Front Light For Very Dark Unlit Roads

nstevo

Got some good ones for people seeing me, but could do with something that will help me see the way especially when cycling downhill at speed!!. Skint, so preferably cheap and with good battery life. Any recommendations?

shouldbeinbed

I spent all day yeterday in various darkened bits of shops with men and lights.

rather skint but the budget end of the market was absolute cr@p for proper dark.

I ended up grimacing and shelling out £75 for a hope vision 1.

rode in at 5am this morning and have several miles of completely unlit roads & country park and it was superb 3/4 power and I was riding at normal speed.

nstevo

Interesting. Thanks. As it happens I've just been looking at exactly that light on t'web, for a shop that I have a £30 quid voucher for!!

RufusA

The Smart Lunar 35 is bright and has a lot of throw to the beam, currently £26 delivered from Rutland:

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/25643/Sma ... Light.html

Very good for the money, and bright enough to see by on a dark road. Beam pattern has more throw than spill, so worth pointing down the road, and using one of your "be seen" lights to help find the potholes as they get close.

IMHO not quite bright enough for cycling at full tilt downhill with oncoming car beams dazzling you, unless you have better eyes than me.

If you can wait a couple or so weeks, then the MagicShine from Dealextreme will be brighter, but a bit more money!

Otherwise you are looking at a pair of high powered torches, or spending more than "skint" budget on a light!

HTH - Rufus.

shouldbeinbed

RufusA wrote:

The Smart Lunar 35 is bright and has a lot of throw to the beam, currently £26 delivered from Rutland:

I've got one of these too and agree its a great light for the money but I really don't find it safe to light my way with, its too diffuse to be even half way useful as you're stuck to lighting the road immediately in front of your wheel and either riding very slowly or needing the reactions of a meerkat on speed - It's brilliant as a to be seen by light, but I've had to get the Hope as I scared myself to death last week trying to use the lunar to see by when my heavy old halogen jobbie finally gave up the ghost.

marky-p

try magicshine, just got the 1400lumen light and its amazing,

just ordered the smaller 900 for head light.

http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk

try deal extreme same lights but cheaper

http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.905

waddlie

+1 for the Hope Vision 1. Not the cheapest of lights but bloody good. Use it on flashing when in town and setting 2 of 4 is bright enough for 20-25mph on a completely unlit road.

Evans are also doing it for a good price at the mo too.

Specialized Needs

Waddlie wrote:

+1 for the Hope Vision 1. Not the cheapest of lights but bloody good. Use it on flashing when in town and setting 2 of 4 is bright enough for 20-25mph on a completely unlit road.

Evans are also doing it for a good price at the mo too.

Yes, good price. Unfortunately it now seems to be out of stock on their website until early November

Edit: typo

ooermissus

the MTB sticky is a good place to start for advice on this: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12660193

bartimaeus

ooermissus wrote:

the MTB sticky is a good place to start for advice on this: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12660193

See also:
New discussion - http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12730302
Old discussion - http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12660192

You can get a 500 lumen (claimed 900 - but not with protected cells) 5-mode P7 torch for your bars and an XPG 501b for your helmet, together with 18650 cells, charger. mounts and spares all for about £60. This will give you about 60 mins on full power - but a lot more for commuting as full power is too bright for use in traffic. These will have the same high quality as Hope or Exposure lights - but most reported issues appear to have simple DIY fixes.

squired

Yesterday I came across the RSP Asteri Pro Light (900 Lumens) on Parker International for a little over £100. Doesn't look bad, although I've not seen any reviews/comments on it as yet.

bumpitybump

ooermissus wrote:

the MTB sticky is a good place to start for advice on this: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12660193

The diffuse beam of some lights suitable for MTB use in dark forests away from cars doesn't work on roads where the light could be shining into on coming drivers eyes. I have a magicshine P7 900 lumens light for MTB use which works great off-road but unless I can find a way of shielding part of the beam I wouldn't risk using it on the road.

On unlit roads for commuter use I use an Exposure Joystick which has a very focused beam and this is good downhill to about 25 mph in the dark. If you could find something as cheap as the MTB magicshine lights but with the beam pattern of the Exposure Joystick that would be ideal - unfortunately I don't know of a light like that but someone on here might!

arthur_scrimshaw

shouldbeinbed wrote:

I spent all day yeterday in various darkened bits of shops with men and lights.

rather skint but the budget end of the market was absolute cr@p for proper dark.

I ended up grimacing and shelling out £75 for a hope vision 1.

rode in at 5am this morning and have several miles of completely unlit roads & country park and it was superb 3/4 power and I was riding at normal speed.

+1
One of the best things I've bought for my commute, went through a year with a Cateye (cheap - £35 but not that cheap!) but had to ride slowly on unlit roads. Now feel confident to blast it, also like the lack of separate battery pack and to my eyes it looks the dogs.
It's an easy choice to make.

jeremyrundle

Perhaps you get what you pay for but I ordered one of these and was so impressed (I normally only buy LED Lenser and have P4-5 and 14) I ordered another three.

Believe me the brightness is no underestimate and 10 days delivery at £7 inclusive, makes you wonder why other manufacturers charge £60.

The build quality is good too and yes they are alloy, and I tried one in the sink for an hour, worked fine.

jeremyrundle

Sorry, the link would help


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/17-Watt-CREE-W-LE ... 45f61b2675

There are many like this only £7 inclusive

That is 68w for £28, I have bought the 5w versions for my elderly father and sons, they are as bright as a LED Lenser P6 on spot.

The best thing is they are also torches in their own right,, and at £7 each well.........

Radioactiveman

+1 for hope vision.

Spare batteries are readily available if they die on the way home,or you can even take some with you. Quality is top notch as well.

There will be no need for DIY bodges to keep the hope going and its a British product.

jeremyrundle

Nice light the hope £70 plus and an led.

for £7 you get a cree chip running on 3aaa batteries, I use NiMh

you could have ten for one hope, but it isnt British,just £60 cheaper ah well.

bartimaeus

bumpitybump wrote:

If you could find something as cheap as the MTB magicshine lights but with the beam pattern of the Exposure Joystick that would be ideal - unfortunately I don't know of a light like that but someone on here might!

Try: http://www.bestofferbuy.com/ultrafire-w ... affiliate1

Radioactiveman

jeremyrundle wrote:

Nice light the hope £70 plus and an led.

for £7 you get a cree chip running on 3aaa batteries, I use NiMh

you could have ten for one hope, but it isnt British,just £60 cheaper ah well.

Would rather spend my time riding my bike than messing about making/fixing lights that other people make perfectly well but everyone is allowed there own choice/opinion.

Cheap lights do not have the same beam pattern as a good quality light - plenty of evidence of that including this months MBR. (although there are also some highly priced poorly performing lights)

Always bugged me why most bikeshops dont have demo lights.

RufusA

jeremyrundle wrote:

That is 68w for £28.........

17W - 3xAAA batteries - sorry it just doesn't add up! 1.7W maybe at a pinch!

Also advert mentions both Cree and Luxeon - wonder which one it is!

*shudders*

You may be lucky and get something that produces a reasonable light, but you will need three of them to ensure that at least one is working at any one time! Hope you've budgeted for an accessories bar!

Rufus.

Alphabet

just got torches and bike mounts from here:

http://lumenjunkies.co.uk/

like strapping a small star to the front of your bike for very little moolah

jeremyrundle

RufusA wrote:

jeremyrundle wrote:

That is 68w for £28.........

17W - 3xAAA batteries - sorry it just doesn't add up! 1.7W maybe at a pinch!

No, suggest at £7 you buy and try then see what I mean.

I also use two these for my six lights

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... 152c003245


regards

linsen

Fenix torch with a mount for the bike. 2 x AA batteries, which you would want to charge very often, but 6 miles of my commute is unlit and it is very good.

Around £45 I think

apreading

jeremyrundle wrote:

RufusA wrote:

jeremyrundle wrote:

That is 68w for £28.........

17W - 3xAAA batteries - sorry it just doesn't add up! 1.7W maybe at a pinch!

No, suggest at £7 you buy and try then see what I mean.

I also use two these for my six lights

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... 152c003245

regards

If you use 6 lights then that tells you the problem with those lights - I use one DX P7 torch to see and a small flashing Cateye to be seen.

6 lights with 3 AAAs each is 18 batteries and after an hour or two of running you have to recharge all that lot?!?!?

They are so cheap I might get one to try but doesnt sound like a sensible solution to me...

RufusA

jeremyrundle wrote:

RufusA wrote:

17W - 3xAAA batteries - sorry it just doesn't add up! 1.7W maybe at a pinch!

No, suggest at £7 you buy and try then see what I mean.

I'm not denying that when it works it will be bright and if probably good value for money, I have a cheap 3W Cree Tesco torch that is bright, and uses 2xAA that cost me under a tenner!

However 17W is all but impossible from 3xAAA.

Assuming you could draw 5A from a AAA battery it would severly dent the capacity and you are unlikely to get more than 1 minute out of a normal 1200mAh rechargeable.

However with that current draw, the heat would be immense and I'd expect things inside to start melting or catching fire!

The maximum I've ever seen a CREE LED is 5w and that's on a high end torch with expensive components.

Rufus

jeremyrundle

If you use 6 lights then that tells you the problem with those lights - I use one DX P7 torch to see and a small flashing Cateye to be seen.

6 lights with 3 AAAs each is 18 batteries and after an hour or two of running you have to recharge all that lot?!?!?

They are so cheap I might get one to try but doesnt sound like a sensible solution to me...[/quote]
..................................................................................................

I have 6 lights because I chose to have, does that mean there is a problem or simply that I want to be seen regardless. Believe me I am seen.

I have 1w lights, 3w lights and 5w lights, now, I am no expert or electrician, all I can do is turn them on in the dark, the 3w is brighter by far than the 1w, the 5w more than the 3w, and the 17 more than all, perhaps, and you could be right, may be only 8-9 or there about, but it is very bright indeed.

Buy one and try it.

As for charging, no big deal aaa batteries, decent ones, from Cellpak solutions are only £2.45 for 4 1000mah Uniross, and a 6 battery uniross charger does the job asap, and I have 2 chargers.

cyberknight

jeremyrundle wrote:

Nice light the hope £70 plus and an led.

for £7 you get a cree chip running on 3aaa batteries, I use NiMh

you could have ten for one hope, but it isnt British,just £60 cheaper ah well.

+1 i run 2 lights of that price range and its fine for the 4-5 miles each way of unlit road, cars dip their lights when they see me coming and i have been confused for a motorbike in the works car park.

I think its the "look at my shiny light cost me XXX must be good light syndrome "

badgerman26

Just get a p7. Best light ever. Have another on order from dx for helmet. My commute is streets A road n back lanes with tow path. Flashing makes cars pull in as I overtake on left.