The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

john2002

just to been seen lights i would get these (they are made of silicon and dont brake off when you drop and a curb)
rear red £2.50 for 2
http://dx.com/p/red-light-2-mode-tie-on-bike-light-keychains-2-keychain-set-26812
front white £2.50 for 2
http://dx.com/p/white-light-2-mode-tie-on-bike-light-keychains-2-keychain-set-26809

a to see light go with a XM-L2 torch £7.50
http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf-501b-cree-xm-l2-5-modes-led-flashlight-torch-1-18650
plus a mount, battery and battery charger about £10-20

gt-arrowhead

Thanks guys. Its just so that i can be seen by other people.

johnmcl7

Ouija wrote:

Depends if you just want lights so that other people can see you or lights that allow you to see. Q5's are good for the former but not the latter. Especially on AAA batteries.

Agreed, I went with Q5 lights initially as they could take AAA batteries which meant I didn't have to buy more batteries or a new charger whereas the bigger lights usually need 18650 batteries which I didn't have already. They were fine for commuting as they're reasonably bright (better than the £60 Cateye front light I was using) and easily seen but not bright enough for lighting up unlit sections of track/road.

John

gt-arrowhead

Cheers, thats good to know.

Ouija

Horses for courses. What you think is poor may be considered great by someone else.

I was on a course with a unemployed guy in his fourties a couple of weeks back who mentioned he wanted some front and rear lights for his mountain bike (BSO). He'd been in to the local Giant/Specialized store in Scarborough (Richardsons Cycles) who'd tried to sell him some Hopes and Lezynes for three figures, which had completely blown his mind. So i told him all about cheap Chinese lights and he dug out is smartphone and started looking at CREE lights on ebay. He pointed out a similar set to GT-Arrowhead and i told him to avoid them and get something with an XM-L in it, why the emitter and batteries were much better. I even brought one of my Sanguan XM-L T6 in after lunch for him to play with to highlight my point. He was suitably blown away and decided he wanted a cheap triple XM-L unit he'd seen in the mid £20's. My job done i went home feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Following week i saw him again. Guess what he'd bought..... Yep, the twin zoomable AAA lights with included rearlight for £15. Couldn't stop telling me how awesome they were compared to his previous lights and how they lit up the trail. I didn't have the heart to tell him they were pants. Just grinned and said i was happy to point him in the right direction.

At that point i realized i was becoming a light snob .

It happens to anyone who gets into any hobby in a serious way. There are people on here who are coffee snobs, whereas, to the rest of us one coffee is much like another. Some people get really anal about cars. Others, like my sister, couldn't see what the difference between a Skoda and a Ferrari was (they both have four wheels and get you from A to B as far as she can see) or why you'd spend such ludicrous amounts of money on the latter. Likewise, she'd be the sort of person who, if she bought a bike, would get a Halfords Apollo or Sports direct BSO for less than £100. No amount of explanations or reasoning could get her to understand why a £500+ bike is better. It would all just go over her head and she'd just get the cheapest option (while thinking that people who cared about that kind of stuff were weird). Yet she could yack your ear off talking about the finer points of horses and saddles and why this bit of horsey equipment was so much better than that one (i just tune her out because i just don't see it) and why the extra zero on the price tag was sooooooo necessary. Lol.

So, ignore the last 120 pages and go with the zoomable AAA's . You'll find them brilliant for the price compared to what you've owned before. Me, personally, as a light snob, I'd still go with XM-L based lights as you can alway dial down the brightness for town use but have the option of going stupid bright for those offroad bits.

cooldad

I guess we all have our personal snobbism of some sort.
As a light boffin, what do you think of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400620310665? ... 1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390697797408? ... 1438.l2649

Not sure what 'zoomable' actually means. I was looking for something that could be adjusted to give a spread for the bars and a spot for my helmet.
I already have some 501B's but they are getting a bit old.

Ouija

Zoomables aren't really desirable mainly because the concept doesn't work. They are ok in the flood mode but the beam pattern as you dial them towards spot is terrible (compared to a real spot light with SMO reflector). If you can only have the one light, for whatever reason, then a zoomable is something to be considered. However. If your going with two seperate lights then it's best to have a dedicated spot and a dedicated flood rather than something that is a jack of all trades, master of none.

Personally, i'd just buy a new pill drop in unit for your 501's. Say a XM-L2 or XM-L U2 with a SMO and a OP reflector for less than a tenner.

cooldad

That's kind of what I was worried about. Thanks.
I quite fancy your new one though - Fasttech have them as well, but I don't like buying from China. Wonder if there are any local suppliers?

-Archie-

Ouija wrote:

Following week i saw him again. Guess what he'd bought..... Yep, the twin zoomable AAA lights with included rearlight for £15. Couldn't stop telling me how awesome they were compared to his previous lights and how they lit up the trail. I didn't have the heart to tell him they were pants. Just grinned and said i was happy to point him in the right direction.

At that point i realized i was becoming a light snob .

Excellent essay, Ouija! Quite often I have the same feeling...

wishitwasallflat

-Archie- wrote:

Ouija wrote:

Following week i saw him again. Guess what he'd bought..... Yep, the twin zoomable AAA lights with included rearlight for £15. Couldn't stop telling me how awesome they were compared to his previous lights and how they lit up the trail. I didn't have the heart to tell him they were pants. Just grinned and said i was happy to point him in the right direction.

At that point i realized i was becoming a light snob .

Excellent essay, Ouija! Quite often I have the same feeling...

Rest assured guys for the few people who react like that there are many of us who have really benefitted from your advice and saved loads and loads of money thanks to you (and others on here) Long live the snobs I say (in this instance only please time to say goodbye to the Eton mafia!)

kingofthetailwind

I'm currently running a XML T6 light and a 25mm 501b T6 torch on my road bike.

I'd like a 501b L2 torch as well as the 501b torch I have could be brighter and isn't zoomable, but the only 501b L2s I've seen have a 30mm barrel. I've had problems getting a mount for a 30mm torch for 31.8mm road bars. Tried various types - either the mount is too small for the torch, or too small for the bars. Anyone seen a L2 torch with a 25-27mm body?

bartimaeus

Don't all 501bs have the same body - and it's 25mm...? The head is 30mm. So this XM L2 501b is identical to this XML-T6.

kingofthetailwind

Hmmm, maybe I bought the only 501B T6 with a 30mm body then! The one I bought definitely has a 30mm barrel, the head is much wider than 30mm.

So the one in your first link should be fine then, cheers.

diy

I have well over 10 and they all have 26mm body or there abouts. The 501b, 502b, C12, C8, C1 even the multi LED options using multiple 18650s use the same tube when mounted in series. Its only those that can take AAA or use a parallel mount that are fatter.

See: http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf- ... ch-1-18650
£7.36 - get 4.

kingofthetailwind

Just looking at the eBay email for the 30mm one and it's not actually a 501b. It just says XML T6. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UltraFire-12W ... OU:GB:3160

bigmitch41

Some great advice here, Im looking into a head torch and wondered what the best option is while wearing a helmet, some of the ones suggested with the battery pack attached to the ellastic strap dont look like they'd fit under a helmet, maybe a different mount connected to the helmet itself is the way forward?

apreading

BigMitch41 wrote:

Some great advice here, Im looking into a head torch and wondered what the best option is while wearing a helmet, some of the ones suggested with the battery pack attached to the ellastic strap dont look like they'd fit under a helmet, maybe a different mount connected to the helmet itself is the way forward?

john2002

if your usuing some thing like a 501 torch you can attach it to you helmet with tie-wraps or velcro straps. looping them through the airvents on the helmet.

diy

KingOfTheTailwind wrote:

Just looking at the eBay email for the 30mm one and it's not actually a 501b. It just says XML T6. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UltraFire-12W ... OU:GB:3160

Why would you spend £9.99 for an XM-L (mk1) T6 when you can have an XM-L2 >£2 less?

Bin 700mA 1000mA 1500mA 3000mA
XM-L T6 280-300 385-413 546-585 910-975
XM-L2 T6 318-341 438-468 615-659 1044-1119

kingofthetailwind

diy wrote:

KingOfTheTailwind wrote:

Just looking at the eBay email for the 30mm one and it's not actually a 501b. It just says XML T6. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UltraFire-12W ... OU:GB:3160

Why would you spend £9.99 for an XM-L (mk1) T6 when you can have an XM-L2 >£2 less?

Bin 700mA 1000mA 1500mA 3000mA
XM-L T6 280-300 385-413 546-585 910-975
XM-L2 T6 318-341 438-468 615-659 1044-1119

I'm a slow learner! I bought 2 Q5s first, then a XM-L T6 headlight, then the 30mm XM-L T6, then a proper 501b XM-L T6, and now realise what I really needed all along was two XM-L2s!

bartimaeus

BigMitch41 wrote:

Im looking into a head torch and wondered what the best option is while wearing a helmet?

$2 'lockblock' mount from DX... though what works best depends on the vents in your lid.

diy

50p piece of 2" elastic :

bigmitch41

Great thanks, ive ordered a 501, headtorch and a few bits to try out

diy

Couple of things to remember. You want it to snap off in the event of a crash and you want to avoid anything that might end up in you unintentionally trepanning yourself. i.e. screws, bolts etc = bad.

bjl

I have an ebay Cree light and have accidentally put the batteries in the wrong way round for charging , resulting in nothing working at all , there is a light still on the charger but the lamp /batteries seem dead . Is there anything I can do to repair this ?

john2002

what charger was you using. you left the battery on charge for a long time like this? some of the chargers have reverse polarity protection. if your didnt have this i guess that your battery has been completley discharged and is now dead. have you got a multimeter to see how many volt you have on the battery?

bjl

I'll check it out with a multimeter when I get back to work after Christmas hols, I have bought some more batteries though and the light and charger don't seem to work , will they be able to be repaired or are they scrap ?

diy

What kind of light is it?

Is it just a torch?

Unscrew the head take the drop in out and manually connect it to the cell or find another 3.5 - 4.5v source. e.g. a transformer. I can't see how the light has been damaged from incorrectly charging the cell, unless there is some sort of on cell protection. In which case you'll get 0v out of the cell until you can reset it. Probably by removing the circuit.

kevinharley

Back to Headtorches, that I was asking advice about a couple of pages back, for running off-road with ...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1600LM-CREE-X ... 760wt_1170

Finally took the plunge on these:

UK seller / distributer, and come with batteries supplied. £15 made it about the same price as the same light advertised on Lightmalls when you factor in having to buy batteries seperately ...

Ordered last Thursday, not xpecting them to arrive before Christmas, and they turned up Saturday!! :-)

Haven't used them yet (xmas pressie for the wife and me!), but had a quick play in the dark in the bedroom :oops: :oops: !! They seem properly bright (as you'd expect); certainly bright enough to run off road with on the low setting, and they're not as bulky as I was expecting ... will report back when I've given them a proper run, but they look just what I needed ...

psf2001uk

A quick question: I have an S06B from DX (XM-L T6/900 lumens), which I've been very happy with. However, I've managed to lose both the convex lens, and the threaded retaining ring that screws-in to hold the lens.

Can anyone advise if there is anywhere that would sell spares? Probably easiest to just buy a similar (cheaper) torch on ebay, and re-use the bits, but thought I'd ask here before doing that.

Thanks/paul