Recommendations on front lights for unlit roads?

roger_merriman

walkingbootweather wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

walkingbootweather wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

walkingbootweather wrote:

For me the definitive word for inexpensive, versatile and super bright lighting is pretty much this. 2 torches with rechargeable batteries, charger and mounts from Deal Extreme or Best Offer Buy will come in at about £50. Use Paypal for peace of mind and expect delivery to take 2 or 3 weeks. I use this set up on very dark, unlit roads and cyclepaths. For proper off-roading I'd suggest at least one more torch, with one mounted on your helmet.

for myself I've always been rather put off by the rather cheap and cheerful chargers and suggestions to charge in a fire proof container etc...

Know what you mean but never had any problems. Do use a timer though and wouldn't be able to sleep while charging.

I charge the batteries up at night, batteries I couldn't trust nor chargers while i'm sleeping is rather a non starter.

It rarely takes as much as an hour for a charge - I do this as soon as I get in, by the time I've had a shower, changed, sorted out my stuff for the morning they are ready to go. As I say I've never had any problems but like you have heard some horror stories, though to be fair I've also heard horror stories about mobile phone and laptop charges causing problems so I'd not leave these charging overnight either.

To be fair I'm not comparing like with like, to take the laptop which I would guess has 18650 batteries in the battery But it stays remarkably cool both the block and the batteries. I'm sure at a close price point they would be more reassuring but at which point I'd probably just put a bit more money in at get a all in system.

mudcow007

i've got the Chinese 1600 lumen's (supposedly) from off eBay.

i've been thinking of getting the MJ818 rear but i dont know what its like splitting the battery with the front light?

i hardly use the front one - only on unlit roads to be honest, might look to see how much a mj818 an battery pack is

bails87

I can recommend the MJ818.

Which light have you got on the front? The Mj872 and MJ870 work with the MJ818 but the cheaper XML-T6 has a different sized connector. I'm sure there's a way of making it work, but it won't work out of the box.

If it's the XML-T6 then it's deffo not 1600 lumens BTW, it's actually a (claimed) 1200, but some sellers seemed to magic 400 lumens out of nowhere.

mudcow007

bails87 wrote:

I can recommend the MJ818.

Which light have you got on the front? The Mj872 and MJ870 work with the MJ818 but the cheaper XML-T6 has a different sized connector. I'm sure there's a way of making it work, but it won't work out of the box.

If it's the XML-T6 then it's deffo not 1600 lumens BTW, it's actually a (claimed) 1200, but some sellers seemed to magic 400 lumens out of nowhere.

Yep mines a T6 - it was stated as 1600, but as you know people tell porky pies!!

whats battery life like running the two lights from the one battery? to be honest i would probably only run the rear an every now an then run the front aswell, i reckons a battery pack would only be cheap

bails87

I use my MJ818 alongside a MJ872. In the mornings the 872 is on the lowest power setting (plenty to ride by in lit areas) and the rear is on flashing.

On the way home the front is on lowest or the next (enough for fast, unlit country lanes) highest, the back is either on flash or constant, teamed with a Cateye TL610 on either constant or flash, to complement the MJ818.

I've got two battery packs, one came with each light. So I tend to put a freshly charged (the night before) pack on for the ride home as it's dark the whole way, and then use it for my ride in the next morning, then when I leave the office I swap to the other unused battery and use that to ride home. That way I've always got a spare with me too.

This morning, about 10 minutes away from the office (55 minutes of riding each way, including stops at junctions) the button on the MJ872 changed to blue, to show there was under 75% of charge left. So that's about 1 hr 45 mins of riding with the front on constantly and the rear on flash, and I'd only used 25% of the charge.

mudcow007

bails87 wrote:

I use......

muchas gracias!

cheers for that

jinnan_tonnix

I've tried a host of bike lights, from the Tesco Crees a few years ago, to the P7 torches and a MagicShine.

By far the best is the Philips LED Bike Light. It's specifically engineered for road use. Rather than projecting a ball of light, it has an proper car-beam type output. It doesn't blind oncoming traffic as it has a top cut-off area. Even at its low power setting it puts out more useful light than a P7 on full.

It cost me £100 but worth every single penny.

wyadvd

jinnan_tonnix wrote:

I've tried a host of bike lights, from the Tesco Crees a few years ago, to the P7 torches and a MagicShine.

By far the best is the Philips LED Bike Light. It's specifically engineered for road use. Rather than projecting a ball of light, it has an proper car-beam type output. It doesn't blind oncoming traffic as it has a top cut-off area. Even at its low power setting it puts out more useful light than a P7 on full.

It cost me £100 but worth every single penny.

I can see the benefit of directed road lights. But you are discounting the benefit of "blunderbus" megabright LEDs on remote rural roads, in terms of alerting oncoming vehicles due to the upward projected "halo" of light visible from miles away. I bet the philips doesn't emit such a useful halo. I can tell you from empirical experience (as a driver) that it is very effective at slowing down oncoming vehicles before they have even seen you.