Front light advice

jawooga

Hello peeps.

I am looking to buy a new front light, and I would like advice please. I am about to start commuting again after a winter getting fat. I found my front light from Lidl under the house and realised it has stopped working over the winter. Even when it was working it needed 5 AA batteries.

I am unlikely to need to illuminate my route, but if there is a light that falls within my budget that does this then all the better. Long battery life is clearly advantageous also. I guess LEDs would be the way forward (are they all LED these days?) given they need much less power.

Oh, I don't want to spend more than £50.

Thanks in advance
Jim



I can't think

cooldad

Have a look in here.
viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12660193

corshamjim

There are so many really good lights out there now, you're spoilt for choice. The one I use is the Blackburn Voyager 2. My only criticism of it is it takes 3xAA batteries whereas most chargers will only charge multiples of 2. The light is good enough to see by (not too fast) in the dark and I find rechargeables will last me a month before charging again, doubtless much longer but I've never actually run them down. This lamp is so small and inexpensive I have three of them so I always have a fully-charged spare if I need one.

Gizmo_

corshamjim wrote:

There are so many really good lights out there now, you're spoilt for choice. The one I use is the Blackburn Voyager 2. My only criticism of it is it takes 3xAA batteries whereas most chargers will only charge multiples of 2. The light is good enough to see by (not too fast) in the dark and I find rechargeables will last me a month before charging again, doubtless much longer but I've never actually run them down. This lamp is so small and inexpensive I have three of them so I always have a fully-charged spare if I need one.

I have the same front light. It's very good compared to the ones I used to have when I was a kid, but bear in mind it is a light to be seen, not to see. For unlit forest tracks and country lanes I've been looking at some of the 1000 lumen "torch" lights on Ebay...

edit: And by the way, don't buy the Mars Click rear light. I've got one - came as a set with the above - and sometimes it doesn't click back. So you can't turn the thing off.

jawooga

Thanks all,

Some useful info and, cooldad those links will make good reading.

Gizmo, I didn't know that 1000 lumen is a good benchmark for 'to be seen' torches, so thanks for that.

supersonic

1000 lumen stated (typically 750) is a large amount of light, but some lensing means it is spread over a larger area so less 'bright'.

These are great:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CREE-XML-XM-L ... 3a714c7375

Are not 1600 lumens, more like 800, but still a lot of light, is a sharp hotspot witha soft flood.

Gizmo_

Yes, I didn't mean to imply any sort of benchmark - just that the ones on Ebay often seem to be labelled that. Anything with the T6 LED is going to be bright enough to burn a hole in a fence panel