Night riding - two little ones better than a big one?

San Marzano

I'm looking at buying a Cree lamp for night riding on a road bike.

What's best a large single lamp with 5 LEDS (for example) or the smaller type with two lamps side by side.

There's not much difference price wise but would welcome any assistance.

Thanks

slowbike

2 independent lights side by side gives you a backup.

5 LEDS may be a bit overkill - depends where you're going. One of my lights has 2 LEDs and the others (just as bright) have 1 - this has been fine for road rides and even a bit of offroad stuff (just not that quick)

deswahriff

..I use 2 of the cheapo "magicshine" rip-offs from ebay, one pointed slightly down and fitted with a filter lens to give a more rectangular beam pattern, the other pointed more forward....I know the beam pattern can dazzle but to be honest, out here in the sticks, we don't meet a lot of traffic, and its simple case to just adjust the main beam for a few seconds by giving the unit a little twist to the left....
...also not convinced about the longevity of these units, (at £15 or so, I'm happy to get a season out of them) so 2 better than 1...

kingofthetailwind

I run two. A Solarstorm which has 2 x U2 LEDs with an external power pack. And a 502b XM-L2 torch.

Manc33

I got one with three CREE LED's in and only ever use 1 on the road, or 2 if its unlit.

I literally never use all three LED's at once because it looks about 5% brighter than two LED's whereas two LED's is 100% brighter than one.

You'll blind drivers with just one LED and need it pointing down all the time.

My kit was £23 from Amazon, but the batteries were a joke. So I got a 4x18650 and a 6x18650 "waterproof" packs from DX.com, again dirt cheap and last far longer than the crappy ones I got with the £23 kit, but it was worth £23 for the light alone.

The other thing is you get about 3 seconds warning before it shuts off. When I say 3 seconds I mean three seconds. The LED on the back of the light goes red, if it does, sometimes the light just shuts off. Hence two battery packs. I probably have about ten hours worth of light with 2 fully charged packs, or 5 hours if using 2 LED's.

You never need two LED's on the road. The throw on the light is insane. Can't even estimate what a light like this would cost if you chose to pay it, well over £100 for one this bright.

San Marzano

Maybe i should clarify - I meant

Solarstorm (two lamps) or one old type cree which is one lamp with up to 5 LED's in it.

Thanks for the help so far.

Cheers

Manc33

Solarstorm itself has CREE LED's in it from what I can tell. Its CREE or nothing as far as I know. All the super bright lights seem to have them.

I got one with three LED's and wish I had got a double one like that Solarstorm, yes, because the third LED barely makes any difference and uses miles more power, plus the lamp gets hot. Its not even a case of visibility, the third LED is redundant almost.

cougie

I'd get a back up torch just in case of failure of the main lamp. Get a torch one for your head - and its great for repairs at night too.

nfrang

I've been looking for a commuting light recently and it's an absolute minefield. A lot of the stuff on ebay is from China and the sellers are talking jive about lumens and battery capacity. I don't want cheap chargers and batteries that are gonna set my house on fire.

This thread is a good place to start. The guys on here really know their stuff.
From that thread this guy is the go-to for batteries and chargers.

I'm probably gonna go for a torch setup so I don't have to strap a battery pack to my frame. One of the main points that keeps coming up is don't buy batteries with 'Fire' in the name. :shock:

gsk82

i never ride in the dark without a helmet mounted light, even just a fairly small lezyne micro drive. it's great for side visibility at junctions as you can look straight at the driver and by having something fairly small it doesn't blind anyone