Front light?

teamtalairan

Hello, I've begun commuting and live in the country and noticed that alhough my two front lights (cat eye HL EL120) plus mini back up meant I could be seen, I did realise that my vision ahead was difficult in unlit areas. Now although I'd fancy a fancy schmancy uber light, I'd rather spend £25 for the time being. Anyone cast any light ;0) on recomendations at this price?!

Erudin

I got a CREE Q5 zoom focus led torch with 18650 battery/charger and bar mount off Ebay, lights the road up nicely, don't know how durable it will be though.

Ebay link - Cycling lights, Cree

Torchy the Battery Boy Blog

hopper1

I'll say Magicshine, if you can find one...

squigs

teamtalairan wrote:

Hello, I've begun commuting and live in the country and noticed that alhough my two front lights (cat eye HL EL120) plus mini back up meant I could be seen, I did realise that my vision ahead was difficult in unlit areas. Now although I'd fancy a fancy schmancy uber light, I'd rather spend £25 for the time being. Anyone cast any light ;0) on recomendations at this price?!

Good shout, im looking myself after realising the same, can be seen but without street lighting I am fooked. Let me know how you get on!

bakerstreet

Good shout, im looking myself after realising the same, can be seen but without street lighting I am fooked. Let me know how you get on!

I am also finding the same thing. However, I am starting to learn where the pot holes are on the one stretch of unlit road. Its only about half a mile.

The rest of my commute has good lighting

Pross

You'll probably need a bit more than £25 to get a decent front light for unlit roads. About £45 will get you something like a B7 lenser bike specific light or for a bit less you can pick up a torch equivalent that you can mount on the bars with a Twofish lock block.

wyadvd

why skimp on lights just be done with it and get an exposure then its one less thing to worry about for the rest of your cycling careeer

bendertherobot

I love my Hope Vision 1. And I am seriously thinking of running two of them,.

wheelygood

+1 for Hope LED lights. I run the two LED lamp and it is fab -OH has the 4 LED and that is like being at a footy mach under floodlights! Three brightness settings too which saves battery in town and long life rechargable batteries - quick to recharge. They are so bright some walkers took to the grass verge thinking we were a four wheel drive coming along an unlit road!

unixnerd

Magicshine is great, but outwith your budget.

Lots of folk (including me) have bought the Magicshine and are selling their old lights. I sold my 10 watt halogen Smart for 20 quid, damn good light for the money. You'll easily find one on ebay. The battery pack will fit in your water bottle holder.

teamtalairan

I ordered 1 x Smart bspoke 1W Front Light - less than £20 at Wiggle as it's got a 60% discount. Tried it last night ... like night and day.

Perfect for my needs.

Stewie Griffin

My single shot plus let me down very recently in the same way that everyone elses seems to have, I got much longer out of it than most others seem to have though. Annoyingly I noticed it just as I was putting it on for a ride. So I put my spare light on which is a

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cateye-hl-el410 ... ont-light/

Within 5 mins I remembered why I had looked for a better light in the first place. If the council hadnt painted a white circle around a pot hole I wouldnt have seen it until my front wheel fell in it. The pot hole was in the shadow of a large tree on a side road so unless you do all your cycling on well lit main roads I wouldnt rely on a £20-£30 light.

I havent quite made my mind up yet but am leaning toward a Hope Vision 1 and hoping that my 2700mah rechargeables are up to the job.

MattC59

+1 for Hope !!

I've got a vision2, it's superb ! It has two 5W LEDs. It's very bright, has an excellent beam pattern and three power modes. The lower setting is fine for most roads, the high setting will give you LOADS of light. (I believe that the new version has a 4th, short burn, 7Watt mode)

There are a number of battery options, I've got the Epic version, which I've used for 2hours on high power, with no signs of it dimming.

Hope's after sales support is second to none as well.

rolf_f

teamtalairan wrote:

I ordered 1 x Smart bspoke 1W Front Light - less than £20 at Wiggle as it's got a 60% discount. Tried it last night ... like night and day.

Perfect for my needs.

I have one - a great light to be seen by but not really adequate to see by on unlit roads. I just got an RSP Asteri 3 after a good review in Cycling Plus. I'd been planning on getting a Hope 1 but the battery life, size and weight ultimately put me off. The RSP is rechargeable (charger included), is smaller than the Smart B Spoke and yet puts out 3 watts, 200 Lumens for I believe 5 hours. I tried it this evening and it lit a country road up like car headlights! Maybe car headlights on dip rather than main beam but plenty good enough at 25 mph. I'll believe the burn time when I flatten the battery but it is looking good so far. The only obvious silliness is a madly small on button which is hard to work in gloves - but I think there is a knack which I might have nearly got!

Retail is £70 but I got mine online for £42.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... t-10-35502

MattC59

I've got the previous version to this.............
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/accessories/lights/front/product/vision-2-35220

zanes

Rolf F wrote:

I have one - a great light to be seen by but not really adequate to see by on unlit roads. I just got an RSP Asteri 3 after a good review in Cycling Plus.

Have ordered one of these from Merlin for around £43 on the strength of your recommendation, the bikeradar and road.cc reviews.

flanners1

Forget all the brands and go for this popular with Singletrack guys. I have one it is awesome:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.44459

Fantastic bit of kit IMO, it is just like the Lupine one which retails for £200 reviewed on this site! It is not perfect but for the money is great value and works really well meaning you can ride safely at night and see and be seen. I paid no Customs or Import taxes.

Don't forget a two pin US converter which is a couple of quid on ebay. Charger is quick and 'intelligent', lasts 3hrs on full beam constant. I use full beam for downhill on the lanes and drop it down a level for normal riding lasts 5hrs+!

rolf_f

zanes wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

I have one - a great light to be seen by but not really adequate to see by on unlit roads. I just got an RSP Asteri 3 after a good review in Cycling Plus.

Have ordered one of these from Merlin for around £43 on the strength of your recommendation, the bikeradar and road.cc reviews.

Yikes! I hope you like it then! As I said, the only question mark for me so far is battery life. I think I might run it on full all the way home tomorrow and see how it does. It's had about an hour on so far. I just have to make sure I don't flatten it on the dark bit of the ride if I go that way

zanes

Rolf F wrote:

Yikes! I hope you like it then!

I'll be holding you responsible if I don't Nah in all fairness I was casually looking for another front light to run with my existing 1W light and this thread popped up, like I say a couple of online reviews recommended it if the price was right (~60% of "RRP") and merlin happened to be having a 10% off offer on lights, which very happily bought it within my budget easily.

As I said, the only question mark for me so far is battery life. I think I might run it on full all the way home tomorrow and see how it does. It's had about an hour on so far. I just have to make sure I don't flatten it on the dark bit of the ride if I go that way

My two concerns are visibility from the side, although I am currently using two LED torches (a 1 watt and a smaller, weaker one with a wider spread as secondary) and have not had too many problems so far. Might pick up a cheapo "be seen" light with good spread, but we'll see how this one goes.

Secondly, with having a inbuilt battery I guess longevity could be an issue but I think I can rig something if needs be (hopefully a long way down the line and I shall probably have relegated it to secondary backup anyway by then).

Still, I have to say this one looks promising from what I've seen/read about it.

teamtalairan

For REALLY cheap effective side lighting, I use the RAC LED Safety light strips which I wear around my wrists. They have a flashing mode, which not only light you up like a xmas tree but also when I indicate in the dark drivers can actually see it. They were only about £8.

bartimaeus

If you want cheap bright lights then see the MTB What Lights sticky - http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... 0#15720460 and the new discussion thread http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12730302

P7 or XPG torches are the way to go - depends on how long a run time you need.

I have a P7 torch on my bars and an XRE (older generation than XPG) on my lid - and that's bright enough for 90 mins off road in pitch dark. Cost £65 total.

teamtalairan

What do you use to mount the P7 to your handlebars?

bartimaeus

teamtalairan wrote:

What do you use to mount the P7 to your handlebars?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15642

zanes

My Asteri 3 arrived today- like people have said its exceedingly well made, and (only having done the "look at the side of the beam test" so far) amazingly bright for the cash.

Happily, upon investigation I find that the lithium battery appears to be a standard size and voltage, but better than that it also has a connector to remove it from the light totally. This makes replacement (and upgrade!) very easy.

Only (minor) disappointment so far is the stated 5 hour runtime almost certainly refers to the flashing mode (should have been obvious but I never twigged!) as the 2200mAh 3.7V battery has a capacity of 8.7W. At 3W a 50% flash cycle will get over 5 hours, but the constant modes will get about 2h30 (maybe a bit more) per charge.

rolf_f

zanes wrote:

Only (minor) disappointment so far is the stated 5 hour runtime almost certainly refers to the flashing mode (should have been obvious but I never twigged!) as the 2200mAh 3.7V battery has a capacity of 8.7W. At 3W a 50% flash cycle will get over 5 hours, but the constant modes will get about 2h30 (maybe a bit more) per charge.

Have you run it from full charge yet? Mine needed at least an hour and a half on the charger before it registered fully charged when I first got it.

I think I've had my Asteri on on 3 trips now. I'd say I've had at least 3 and a half hours out of full beam and it is still OK. I might run it down now and see how much it has left. I think flashing mode is meant to be 10 hours.

One other thing - concensus seems to be that you need a minimum of 200 lumens to see by - which is what the Asteri is rated at. Day before yesterday, I found that the rain diffused the beam to the extent that whilst still perfectly rideable by, it was pretty marginal and I had to concentrate a bit more to see what was coming and slow down a bit on the main descent.

I've only used the Asteri on full beam - I use a Smart BSpoke 1 watt on full or flashing as a secondary which also covers the issue of side visability to the light.

zanes

Rolf F wrote:

zanes wrote:

Only (minor) disappointment so far is the stated 5 hour runtime almost certainly refers to the flashing mode (should have been obvious but I never twigged!) as the 2200mAh 3.7V battery has a capacity of 8.7W. At 3W a 50% flash cycle will get over 5 hours, but the constant modes will get about 2h30 (maybe a bit more) per charge.

Have you run it from full charge yet? Mine needed at least an hour and a half on the charger before it registered fully charged when I first got it.

Nope, that's just me doing the maths. Mine appeared to be part charged when I got it (guess a remnant of production testing) so only needed c45mins. I'm definitely not going to be using it on flashing-somewhat fit inducing strobing!

rolf_f

Left it on for another hour and a half before putting it on charge overnight. It hadn't obviously lost any brightness so that is probably about 5 hours to that point.

Of course, that disagrees with the maths which, generally, I am happy to trust in so not sure what is going on here

gregg.pedder

wyadvd wrote:

why skimp on lights just be done with it and get an exposure then its one less thing to worry about for the rest of your cycling careeer

+1 Seconded