Need new lights and worst commute ever

father_jack

I need to replace my Electron & Laseredge lights. Any recommendations to match 10+15W halogens? For unlit country road riding.

Also had terrible rides to work.

Several spokes snapping
Pouring down with torrential rain
Had to ride home on unlit roads with EL-300 Cateye, had to peer into darkness
Glasses steaming up and couldn't see due to the rain.

For new set of lights I think rather have one set to cover both bikes so save having two sets, any recommendations for £200 area? At least 2 hour, preferbly 3-6 hour ride burn time between charges.

ride_whenever

i'd go for a troutie light, try a search on here.

father_jack

Hope 2 Vision ok?

soveda

I've just got one of the £50 Magicshine lights from DealExtreme. Pretty good so far for country lanes in pitch darkness, I did get a step down transformer for the charger though because I've read about other people having problems with the charger not coping with our voltage.

ride_whenever

oh also, if you've broken a few spokes in one wheel it might be time to get it re-laced by your lbs (or do it yourself if you're that way inclined)

Velonutter

Light & Motion 120 or 150 Stella for between £95-125

Absolutely brilliant

father_jack

No strap mounts please useless, EL-300 is rubbish. Got to be metal or plastic mounting easily removable beween bike.

father_jack

Looking into Hope Vision 2 LED Epic £200 decent light? What is it equal to halogen watts?

AidanR

For easily swappable lights look at Exposure. For lights you can leave on your bike because they're so cheap you can buy two sets, look at Deal Extreme. For ridiculously bright lights, look at the Trout Light - http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/trouties-new-light-is-on-the-way-update-to-all-interested-folks-who-emailed-me/page/28.

father_jack

Hope Vision 4 is only a bit more than 2. I'm looking for professional made lights not DIY I was not impressed with the laseredge, not waterproof terminals not sealed. battery not sealed either.

will3

Father Jack wrote:

Looking into Hope Vision 2 LED Epic £200 decent light? What is it equal to halogen watts?

I've never run out of light with my hope vision 1 (unlit country lanes). I'd suggest a vision2 might be overkill on road.

APIII

Have a look at the Lupine Tesla on Merlin cycles (they have an additional 10% off lights at the moment). I've got a Wilma from a couple of years ago. build quality and battery life is excellent, and it has an o-ring mount which means you can swap bikes in a few seconds. It also makes it easy to dip the light to avoid blinding oncoming traffic.

huuregeil

I love my Ay-Up lights, they're really superb, bomproof, bright, great battery life, excellent mounting system. However, I don't know what the recent situation is regarding aussie dollar exchange rate plus shipping/taxes, so they might not be such good value at the minute. Check them out anyway, and if you've got a mate coming to/from Oz, get them to pick you some up!

bompington

Or alternatively you could get 2 MagicShines from DealExtreme for a total of £100, as about 20 forums have mentioned in the past week alone.

cougie

Yup - Magicshine

Same O ring swappability as the Lupine
Prob about 600 lumens vs the hope of 480
£50.

Gives you 3hours on full beam - thats enough to MTB offroad. On road - you only need low.

huuregeil

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I do have a certain problem with Chinese companies doing essentially direct knock-offs of leading products. (e.g. Magicshine and Lupine) Other companies take the technical risk and put the time, effort, and money into developing new designs, and I think it kind of sucks that a chinese company can reverse engineer and copy the main design features and go into mass production at a fraction of the cost, because they haven't got the R&D costs to recoup. I know the LEDs are commodity items, but come on guys, do support the companies putting out good products, at the end of the day it's someone's job that will suffer and innovation will be killed off.

sicknote

huuregeil wrote:

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I do have a certain problem with Chinese companies doing essentially direct knock-offs of leading products. (e.g. Magicshine and Lupine) Other companies take the technical risk and put the time, effort, and money into developing new designs, and I think it kind of sucks that a chinese company can reverse engineer and copy the main design features and go into mass production at a fraction of the cost, because they haven't got the R&D costs to recoup. I know the LEDs are commodity items, but come on guys, do support the companies putting out good products, at the end of the day it's someone's job that will suffer and innovation will be killed off.

We can also see that some company's put the prices up because it is for cycling, as you see products like are about the same of a lot less money in other places.

cougie

I see what you are saying Huuregeil - but is this the case here ?

The P7 torch was around last year. They've just turned it into a bike version. I dont think its a rip off of an existing bike model - but I could be wrong ?

huuregeil

Sicknote wrote:

We can also see that some company's put the prices up because it is for cycling, as you see products like are about the same of a lot less money in other places.

Any specific examples of this? If anything, I think the converse is true, because there are a number of extremely good value yet not highly visible cycling brands, particularly in the clothing sector. Competitive pressures plus low marketing budgets ensure that prices are broadly fair.

huuregeil

cougie wrote:

I see what you are saying Huuregeil - but is this the case here ?

The P7 torch was around last year. They've just turned it into a bike version. I dont think its a rip off of an existing bike model - but I could be wrong ?

http://acidinmylegs.blogspot.com/2009/1 ... shine.html

Anonymous

huuregeil wrote:

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I do have a certain problem with Chinese companies doing essentially direct knock-offs of leading products. (e.g. Magicshine and Lupine) Other companies take the technical risk and put the time, effort, and money into developing new designs, and I think it kind of sucks that a chinese company can reverse engineer and copy the main design features and go into mass production at a fraction of the cost, because they haven't got the R&D costs to recoup. I know the LEDs are commodity items, but come on guys, do support the companies putting out good products, at the end of the day it's someone's job that will suffer and innovation will be killed off.

What, so your telling me my conscience should come in to play and I should have paid over 230 quid instead of 50 for virtually the same product? That's 50 quid for a light that's more than bright enough for my needs by the way...

The Magicshine light is excellent and I just cannot see why the Lupine needs to be nearly 5 times the price. I think I'll stick with common sense rather than ride in the dark.

cougie

They do look very similar - but maybe thats just an obvious design for the light ?

Lupine must do a hell of a lot of R&D to get to their light....

bompington

huuregeil wrote:

but come on guys, do support the companies putting out good products, at the end of the day it's someone's job that will suffer and innovation will be killed off.

Let me know Lupine's charity number & I'll fill in one of those tax forms.

But seriously, I am supporting companies putting out good products, in this case companies like Dealextreme and Magicshine. Anyway, is there that much innovation in this light? Surely only the emitter is cutting edge technology, and that appears to be designed and made in... a cheapo factory in Korea!
If there was any evidence that cheap competition from Asia is stifling innovation then you might have a case, but it doesn't seem to be at the moment.

APIII

Any company who invests in R&D will have made the necessary patent applications. If a competitor breaches the patent, then the patent holder can sue. Easy. Like others have said, magicshine/P7 or whatever it's called has been around a while now, so I doubt they are infringing on any patents.

Regarding cost, there are plenty of reasons why products, seemingly the same, cost different amounts. They may have lower overheads, use cheaper materials/processes, willing to accept lower margins, offer limited warranties, etc, etc. FWIW, the company I work for could never compete with the chinese imports on price. We have a company policy of a 5 year warranty on certain products, which requires a certain amount of over-engineering of the product to ensure it lasts. We're still in business though because there are still buyers who would prefer to pay extra for a product that lasts than replace a cheap one more regularly (that's no slant on the magicshine, btw)

huuregeil

No, I'm not saying pass the charity bucket - a product has to stand on its merits. And I've got a genuinely strong bargain hunting streak, there's no snobbery here or anything! I guess APIII sums it up well - if you pay more, it should be for quality, etc.. Not owning a Lupine, I'm not going to make the value case for or against it. But I do think a strong value case can be made for, e.g. my Ay-Ups (that's why I bought them after all!) - the thrust of some of the recommendations here seems to be, "you must be mad not to buy UltraBright from ChinaTrading.com, look you get 1000lumens for £50" when it's not so straightforward.

I'd personally always buy a single item of some well designed piece of kit that will last years of abuse, rather than cheap every year. Not just because it might be better value in the long term, but also because it supports the people who've put the time, effort, and money into producing high quality products. (e.g. the Ay-Ups again).

huuregeil

repost sorry!

ademort

I have the Macshine and a P7, and they provide more than enough lighting for my commute on unlit roads.For the price the Macshine cannot be beaten. If you want to contribute to some companys R&D and pay through the nose for similar performance then thats you business.
Ademort

Anonymous

huuregeil wrote:

No, I'm not saying pass the charity bucket - a product has to stand on its merits. And I've got a genuinely strong bargain hunting streak, there's no snobbery here or anything! I guess APIII sums it up well - if you pay more, it should be for quality, etc.. Not owning a Lupine, I'm not going to make the value case for or against it. But I do think a strong value case can be made for, e.g. my Ay-Ups (that's why I bought them after all!) - the thrust of some of the recommendations here seems to be, "you must be mad not to buy UltraBright from ChinaTrading.com, look you get 1000lumens for £50" when it's not so straightforward.

I'd personally always buy a single item of some well designed piece of kit that will last years of abuse, rather than cheap every year. Not just because it might be better value in the long term, but also because it supports the people who've put the time, effort, and money into producing high quality products. (e.g. the Ay-Ups again).

Whats to say the magicshine won't last several years? If it doesn't then I can replace it with a similarly priced item that probably has a newer and better LED...

ARob

been quite please with cateye 620 single shot plus which is on offer on wiggle at the moment

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Catey ... 360031622/

its rechargable which i like and i find bright enough for unlit country lanes on roads i know to about 20 mph.

lasts for a good 3 hours between charges so only need to do so every 3-4 days which is fine

father_jack

I've gone for the Hope vision 4. On lowest setting it's fine for unlit road lighting although may use 2. 4 will come in handy under fog conditions, my 5+10W halogen didn't cope with that.