Night Riding Lights

askewrj

Hi All,

I'm not really new to riding but this seemed this is the most likely place to get a response to my questions:

I'm looking for a set of lights for my road bike for night riding. I have lots of be seen lights but nothing suitable for long rides. So here is the scenario:

I'm doing London to Paris 24 hours next summer, I would expect to be cycling all though the night on rural country roads in France with little or no ambient light. I need a set of lights which will see me through from last light to first light so approx. 7 - 8 hours. Ideally I don’t want to go down the rechargeable lithium Ion route as I will have neither the time or power source to charge the lights. Can anyone suggest?

a) Best case scenario a good set of night lights which run on standard batteries (I can carry spares) which has sufficient power to light the road ahead so if needed I can see and avoid potholes etc. or

b) A rechargeable set of lights which you can buy relatively cheap spare batteries so I can have 2-3 batteries ready and charged if need be.

I would ideally like to keep it under or near to £200.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers Rob

jibberjim

Run a hub dynamo set unless you absolutely need every watt going towards speed. Plenty of options for under 200.

askewrj

I'd not thought of hub dynamos, so thanks for that. I'll have a look around. Do you know what the trade-off is for the power. I'm just a bit concerned I have 280 miles to ride in 24 hours and my legs are going to be ruined towards the end and may need those extra few watts of power?

oceheb

hope vision 1 + bunch of AA batteries. Or Vision2 + additional battery pack (endurance version). In medium to high it will be enough for 6-8 hours

marcusjb

Hub dynamos are very much in evidence in audax-world and work very well.

Gold standard is Schmidt at around £210 for a built up wheel (check out http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s170p0) for some ideas.

The latest Shimano hubs are nearly as efficient as the Schmidt and offer similar drag characteristics - again, from Spa you'd be looking at about £140 for a wheel.

Light - the B&M Cyo serves many of us very well indeed - £60-70. It has a really good beam shape and plenty bright enough for descending here in the UK on crappy roads.

Don't worry about the drag - the latest units are so efficient that normal humans wouldn't notice - sure, if you are going for a record and need every last Watt, then batteries are the way to go.

I rode PBP with a Schmidt SONDELUX and a Cyo and it was spot on for three nights of riding. I've used that setup extensively now and it's brilliant.

280 miles - you taking the long route? London to Paris is more 300km (using the Newhaven-Dieppe route) - it's a nice ride down for sure. Good luck with it - 24hrs to Paris is a proper challenge (rather than these ones taking 4 days to get there!) - we didn't ride all the way into central Paris on the way to PBP and it took around 24hrs door to door - I guess if we'd got a bit more of a wriggle on, it is totally possible to do it all in 24 hours) - it's a lovely bit of riding down to Paris - few bumps but nothing too scary.

wyadvd

dynamo hub with "ewerk" will charge an exposure light on the fly if that helps. also garmin charged and phone too!

desweller

Another vote for dynamo here, Shimano hub and Edelux front light is the business as far as I'm concerned.

askewrj

Hi All, Thanks for the really useful feedback on lighting. Looks like I have some investigating to do around the Dynamo area and check out a few other battery powered recommendations.

It’s great getting a wealth of knowledge and experience in this area.

Cheers for now Rob

Pigtail

No idea if this is any use or no - but Rose bikes is selling a hub dynamo for £23

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-hub-dynamo-deore-lx-dh-t665-disc/aid:368142

I've just bought one!

CarlosDSanchez

www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/philips-led ... aid:409750

This runs on 4 AA batteries and is the mutts. I have a son dynohub and an edelux and this light is way better, brigher and about 3 times the spread. Even the low setting is more than you need.

antfly

I have one of those philips too and it is amazing, I don't know why it rarely gets mentioned. Having said that there were run time problems with a batch. They were switching to low after 72 minutes. My replacement, which arrived from Philips after several months, cuts to low power after 90 mins then lasts for hours. Anyone who buys one should try and make sure they get new stock.