Front light needed

Si78

Hi,

I need a good front light for when Im riding to or from work in the dark.

Needs to be quite bright because 6 miles of my route is on an unlit cycle path.

cheers,
Si

Northwind

How much do you want to spend? Something from dealextreme, a P7 MTE torch or that new bike light they sell, would give you a lot of light for a pretty reasonable price...

I use one of the tesco's cree LED torches on my commuter but it's not great. But cheap!

Si78

Cheers Northwind,

How do you mount ur torch on the bike?

How about battery life?

Will have a quick look at the P7 you mentioned

Im in a bit of a quandry tho... I come off the cycle path in what can probably be described as the 'a*sehole of Chester', an area full of many scumbags who may want to rob me and stab me...Do I really want to signal my arrival with a bright light??? Helps me see any tw@ lurking behind a tree, but also helps said tw@ see me coming!!! lol

hmmmm.....

Si

Northwind

A difficult situation. The obvious solution is to get yourself fitted with some sort of infra-red robot eyes.

But, if you decide against the eye thing for some reason, personally, I'd buy this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149

But I should stress, I've not tried it- I already have decent lights which aren't as good, but which are good enough that I don't need to replace them. This thing has had some criticisms from the DIY-light people, but tbh they're all mentalist enthusiasts and who knows if their criticisms actually matter in the slightest

What I have is these, 2 of...

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

And they're incredibly good. Cheap, bright, and so far reliable- I shattered one lens by dropping the torch down 2 flights of stone stairs, but replaced it with a DIY job cut from a CD box, the torch survived and works perfectly. Only pain is the battery life, which is only about an hour and ten on full whack. There's always an assumption that torches are the cheap option, but there's not many "proper" expensive option bike lights that beat these- my mate has a light and motion SECA which is slightly better, but cost £400. But newts, ayups, joysticks, hope 1s and 2s are all soundly beaten by a torch that costs much less. It's kind of ridiculous actually!

Attaching to the bars needs a wee bit of inventiveness. I use one on my helmet- attached with 2 red post office rubber bands and some velcro. On the bars, I use a cheap bike light mount from chainreaction and a jubilee clip, but if you want a permanent mount 2 jubilee clips also works. Here's my setup but with my old tesco lights:

Northwind

Oh, yeah. The tescos aren't really good enough for offroad riding but like I say I still have one on my commuter, I have an unlit road section which at night time needs more than a typical bike light but doesn't need the power of the P7s. It gives really not much light at all, but enough when dealing with a predictable surface. And cheap, £8 it was plus batteries.

Si78

Cheers again northwind!

Just been looking on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LED-LENSER-P7-Pol ... 7C294%3A50

What about that^..... dont think its as bright as the one in the link u gave me?

Love ur ingenuity with the torch mounting... looks well secure!

Nice one dude,
Si
p.s. What is P7..is it the type of bulb???

Northwind

Yeah, P7 is the LED emitter (IIRC it's a couple of LEDs mashed together, or somesuch, I'm not so good at the "hows"

But, I don't think the torch you linked has the same LED, P7 seems to be just the torch's name, and it's probably got one of the older cree LEDs in- it's very dull compared to the MTE P7, about 1/3 the output. Unless it's just running the same LED at very low power, but either way, less bright. Possibly a better torch! But I wouldn't bother with that one, it doesn't look much better than the tescos.

Si78

ok, think I will go for the ssc p7 torch that u put the link up for.

Like you say, bright cheap and light

Nice one,
Cheers!
Si

Dazzza

Northwind that led lenser is NOT a p7 emitter torch, they called it a p7 but it's just a normal led do not buy it.

Buy the mte that was posted above.

Si78

Dazzza wrote:

Northwind that led lenser is NOT a p7 emitter torch, they called it a p7 but it's just a normal led do not buy it.

Buy the mte that was posted above.

Hi Dazzza,

Its actually me who is needing the light, Northwind posted the original link for the MTE p7, Im the clueless one :oops: lol

Si

SpinningJenny

Cateye are good - very bright!

Si78

Ive ordered the MTE P7 torch that you linked to Northwind, also ordered a couple of protected 3.7v batteries and a little charger.

Should suit me fine, (at least until I can get fitted for some 6 million dollar man eyes lol) and if I like it I may order a second one to really blind any lurking scumbags lol

Cheers for the help Northwind,

Si

Surf-Matt

I have a Hope Vision 1 - 240 lumens and a brilliant light for all but the gnarliest of night trails.
It's fine for any road use (any brighter and you blind people), very durable and simple to attach (as it's a proper bike light). I also like the fact it takes AA batteries (that last more than 3 hours on full power, 36 hours in minimum power) - so you can get spares easily.

About £70 but you need good AA batteries too (and probably a charger).

alfablue

SpinningJenny wrote:

Cateye are good - very bright!

Sorry Jenny, but they are in a different league of brightness to the P7 mte's (a much lower league), and the brackets break regularly.

owenlars

I've got a Fenix LD20 with a lockblock mount and rechargeable AA batteries. Brilliant!
http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/fenix_LD20.html

alfablue

owenlars wrote:

I've got a Fenix LD20 with a lockblock mount and rechargeable AA batteries. Brilliant!
http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/fenix_LD20.html

I have a Fenix L2D CE Q5, very similar to yours - very good for unlit paths. Great quality light, 2 plus hours on 2 AA's etc, only if I was in the market now I would get a P7, the price is similar.