Rechargeable Lights

Stu Coops

Hi Guys help needed i'm looking for some decent battery pack/rechargeable lights for trail centres/Brecon night rides and would like a really powerful one the type that turn night to day but don't want to spend more than £150 or am I wasting my time only spending this kind of money, I have seen certain ones for around £300 but not going to spend that kind of money on lights

Opinions please :roll:

cooldad

Right above your post - says 'What Lights'
viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12660193
Max £50 for a couple of portable suns.

cloudynights

wouldnt waste my money on cheap Chinese rubbish that some times works then sometimes wont, pay a bit more and get something proper built for mountain biking

cooldad

You seem to be the only one having issues. Loads of people use them, in horrible conditions, with no issues at all.
Read some of the threads.
Should probably sell your cheap Chinese bike and buy an Orange.

cloudynights

naw dont like single pivot bikes too much kick back on up hill tracks,plus dont really like to ride around with a RSJ as a back end. You stick with your Chinese lights im sure there great for your needs

diy

You don't need to spend £150. The facts are that the branded lights often have similar internals to the cheap chineese lights. Or though more often than not they have inferiour LEDs and batteries. The current range of Hope and exposure lights run CREE the same LED (albeit an older model) to those in the torches and lights being recommended in the what light thread. £60 will buy you the equiv. of £250+ worth of branded lights.

To turn night in to day, you need about 1200-1500 Lumen. Though 800 lumen is probably enough for trail riding. IMO you are better off with two lights one to see where you are going and one to see where you are looking. I'd personally sugget 3-4 * XM-L-T6 LEDs in a 501b or 502b host or a mix of C8 and a 501b. Each light will cost you about £10 and produce 450 - 550 Lumen and give a run time of about 90 mins on full or 5 hours on medium or 10+ on low. You will need charger (another 5er) and mounts (another 5 er) and batteries (another 10er or use a laptop battery).

This set up will blow away any £250+ branded light. I have over 10 501bs, as I tend to upgrade them each year to the latest LED (who wouldn't for a 10er). All of them are working fine and some are over 4 years old. I personally use laptop batteries to power them as they are free and fairly high quality. Check my sig for links to where to buy, beam shots and what to do to improve their ruggedness. The other benefit of torches is that you get no single point of failure, some handy torches and no single item costs more than 10 quid to fix.

Stu Coops

Thanks a lot guys for the responses think diy has answered all of my concerns.