Another light question!! - £100 pound to spend

mf-racing

Hi guys,

I've read about 300 pages about lights but cant really get an definitive answer. What is the best light setup for ST/Fireroad/Woods riding for around £100?

Cheers
Matt

Anonymous

Hi there Matt,

From reading all the pages, where are you? Are you thinking of going down the 'torch' route, or the bike-specific route?

ta!

The Spiderman

Fenix L2D £39 + charger and batteries £30+ holder £7 = £76
Hope Vision 1 led £75 + £0 for betteries and charger =£105

These are fine for road or a bit of light off road use.

cougie

One L2D on the bars £37
One on the helmet £37
One lock block £6
One bit of elastic band/old inner tube to secure £0
Charger £15
8 Batteries £10.59

I make it : £106 with 4 spare batteries - thats what I use.

reluctant

L&M Stella 120, little belter with beautiful build quality and more light than 120 lumen would suggest.

cougie

2 hours runtime at 120 lumens for £90+ ?

The L2Ds get double that time, at less than half the cost and a mere 13 Lumens less ?

Surf-Matt

£70 if you shop around - 240 lumens, all in one, easy to carry spare batteries, well made, proper "bike light" spread of light:



The best AA battery charger ever made - does everything and your batteries will last much longer - £26.99



The best rechargeables available for infrequent use - £7.49



or the best batteries available for daily/heavy use: £13.99



Very slightly over budget but not far off.

dunker

i've got 12 ansmann 2700's about 18 months old and still going very well if i needed to get some now it'd be a toss-up between the ansmann 2850's or some maha powerEX 2700's plus powerex charger, pricey though, twice the price of that one but that does look good too.

Surf-Matt

Dunker - I became an overnight "battery bore" after getting a little bit too into it all (I blame the physics/engineer side of me!) - those Ansmanns win loads of tests.
That charger does everything I could ever want it to do - what does the Powerex one do in addition? Just interested!

WaterMonkey

What make is that battery charger pictured above?

dunker

Surf-Matt wrote:

Dunker - I became an overnight "battery bore" after getting a little bit too into it all (I blame the physics/engineer side of me!) - those Ansmanns win loads of tests.
That charger does everything I could ever want it to do - what does the Powerex one do in addition? Just interested!

the powerex charger will take away more money from you heh that's the first time i've seen that one that's why i mentioned the powerex charger. if that cheaper charger works just as well then it looks like it's got the powerex charger well beaten on value for money.

dunker

WaterMonkey wrote:

What make is that battery charger pictured above?

i think it's this one,
http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technolin ... -bl700.asp
British too

mf-racing

Nice one, thanks very much Matt. This looks spot on! Thanks to everyone else too!

Is it worth buying a Fenix L2D to go on my lid as well or will the hope be good enough on its own on black peak distric moors!!

Can yuo provide links to all the products?

Cheers mate
Matt

Surf-Matt wrote:

£70 if you shop around - 240 lumens, all in one, easy to carry spare batteries, well made, proper "bike light" spread of light:



The best AA battery charger ever made - does everything and your batteries will last much longer - £26.99



The best rechargeables available for infrequent use - £7.49



or the best batteries available for daily/heavy use: £13.99



Very slightly over budget but not far off.

mf-racing

Right guys, I’ve just paid for the set up above. Hope light, with that charger and batts! Lets hope its all good, I’ll report back once its here.

So do I need a lid light as well? If so which one!?

Also, can anyone recommend a cheep rear light for the roads on my way to the trails?

Thanks for all your help

hucking_fell

I must have read most of all the light threads but never posted on them as I don't know much about lights and all the technical numbers and stuff mean very little to me.

I've just ordered the super dooper charger and 8 of the batteries that were recommended ^^^.

I've got the older Niterider Minewt LED bike light on the bars and 2 Tesco's CREE 2 x AA type torches on my helmet.

I'm happy with them and I've not spent a fortune.

Also got the battery case (£1) for the spare 4 batteries in my bag.

Sorted.

Thanks

Surf-Matt

Mf-Racing wrote:

Right guys, I’ve just paid for the set up above. Hope light, with that charger and batts! Lets hope its all good, I’ll report back once its here.

So do I need a lid light as well? If so which one!?

Also, can anyone recommend a cheep rear light for the roads on my way to the trails?

Thanks for all your help

Nice one! The Hope light comes with a helmet mount strap (although I think the light is a bit big for it) - you can use that plus the little bracket to helmet mount a Tesco AA Cree torch - they cost a tenner. All you need is a jubilee clip of the right size to attach the torch to the strap.

Maybe try it out as it is (I reckon the light is enough on it's own) but the Tesco torch is good on a helmet - but too focussed as a main light.

cougie

Helmet light is great - for going round corners or just so you can see what time it is or if you get a puncture etc.

For rears - I'd get two Smart 0.5 Watt flashy LEDs - about a tenner each. Always a good idea to have two in case you bust one. Silly to spend a fortune up front and then get squished on the way back home.

mf-racing

Surf-Matt wrote:

Mf-Racing wrote:

Right guys, I’ve just paid for the set up above. Hope light, with that charger and batts! Lets hope its all good, I’ll report back once its here.

So do I need a lid light as well? If so which one!?

Also, can anyone recommend a cheep rear light for the roads on my way to the trails?

Thanks for all your help

Nice one! The Hope light comes with a helmet mount strap (although I think the light is a bit big for it) - you can use that plus the little bracket to helmet mount a Tesco AA Cree torch - they cost a tenner. All you need is a jubilee clip of the right size to attach the torch to the strap.

Maybe try it out as it is (I reckon the light is enough on it's own) but the Tesco torch is good on a helmet - but too focussed as a main light.

Cheers mate! £10 that sounds good. Have you got a link? I'll need to buy another pack of them fancy AA batts wont i as the Hope take all 4?

Is it not worth going for a L20D then?

Surf-Matt

Mf - to be honest I haven't used the L20D although it sounds very good.

The AA Tesco torch is only available in stores - the bigger ones are on-line but too heavy.
If getting to a store is a pain (lots have run out too) then the Fenix might be a better plan.

Another consideration is that rechargeable are extremely tight (in fact near impossible) to fit in the Tesco torch - disposables (slightly skinnier) fit fine though. Luckily I have about 30 disposables in a drawer! Have to say though that the disposables are lasting very well.

It's a hell of a torch for the money though.

Another option is the torches direct from the US - very good vfm and very bright.

Several on here have bought them and rate them highly.

http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.ultrafire

dunker

good idea to take a spare 4 batteries with you on rides anyway i reckon.

littleandy0410

Surely this is the charger to have: