Night lights front...

joecamel

So far I've tried a Terra 2, Cateye XL(?) and a Lezyne Deca Drive. The Cateye was pants, low light and battery time. The Terra was great but lasted only 30 minutes on high output, that went back too.
The Lezyne Deca Drive is an awesome light but only burns for a third of the manufacturers claimed run times. That's going back too.
Can anyone recommend a decent front light from experience that's just enough for country lanes, maybe 500 lumens and will run for at least 2.5 hours.
The manufacturers all seem to lie when it comes to burn time.
WHo's used what and how long does it run for?
Any answers really appreciated. I have a 30 mile round trip commute through country & city and it just got a bit scarey! :evil:

ViperS15

If you have looked at a Deca Drive then I will assume quite a high budget. Check out the Cateye Volt 1200 on Road.CC's light test. It makes the DecaDrive look like a child's toy. That's £150 worth of light, if your budget isn't quite that high then a few people in the plethora of other threads seem to highly rate the Cateye Nano Shot+.

jordan_217

This has been discussed on here lately:

viewtopic.php?f=40042&t=12946383

Also, check out the MTB forum. There's multiple threads/pages on the same subject.

slowbike

joecamel wrote:

Any answers really appreciated. I have a 30 mile round trip commute through country & city and it just got a bit scarey! :evil:

Don't run with just one front light fitted ...

have a backup!

I run the Cateye Nanoshot+. It's a good solid light and I ran it all last winter. Mostly on 1/2 power it needed charging every 3-4 rides - so about 2hrs use .
But if you had 2 fitted then you could use them alternately.

30 mile round trip is 15 miles one way - so about an hours commute? Many lights are USB rechargeable, so if you do need the light on on the way in then you could recharge whilst at work - either a USB plug, computer or possibly a USB battery pack if desperate - that'll give you the runtime back home too.

I'm just experimenting with an Ultrafire torch too - I've found that it works nicely using the Nanoshot+ (on 1/2 power) to fill in the foreground and use the spot of the Ultrafire to push into the distance.

keef66

If I was regularly commuting in the dark and the bike could be kept safe at work I'd be using a hub dynamo and B&M lights. Bout £120 for a handbuilt dynamo front wheel from Spa, and good F&R lights can be had for £60 from Rose bikes DE.

joecamel

Slowbike wrote:

Don't run with just one front light fitted ...

have a backup!

30 mile round trip is 15 miles one way - so about an hours commute? Many lights are USB rechargeable, so if you do need the light on on the way in then you could recharge whilst at work - either a USB plug, computer or possibly a USB battery pack if desperate - that'll give you the runtime back home too.

Good advice and coorrect with the timescales.
I am running a £15 Cateye as backup and keep reverting to it as the more expensive lights fail. The Deca Drive has spare battery which is easily changeable but what gets my goat is they claim 4 hours 45 minutes in economy mode and it really gets about 1 hour 10 minutes. That's running at 200 lumens when the light is capable of 800. No idea how long 800 would last, I don't want to find out and get caught short.
After spending over a hundred quid on a light I'm miffed that it only runs on a quarter of the advertised power for a quarter of the time.
Recharge with USB to a PC takes about 10 hours. Rubbish.

Someone must make a light that's about 500 lumens and runs for 3 hours and is priced at £100 ish???

ViperS15

The Cateye Volt1200 on medium power (about 500 lumens) will easily last 3-4 hours. Slightly over your £100 budget but probably the best light there is this year. The full power mode is very powerful and will probably give you about 2 hours.

I'd personally steer clear of the Lezyne. Badly protected Li-ion batteries, inefficient outputs and not the best beam patterns.

Bobbinogs

keef66 wrote:

If I was regularly commuting in the dark and the bike could be kept safe at work I'd be using a hub dynamo and B&M lights. Bout £120 for a handbuilt dynamo front wheel from Spa, and good F&R lights can be had for £60 from Rose bikes DE.

Yepp, I would go with this. Excellent long term solution, albeit I would still carry a backup light.

slowbike

joecamel wrote:

Good advice and coorrect with the timescales.
I am running a £15 Cateye as backup and keep reverting to it as the more expensive lights fail. The Deca Drive has spare battery which is easily changeable but what gets my goat is they claim 4 hours 45 minutes in economy mode and it really gets about 1 hour 10 minutes. That's running at 200 lumens when the light is capable of 800. No idea how long 800 would last, I don't want to find out and get caught short.
After spending over a hundred quid on a light I'm miffed that it only runs on a quarter of the advertised power for a quarter of the time.
Recharge with USB to a PC takes about 10 hours. Rubbish.

Someone must make a light that's about 500 lumens and runs for 3 hours and is priced at £100 ish???

Hmm - £15 "see me" light as a backup isn't very good ... but it's what I used last year so no complaints.

If I were you I'd look at the Cateye Volt or the Nanoshot+ As I said - I have the Nanoshot+ and have found runtimes to be about as published.
You shouldn't always need high power, but it's nice to have it there. A good backup light is also advisable - especially if you're running lights both ways. I don't need mine on in the morning - most I need is a See Me flasher which I have.

andyh01

I'm no expert but can't the run times be effected by tempreture ie when cold the batteries can lose charge quicker then if warm?

I have a set of the moon x500 front light and Moon shield rear light (front 500 lumen and 70 lumen rear) on offer from stonehenge for £85 and a spare battery is £15 for the front. I had a set of lenzye mirco drive when they first came out for about £80 sent them back as battery failed to charge. Decent spread and beem pattern with 3/4 levels of brightness and flash mode.

mfin

There are plenty of Exposure lights with a 2hr burn time 'at full blast', and that actually achieve it, but can last a lot longer at a medium setting that will give you lots more than 3hrs at over 500 lumens. They cost a lot more than some, but, they are fantastically well made, their quick release bracket is great, with a secure fit that takes a split second to attach or detach and the light and it will be pointing exactly where it was every time. Quality, well designed pieces of kit.

luv2ride

mfin wrote:

There are plenty of Exposure lights with a 2hr burn time 'at full blast', and that actually achieve it, but can last a lot longer at a medium setting that will give you lots more than 3hrs at over 500 lumens. They cost a lot more than some, but, they are fantastically well made, their quick release bracket is great, with a secure fit that takes a split second to attach or detach and the light and it will be pointing exactly where it was every time. Quality, well designed pieces of kit.

+1. Loving my Toro mk4 and Joystick helmet light combo. Probably more than is strictly necessary, but reliable power and well made. I have a QR fitted to all of my bikes meaning I can swap out the self contained unit in seconds 8)

Grill

Luv2ride wrote:

mfin wrote:

There are plenty of Exposure lights with a 2hr burn time 'at full blast', and that actually achieve it, but can last a lot longer at a medium setting that will give you lots more than 3hrs at over 500 lumens. They cost a lot more than some, but, they are fantastically well made, their quick release bracket is great, with a secure fit that takes a split second to attach or detach and the light and it will be pointing exactly where it was every time. Quality, well designed pieces of kit.

+1. Loving my Toro mk4 and Joystick helmet light combo. Probably more than is strictly necessary, but reliable power and well made. I have a QR fitted to all of my bikes meaning I can swap out the self contained unit in seconds 8)

+1000
My mk5 Maxx-D is too bright at half setting and burns for an absolute age. Used it on the BCM and it was an absolute delight (pun intended).

me-109

I use a Hope Vision HID that gives me 2.5 hours. Not adjustable in output like LEDs. I did notice a Vision LED in the classifieds on here. Still quite expensive though.

ytchi

I've just been for a quick spin with my new Moon X-Power 780 and it seems fine for unlit roads. It'll do about 1.5 hours I think on full blast and 3+ on normal which is about 500 lumens although I've not tested these times yet. At 'only' £85 it might be worth a look if don't want to spend big bucks.

sandyballs

I have used the Electron Terra 2 for 3 years now and out of one charge I will get a weeks worth of commuting, which is 25 minutes each way. Cannot understand why you got 30 mins out of one unless you got a dud battery pack or faulty charger.

vfast1

Plenty of lights tested here.

http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/bi ... abase.html

cycleclinic

one23 extreme 1000. Lot of useable light cheap for what you get. A very good package. Not perfect but it is not £100+ either. It was rated in a review on here very well. I agree with that review as I use them.

Camcycle1974

I can vouch for the Fluxient U2 mini from Torchy (via Amazon) £44.99 for a top quality 1100 lumen light. Beam and illumination from what is a torch is incredible. Good burn time too and USB rechargeable.

KINGGARY

I think you may have a faulty deca drive, mine runs for well over the manufacturers claimed times on both overdrive and economy when in the race setting.
I would try sending it back for a replacement as its a great light.

kajjal

That's what I was thinking.

bendertherobot

vfast1 wrote:

Plenty of lights tested here.

http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/bi ... abase.html

I've gone from the MagicShine (872) to the Lezyne Mega Drive. You can see the difference there, and there's a start contrast to some of the Exposure models.

Have the loaded box so I can run it on high for 3 hours total. (Commute being 1 hour each way).