The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

amoparko

DIY you have lost me on this one I have been biking for 6 months and researching the lights on the web ready for the dark nights. Thought I would join the forum today and ask about the lights of which I have done
Thanks for making me feel so welcome I'll just go back to reading this great forum and not posting.
Once again thanks DIY

diy

So if you are genuine, what made you choose to spend £130 on lights when people have told you how you can get the same for £30 and not a single person recommended the brand you selected?

amoparko

DIY if you read my post I hadn't actually made my decision, I was merely throwing my thoughts out there for discussion
Thanks again
Andy

diy

So what was your reason for planning to spend 4 times more?

andhr

I have to admit, I got somewhat lost in the middle of this thread, and hoped that one of you light experts would be able to point me in the right direction.

What do you recommend for winter dusk (is that nearly pitch black at times??) riding off road? Not extreme downhill or fast stuff, but something so I can see the tree stump to recognise it after I've crashed?

Budget around £50-75 mark. Is this possible, or is it better to build your own and hope?

diy

You have really got two options. Torches mounted on the bars and lid or a proper bike light. Both have their good points. Torches are cheap easy to fix and flexible, but you have to sort mounts, bats and charger out. Dedicated lights are good. But they often have problems with the power packs and are hard to upgrade or fix.

Torches start at about 7 quid for an XML t6 based light. These will pop 500 to 800 lumen out and have a range of brightness modes. Dedicated lights start at about 25 quid and have the same XML t6 led. Spending more gets more LEDs etc. 2 - 4 LEDs is plenty but ideally you want one on the lid and one on the bars. There are a few links on previous page worth looking at. Popular sellers are lightmalls, dealxtreme etc. but they take some time to post from china along with all the risks of having to deal with a foreign seller if you get problems. On the plus side they are about 1/4 of the price of uk sellers.

See some of the options here viewtopic.php?p=17830587#p17830587

andhr

Excellent diy, thanks. I'll have a look at the link - I'm not scared of the torch option if it saves a lot of my important nicker; but a 41-page thread is a bit daunting!

One 80

Thanks for all the advice in this thread its been a help for me but its taken me 4 days to find the time to get through this whole topic.

iv got to understand the lights a little better but im still overwhelmed by the amount of options available.one thing i think is il buy from light malls as they seem to have faster delivery and use paypal.

im torn between a lamp or torches. my budget is around £50 but hoping for less but could squeeze more for a super deal. i ride forestry and mountains so it will be pitch dark.
ive viewed supersonics set up for a starter kit and DIYs and trust both opinions after veiwing 41 pages so im leaning towards 1 of your reccomendations.
if i get a torches i would get 2. one for bars and helmet. if it was a lamp it would be probably just the 1 as the cost of them seems 40 to 50.

i know you guys have dished out tons of info here already but if your reccomendations are still the same as the start of this thread then il plump for possibly 2 torches??

im confused just typing let alone deciding what to get.
thanks if you can help.


edit. just seen your post above which helps so thanks DIY

supersonic

The threads get so long because new torches and lamps are being released all the time - and they are getting cheaper. I'll update my 'all you need to get going thread'. You can't go wrong with the triple XML from lightmalls.

YeehaaMcgee

One 80 wrote:

if your reccomendations are still the same as the start of this thread then il plump for possibly 2 torches??

I'm in the same boat. I'm sticking with my two torches because of information overload.

andhr

Ok folks (diy and supersonic mainly I guess); is the ideal set up something along the lines of:-

1 of these - http://www.lightmalls.com/3600-lumen-3t6-led-high-power-bicycle-light-for-3-cree-xm-l-t6-4-mode-led-bike-light-kit

on the bars, and a single XML-T6/U2 torch ( http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-501b-cree-xml-t6-1000-lumen-5-mode-led-flashlight ) mounted on the helmet? I'm guessing that having a seperate head mounted light allows you to see where you're looking, as well as seeing where you're going... night time noob comment I know!

But, is it necessary to have 3-LEDs on the bars, or is it a case of the more you can afford, the better?

Also, what sort of battery life can you expect out of the above - is it worth carrying a spare pack?

Thanks much!

jairaj

Its a little bit personal preference. But I like to have a helmet mounted light as a minimum as I like to see where I'm looking. You can have a quick look around a corner before you take it on.

I also like to supplement the helmet light with a flood or wide angle beam on the bars so I have a general idea of what's in front of the bike.

If using both then get something with multiple modes on the bars. You won't need full power if using both this will lengthen the battery life. The helmet light will give good reach to see up a head on the trail and the bar mounted will give good peripheral vision.

My lights are a bit dated now, I think I prob have some where around 400 or 500 lumen output in total and I seem to do fine. So what ever combo you choose will be fine it'll still output way more light than I have :-)

diy

Personally I wouldn't mix torch and bike light, because if you go down the torch route you have to get cells and charger, so you may as well stick torches on the bars too.

I started out with 4 XRE based 501bs, they were 200-230 lumen max. I then Upgraded to XPG (about 350 lumen) and MCE 600 lumen). I now run 4 XM-L T6. giving me about 2000 Lumen total.

I have two chargers (actually more than 2) and about 50 18650 cells in various capacities, since I get them out of laptop batteries.

For me - I'd either go for the 3 x XM-L bike light and perhaps one of the singles for the head (or even two triples) or I'd go 3-4 501bs (in a U2 from lightmalls). The U2s are 3A lights on full, so oodles of lumen (circa 800+ each) but they will get hot on full power - use it as main beam so to speak.

On low 4 lights will do 10 hours, on medium 3-4 on high 1 hour, with quality 18650 cells. Typically depending on the trail I will run my head lights on low and my bar lights on med or the other way around. Sometimes I just switch a couple off. and run 2 or 3. I usually carry 1 or 2 spare cells in case I mis time the run time and know that I can get home with that. It really is the most flexible option.

Neal_

I got a couple of 501B torches last year which obviously still do the job but want to stick them on my lid and have something with a bit more POWAH on the bars. I like the look of the 3T6 all in one from lightmalls but will probably go for a £22 3T6 torch (http://www.lightmalls.com/trustfire-tr- ... ch-2-18650) and stick with cells and chargers I can trust.

mac_man

Is Ebay as good a place as DX or others?

seen these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1300-CREE-XM- ... 593wt_1163 for £18 includes charger and bar fitting.

Thinking of that plus another for helmet. Would this be enough for off-road night riding?

jairaj

Most of the stock is the same just re-branded so doesn't really matter where you buy it from.

In general web shops and ebay traders from the far east have roughly the same prices and are cheaper than the UK based people. Double check though I've seen a few cheeky people with high prices.

But shipping times can vary. I've ordered stuff from DX and its taken 2 weeks but another time it took 4 weeks. I haven't bought for a while, are they quicker or more consistent with delivery times?

I guess the ebay traders will have more accurate delivery times as people will give negative feedback for late deliveries?

diy

Neal_ have a look at the 4 cell stubby:
http://www.lightmalls.com/sky-ray-king- ... ht-4-18650

its more compact and has one extra cell. I'm really quite tempted to get one of these, because I clearly don't have enough lights already

Mac Man - that light looks like a C8, the clamp isn't up to much (I have a few of them, ok for road bikes) and cannot be adjusted left/right and I've never seen the charger before. If its just the light you want then the C8 are going for £9

http://www.lightmalls.com/c8-cree-xml-t ... ht-1-18650

supersonic

I have the longer triple xml torch, which is amazingly bright, but cumbersome - the stubby version looks better. Might get one myself

andhr

diy wrote:

Neal_ have a look at the 4 cell stubby:
http://www.lightmalls.com/sky-ray-king- ... ht-4-18650

its more compact and has one extra cell. I'm really quite tempted to get one of these, because I clearly don't have enough lights already

Now that's a better idea, that and a mount, and a smaller single LED for the noggin, a bunch of cells and a charger made for the UK... Any recommendations on cells, mounts and chargers? (I see now you've convinced me the DIY-way is better)

diy

The mount is going to be work in progress. But given it has rails it shouldn't be too hard to make something up. I'm thinking maybe a drain or waste pipe clip.

Cells best option are dell or Lenovo laptops and a chisel See how to harvest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjtwE41PX1g

Or scroll back a couple of pages and see the link to batteries compared that I posted.

Chargers see link in my sig. Or for something more useful than just a charger
http://www.suntekstore.co.uk/product-14 ... rger_.html
Or this one
http://www.lightmalls.com/trustfire-tr- ... ug-adapter
But also finally we have some 4 cell chargers on the market. Though sadly this one is not powerful enough to charge very quickly
http://www.lightmalls.com/jetbeam-intel ... -batteries

Ouija

On the subject of 'fatties', as anyone seen these.



They use 'fat' 26650 batteries instead of 18650. Essentially 26mm round and 65.0mm long as opposed to 18mm round and 65.0mm long. With a 5000mAh rating (first i've heard of them).



Imagine if the mAh ratings are accurate you're gonna get longer runtimes than something like a 501b torch as the driver is the same for both (T6 at 4.2v).

Imagine four of those made up into a battery pack to run seperate light heads.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-1800Lm-Flashlight-Torch-26650-Charger-/190720958518?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item2c67dae036

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1800-Lumens-CREE-XML-XM-L-T6-LED-Flashlight-Torch-26650-Charger-/170903662752?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item27caa6f0a0

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1800-Lumens-CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-zoomable-Flashlight-Torch-26650-Charger-/170903665100?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item27caa6f9cc

diy

I've only ever seen them in 3-4ah options

One 80

After reading lots of info iv gone for DIY reccomendations of the 501 u2s and ordered 3 of them with chargers batterys and mounts so thanks to all and diy.

Dan_xz

Any preference on the LED colour on the 501b XML's? Was thinking of trying the warm white one as it might be less harsh on my sensitive eyes.

tincaman

tincaman wrote:

Just ordered on of these, look interesting, less than £18 and a bit of a wait
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170892542079?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_2696wt_993

This arrived friday, only 10 days delivery, pretty good.
Looks very well made, front ring unscrews ok, no seal I could see, but the lens is a tight fit, put some silicone grease on the threads when I put it back together.
The rear 1/3rd of the head unscrews and is o-ring sealed, and reveals the circuit board with two microswitches. These power the light brightness up and down, three settings of brightness, no flash mode. Long press to switch off.
Has the standard bike mount with o-rings.
The connector look like a standard Magicshine type, fits into a Magicshine battery connection and looks weatherproof.
On full it look as bright as any T6-XML I have seen but with a massive flood, very impressive.

There's a very good chance I will get another of these if a commute to work in the night proves fruitfull.

tincaman

How about this for a weird one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-CREE-LED-XM-L-T6-XPE-R2-GREEN-LED-Bicycle-Light-Bike-Lamp-HeadLight-headLamp-/271017409071?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item3f19e57a2f



A XML headlight with a green XPE in there as well!

ETreeson

Hi all,

It's not that I don't want to read a 41 page...oh wait. It is.

What are your thoughts on this beast?

http://www.lightmalls.com/3600-lumen-3t ... -light-kit

Anything I need to be aware of? Need to buy a diff battery pack? Likely to break?

I'd appreciate any expert advice.

Thanks

diy

Yep,

The battery and charger may be unreliable long term, but both are easily replaced.
The mount may need some extra security, again plenty of options.
It is not really multi mode - you have a 1,2 or 3 led option.
Delivery 10-15 days (with any luck).

apart from that - I would recommend it at the £37 price tag.

andhr

Quick one... (or two)

Is the charger on this - http://www.lightmalls.com/3600-lumen-3t6-led-high-power-bicycle-light-for-3-cree-xm-l-t6-4-mode-led-bike-light-kit - just essentially a power supply (i.e. no cut off when the battery is charged?).

If so, isn't it dead easy to replace with an adjustable PSU like the ones sold at Argos?

And, how long would you charge the pack for before switching it off to prevent overcharging - timer settings wise?

diy

tincaman wrote:

How about this for a weird one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-CREE-LED-XM-L-T6-XPE-R2-GREEN-LED-Bicycle-Light-Bike-Lamp-HeadLight-headLamp-/271017409071?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item3f19e57a2f

The add implies you get two lights? If not then for £2 more:
http://www.lightmalls.com/2000-lumen-le ... -light-kit

andhr wrote:

Quick one... (or two)

1. Is the charger on this - {link..} just essentially a power supply (i.e. no cut off when the battery is charged?).If so, isn't it dead easy to replace with an adjustable PSU like the ones sold at Argos?

2. And, how long would you charge the pack for before switching it off to prevent overcharging - timer settings wise?

1. pretty sure its a two stage charger or possibly just a stage 2 charger, so a power supply will not work and will only bring the cells up to 70%, or it will make them blow up. Depending on the quality of the control circuit and the input amps.

2. I wouldn't leave it more than 6 hours on a time switch and preferably in a reasonably fire proof environment (e..g. a biscuit/cake tin away from anything expensive - imagine its a lit candle.

Dan_xz wrote:

Any preference on the LED colour on the 501b XML's? Was thinking of trying the warm white one as it might be less harsh on my sensitive eyes.

Personally I would stick with the standard white colour. this one the warm colours are better for internal lighting.