Lights suitable for unlit country lanes?

apreading

I've got effectively the same light as the Lenser, except it cost me about £5. Several variations of this: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/c30-flood- ... -aaa-18697 some with a zoom that requires turning the head others just pulling on it.

They are really great and would be enough if you didnt try a proper P7, XRE or similar...

If you want normal batteries they seem to be as good as it gets.

I am not sure I would pay the premium for the LED Lenser name though.

jeremyrundle

alfablue wrote:

jeremyrundle wrote:

Oh, and don't forget they offer a 100% no quibble LIFETIME guarantee, I returned a seven year old broken lenser and got a new one in three days...........

:roll:

Yawn

Ignore people who can't read specifications.

:?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?:

meanredspider

Hoopdriver wrote:

I like my Lupine Betty - 1850 lumens (which can be lowered to 1100 or 700 at the flick of a switch) and a 3 hour burn time, utterly reliable and beautifully engineered. I figure good lighting is a safety imperative and am happy to spend the money to get the best I can. I ride a lot at nights and on unlit country lanes, and these lights are fabulous - worth the admittedly steep price tag.

I think the Betty is probably overkill - great for night riding on trails but even 700 lumens is everkill on country lanes. I don't even need the 220 lumens except in the fastest road decents when combined with my lid light. Nice lights though.

cyberknight

apreading wrote:

I've got effectively the same light as the Lenser, except it cost me about £5. Several variations of this: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/c30-flood- ... -aaa-18697 some with a zoom that requires turning the head others just pulling on it.

They are really great and would be enough if you didnt try a proper P7, XRE or similar...

If you want normal batteries they seem to be as good as it gets.

I am not sure I would pay the premium for the LED Lenser name though.

I used to run similar and found that for real unlit roads you would need about 4 to get a decent amount of light, thats why i plumped for a magicshine, this is the road i commute on and because i work shifts of up to 11 hours it is pitch black both times..

Heres the road on a summers day...imagine it at 6 am or 7 .30 pm this time of year ...

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=bretby+ ... 12,45,,0,5

Hoopdriver

I would agree that the 1850 lumens on my Lupine Betty is a bit much - nice, but not strictly necessary, but no way is 700 lumens overkill on a dark country road.

Kieran_Burns

CK - I know that road very very well (used to live in the Briz Valley) and that is the bastard hill from hell at the end of it. Short, sharp and very very nasty.

For those wondering - cars go up and down that road at SERIOUSLY high speed. NSL means anything you damn' well like down there, and it's narrow, not to mention the edges are crumbling permanently so you need to be a fair way out. I'd be lit up like a lost extra from Close Encounters if I cycled down there.

thiscocks

alfablue wrote:

thiscocks wrote:

I have a 100lumen Niterider Newt light and although a great light it is not bright enough for the pitch black lanes I sometimes commute back from work on.

These look like good value, although I would opt for the LED rather than halogen for the extra burn time: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... TQ:GB:1123

That is very old tech, heavy NiMH battery, poor output for the money, bulky.

A 501b with XPG emitter can be had for about £13, add two Li cells (one spare) and a charger, maybe another £12 and you have better performance in a lightweight package. There is also an advantage of having removable cells (you can take a spare) over a single dedicated cell. One of these would be fine for a commute, two for off road/mtb.

See the What Lights therad and DIY's recommendations

diy wrote:

See Link to BoB but also available from DX

501b or 502b have approx a 30mm head. If you want something a little more floody then the C8 is similar with a 45mm head.

You will need:
18650 cells
charger and a mount. too.

Personally I would buy 2 501b XPGs Link
two trustfire protected or unprotected cells link
a charger link
two mounts (others have linked)

bob are shipping in under 2 weeks at the moment

Interesting. Have you a link to the thread?. Those torches seem good value- what is the burn time with those two rechargables?

bails87

thiscocks
Go into "Mountain Biking" then go into the MTB Buying advice section, there's a What Lights thread at the top of the page.

meanredspider

Hoopdriver wrote:

I would agree that the 1850 lumens on my Lupine Betty is a bit much - nice, but not strictly necessary, but no way is 700 lumens overkill on a dark country road.

Well - from what I can see, 700 lumens is the equivalent of 200-odd lumens more than your average car headlight (unless someone has better numbers) - I don't quite manage 60mph. I've never really felt short-changed with 240 lumens - even at 40 mph on twisting unlit singletrack roads. I've certainly blinded cars with 240 lumens on single carriageway roads

Hoopdriver

Well, I cannot speak to numbers of lumens for various car headlights but I am out riding every single morning in the dark with my headlamp and I do know the respective lumen figures for its three settings - and I can assure you that 700 lumens is not brighter than a car headlamp. In fact it is not as bright. It is good to see by, certainly, very satisfactory, but no way is it brighter than a car. Believe me, I have ridden thousands, many thousands, of miles by the glow of headlamps.

The full setting - 1850 lumens - that's another story; very useful in certain conditions but always must be dimmed for any traffic.

If you were blinding traffic with 240 lumens, I'd suggest you had your lamp raised a bit high and had the thing shining in their faces.

meanredspider

Well of course it depends upon the focus of the beam. I too have done many thousands of miles with my 240 lumens - it's more than I need as the beam is quite narrow - possibly why it's more "blinding". I rarely use the full power, even when on my road bike (quicker and more pot-hole sensitive).

I'm guessing that the beam of the Betty is more disperse - there can be little value in having that power concentrated in a small pool.

All I'm trying to flag is that people looking for lights needn't be assuming they need 700 lumens for it to be effective.

dilemna

There is no way bicycle lights are as bright as car headlamps, certainly not on full beam.

My choice of light is the Magicshine http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ssc-p7-3-m ... 8650-50947 currently out of stock and it's Chinese New Year.

Or if you are not turned on by the bargain price of the Magicshine and have deeper pockets then how about the Exposure Maxx D Mk 3 front light http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=54851.

Always carry spare batteries or lights just in case your main one(s) fail.

iPete

mr_si wrote:

iPete wrote:

I don't NEED one but I WANT one now :shock:

Is that strap mechanism good enough for some single track/downhill riding?

Have a look at this thread. I've just put a proper mount on mine after the O ring pinged off in the dark yesterday morning. :shock:

My P7 came with the non-waterproof batteries and has been a real headache this year - I'm waiting for some new li-ions from deal-extreme and meanwhile using 6 x AA rechargeables.

That mod looks ace, as its such a cheap light I'm very tempted but standard set up wouldn't last a minute on a bone shaking single track ride..

Hoopdriver

You can buy the Betty in two flavours - one with a 22 degree beam width, the other with 16. I prefer the 22 degrees - I've often got wildlife (badgers, rabbits, foxes) springing suddenly out of the shrubbery and I like to see them as early as I can.

ride_whenever

Please, the new hope is where lighting is at:



2500 lumens and variable modes, yes please!!!!

meanredspider

dilemna wrote:

There is no way bicycle lights are as bright as car headlamps, certainly not on full beam.
.

Well - tell me how many lumens that a car headlamp puts out and we'll discuss on facts. The data I found suggests 10-12 lumens per watt. A car headlight is 55W IIRC - 550 to 660 lumens. The Lupine Betty is one of the most powerful bike lights out there

ride_whenever

try google, 1500 for a halogen or 3000 ish for a HID bulb in a car.

meanredspider

ride_whenever wrote:

try google, 1500 for a halogen or 3000 ish for a HID bulb in a car.

Well, despite being different from what I found on Google, that makes both the Betty and the Hope (above) brighter than most cars.

iPete

Who wants go guess at the RRP of the Hope?

Hoopdriver

How do you figure 1850 lumens is brighter than 3000 lumens for the car bulb? That math escapes me. And anyway you were talking about 700 lumens before. And that - and I know from seeing it every day - is nowhere near as powerful as that of a car headlamp.

Mark Elvin

I used one of these - http://www.magicshinebikelights.co.uk/m ... 1&p=1&so=0

Shope around, and you may get one for under £50 if the exchange rate is favourable, try dealtime.

meanredspider

Hoopdriver wrote:

How do you figure 1850 lumens is brighter than 3000 lumens for the car bulb? That math escapes me. And anyway you were talking about 700 lumens before. And that - and I know from seeing it every day - is nowhere near as powerful as that of a car headlamp.

If you read what I wrote, I said it was brighter than MOST car headlights. The car "bulb" that delivers 3000 lumens is the HID system which, apart from being expensive, isn't yet that common on cars. So not maths but simple English.

Yeah - the low setting 700 lumens isn't brighter than most car headlamps (again, there are exceptions) - what I found originally is wrong - but it is still incredibly bright and I stand by my assertion that it's not necessary for road use. It's nearly 3x brighter than the light I use and, picking the first 3 reviews on Wiggle, people had this to say about that light:

In terms of brightness, I've never needed to put it above medium even on dark country lanes

On Medium power it is about as bright as my old Smart twin halogen setup (2.4w + 10w) which is good enough for unlit lanes

This light is bright enough to enable confident riding at 30-33km/hr on unlit roads/paths

which kinda supports my assertion. I don't want the OP or anybody else going off thinking they need 700 lumen lights because they don't

Hoopdriver

I don't care if you ride holding a lit candle above your head - if you're happy, good for you. I stand by my assertion that 700 is a good starting point for unlit country lanes - it is not something that is just merely 'good enough' but is a very useable, practical degree of illumination for safe and enjoyable riding.

meanredspider

Hoopdriver wrote:

I don't care if you ride holding a lit candle above your head - if you're happy, good for you. I stand by my assertion that 700 is a good starting point for unlit country lanes - it is not something that is just merely 'good enough' but is a very useable, practical degree of illumination for safe and enjoyable riding.

Cool - we can agree to disagree. It's not just me that's happy. If the OP wants to spend several times more money, good for him. If I felt I needed it, I'd buy it. I don't.