of commenting how visible it was. Poss because it was at an unusual height. But look, this guy managed to accidentally drive into his own house once, so, you know, if he could see the light it can't have been too bad....