Recommend me some decent front lights

tomsmithy

Hello

Got caught out running out of daylight on a ride the other day, so starting to look for front lights.

I normally do most riding on b-roads and unlit country lanes so there is no street lighting. I've had a look online and prices seem to vary from £20 to £200+ but I have no idea what I will need to light my way. (Ive heard that some are just to let you been seen while some light your way).

I don't want to spend 100's but obviously function is important here. Can anybody give me a recommendation. Thanks

Hoopdriver

If you are riding on dark country lanes you will need lights to see by, rather than merely being seen, and that, I'm afraid means spending a bit of money. It will depend too on how much night riding you actually do - are you likely to be in darkness only the last couple of miles, or are you going out and back in darkness (as I do). Because of my work commitments I tend to do nearly all my riding between 4:30am and 6:30 (year round) so I ride in darkness quite a lot. I use Lupine lights which are brilliant and beautifully engineered and utterly reliable, and of course are also quite expensive, but I look at the cost as a sort of health insurance. Light and Motion also make good lights for night riding. Again, they cost a bit.

alfablue

Magicshine or P7 SSC (or 2) from Lumenjunkies, powerful lights, sensible prices.

jordan_217

LED Lenser P7 & Twofish bike mount - I got both from Amazon for £45. Well made and 200 lumens of light. (which apparently is quite good for a small, inexpensive unit)

Good for riding on unlit roads, bridleways and tow paths on high power. The low power setting's ideal for riding on lit roads, in traffic.

Manufacturers claim up to 130 burn time on low power from 4 X AAA batteries. But I haven't had mine long enough to comment on the real-world burn times in low/high power.

For the money, I'm really impressed.

danowat

Magicshine, £45 from dealextreme, 800 lumens, extremely bright.

sundog

+ 1 for the p7 from deal extreme, i think there's a sticky thread on the MTB buying advice

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... 515a221ab0

tomsmithy

thanks for all the comments, think I'll go for the magicshine then.

Then the'll be no excuses not to go out

cheers

Scrumple

big quality issues on the magicshine.... they don't last long so I hear

Radioactiveman

Buy cheap buy twice,thrice and whatever four time means.

Ribble rider

I bought a Nuke proof Reactor Eco (2 cell) from CRC recently for £99.00. Unfortunately they don't seem to be selling them any longer. So far, I'm pretty impressed with it. Supposed to put out 900 lumens in brightest mode and can either be set to flashing or constant mode.
Previous review here:
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/f ... ight-23250

tomsmithy

Radioactiveman wrote:

Buy cheap buy twice,thrice and whatever four time means.

Ok, thats fair enough. Can you recommend me a decent reliable set then?

another one I've seen is:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/LIE ... ght-system

but there I've read complaints about the brackets snapping off. I'm open to suggestions, and there's gotta be something that works well that's reasonably priced?

dmch2

It looks like to get enough light you either pay £50 for a P7 based thing and accept that you may need to resolder the odd wire. Or pay 3 times that for something that's no brighter but it better made (eg from Ay-up).

I'm happy to save £100 and keep the soldering iron ready...

APIII

dmch2 wrote:

It looks like to get enough light you either pay £50 for a P7 based thing and accept that you may need to resolder the odd wire. Or pay 3 times that for something that's no brighter but it better made (eg from Ay-up).

I'm happy to save £100 and keep the soldering iron ready...

You're dead right. I'd rather pay the extra for peace of mind though. I've had the magicshine and the pricier Lupine. It's no fun having your lights die 8 miles from home in the middle of nowhere, believe me. Thankfully I wasn't alone so I managed to get home. Lupines have never let me down in 3 years.

Radioactiveman

Yup got a lupine myself very reliable,no battery issues it just works

dmch2

APIII wrote:

dmch2 wrote:

It looks like to get enough light you either pay £50 for a P7 based thing and accept that you may need to resolder the odd wire. Or pay 3 times that for something that's no brighter but it better made (eg from Ay-up).

I'm happy to save £100 and keep the soldering iron ready...

You're dead right. I'd rather pay the extra for peace of mind though. I've had the magicshine and the pricier Lupine. It's no fun having your lights die 8 miles from home in the middle of nowhere, believe me. Thankfully I wasn't alone so I managed to get home. Lupines have never let me down in 3 years.

I'll still be taking my cateye commuter lights as a backup. Which sort of explains my expectations...

bartimaeus

dmch2 wrote:

APIII wrote:

dmch2 wrote:

It looks like to get enough light you either pay £50 for a P7 based thing and accept that you may need to resolder the odd wire. Or pay 3 times that for something that's no brighter but it better made (eg from Ay-up).

I'm happy to save £100 and keep the soldering iron ready...

You're dead right. I'd rather pay the extra for peace of mind though. I've had the magicshine and the pricier Lupine. It's no fun having your lights die 8 miles from home in the middle of nowhere, believe me. Thankfully I wasn't alone so I managed to get home. Lupines have never let me down in 3 years.

I'll still be taking my cateye commuter lights as a backup. Which sort of explains my expectations...

Yup... me too. P7 + C1 + Cateye EL130. Total outlay about £85.

carrock

tomsmithy wrote:

Radioactiveman wrote:

Buy cheap buy twice,thrice and whatever four time means.

Ok, thats fair enough. Can you recommend me a decent reliable set then?

another one I've seen is:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/LIE ... ght-system

but there I've read complaints about the brackets snapping off. I'm open to suggestions, and there's gotta be something that works well that's reasonably priced?

Exposure diablo- had them for 12 months, used regularly, used as inspection lamp for car, superb quaity, great charger etc.etc. cost £200 each though..........but can't praise them enough.

moonshine

Scrumple wrote:

big quality issues on the magicshine.... they don't last long so I hear

That is the very reason I just ordered a set of Ay-Ups. I'd rather pay more for something with some quality that will last for years. They cost £162 delivered & Arrive tomorrow.

There are just too many reports af dud batteries, charging problems & loose solders to make it a sensible purchase in my opinion. If they sorted that out, its another matter,

dmch2

If i spent £160 on ayups my wife would change the locks whilst i was out!

i don't think she was very happy with £50 either to be honest but at least i'm still allowed in the house...

moonshine

dmch2 wrote:

If i spent £160 on ayups my wife would change the locks whilst i was out!

i don't think she was very happy with £50 either to be honest but at least i'm still allowed in the house...

danowat

Are these quality issues with the magic shine well documented?.

TBH, I was personally suprised at the quality of the magicshine, used it every day for a good few weeks now, and I can't see any issues with it yet........

antfly

tomsmithy wrote:

Hello

Got caught out running out of daylight on a ride the other day, so starting to look for front lights.

I normally do most riding on b-roads and unlit country lanes so there is no street lighting. I've had a look online and prices seem to vary from £20 to £200+ but I have no idea what I will need to light my way. (Ive heard that some are just to let you been seen while some light your way).

I don't want to spend 100's but obviously function is important here. Can anybody give me a recommendation. Thanks

Magicshine might be overkill for the road.
Hope vision 1 perhaps.
Or you could get a decent quality torch insead of a DX one.
This looks a good price compared to things like the exposure joysick.
http://www.flashaholics.co.uk/itp/itp-r ... eable.html

huuregeil

dmch2 wrote:

If i spent £160 on ayups my wife would change the locks whilst i was out!

i don't think she was very happy with £50 either to be honest but at least i'm still allowed in the house...

Actually, while my partner's initial reaction was just that, I then got her to drive towards me, with me cycling towards her and she completely changed her mind, and congratulated me on the purchase! Good lights are a good insurance policy.

mjgoodhand

There has been a lot written about the reliabilty of the Magicshine lights. There seem to be three different types on DX:

This is the standard 3 mode light:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149

This is a 5 mode light:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.30864

This is a 3 mode light but with an LED display:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.44459

Does anyone know if any of these are more reliable or with newer connections / batteries? There is hardly anything in it price wise. I was looking at ordering one in the next couple of days - it's getting dark

andyrr

Wouldn't describe the Magicshine, eg [url=ttp://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149]ttp://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149[/url] which is what I have, as overkill.
Previous lights I've had have not been as bright (from maybe 1/2 as bright, eg Smart lead-acid battery twin halogens, to Light and Motion Solo Logic which were maybe 80% as bright) and the magicshines just make riding in darkness safer, not a case of being able to bomb about at super high speed, more a case of at sensible speeds your ability to pick out hazards on the road are increased.
I've had issues with all of these lights failing - the L & Ms are a premium brand and I had a bulb fail 5 miles from home and had to continue onwards with just a tiny little backup light so having a second light to fall back on is essential really, even if it just allows cars to see you and you are reduced to a much slower speed, at least it is better than being a barely visible shape in the dark.