Night Riding Lights (off road) <£100

canada16

Plus the protected 18650 batteries are good on high 220 lumen for over 2 hours and they are only 5 quid or less, so buy a few and when the run out just unscrew and change... god that was hard.

I think 2 on min would be more than enough on trails.

Us bike people are onto winners here, no more bike specific lights.

Keep the thread allive, and hope ... hope and lupine and blackburn take note of their overpriced lights, and maybe if enough people buy these lights they will drop their prices... maybe.

supersonic

Yep, I got the protected cells too!

If you wanted really long run times you could build a battery pack, ie run 2,3, or 4 cellks in parallel. Would take a bit of tinkering, but could end up with a 10,000mah battery for 20 quid!

canada16

Would have no clue at all on how to do that.

My brother in law is a leki maybe he will know.

Would it still be waterproof?

supersonic

Could be, depends how you made it ;-)

The Spiderman

Took my p7 out on the rode bike last night and my mate had a Fenix P3D on his bars.Plenty of light between us with just £60 worth of lights!
My mate had to change batteries half way on the Fenix,but my P7 was still going strong after 2 hours.Admittedly I did use low most of the time,but even that is good enough to road ride with,and was on a par with the 2nd 180 lumen setting of the P3D.

Johnny Napalm

Got home from work today to find that my 'TK11' has been delivered. I'll give it a go this weekend, and let you know what I think.

cougie

Blimey - the P7 is amazing.

Massive spread of light - and fantastic value. I think the perfect combo is something like a L20D Fenix on high on the helmet - so 5 hours run time there - and the P7 on the bars. Any more lights are overkill.

The Spiderman

Cougie,it is bloody impressive isn`t it?My mate couldn`t believ how good it was.I know there are some cycnics on here,buy unless you go try one you won`t know what you are missing!

canada16

Whats this P7

Is there a link or is it that one that you sent the review for spiderman.

Would mind buying another one, Dont know why, but I think I am becoming a Torch head, I love them, and they have been usefull around the house as well.

I build a fort with my pillows and blanky and pretend I am camping...

Johnny Napalm

I went out last night, in total darkness, to test the 'TK11'. I also had a 'Tesco' light mounted on my helmet.

I went off into the local woods on my own for a few hours riding, and was happy with the results. A lot of the time I used the 'TK11' on low mode, and that was more than satisfactory...only used on high mode when needed. That said, I didn't do anything too extreme, and I figure that to do more sketchy riding, I'd need to have two mounted on the bars, as opposed to just the one.

I used the 'C123A' batteries that came with the torch, and after approx. 2.5 hours the high mode dropped, and was hardly distinguishable from the low mode. However, there was still plenty of light for general riding in the 'pitch black' woods. I have a rechargeable '18650' battery, so I will try the torch with that later. I do understand the criticisms regarding the spread too...while the light is bright, it is very much concentrated in one spot.

The set up would definitely have benefitted from having a better helmet mounted light too, which I will invest in, but for £10, the Tesco light did a pretty decent job.

What I may do next, is buy a better light for the helmet, and also another for the bars. Obviously, the 'P7' looks good for the bars, so I might get one of those, for the bars, to save money. I would get another 'TK11', but I'll see how the ol' funds are. With regards to a helmet light; does anyone have an economical suggestion for a better helmet light? Something not too big...or expensive?

The set up I have is more than adequate for general night riding in the woods...but nothing too extreme. I would love to have the luxury of a proper off-road light set up, but I just can't afford to be spending that kind of money. Hell, I'd sooner put that kind of money towards another bike.

One of my friends, who I usually see on the trails, is also considering the 'TK11', so I am going to show him both the pros and cons, so he can see first hand, and then decide.

Not wanting to be dictated to by daylight, I wanted lights to enable me to ride in the woods at night, away from traffic, and this current set up will allow just that. It now means that I can come home from work, happy in the knowledge that I can go off to the woods for a ride.

However, If I want to do more of my day-type riding in the dark, then I simply must have a better helmet light, and I'd say, another light on the bars.

One more thing, the 'Lockblocks' on the bars do tend to slip a little at speed on rough ground, but I'm sure I can sort that out.

Right, I'm off for a ride. I hope that this helps someone.

rowlers

canada16 wrote:

Whats this P7

Is there a link or is it that one that you sent the review for spiderman.

Would mind buying another one, Dont know why, but I think I am becoming a Torch head, I love them, and they have been usefull around the house as well.

I build a fort with my pillows and blanky and pretend I am camping...

I believe it is one of these:

http://www.glowgadgets.co.uk/detail.jsp?pid=2897&id=2750&src=froogle

cougie

Johnny - you only need a p7 if you have the other torches - thats got to be the best budget choice.

canada16

The lumens are quite low on that for 50.00.

Got 220 on mine for 50.00

supersonic

That is a different P7 (model name, not the name of the LED) - the deal extreme ones (and the one I have) is the one you want.

Mine is the MTE P7, 40 dollars or 25 quid.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12623

P7 is an LED emitter by SSC (Seoul)

rowlers

supersonic wrote:

That is a different P7 (model name, not the name of the LED) - the deal extreme ones (and the one I have) is the one you want.

Mine is the MTE P7, 40 dollars or 25 quid.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12623

P7 is an LED emitter by SSC (Seoul)

ahhh!

supersonic

I think tother one is using the name rather sneakily!

The Spiderman

This is the one I have:http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/mountain_bike_lights_review_led.html

There are actually about 3 versions on deal extreme that appear very similar.The 2 mode ones are penty good enough.
Buy the c bin version if you want,but from what I have read elsewhere,there is minimal difference between either of the 2 mode versions.

There is some good info on the mtb-britain forum if you got the lights section.

cougie

Yeah - I have the 2 mode version as well - thought it best to keep it simple !

Dazzza

You want the 2 mode because the 5 mode and above is handled by cheap resistors not a proper driver board so you actually lose output.

The Spiderman

Dazzza wrote:

You want the 2 mode because the 5 mode and above is handled by cheap resistors not a proper driver board so you actually lose output.

Dazza

Really?Are you referring to the one I linked to? (Do you mean the 2 mode or 5mode)
Not noticed any lack iof outpt in mine.Mines the 2 mode.Me and several guys from the mtb-britain have got that one,and we have all been impressed.
When I asked this question on another forum the consensus was the c bin 2mode was barely different,and in fact one of the guys opened his 2 mode non c bin version up and found it had the same copper heat sink and so on.
However ,I am going to order another so might try the one you suggest ,to see if its even more impressive! Dazza,can you link to the one you have,to confirm?

Cheers

Pete

Dazzza

The one i have is what sonic posted not what's on mtb britain as that's an older model.

They use resistors in the tailcap to reduce the output plus the wiring hasbeen known to be thinner, they may have sorted it now though so might have been earlier models affected, there was a big thread about it on cpf.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12623

However this one looks good, possible replacement for the mte p7.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15739

http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Defau ... did.195893

Johnny Napalm

What is the runtime on the 'MTE'?

The Spiderman

Johnny Napalm wrote:

What is the runtime on the 'MTE'?

On max only just over an hour.However I used it the ther night on my roadbike and using both high and low,it was still going after a good 2 hours.Low is enough for most of the time on the road.

canada16

That P7 look a hell of a deal, batteries light and charger for what ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 65ff4d865e

40.00 bunk

Not to bad.

Too bad I needed a light like yesterday when I bought mine, I paid 75.00 for the TK11 with charger lockblock and batts, but then again I would not change my mind as it is a great light and I am still on my first set of batts cr123a that came with it, and I commute 25 min to work and back, so 50 minutes and 2 weeks, I have had they light on min and no probs, even played around with it for a while on max and its still going strong. WELL IMPRESSED, but the costs of the other ones are good as well. But then again I can ride my bike in the sea and the light will still be on...... TAKE THAT

Johnny Napalm

A couple of my mates are now interested in the 'TK11', so I'm going to give them a demo in the local woods.

Canada, to switch between modes, you just rotate the head of the torch...that correct, isn't it? I have to admit to being a tad confused when I first tried it! :oops:

canada16

Hey you just twist the head but its quite senitive, it only needs a quarter turn.

Wish they had it on the button were you press it twice or something, but its not much of a problem.

I carry a spare battery just in case

seataltea

SSC P7 all the way for budget price but huge lumens, I have the Aurora SSC P7 two mode from Dealextreme.

Incredible light for the money £23ish deliverd plus £5 for two batteries and £5 for a charger £1 for a cycle mount.

These pics below aren't mine but are a perfect example of just how bright these LEDs are.

http://takebeat.asablo.jp/blog/img/2008/05/04/60cd6.jpg

http://takebeat.asablo.jp/blog/2008/05/04/3461085

For the money these lights are real no brainer buy.

cougie

I do think you need two lights if you are doing proper night riding - from a back up point of view and you do need one on the bars and one on the helmet - so a p7 and one with a longer run time would be perfect.
Build quality on my p7 isnt cp bad as i thought - maybe not quite as good as the fenix - but no complaints so far.

seataltea

I agree with the need for two lights, my Aurora is used as 'full beam' for providing light at distance but I also have a WF-400 Cree Q2 240 lumens focused about 15ft in front of the bike. The pair are a perfect combination although the WF-400 isn't built as well as the Aurora and needs a little packing in the tube for the battery seat correctly.

The Aurora by comparison is built as well as any Maglite.

Dazzza

If you want a good helmet light have a nose at this one.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14027

It's such a good combo with the p7 i run the p7 on low on most occasions, plus it takes drop in hosts so you can upgrade the emitter easily to say a solarforce r2 should you wish.