Light for commuting

rockmonkeysc

Can anyone recommend me a good, reliable light for commuting on un-lit country lanes at night? I'm sure I'm going to break something hitting pot holes soon if I don't get a better light.
I would prefer a helmet mount and at least 2.5 hours battery life.

Monty Dog

For budget conscious, try a Magic Shine - various models online/ebay - for unlit roads you really need to be looking at 800 lumens plus.
From there, it depends on budget - I have lights from Exposure, Hope and Lupine - you pay more for reliability and decent customer support

rockmonkeysc

800 Lumens??? I only use a single 180 lumen light for night mountain biking! I do fall off a lot though.
I will take a look at Magic Shine.

dwanes

Not sure how much you want to pay? but I have been using this for a few weeks now and is superb German quality and great for the amount of light (900 lumen) and battery life of 3 hours on full.

plus I got it much cheaper than any UK sellers I could find, including £220 at Halfords.

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k993/a ... x-set.html

kajjal

You may want to get a couple of lights as I would not trust even good quality lights for 2.5 hours in the pitch black. That way you have a backup just in case. I have a torch as my backup with a handlebar mount for it.

In terms of brightness my Lezyne is fine on country lanes in the pitch black at 575 lumen at speeds up to about 20mph. Not tried it in the rain yet which would reduce visibility but you would be suicidal to go over 20 mph in driving rain on pitch Black Country lanes.

northpole

I was forced to ride home one evening last year when there was a railway network failure and all I had on my bike were a pair of small Lezyne lights. Many stretches of road were unlit, unfamiliar to me and busy with traffic meaning that I could barely see anything. I found the whole thing terrifying!

For night riding I have relied on Hope lights the past few years - last year's incident was down to a complete oversight combined with an unpredictable failure of the railways. The Hope 2 is great around town however, I would strongly recommend a Hope 4 for regular riding in the dark. They aren't cheap but they've proven to be reliable. I also have the Hope District rear light which I also recommend to give yourself the best chance of being seen by motorists.

Peter