The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

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Comments

  • vulva65
    vulva65 Posts: 118
    slowhand44 wrote:
    Rather than build my own, has anyone got any recommendations for bar & helmet mounted lights on a budget (approx £50 per light)? I don't have the budget to run to Exposure & the like. I have looked at the Chinese imports on eBay & Amazon, but am unsure what the brightness & reliability would be like, so am looking for recommendations.

    Ta.

    Magicshine MJ900, I cannot rate this highly enough and at sub £50 it's incredible value! My gf and I both have these mounted on our bars and they have 4 different modes, on lowest the battery will last approx. 6 hours, and on full about 3.5 hours. They've got a really wide beam so are perfect for trails at night. Just don't look into the light!

    https://www.bikelightsuk.com/front_bike ... _P636.html
  • bikes`n`guns
    bikes`n`guns Posts: 959
    Anyone using a dynamo hub set up ?
    Trek,,,, too cool for school ,, apparently
  • fossyant
    fossyant Posts: 2,549
    My favourite light is still the Yinding 2xU2 - it's a quality clone of the Gemini Duo. There are other copies about, but the Yinding is getting hard to get.
  • concorde
    concorde Posts: 1,008
    diy wrote:
    Doesn't look like much has changed this year since the general move from CREE XM-L2 and CREE XP-Ls to XHP50/70. The problem with those still seems to be the price. XM-L2/XP-L are still coming in around £7.50 for a single cell, bar mount and head mount unit.

    Mounts - still using innertube rings on the bars, which works fine.

    I did notice a few lights have magnetic dimmer/drivers rather than modes. Not sure how they work yet.

    I did spot some Tesla-like cell holders on ebay which would help anyone who needs to assemble home made packs.

    99p
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... cer&_sop=2

    Where can I find the innertube for bars bodge?

    Cheers
  • stuart_c-2
    stuart_c-2 Posts: 805
    Anyone tried these:

    https://www.chilli-tech.com/bike-lights/Cree-LED-Front-Bike-Light

    Ignore the price, they seem to always have them on Facebook deal for £47 with big battery. Just like the fact that it's a "kit" and from UK seller.
    "I ride to eat"
  • Ouija
    Ouija Posts: 1,386
    Stuart_C wrote:
    Anyone tried these:

    https://www.chilli-tech.com/bike-lights/Cree-LED-Front-Bike-Light

    Ignore the price, they seem to always have them on Facebook deal for £47 with big battery. Just like the fact that it's a "kit" and from UK seller.

    Have three of those from a few years ago (was inspecting them just the other day with an eye to refitting them to something). Nice lights with a few pros and cons.

    Pros:

    Small= Don't take up too much handlebar space.

    No Flash= No flashing modes to go through in the main sequence (you don't need a stupidly bright light flashing unless your deliberately trying to pee off drivers)

    Dippable= Tapping the main button always take you down to a dimmer mode whereas most Chinese lights often go dim to bright, forcing you to manically cycle through some brighter modes (and flash modes) to get back round to a dimmer setting when trying to dip you lights for oncoming traffic.

    Frugal= Doesn't rip through a reasonably good four cell battery pack that fast.

    Beam= Decent "not quite flood, not quite spot" pattern thats better for road stuff than off road stuff.

    Cons:

    Buttons= Flush with the casing, they are hard to find and push in, especially with gloves. Something that stuck out more would of been better.

    Rust= After being left down in my damp basement for the last three months you can start to see some bubbling below the reflectors on two of them (i changed out one for a glass optic).

    Leads= They have short leads which can be a pain if you like to mount your battery pack on your seat tube area and the pack doesn't have particularly long connectors either (extension lead required)

    Glow= The outer glow ring is a nice idea but the upper part of the ring shines right up into your eyes (and glasses, if you wear them) ruining your night vision. You need to get some black electrical tape and make a little hood that covers the upper half of the ring for it to be of any practical use.

    Indicator= The green battery indicator that surrounds the back of the light only seems to go red minutes before your battery dies, giving you no real warning in advance and no real way of judging batter charge (a three stage multicolour light might have been better).

    Remote= For road work a good commuting light should really come with some sort of remote switch as people get lazy and just leave the light blazing away in one mode as they can't be bothered to take their hand off the grips and start tapping buttons to dip for oncoming traffic. At least with these you can sometimes place them right next to your right hand grip and tap the button with your thumb still on the grip (depends on weather you use straight bars and/or separate gear shifter/brake levers).

    Not bad lights but not the best either
  • diy
    diy Posts: 6,473
    Concorde wrote:
    diy wrote:
    Doesn't look like much has changed this year since the general move from CREE XM-L2 and CREE XP-Ls to XHP50/70. The problem with those still seems to be the price. XM-L2/XP-L are still coming in around £7.50 for a single cell, bar mount and head mount unit.

    Mounts - still using innertube rings on the bars, which works fine.

    I did notice a few lights have magnetic dimmer/drivers rather than modes. Not sure how they work yet.

    I did spot some Tesla-like cell holders on ebay which would help anyone who needs to assemble home made packs.

    99p
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... cer&_sop=2

    Where can I find the innertube for bars bodge?

    Cheers

    Any innertube works:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtAdD7-bux0
    Guide to cheap bike lights Turbo Trainer Vids Play list
    Stretching & Workout Vids
  • CitizenLee
    CitizenLee Posts: 2,227
    Sorry for the thread necro but I have a quick question that doesn't really need it's own one...

    What would be a fair price to ask for a MagicShine MJ-880 (non-R)? It must have only had around 10-15hrs use since I bought it and is fitted with 1x normal lens and 1x wide-angle lens (spare normal lens included in the box). Also comes with a bunch of spare rubber mounting bands and a carbon bar mount extender thing.

    They're still selling for £137.99 on their site so I was thinking about £65 posted including the extra stuff?
    Current:
    NukeProof Mega FR 2012
    Cube NuRoad 2018
    Previous:
    2015 Genesis CdF 10, 2014 Cube Hyde Race, 2012 NS Traffic, 2007 Specialized SX Trail, 2005 Specialized Demo 8
  • tincaman
    tincaman Posts: 508
    New Halfords front lights out, look good value. The more high power ones include a combo garmin/light outfront mount. There is also a separate wired remote available for a fiver
    https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... Bikehut%3B
  • jwa581
    jwa581 Posts: 24
    Anyone had any experience with Ravemen lights. Was looking at the PR1200, probably mainly for commuting with some mtb nightriding as well in conjunction with a joystick on the helmet. Looks like a good light, believe they are a Chinese company. Only question is over how solid the mount is for off road, and what the build quality is like. Look like good value for £60 from Light malls.

    https://gb.lightmalls.com/ravemen-pr120 ... QQQAvD_BwE

    Any advice would be appreciated before I buy one.

    Thanks
    John
  • apreading
    apreading Posts: 4,535
    jwa581 wrote:
    Anyone had any experience with Ravemen lights. Was looking at the PR1200, probably mainly for commuting with some mtb nightriding as well in conjunction with a joystick on the helmet. Looks like a good light, believe they are a Chinese company. Only question is over how solid the mount is for off road, and what the build quality is like. Look like good value for £60 from Light malls.

    https://gb.lightmalls.com/ravemen-pr120 ... QQQAvD_BwE

    Any advice would be appreciated before I buy one.

    Thanks
    John

    I have one, and worried about the mount for a long time before I used it (I bought in the summer) but actually its been fine. The feel doesnt inspire confidence but it has been very stable, doesnt wobble at all. I only use it on a road bike though - I have stopped worrying about it on the road but I would worry again on an MTB until tested properly.
  • jwa581
    jwa581 Posts: 24
    Thanks for the reply. Good to know. I take it you are happy with the light otherwise (beam build quality etc.)? I like the look of the dipped beam full beam configuration as i would be using it for commuting as well. Think should be a good buy, so will take the plunge. Thanks again for the advice.
  • danlightbulb
    danlightbulb Posts: 701
    If i buy two 1600 lumen lights is that the equivalent of 3200 lumens? Does light summate that way?
  • tincaman
    tincaman Posts: 508
    danlightbulb wrote:
    If i buy two 1600 lumen lights is that the equivalent of 3200 lumens? Does light summate that way?

    Found this for you, makes some sense:

    Yes but with caveats. Yes, two 1600 lumen lights will undoubtedly emit a total of 3200 lumens. Lumens are a measure of visible radiative power, the number of photons emitted per second. So definitely additive.

    The most obvious caveat is that the two lights shouldn’t shadow each other. Obviously you will waste light if they do. So you would want to keep them a reasonable distance apart rather than side by side to minimise this loss.

    The main caveat however is that in practice they will appear to be dimmer. Many people believe that Lumens represent brightness. They don’t. Lumens measure the total light output, whereas brightness is intensity in a particular direction. In other words to accurately measure the number of Lumens you would need to surround the light(s) in a container and measure the total incidence of light (at each wavelength) across the entire internal surface of this container. So if you did this with one 3200 Lumen light inside the container, and then repeated with two 1600 Lumen lights in the container (avoiding shadowing) then you would measure the same total amount of light. The distribution of the light across the container internal surface would be different, but the total incidence would be the same.

    However humans don’t perceive light in this way. Eyes react to the amount of light they are receiving, essentially at a single point, ie: they react to the intensity of light arriving at this point, not the total light across the whole room. So if the light is more evenly distributed then it will appear less intense. Ultimately that’s the key difference with having two bulbs - you’re spreading out the light from being emitted from one point to being emitted from two.

    In practice of course, splitting the total light into multiple sources is often a benefit when lighting a room. You tend to want fairly even lighting across most parts of the room, and so splitting the source of light helps with this. This is common in an office or a kitchen for example. Whereas having a light emitted from a single point is going to leave surfaces further away from the light being dimmer, and probably leave a lot of surfaces shadowed by others. A more even distribution of light from multiple bulbs will result in surfaces that are on average brighter than those dimly lit by a single bulb, but also dimmer than those brightly lit by the single bulb.

    It’s all a matter of light distribution.
  • danlightbulb
    danlightbulb Posts: 701
    Thanks. The reason I ask is that lights like the six pack are £400 and kick out 5000 lumens. But I could get two of the Halfords 1600 lumen lights right now for £70 total getting me a fairly meaty 3200 lumens. Will I see a benefit running two 1600 lumen lights on my bars instead of just one?
  • apreading
    apreading Posts: 4,535
    danlightbulb wrote:
    Thanks. The reason I ask is that lights like the six pack are £400 and kick out 5000 lumens. But I could get two of the Halfords 1600 lumen lights right now for £70 total getting me a fairly meaty 3200 lumens. Will I see a benefit running two 1600 lumen lights on my bars instead of just one?

    I would say the benefit would just be extra battery life - because you will turn both of them down further than if you just had a single. There is no earthly reason for that many lumens other than boasting.
  • fenix
    fenix Posts: 5,437
    danlightbulb wrote:
    If i buy two 1600 lumen lights is that the equivalent of 3200 lumens? Does light summate that way?

    What do you want to do with these lights ?

    On road - one is ample.

    Off road - one on the helmet and one on the bars.

    As has been said - that's going to be too much light unless maybe you're downhilling ?
  • billycool
    billycool Posts: 833
    I like lots of lumens but you do get to a point where more don't really matter.

    It also comes down to how the light is dispersed ahead of the bike.

    I have a Hope R4+ that has 4 led bulbs with an alleged max output of 1500 lumens. That produces a very bright, white light maybe 10m ahead of the bike. It's plenty bright enough for fairly quick single track etc. On the road, I can't see much beyond that so I actually struggle a little if belting down the road.

    I also only run it on the max setting for short periods of time as the battery can only seem to do 25 mins on max mode before it steps down to the middle power stting (1000ln) - I do have a smaller 2 cell battery pack. The 4 cell or super 6 cell do last a lot longer. I tend to use it on that middle setting most of the time as it easily lasts over an hour and I can't tell much difference between 1000ln and 1500ln to be fair.

    I also have a couple of tactical police type torches that I use to walk the dogs etc. Although `only` 900ln, they are more focused and can easily light something up 200-300m away. I've used one as my `main beam` on my bike at night on the road, but it's no good for lighting up what's in front of my bike as the light beam is way too narrow.

    Put into context - a car dipped headlight is about 700ln and main beam is about 1200ln (as a guide) - it's the reflectors that determine how the light is dispersed, range etc and not just the lumen count. You see plenty of Chinese torches that claim 5000ln and in reality you're lucky to get 1000.

    My mate does have a 3000+ln Exposure light and it's awesome - it seems just as bright as my 1500ln but it chucks it further ahead of the bike (more like a main beam) and as a result appears `brighter`. In that respect - the extra lumens help but it is also down to the quality of the light and reflectors.

    If you do want 2x 1600ln lights - I'd argue you won't get exactly 3200 lumens as they will crossover, but it should be `whiter/brighter`. As suggested, I'd have one on the bars and one on my helmet. If you have the same type of light, you may not get any extra range. You might one one that is more flood (for bike) and one that is more long range/focussed (for your head)

    That is a lot of light though - plenty for most types of riding!

    PS - when I night ride we mix road and path/trails to join everything together. On the road we have a rule of bar lights on lowest settings and no helmet lights on. They are VERY bright for oncoming cars and can really dazzle people. We've even had people walking dogs thinking we were a 4x4 coming down farm tracks etc. Even in the lowest settings we've confused plenty of cars who can't work out what 3 or 4 LED lights are coming up the road (mix in some reflective clothing and we look very alien).
    "Ride, crash, replace"
  • danlightbulb
    danlightbulb Posts: 701
    Will be mostly Cannock Chase red routes so will be proper dark and foresty. These are wide beam so i'd also have one on my helmet but looking for narrower beam for that one. Not sure what head lumens to get, maybe 800?
  • billycool
    billycool Posts: 833
    danlightbulb wrote:
    Will be mostly Cannock Chase red routes so will be proper dark and foresty. These are wide beam so i'd also have one on my helmet but looking for narrower beam for that one. Not sure what head lumens to get, maybe 800?

    Buy this now:

    https://www.cyclerepublic.com/exposure- ... unt-1.html
    "Ride, crash, replace"
  • danlightbulb
    danlightbulb Posts: 701
    Bit expensive tho arent they, considering i just paid £70 for 2x 1600 lumen bar mount lights. Shame Halfords dont do an own brand 1000 lumen light with a helmet mount.
  • joebristol
    joebristol Posts: 327
    Try a Moon Vortex Pro with their go pro adapter and a stick on go pro moi t for your helmet. 900 lumens and spottier than the Halfords bar lights so they work well in combination.

    If that’s too expensive there is the Moon Vortex which is 600 lumens. It’s not quite as bright but not a massive step down. Think the pro is often around £40 ish online and the non-pro I’ve bought for £28.

    Got one of each.
  • billycool
    billycool Posts: 833
    danlightbulb wrote:
    Bit expensive tho arent they, considering i just paid £70 for 2x 1600 lumen bar mount lights. Shame Halfords dont do an own brand 1000 lumen light with a helmet mount.

    It's all relative. I think at that price it's really good VFM. You get what you pay for. The Exposure Joystick is very much one of the `go to` helmet mounted lights. Well respected and recognised brand. Really good quality, bright, good light spread and you can even use it as a power pack to charge your phone.

    The price on offer is a bargain but I appreciate it may not suit your budget.
    "Ride, crash, replace"
  • thistle_
    thistle_ Posts: 7,218
    BillyCool wrote:
    Buy this now:
    https://www.cyclerepublic.com/exposure- ... unt-1.html
    Balls, I bought one the other day for £99 from Wiggle, although none of those funky colours match anything I own.

    I've found that the 1000 lumens from the new joystick is much more useful than the 1200 from my cheap bar mounted light. The joystick is also tiny and weighs a feather by comparison.
    £90 is a lot, but my previous joystick lasted over 10 years with no problems (it still works now apart from the smart port, and permanently says the battery is low) but every 12 months I have to repair something on the cheap bar mounted lights I have.
    Technical support from USE has also been very good.
  • concorde
    concorde Posts: 1,008
    Surely time to revive this....

    Unfortunately the links within the stickie is way out of date and pretty pointless these days and for a long time. No idea why it's still there.

    What's the latest options people are buying?

    Cheers
  • matt_cartlidge
    matt_cartlidge Posts: 44
    Xiaomi Beebest Fz101 torch anyone got one?
    Big fan of xiaomi products, shame battery is not removable but looks well built and go pro mount compatible, might take a punt on one as my 501b torch is on it’s way out. Anyone tried one?
  • tincaman
    tincaman Posts: 508
    matt_cartlidge wrote:
    Xiaomi Beebest Fz101 torch anyone got one?
    Big fan of xiaomi products, shame battery is not removable but looks well built and go pro mount compatible, might take a punt on one as my 501b torch is on it’s way out. Anyone tried one?
    Beam looks like a searchlight so maybe be not so suitable?
  • billycool
    billycool Posts: 833
    I'm still running my Hope R4+ with no issues. Certainly not as cheap as other options but it gave me the peace of mind that I wanted.
    "Ride, crash, replace"
  • poptart242
    poptart242 Posts: 531
    Any rear light recommendations since my See.Sense Ace is now plugged in to the big blue charger in the sky (RIP)?
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    I'm running the BikeHut 1600 @ £50 - although I got it on a black friday deal - effectively giving me a remote for nothing.

    It's not an exposure - but then, it's £50 ...
    It does give a runtime indication (~2hrs on full) - if you've got it mounted above your bars - but if you turn it, you can't see it. The remote is handy for changing modes - but it's just a handy ... It can also act as a powerbank - so very useful if you're away from power for a time.

    I'm also running an Aldi lightset (don't laugh) - £15 -(may have been £16) - the front light on brightest setting is enough to dimly light the road ahead - which is all I need most of the time -leaving my BH light spare. It also has some good flashing modes and the rear light is a good compact and very bright light - with limited runtime. Both are USB rechargable (what isn't these days). The main downside to this lightset is that there's no warning of low power - they just turn off - so you need to recharge regularly and/or have spare on the bike (which is what I do).

    My main complaint with all the lights I've tried is that there are too many modes and it takes too long to go through them to get to the one you want (hand off the bars job) - we need a simple light with full bright, dim or flashing - and a way to flick between dim/flashing and full bright and back again - My old Nanoshot+ did that brilliantly (3 modes, bright, dim, dim with flashing bright accessed via a double click) ... haven't found anything that simple since - simply because we don't sit there changing mode every 10 minutes - we select a setting, then sometimes we want full brightness quickly, then back to where we were previously.... simple.

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