The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

Ouija

Most Chinese packs tend to be of dubious quality. The six cell packs often struggle to run as long as a decent four cell pack.

Trustfire packs tend to be quite good but your better off getting a good pack from a uk seller like torchy.

hainman

What are the latest Cree lights,XM-L2 or T6 or U2
Looking for new torch for my lid,my Ultrafire is starting to go wonky and skipping through the settings on the trails,Or am i best going with a lamp with battery in my bag

Ouija

Xml-2 and xpl are the latest. T6, U2 and U3 are the post production quality check bin number. T6, T5, T4 being lower quality grades. U2, U3 being the better quality grades.

KokaKona

Cree have just announced their 2nd generation of the XP-L, called, yep, XP-L2:
http://www.cree.com/News-and-Events/Cree-News/Press-Releases/2016/September/Cree-Announces-the-Next-Generation-of-High-Power-XPL-LEDs
I wonder how long before we start seeing these appear in torches/lamps... hopefully quite soon.

BTW, I meant to give Ouija a big thumbs up for the beam-tuning suggestion using car light beam bending fresnel optics (about half way down page 165). This worked a treat for me and gives a nice clean cut-off at the top (like a car beam) and fills in a bit more in the foreground. Riding up and down a narrowish but well-surfaced and very popular cycleway next to a guided bus route I was getting a few oncoming cyclists a bit snarky about my lights in their eyes, so I started shielding the beam with my hand(s) a bit when someone approached (easier/quicker than dipping/undipping 2 seperate torches). Now no need for the hand waving to avoid 'anti-social' problems, and a better use of the available light for me too. Cheers for the tip.

tincaman

A big shout out for Aldi, their rear aluminium Moon Nebula copy for £12.99, 100 lumens is awesome.

bamba

Hi all , not posted on here for a good while , Ive ran 502b torches in the past with most leds , including xml2 , 2 on the bars one on me helmet , brought a trustfire trd002 about 18 months ago , still works well, but cant help think the overall spread of light is no where near as good as two torches. The reflector on the trustfire unit are almost half the size of the torches and then there spaced too close together with out any means of being able to angle them out a tad. Is there anything better , im guessing there all of a similar size.

tincaman

Have a Moon Meteor Storm bar light on order


1300lumens, with 1700 blast mode. The most interesting part is that it has a wired remote control

bompington

Ouija wrote:

tincaman wrote:

This looks interesting and cheap if you have a supply of 18650 batteries, for only £12.21 delivered

http://www.dx.com/p/t6-2-led-1600lm-5-mode-neutral-white-bike-head-light-w-belt-clip-2-x-18650-420659#.VrY3bVKOMQI

Got one... [positive review] ... So, yeah, well worth a tenner.

Hmmm. Bought three (actually £15 each) on the strength of this review, as the family Bomp were needing a few lights for the winter, and I'm very disappointed.
First, the mounts - they're utterly, utterly useless. Swivel top half mounted via pathetic rivet on awkward to attach bottom half, the light is loose and shifts around from the start, and the first big ride I did with one (80 miler where I knew I'd be arriving more than an hour after dark) the light kept sliding off and landing in the road every time I went downhill at more than 30mph. After about three offs I found a small piece of duct tape which held it in place for a while - until it fell apart at the rivet. I was on the verge of tying it on with my spare tube until I saw that the hardware store in Tarbert (small west coast fishing/tourist town) was open - at 6:30 pm, outside the holiday season!) Duct tape to the rescue again.

The light itself survived this treatment pretty well, and in use, I actually like it. It has too many unnecessary modes - if you want to go from dim to bright for the benefit of dazzling drivers it takes 6 or 7 clicks - but no complaints apart from that.

But the other TWO lights - both work on one side only! (The mounts are all equally crap).
And that's the lottery you get when you buy cheap from DX, I guess. It's always worked out for me before - I guess the law of averages will get you in the end: two out of three ain't bad - but one out of three certainly is.

Stevo C

Seems I had a lucky escape - I bought one of these from Ebay after seeing it on this thread - it didn't turn up, so the seller sent a second - that didn't turn up either, so I got a refund

I then decided to order the Fenix BC30 after seeing it mentioned (again on this thread!) - can't fault it all, it's well worth the money - it just works and very, very well at that

bompington wrote:

Ouija wrote:

tincaman wrote:

This looks interesting and cheap if you have a supply of 18650 batteries, for only £12.21 delivered

http://www.dx.com/p/t6-2-led-1600lm-5-mode-neutral-white-bike-head-light-w-belt-clip-2-x-18650-420659#.VrY3bVKOMQI

Got one... [positive review] ... So, yeah, well worth a tenner.

Hmmm. Bought three (actually £15 each) on the strength of this review, as the family Bomp were needing a few lights for the winter, and I'm very disappointed.
First, the mounts - they're utterly, utterly useless. Swivel top half mounted via pathetic rivet on awkward to attach bottom half, the light is loose and shifts around from the start, and the first big ride I did with one (80 miler where I knew I'd be arriving more than an hour after dark) the light kept sliding off and landing in the road every time I went downhill at more than 30mph. After about three offs I found a small piece of duct tape which held it in place for a while - until it fell apart at the rivet. I was on the verge of tying it on with my spare tube until I saw that the hardware store in Tarbert (small west coast fishing/tourist town) was open - at 6:30 pm, outside the holiday season!) Duct tape to the rescue again.

The light itself survived this treatment pretty well, and in use, I actually like it. It has too many unnecessary modes - if you want to go from dim to bright for the benefit of dazzling drivers it takes 6 or 7 clicks - but no complaints apart from that.

But the other TWO lights - both work on one side only! (The mounts are all equally crap).
And that's the lottery you get when you buy cheap from DX, I guess. It's always worked out for me before - I guess the law of averages will get you in the end: two out of three ain't bad - but one out of three certainly is.

apreading

Stevo C wrote:

Seems I had a lucky escape - I bought one of these from Ebay after seeing it on this thread - it didn't turn up, so the seller sent a second - that didn't turn up either, so I got a refund

I then decided to order the Fenix BC30 after seeing it mentioned (again on this thread!) - can't fault it all, it's well worth the money - it just works and very, very well at that

Fenix BC30 is excellent. Not saying you couldnt design something better but for the first time in years I cant see anything available that I would rather have so dont intend buying any lights this year!

Ouija

bompington wrote:

Ouija wrote:

tincaman wrote:

This looks interesting and cheap if you have a supply of 18650 batteries, for only £12.21 delivered

http://www.dx.com/p/t6-2-led-1600lm-5-mode-neutral-white-bike-head-light-w-belt-clip-2-x-18650-420659#.VrY3bVKOMQI

Got one... [positive review] ... So, yeah, well worth a tenner.

Hmmm. Bought three (actually £15 each) on the strength of this review, as the family Bomp were needing a few lights for the winter, and I'm very disappointed.
First, the mounts - they're utterly, utterly useless. Swivel top half mounted via pathetic rivet on awkward to attach bottom half, the light is loose and shifts around from the start, and the first big ride I did with one (80 miler where I knew I'd be arriving more than an hour after dark) the light kept sliding off and landing in the road every time I went downhill at more than 30mph. After about three offs I found a small piece of duct tape which held it in place for a while - until it fell apart at the rivet. I was on the verge of tying it on with my spare tube until I saw that the hardware store in Tarbert (small west coast fishing/tourist town) was open - at 6:30 pm, outside the holiday season!) Duct tape to the rescue again.

The light itself survived this treatment pretty well, and in use, I actually like it. It has too many unnecessary modes - if you want to go from dim to bright for the benefit of dazzling drivers it takes 6 or 7 clicks - but no complaints apart from that.

But the other TWO lights - both work on one side only! (The mounts are all equally crap).
And that's the lottery you get when you buy cheap from DX, I guess. It's always worked out for me before - I guess the law of averages will get you in the end: two out of three ain't bad - but one out of three certainly is.

Only bought the one so can't comment on quality (which do tend to vary from most Chinese manufacturers). The mount on mine is rock solid. Did you mount it the right way round? The screw for the bar clamp should be in front of the bars and the light slides on from the back of the bars and can't slide forwards to fall off the front of the bike unless you mount the clamp in reverse and slide the light on in reverse (which you can do, but then the slide doesn't "lock" into position).

The bar clamp itself is for oversized bars (even with the rubber spacer). On my 3T bars it mounts solid and doesn't move, but on my Truvativ oversized bars it requires an extra thin strip of rubber under the clamp to widen it so that the two plastic lips the screw compresses don't touch before they can apply sufficient pressure to the bar.
I guess this is because my 3T bars remain fatter further out from the stem clamp than my Truvativ bars, which start narrowing immediately.

bompington

It wouldn't be the first schoolboy error I've ever made on a bike, but on this occasion the mount was on the right way round. Meaning that the light just slid off backwards rather than forwards.
But the bigger problem was that the two parts of the mount - held on by a flimsy rivet - were loose on all three, and the rivet broke on one.
I've just replaced it with a small bolt so we'll see if that helps. I've got the end of the bolt very slightly sticking up into the channel where the light slides in, the idea is that it will hold it in better - hopefully.

johnmcl7

I'm really pleased with my Fenix BC30 as it's well built, decent spread of light and much less faffing around since there's no battery pack. The only issue is getting it to close with the batteries but I've switched to the red gasket and can actually get it to close now, I know that trades some weather proofing but all I seemed to be doing with the default black one was breaking the rear handle trying to get it closed.

John

apreading

Johnmcl7 wrote:

I'm really pleased with my Fenix BC30 as it's well built, decent spread of light and much less faffing around since there's no battery pack. The only issue is getting it to close with the batteries but I've switched to the red gasket and can actually get it to close now, I know that trades some weather proofing but all I seemed to be doing with the default black one was breaking the rear handle trying to get it closed.

John

Yes - I spent some time researching and finding the shortest protected batteries available. Found one seller on ebay that listed the exact dimensions, which really helped. I think if you used unprotected batteries it would be easier as they are shorter but I didnt want to. With my current batteries its not too hard.

bamba

Im beginning to think that as far as lights on the bars , regardless of the led / battery etc , that more than 1 led on a single unit is some what wasted , as the beams are too close together,my 2 502b torches separated by a few inches gives a far better spread of light than my twin tr d002 .

richk

Ouija wrote:

Simple mod. Just buy some car beam deflectors off ebay...

Use a five pence piece and mark two half moon shaped semicircles on the material (with the long sided slats of the freznel material pointing towards the top of the arc) and then cut them out. Then simply place them in the top half of the lights front lenses (if the glass is clean, surface tension holds them in place as well as the thick material bracing itself against the edge of the lights bezel, so there is no need to use glue or anything). What you should have is something that looks like this....



Only covering half of the lens, instead of a third. On the light i'm talking about i have one side half covered in freznel material and the other with only a third covered. Just trim the bottom (straight edge) of the semi circular until you get the right combination of spot and deflection (which is best done with the light held parallel to the ground and not pointing at a flat wall).

Essentially, what it does is take some of the light that normally goes upwards into the air and deflects it downwards to create a strip of light between the spot and your front wheel, creating a keyhole style beam pattern. With a dedicated half freznel glass lens (which i also have) you tend to get two completely separate spots, one above the other. But with the car beam deflectors it's an elongated strip that joins up with the spot.

If you do want two spots, one above the other, rather than a spot and a elongated strip then instead of using the car beam deflector material use a credit card magnifying lens instead. Cutting a circle of material from the center just widens the spot but leaves it in the same place. Cutting a circle from further out towards the edge of the card will create a second spot that gets closer and closer to your front wheel depending how far out you cut. You can play around till you get what your looking for (start with a full five pence piece circle from a section of the card and then start trimming and trimming until you get the pattern you want).

I'll do some pic when i've got the time.

Finally got round to trying this... first attempt looks like I need to cover a bit more lens but will see how it goes

Thanks

bamba

Does anyone know of a trust source to buy genuine Panasonic NCR18650b batteries ? Wouldn't trust any thing of ebay , kaidomain list them as single cells and also battery pack made with NCR cells , also a uk site batteriesplus.co.uk , which dosnt have a option to buy them.

diy

bamba wrote:

Im beginning to think that as far as lights on the bars , regardless of the led / battery etc , that more than 1 led on a single unit is some what wasted , as the beams are too close together,my 2 502b torches separated by a few inches gives a far better spread of light than my twin tr d002 .

Yep - I have to agree. Spacing the light out significantly reduces shadowing which IME is the biggest cause of confusion riding at night. No amount of lumen from a signle source can stop a rock or a branch in a trail from confusing you from a distance.

bamba wrote:

Does anyone know of a trust source to buy genuine Panasonic NCR18650b batteries ? Wouldn't trust any thing of ebay , kaidomain list them as single cells and also battery pack made with NCR cells , also a uk site batteriesplus.co.uk , which dosnt have a option to buy them.

https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall

apreading

bamba wrote:

Does anyone know of a trust source to buy genuine Panasonic NCR18650b batteries ? Wouldn't trust any thing of ebay , kaidomain list them as single cells and also battery pack made with NCR cells , also a uk site batteriesplus.co.uk , which dosnt have a option to buy them.

Ecoluxshop on ebay should be trustworthy: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ECOLUXSHOP/_i. ... =641059803 I love that they have the exact measurements too.

Doesnt seem to have Panasonic at the moment but I would trust any batteries from Torchy the Battery Boy too: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Ilove-Torchyth ... d=32008479

thomasmorris

I'm looking for a set of lights, which will mostly be used on the road, but I've come here as I think there's more experience.

I have been using a Trustfire TR-D001 picture

It's small, however, the separate switch means it clutters the bars and has extra wires. I'd like to replace this with something similar size, but a tail-cap switch, and possibly more capacity. It doesn't have to have massive brightness as this is my 'dipped beam'. Most of the time I'll be pairing this with a blinky light for the commutes. There's a couple of unlit sections, but I know them well. 500 lumens ill be enough here, and I'll probably bodge on some optics to keep the beam down.
Options:
Cree XM-LU2
L2 LED Bicycle Lights /1*Cree XM-L2
TrustFire TR-D017
or... one with internal 18650 battery like: Fenix BC21R

I'd then like a second light, for 'full beam' on longer night rides. I've got a couple of old lights I used for MTBing which could be good here (UniqueFire HD-016 and Fluxient 4xR5), but their batteries are shot and you have toggle through strobe settings to switch off... not very good when you wan to 'dip' the light for traffic.
Options:
2xCree XM-L2 2500-Lumen
or something with internal batteries like this: Fenix BC30R
Or just get a new battery pack for my Uniquefire? In which case where are teh best packs bought from these days?
I'll need to get 3-4 hour run time from these lights.

sparky.2002

Ouija wrote:

bompington wrote:

Ouija wrote:

tincaman wrote:

This looks interesting and cheap if you have a supply of 18650 batteries, for only £12.21 delivered

[url]<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.dx.com/p/t6-2-led-1600lm-5-mode-neutral-white-bike-head-light-w-belt-clip-2-x-18650-420659#.VrY3bVKOMQI</span>[/url]

[img]<span%20class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_420659_1.jpg</span>[/img]

Got one... [positive review] ... So, yeah, well worth a tenner.

Hmmm. Bought three (actually £15 each) on the strength of this review, as the family Bomp were needing a few lights for the winter, and I'm very disappointed.
First, the mounts - they're utterly, utterly useless. Swivel top half mounted via pathetic rivet on awkward to attach bottom half, the light is loose and shifts around from the start, and the first big ride I did with one (80 miler where I knew I'd be arriving more than an hour after dark) the light kept sliding off and landing in the road every time I went downhill at more than 30mph. After about three offs I found a small piece of duct tape which held it in place for a while - until it fell apart at the rivet. I was on the verge of tying it on with my spare tube until I saw that the hardware store in Tarbert (small west coast fishing/tourist town) was open - at 6:30 pm, outside the holiday season!) Duct tape to the rescue again.

The light itself survived this treatment pretty well, and in use, I actually like it. It has too many unnecessary modes - if you want to go from dim to bright for the benefit of dazzling drivers it takes 6 or 7 clicks - but no complaints apart from that.

But the other TWO lights - both work on one side only! (The mounts are all equally crap).
And that's the lottery you get when you buy cheap from DX, I guess. It's always worked out for me before - I guess the law of averages will get you in the end: two out of three ain't bad - but one out of three certainly is.

Only bought the one so can't comment on quality (which do tend to vary from most Chinese manufacturers). The mount on mine is rock solid. Did you mount it the right way round? The screw for the bar clamp should be in front of the bars and the light slides on from the back of the bars and can't slide forwards to fall off the front of the bike unless you mount the clamp in reverse and slide the light on in reverse (which you can do, but then the slide doesn't "lock" into position).

The bar clamp itself is for oversized bars (even with the rubber spacer). On my 3T bars it mounts solid and doesn't move, but on my Truvativ oversized bars it requires an extra thin strip of rubber under the clamp to widen it so that the two plastic lips the screw compresses don't touch before they can apply sufficient pressure to the bar.
I guess this is because my 3T bars remain fatter further out from the stem clamp than my Truvativ bars, which start narrowing immediately.

Bought one of these for the cx bike.
Turns out that they aren't rain proof.
Stripped driver out and cleaned up.
Added some resistors too.
Driving 2amp through each led on full now.
Also exchanged reflectors for 15degree lenses.
Just got to rebuild now and hopefully make weatherproof.
The mount is rubbish, fitted a hope bar mount.

richk

sparky.2002 wrote:

Bought one of these for the cx bike.
Turns out that they aren't rain proof.
Stripped driver out and cleaned up.
Added some resistors too.
Driving 2amp through each led on full now.
Also exchanged reflectors for 15degree lenses.
Just got to rebuild now and hopefully make weatherproof.
The mount is rubbish, fitted a hope bar mount.

Two x501b sound to be a lot less hassle :shock:

thomasmorris

thomasmorris wrote:

I'm looking for a set of lights, which will mostly be used on the road, but I've come here as I think there's more experience.

Just got 2xCree XM-L2 2500-Lumen for now.

Only the head lamp, and have bought some quality torchy cells to go in a cell holder which I'll also use for charging. Got it as I can programme it to use on the low setting most of the time, then scroll through for a much higher output on faster stretches without having to go through strobe or off.

I will try and put some beam deflectors on this to get more light down on the road and less in traffic's eyes.

I've read conflicting info on the reliability and cooling on these lights however, so I will see when it turns up.

If it's of no use then I'll probably try one of the Ituo lights as the next step up in price.

sparky.2002

RichK wrote:

sparky.2002 wrote:

Bought one of these for the cx bike.
Turns out that they aren't rain proof.
Stripped driver out and cleaned up.
Added some resistors too.
Driving 2amp through each led on full now.
Also exchanged reflectors for 15degree lenses.
Just got to rebuild now and hopefully make weatherproof.
The mount is rubbish, fitted a hope bar mount.

Two x501b sound to be a lot less hassle :shock:

That's the next plan. Used to run 2x 501b with xpg r5. They were great.

The resistors were £1

sparky.2002

Failed miserably.

sandy771

I have a few decent lights that I am quite happy with but just want a new battery pack. Tried ebay and got an 8 cell pack that last for less time than the two 4 cell packs I have (working through a refund with them now - 1 day per email).

I am looking for a source for a quality 6 or 8 cell pack (don't want to be soldering individual batteries if I can help it) so I can power my 5 led bar light and not have to worry about it draining over a night ride.

Of the three packs I currently have one of the four cells will last 2:30, the other 1:05 and the 8 cell pack 1:15

Any trusted UK sources for a complete ready to plug in pack?

Cheers

diy

Honestly - I'd either look at a power bank and source 18650s from an old laptop cell or I'd be ready to strip out the charge/controller and balance from an existing pack and replace with laptop cells.

You can get some decent 2.5-2.7Ah at 2A for 5-10 quid on ebay with anything up to 9 cells in.. I've personally found 8 cell packs under charge the cells as they can't manage to balance properly, so you end up with an 8 cell pack which only lasts the same as a 4 cell pack. I've been mucking about with power packs for a while and haven't go an answer to that problem. What I have been doing though is happily running 8.4v lights at 10v via a twin usb out 8 pack. but then most of my drivers are 3.7 - 12v

dazz_ni45

Hi, I purchased a magicshine MJ-6308 battery earlier this year which was stolen off my bike this week at a coffee stop so I need an urgent replacement.

I was looking at either the MJ-6102 or MJ-6306 which are around £42 each from bikelightsuk and wondered if there were any opinions on these or better/cheaper options out there for the money. I would rather buy something that is ready to use and that I can get my hands on quickly and before Christmas. Thanks

thomasmorris

Ouija wrote:

Simple mod. Just buy some car beam deflectors off ebay...

Use a five pence piece and mark two half moon shaped semicircles on the material (with the long sided slats of the freznel material pointing towards the top of the arc) and then cut them out. Then simply place them in the top half of the lights front lenses (if the glass is clean, surface tension holds them in place as well as the thick material bracing itself against the edge of the lights bezel, so there is no need to use glue or anything). What you should have is something that looks like this....



Only covering half of the lens, instead of a third. On the light i'm talking about i have one side half covered in freznel material and the other with only a third covered. Just trim the bottom (straight edge) of the semi circular until you get the right combination of spot and deflection (which is best done with the light held parallel to the ground and not pointing at a flat wall).

Essentially, what it does is take some of the light that normally goes upwards into the air and deflects it downwards to create a strip of light between the spot and your front wheel, creating a keyhole style beam pattern. With a dedicated half freznel glass lens (which i also have) you tend to get two completely separate spots, one above the other. But with the car beam deflectors it's an elongated strip that joins up with the spot.

If you do want two spots, one above the other, rather than a spot and a elongated strip then instead of using the car beam deflector material use a credit card magnifying lens instead. Cutting a circle of material from the center just widens the spot but leaves it in the same place. Cutting a circle from further out towards the edge of the card will create a second spot that gets closer and closer to your front wheel depending how far out you cut. You can play around till you get what your looking for (start with a full five pence piece circle from a section of the card and then start trimming and trimming until you get the pattern you want).

I'll do some pic when i've got the time.

Did you ever get around to taking some pictures?

I'm trying to do the same with my road light (Itiu XP-2). However, going in to halfords I can't find any beam deflectors that have a frenzel section, so I'm unsure which way to orientate them.

The other thing I'm unsure of, is that on car with reflectors, you put the deflectors at the bottom of the lens, as the light that is going up is doing so from the bottom of reflector (if that makes sense). Obviously the example

In my head I've always assumed that the spot is what comes straight out of the lens, without reflecting, and therefore isn't inverts, whereas the flood is spill which is reflected and therefore comes out inverted.

What did you find play around with the deflector?

Ouija

Used to make the same assumption about the bottom of the reflector being the part that throws light upwards but a few minutes fiddling with most bike lights disproves that. Put a strip of black electrical tape over the top half of the glass and you quite clearly can see that the beam is chopped off at the top, with a inverted half dome of light hitting the ground. This is why lights like the one pictured above come with the freznel part on the top half of the lens. The shape of the reflector on car head lights, as well as the fact they tend to have bulbs that protrude quite a distance out into the reflector may have something to do with the way the lower half of the light goes up (who knows). Most of the stick on freznel deflectors for cars are to divert the beam sideways, not downwards anyways.