Best £300-400 Road Lights? (To see where you are going)
donnie murdo
Posts: 986
What would be the best lights for road riding at night?
I am looking at the Exposure MaXx D or Lupine Wilma 5 but I'm not sure if these would be overkill.
Cheers,
I am looking at the Exposure MaXx D or Lupine Wilma 5 but I'm not sure if these would be overkill.
Cheers,
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Comments
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new exposure tora supposed tobe the best- much smaller than the maxx d, with 700 lumens output0
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The Lupines are very good. I bought a set last spring, so there could well be better/cheaper options available by now, but I still love mine. The output is not overkill if you are riding out in the sticks, with no street lighting etc. I always run them on full power once I get out in the lanes, and you get a good wide beam of white light. Visibility is very good, so you can ride downhills at a similar speed to what you would in daylight (i.e 35mph+ is ok). They are programmable though, so you can have a setting for 'urban' riding, another for the countryside (think you can program 3 settings). Build quality is excellent - headlamp, cables, etc. all thoroughly reliable and weather sealed. The o ring mounting of the lamp is a doddle to take on and off, and makes it easy to 'dip' the lights if you meet oncoming cars. I got the 6 hour battery which has been great as I sometimes forget to put it on charge between rides, but being a bottle battery means I have to make do with one bidon.0
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A P7 from deal extreme for 30 quid.
It has replaced my now broken 200 quid effort and is much better!0 -
All in with light, charger, adaptor, 4 x batteries (it only uses one at a time), bar mount, helmet mount was about 45 quid IIRC.
Really impressed!0 -
how much run time do you want?
the torches are excellent value, and very bright. But if you're looking for very long run times try whatever on one are selling currently as well as the ay-ups.0 -
1 hr on full. Batteries take about 25 seconds to change at most whilst wearing thick gloves.0
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Check out the new On One / Planet-x for £140 - 900 lumens - if they've got any left / go up to £200Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..0
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Have to agree with NapD. I have just ordered a P7 from dealextreme with a charger, bike mount and 2 batteries and that came to £38, checked tonight and they are on their way. For suggestions on what to get take a look over on the dark side (whisper) on the MTB buying advice forum where What Lights is a sticky.0
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Mine took 7 days to come...0
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Stevie63
I was over on the dark side long before I ventured onto the road.
I am really liking the look of the new Exposure Toro but as yet they (Exposure) have not updated theor website.
Found this info though:
http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/7175
So it's a toss-up between the MaXx D or the Toro although the Toro is 200 lumens less than the MaXx D I think it is far more road orientated.0 -
This is a year old now, but may be of use
http://www.mtbr.com/trailbeamcomparisoncrx.aspx
I would expect them to do something similar for the 2010 lights0 -
PM'd you re: Maxx D for sale, in case you're interested.0
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I already have the bike mount as I have one of the Tesco's lights on the bike but after training, for a drink and I have to go down a road that has no lights which was fine until the light kept going out with each bump on the road :shock:
Not good so thinking of getting one and having had a looked here, 900 lumens looks 8)0 -
Use Sicknotes link and check out the Magic Shine bike lamp - then get it from Deal Extreme - about £50 or so - and 3 hours runtime on high. Its basically the P7 torch adapted for the bike.
Absolutely Fantastic. Will be as bright s that exposure toro and similar run times. Buy 5 for the price of 1 ?0 -
Magic Shine £50 Exposure Toro £250
Unless Exposure are making HUGE margins on these then why the dramatic price difference?
I'm not sold on the cheaper end as yet.0 -
Bike lights are a tiny market ? And we are prepared to spend stupid money - see the original question as proof ?
Entirely up to you though.0 -
I doubt that is the only answer cougie.
A difference of £30-50 but not £200 I suspect that the cheaper lights do not provide the same spread,dimension,depth,coverage etc as more expensive lights. Sure they have the same/similar lumens but so does a £5 torch from B&Q I think there is more to this than just a simple case of higher margins0 -
donnie murdo wrote:I doubt that is the only answer cougie.
A difference of £30-50 but not £200 I suspect that the cheaper lights do not provide the same spread,dimension,depth,coverage etc as more expensive lights. Sure they have the same/similar lumens but so does a £5 torch from B&Q I think there is more to this than just a simple case of higher margins
If you think it cant be just margins, have a look at my link above or this as I have 2 of the Tesco's light but one is playing up ( think I might also need to check the batteries ) but for the money I would still be happy just to use it/them if need be.
You will always find that some sports accessories, jake the price up because people dont have much choice, well you do now.0 -
I’m running the £50 Magicshine P7 bike light, from Dealextreme at the moment even during day light to give them a test before the nights really draw in. Can’t fault the brightness, although I doubt that they produce 900lm, running at 2400mA, (unlikely to more than 700lm). beam is pretty good too with a usefull amount of spill. At full power I seem to be getting 3+hrs run time and nothing has fallen off yet. For road use they might just hold out. I think that the rain will probably see to first. I’ll keep you posted.
Can’t imagine them surviving off road use for long. Usual rules apply, you get what you pay for in terms of build quality, but with LED’s the technology is moving so fast that established bike light manufactures aren’t always up to speed on the latest , brightest and most efficient sources out there.
I note that the magicshine bike light company also sell a super bright metal halide torch, now that would make an interesting bike light project.I ache, therefore I am.0 -
Sicknote wrote:donnie murdo wrote:I doubt that is the only answer cougie.
A difference of £30-50 but not £200 I suspect that the cheaper lights do not provide the same spread,dimension,depth,coverage etc as more expensive lights. Sure they have the same/similar lumens but so does a £5 torch from B&Q I think there is more to this than just a simple case of higher margins
If you think it cant be just margins, have a look at my link above or this as I have 2 of the Tesco's light but one is playing up ( think I might also need to check the batteries ) but for the money I would still be happy just to use it/them if need be.
You will always find that some sports accessories, jake the price up because people dont have much choice, well you do now.
Is that really true? I'm interested to know what the real reasons are. I mean, there are a lot of companies out there selling lights at £200+, and there's a lot more selling them at £30-50, which people are rating highly. I might have to get one of those P7's and see what the differences are.0 -
Best lights I've ever used are Ayup. Best to get the mountain bike kit which gives you one set for your helmet and one set for the bike. Battery life is excellant.0
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APIII wrote:Sicknote wrote:donnie murdo wrote:I doubt that is the only answer cougie.
A difference of £30-50 but not £200 I suspect that the cheaper lights do not provide the same spread,dimension,depth,coverage etc as more expensive lights. Sure they have the same/similar lumens but so does a £5 torch from B&Q I think there is more to this than just a simple case of higher margins
If you think it cant be just margins, have a look at my link above or this as I have 2 of the Tesco's light but one is playing up ( think I might also need to check the batteries ) but for the money I would still be happy just to use it/them if need be.
You will always find that some sports accessories, jake the price up because people dont have much choice, well you do now.
Is that really true? I'm interested to know what the real reasons are. I mean, there are a lot of companies out there selling lights at £200+, and there's a lot more selling them at £30-50, which people are rating highly. I might have to get one of those P7's and see what the differences are.
The biggest one being value for money...0 -
Value for money is what I am looking at.0
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Value for money?
This term usually refers to items that are around the same price point but where one of the items has noticably more features/capabilities etc
The term for the P7 would be 'cheap' as they costs considerably less but do not offer more in the way of features.0 -
donnie murdo wrote:Value for money?
This term usually refers to items that are around the same price point but where one of the items has noticably more features/capabilities etc
The term for the P7 would be 'cheap' as they costs considerably less but do not offer more in the way of features.
They do offer about the same lumens for a lot less money, I would call that value for money.0 -
NapoleonD wrote:APIII wrote:Sicknote wrote:donnie murdo wrote:I doubt that is the only answer cougie.
A difference of £30-50 but not £200 I suspect that the cheaper lights do not provide the same spread,dimension,depth,coverage etc as more expensive lights. Sure they have the same/similar lumens but so does a £5 torch from B&Q I think there is more to this than just a simple case of higher margins
If you think it cant be just margins, have a look at my link above or this as I have 2 of the Tesco's light but one is playing up ( think I might also need to check the batteries ) but for the money I would still be happy just to use it/them if need be.
You will always find that some sports accessories, jake the price up because people dont have much choice, well you do now.
Is that really true? I'm interested to know what the real reasons are. I mean, there are a lot of companies out there selling lights at £200+, and there's a lot more selling them at £30-50, which people are rating highly. I might have to get one of those P7's and see what the differences are.
The biggest one being value for money...
No, that's a subjective thing.
I want to know what the differences are in terms of performance/features, namely:
Lumens
Run time
Light quality
Adjustability/customisation
Mountings
Weather sealing.
If the cheaper lights perform as well, then great, I've got no axe to grind.0 -
value for money can be either more stuff for the same price or the same stuff for a lower price (or a subtle combination of the two)
As a Yorkshireman I can see that the Dealextreme P7 represents exceptional value for money; might just have one myself.
Even if I had £200 to spend on a bike light I couldn't live with the feeling that I could have bought the same technology for a lot less.0
