The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014
Comments
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bamba wrote:I find road cyclist with fast flashing lights very annoying, more of a distraction than eye catching,as a driver as well as a cyclist i would say that 2 torches of that power both flashing sos , out of synch with each other as equally annoying,But not as much as the 2wats, with flashing lights that ride on the cycle path, which is lit well along side the A38 in to the on coming traffic near the Toyota factory ,Derbyshire.
I agree, I came in the opposite direction to a cyclist with a very bright flashing front light and I was blinded, so drivers will get the same. Much better to put it down to a low or medium setting if you dont need it to see where your going.0 -
All of these lights have useless flashing modes and dont have enough side visbility to be any good for being seen:
- the strobe is full power and much too fast and I would NEVER use it on a bike - its intended to disorientate and confuse an attacker, thats the last thing you want to do to other road users!
- The SOS could maybe just about work but I wouldnt bother personally and again it is only a full brightness.
I find 'proper' bike lights have a much more useful slow flashing mode - I use a blackburn click (voyager and mars front and rear) as they are nice and slow, good side visibility and bright enough when its dark for being seen. I have just got a Jexree Owl though and the rings around the main lights fulfil just the same purpose, flash nice and slow and have good side visibility, brighter than the Blackburns so also good as running lights in the day when its not time for main lights yet but you want extra visibility.0 -
But £3-4 gets you a two button cell flasher or a pack of high vis bands with LEDs embedded. They last for ages. Flashers don't need to be bright. High power LEDs to see, cheapy low power LEDs to draw attention to you.0
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A cheap trick i used to do when i wanted to use my XM-L torches as flashers was to simply buy a pack of balloons and stretch one of the appropriate colour over the head of the torch (you need to cut the narrow part of the balloon first). Drops the brightness quite a lot and acts as a diffuser. Still fairly bright though (same as a 0.5/1.0 watt flasher). If you don't pull the rubber tight over the head, but leave a slight nipple or cone then you get a lot of light going to the side (like those illuminated cone shaped hand torches police and traffic cops use to direct traffic).
I used to have a small silver XM-L finger length torch on a chainring on my belt that i left a nipple of balloon over left flashing. Illuminated the ground below me and through a lot of light all around for traffic to see.0 -
couple of images of my defy ready for my commute tomorrow. Finally got it back and the new xml-u2 front lights fitted. Rear is a cateye, I normally have this on solid, with the 2 fibre flares on flash but looking at it now I might leave them all on solid as I think I looks quite good
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Many thanks to all who replied, will mull over the advice but looks like small cheap flashers is the consensus. Really like the balloon idea though as money is tight. Thanks to you all again what a fab resource this thread is!0
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Can anyone help me out please? Ive bought one of these from Kadomain.
With this type of screw thread connector,
Unfortunatley I put through the wrong order (totally my fault) and only recieved the light. No battery or anything else. What I need to know is what battery pack do I need to use it? Considering that Im also looking at getting a Magicshine MJ-818 for the rear. Can I run the two lights off the one battery and also only have to charge the one battery? Is there a special cable/battery pack/charger that I need to buy? Im looking to run them both from the same pack for about 4 to 6 hours maximum. Is that too much to ask? On the bottom of the light is this,
Is there something missing? I thought there might have been something else on there to hold it to the bars. Sorry for the long winded post but I know nothing about these modern type of lights and was looking for some links as to what else I need to run and charge my setup. Gordon.0 -
Looks like you're just missing a rubber o ring as far as the bar mount's concerned.0
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Those will run off most standard Magicshine/Chinese battery packs, which typically have a 5.5mm female DC jack socket with a 2.1mm center pin, though they don't come with a screw on outer thread so that cap on your connector will have to be left unscrewed. The light mount requires a rubber o ring to attach it to the bar, though a Hope bar mount is much better (about £7).
As for the runtimes, your not going to get four to six hours on a standard 4 cell 8.4v battery pack if you run the light on full brightness. Probably under two hours (less if connected to a rear flasher as well). Either run the lights on a diminished setting or get a bigger 6 or 8 cell battery pack to compensate.
A Magicshine Y-Splitter cable will allow you to run both front and rear lights off the one battery pack.0 -
If its the same light that I got then it has the newer XM-L2 LEDs and with one of the better cheap chinese battery packs you should get 2.5 hours on full, but the chinese battery packs vary alot. You wont need to run it on full if you are on the road apart from exceptional circumstances though - mid power would possibly give you the run times you want but I would suggest a backup battery pack even if its only an iunsurance policy.
If you are that far from home actually I would strongly recomment both a backup light and backup battery - as they do go wrong some times...
Are you really doing 6 hours riding in the dark in one go though? Sounds a bit extreme?0 -
I've been running ultra fire torches for the last 2 years but now i'm tempted to buy the SolarStorm x2L2 for around £25 from lightmalls.
I know its going to come with a crap battery pack, so my question is where can i get a decent ish battery pack from for about £20 or under? all i can find is cheap looking things!0 -
or how do i go about making my own battery pack (from 18650 cell i already have) with the correct connection?0
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Mark__gti wrote:or how do i go about making my own battery pack (from 18650 cell i already have) with the correct connection?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200977092795? ... 1438.l2649
This seems to be doing the rounds as the best way to get a good battery pack. Use your own batteries so you can put really good quality ones in, and you can even remove them and charge individually every now and again to equalise the charge or replace a single cell if its dragging the others down.0 -
I'm looking at buying a couple of cheap CREE lights off ebay, they look pretty much like the magicshine ones, I was just wondering how people are mounting them? I want one for my bars, and another for my lid. They're the ones with the loop attachment system, anyone tried using this on a fox flux lid? Unless I can mount it sideways (is this possible?) it's not looking like it will fit... The holes don't line up and they're pretty far apart on the centre part.0
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Never mind, I had a little google, and it seems the best way is to just bodge it with some cable ties (failing that, buy the correct mount). I'll see how I get on!0
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apreading wrote:Mark__gti wrote:or how do i go about making my own battery pack (from 18650 cell i already have) with the correct connection?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200977092795? ... 1438.l2649
This seems to be doing the rounds as the best way to get a good battery pack. Use your own batteries so you can put really good quality ones in, and you can even remove them and charge individually every now and again to equalise the charge or replace a single cell if its dragging the others down.
Cheers
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Just bought this to power my lights. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121206783507? ... 1497.l2649 Can anyone reccommend a decent charger please?0
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Gents, after devoting most of the afternoon reading the preceding 114 pages and following all the links and suggestions stemming from this thread, I am no further forward than when I started, so I'm just going to come out and ask the question...
I need 2 torches, one for my bars, one for my helmet.
Will be used for commuting, 50/50 lit/unlit roads.
Doesn't need to be THE best lights ever, just needs to be reliable and adequate for my intended purpose.
Will also need some batteries and a charger.
Would be delighted if I could obtain this all from within the UK.
Than you in advance of any suggestions.0 -
why one for your lid? Do what i did, get two torches for the bars so you can see where your going, the get a small flasher for your lid. That means you dont blind anyone when you turn your head. It also means you can change the power setting of the torches on the move. Ive got a pair of ultrafire 501b XML-l2 which i have set to low so i can be seen on lit roads, then high or medium or mix on unlit roads.
On my phone now so cant do links.0 -
*AL* wrote:Gents, after devoting most of the afternoon reading the preceding 114 pages and following all the links and suggestions stemming from this thread, I am no further forward than when I started, so I'm just going to come out and ask the question...
I need 2 torches, one for my bars, one for my helmet.
Will be used for commuting, 50/50 lit/unlit roads.
Doesn't need to be THE best lights ever, just needs to be reliable and adequate for my intended purpose.
Will also need some batteries and a charger.
Would be delighted if I could obtain this all from within the UK.
Than you in advance of any suggestions.
Torch
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-UltraFire ... 20dabd62d5
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UltraFire-WF5 ... 257b39d0e6
Batterys
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-XTAR-18650 ... 27da27a345
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-SenyBor-28 ... RTM1572015
Charger
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Bay-TrustFi ... 33842e4742
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/nitecore-i4-i ... 27da51479a
Obviously prices are alot more from UK sellers0 -
Can definetely recommend the nitecore i4.0
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Newbie to lights!
I have just bought one of these in the picture and was attracted by the 1000 lumen claim and the fact that it is a torch. It is just about OK but need something better for the roads.
Can anyone tell me which is the best / powerful torch type bike light. I need it to be much more powerful than this. - On a budget!0 -
Look 2 posts up - the links are all there for you...
You can get them cheaper from China, but winter could be half done by the time you get them - I am guessing you need them now.0 -
The problem with that light is the zoomable lens.0
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Mark__gti wrote:The problem with that light is the zoomable lens.
And the driver may not be pushing the LED anywhere neer it's maximum output. A lot of these torches don't state their amp draw so you can end up with identical torches that give out very different levels of light depending what driver they are using. The 501/502's torches are notorious for this as they are a generic casing that get a wide variety of drivers placed in them. Even between identical looking ones with XM-L's in them.0 -
Ouija,
Can I ask - if its possible to say, what are the typical amp draws on the likes of a 501?0 -
dynamiccoins wrote:Ouija,
Can I ask - if its possible to say, what are the typical amp draws on the likes of a 501?
The 501 is just a case design really, its the LED you will need to know the draw from, and there are quite a few different ones put in 501 and 502s. Not much help to you i know.0 -
apreading wrote:Look 2 posts up - the links are all there for you...
You can get them cheaper from China, but winter could be half done by the time you get them - I am guessing you need them now.
The links seem to be 1000 lumens again, not bothered about battery life but just need more lumens in a torch type light. Is it worth getting a torch type with 3 LEDs in or can you get a much more powerful single led torch? The led in the one pictured states XML T 6? What code of cree led is the most powerful?0
