Lights..........!

rockster100

Guys and ladies please help, I need a good front light that will light up 'black, not dark, but black, country lanes for my commute to work. Having roped myself in to a Lejog adventure in 6 months I need all the training I can get. It's a 20 mile each way ride to work of which 8 miles is in complete darkness and will be for some time seeing as I will be leaving at 0530 each morning and on alternate weeks coming home at 0100. I've read all the manufacturer's blurb but never seen any in action. Any advice would be most grateful....!!!!

bails87

Magicshine MJ 872. I use it for my commute which is 15 miles each way, a lot of it on unlit country roads and lanes. Only ever use the first two power levels, so I've done the round trip with the front and rear (MJ818) lights on the whole time off one battery pack.

No matter how bright or how expensive, any light can fail, so you'd be wise to have a 'get home' spare with you.

Speller78

Exposure Strada. Pricey but very good. It's not the brightest light you can get but the combination of the wide beam pattern and the fact its got a dip and high beam option you can control from the hoods make it brilliant (excuse the pun).

Anonymous

http://www.londontools.co.uk/Led-Lenser-8407-P7.html

bails87

Don't get the Lenser P7, it's not a P7 LED but an older, less powerful one, it's just conveniently named to sound like it has.

If you're going down the torch route, look at the big MTB light thread for lights that are cheaper than the Lenser, but blow it out of the water on output.

rockster100

Cheers guys, gone for the magicshine mj872 at 86 quid.

lef

consider lezyne super drive also. Just a little more but very bright.

bails87

rockster100 wrote:

Cheers guys, gone for the magicshine mj872 at 86 quid.

Just be careful to keep it on a sensible power, and angled down where necessary.

brooksby

I recently shelled out for a Lezyne Power Drive - the mid-range one. I use it on blink in the city, and then on a steady beam when I'm out onto the cycle path (allows me to see all those piles of unmoved leaves which hide rocks and bottles...). Its a decent beam - allows me to see where I'm going, rather than just be seen. I plug it into my office PC as its a USB charger (takes abut 3 hours to go from completely flat to fully charged, and that gives you about 2 hours of full beam use). My only gripe is that the bracket doesn't have a rubbery shim so it sometimes moves and points down if I reach to press the button to change from blinky to beam (will get that sorted).

JohnBoyUK

+1 for the Leyzne Super Drive. Got it for £82 in the sales.
Am currently running it alongside an exposure joystick on my helmet (ooooh er missus!)

lef

lezyne has been great, almost too good as Ive been shouted at a few times even though its dimmed to the middle setting, though usually by those with crappy lights!

One Man And His Bike

I used to do a lot of nocturnal riding when I lived in Suffolk, and I mean from 12am -3am in the morning, out through some of the deep and dark rural lanes and Thetford forest area and after getting by with cheap lights briefly I eventually bought some CatEye lights because it was getting fairly hairy some rides being able to see and more importantly being seen at that time of the night/morning. Especially when riding down sections of the A14 when drivers are not paying near enough attention too the road and who else is using at that time.

I ended up using 2 x Cateye HL-EL320 up front and 1 X TL-LD610 and 1 X TL-LD130 on the rear.

The Cateye HL-EL320 and TL-LD610 are reviewed here: http://www.onemanandhisbike.co.uk/2011/ ... et-review/ (The other lights are also reviewed on my site, just search CatEye and you should find them.)

I know for the price I paid for all the lights I use when riding at night I could have bought one of the upper end lights (Before reaching the stratospheric prices charged by the top end stuff) but I wanted a brand I knew and trusted and one that has a very simple but effective mounting system. I also wanted twin lights up front to be able to place a lighted area in different places of the road if I wished depending where I was riding and also, more importantly for me at the time I could fool oncoming cars into dipping their bloody headlights as they thought a car was approaching instead of just not bothering because they knew it was a bike so didn't care.

The CatEye lights were more than adequate for the task of pitch Black country lane riding and stood up to some fairly nasty weather without any issues which is why I have posted the above in case anyone else asks the same question in the future.

ForumNewbie

I'm thinking of taking up an offer to subscribe to Cycling Weekly magazine for a year at a total cost of £124 for which you get a free Moon X Power 500 front light valued at £119.99 - see link below:
http://www.magazinesdirect.com/subscrip ... Insert+URL

I have checked Wiggle and see that the light gets very good reviews. As I like the mag it seems like too good an offere to miss!

oldwelshman

I do lots of night rides, two to four hours, these are amazing:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mj-808-ha-iii-ssc-p7-c-sxo-3-mode-900-lumen-led-bike-light-set-44459
These are monster but I have two singles and a spare battery pack.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ssc-p7-2-xp-e-16w-3-mode-1400-lumen-led-bike-light-set-4-18650-included-36018
and these are cheap and great so I got 4 of them as I do not expect them to last more than a year and I put them with a cateye red ledon rear.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-mode-12-led-rgb-bicycle-safety-tail-light-w-bike-mount-3-x-aaa-113000
Oh and a visit to local pound store to fit two strips of christmas leds and tape them to tubes,run on 2 aa batteries last 20 hours
I am trying to post a photo and vide if I find it.

Alinshearah

bails87 wrote:

Magicshine MJ 872. I use it for my commute which is 15 miles each way, a lot of it on unlit country roads and lanes. Only ever use the first two power levels, so I've done the round trip with the front and rear (MJ818) lights on the whole time off one battery pack.

No matter how bright or how expensive, any light can fail, so you'd be wise to have a 'get home' spare with you.

+1000

Alinshearah

Alinshearah wrote:

bails87 wrote:

Magicshine MJ 872. I use it for my commute which is 15 miles each way, a lot of it on unlit country roads and lanes. Only ever use the first two power levels, so I've done the round trip with the front and rear (MJ818) lights on the whole time off one battery pack.

No matter how bright or how expensive, any light can fail, so you'd be wise to have a 'get home' spare with you.

+1000

actually it's 1400Lumems

oldwelshman

Ok heres some snaps, not sure if video link will work never tried.
Anyway thiese were taken on a phone so you can imagine how brighter the lights would be, and no laughing at my pink polka dot pencil case, it is the only one I could find perfect size to hold two batteries for magic shine/deal extreme lights and some spare aa batteried , fitted under top tube with velcro and it keeps the batteries water tight
If the last link does not work, it is video, just go to my photo page in signaturebelow page and go to bike albumn and it will be there.

oldwelshman

aha if you click on the last pic it takes you to the site and will play the short clip.

Alinshearah

oldwelshman wrote:

Ok heres some snaps, not sure if video link will work never tried.
Anyway thiese were taken on a phone so you can imagine how brighter the lights would be, and no laughing at my pink polka dot pencil case, it is the only one I could find perfect size to hold two batteries for magic shine/deal extreme lights and some spare aa batteried , fitted under top tube with velcro and it keeps the batteries water tight
If the last link does not work, it is video, just go to my photo page in signaturebelow page and go to bike albumn and it will be there.

It's sort of alright, but I would stick a few more lights on to be sure.

oldwelshman

Stanley222 wrote:

The front lights look powerful enough but not everyone wants all the cables and a battery pack taped / strapped everywhere - kinda ruins the bike IMO

Well its impossible to have such powerfullights with no cables and batteries.
This is my winter bike and I use it to do long rides at night so I am not bothered at all what it looks like or how heavy it is, for me it is more important I am seen, especially for roundabouts and junctions but I am lucky where I live I can do long rides in country lanes. These are unlit, hence the powerful front lights.
At the end of the day it is a training tool for me which keeps me safe as possible IMO

ForumNewbie

ForumNewbie wrote:

I'm thinking of taking up an offer to subscribe to Cycling Weekly magazine for a year at a total cost of £124 for which you get a free Moon X Power 500 front light valued at £119.99 - see link below:
http://www.magazinesdirect.com/subscrip ... Insert+URL

I have checked Wiggle and see that the light gets very good reviews. As I like the mag it seems like too good an offere to miss!

I've just looked at the small print in the offer advert and I might have known it was too good to be true, as it says that the gift (i.e. the light) is only available to the first 150 subscribers. It also says you could wait up to 6 weeks for the first 'weekly' issue of the magazine , so presumably even if you were one of the first 150, you would be waiting 6 weeks for the light as well. I wouldn't really need it then as it will lighter mornings and nights by then.

ForumNewbie

Stanley222 wrote:

ForumNewbie wrote:

ForumNewbie wrote:

I'm thinking of taking up an offer to subscribe to Cycling Weekly magazine for a year at a total cost of £124 for which you get a free Moon X Power 500 front light valued at £119.99 - see link below:
http://www.magazinesdirect.com/subscrip ... Insert+URL

I have checked Wiggle and see that the light gets very good reviews. As I like the mag it seems like too good an offere to miss!

I've just looked at the small print in the offer advert and I might have known it was too good to be true, as it says that the gift (i.e. the light) is only available to the first 150 subscribers. It also says you could wait up to 6 weeks for the first 'weekly' issue of the magazine , so presumably even if you were one of the first 150, you would be waiting 6 weeks for the light as well. I wouldn't really need it then as it will lighter mornings and nights by then.

:roll:

I've just bought the Moon X Power 300 instead (only £58 from Wiggle) and even that seems very powerful. Can't wait to try it out.

FoldingJoe

oldwelshman wrote:

Ok heres some snaps, not sure if video link will work never tried.
Anyway thiese were taken on a phone so you can imagine how brighter the lights would be, and no laughing at my pink polka dot pencil case, it is the only one I could find perfect size to hold two batteries for magic shine/deal extreme lights and some spare aa batteried , fitted under top tube with velcro and it keeps the batteries water tight
If the last link does not work, it is video, just go to my photo page in signaturebelow page and go to bike albumn and it will be there.

Isn't it bad luck to leave your decorations up for so long after Christmas?

+2000 for the MJ-872.

oldwelshman

Ah yes but dont care if it stops me gettingknocked off

johnboy183

oldwelshman wrote:

aha if you click on the last pic it takes you to the site and will play the short clip.

Impressive and effective me thinks. However slightly scary too in an odd way. Imagine as a driver I'd be quite startled to be suddenly confronted by this.

ForumNewbie

oldwelshman wrote:

Ah yes but dont care if it stops me gettingknocked off

You surely must have been tempted to ride it at Christmas wearing a flashing Santa hat.

oldwelshman

johnboy183 wrote:

oldwelshman wrote:

aha if you click on the last pic it takes you to the site and will play the short clip.

Impressive and effective me thinks. However slightly scary too in an odd way. Imagine as a driver I'd be quite startled to be suddenly confronted by this.

The funny thing is that sometimes when cycling up hill cars stop to wait for me to come up probablythinking I am a car as they see two very bright lights, then when it takes me ages to get to them I wave and say thanks
The blue flashing light also slows down cars from the rear.

johnboy183

Stanley222 wrote:

Are you allowed to have a blue flashing light on the rear? I thought the only colour to be shown from the rear is red?

My rear usually flashes red but has nothing to do with cycling :oops:

oldwelshman

Stanley222 wrote:

Are you allowed to have a blue flashing light on the rear? I thought the only colour to be shown from the rear is red?

I have red light in addition to the blue.
I have been passed many times by police and they never said anything.

bails87

oldwelshman wrote:

Stanley222 wrote:

Are you allowed to have a blue flashing light on the rear? I thought the only colour to be shown from the rear is red?

I have red light in addition to the blue.
I have been passed many times by police and they never said anything.

Pretty sure that the law says you have to have a red rear light, but doesn't say you can't have another light that's blue/green/yellow/orange.

carrock

Exposure Diablo-1000 lumens, lightweight, small, RRP£200 but only £135 from ribble. Polkadot pencil case and gaffa tape lash-up not required..........