Tiny budget....no idea.....mtb lights

sallylouise96

Hi all,
Basically I have no clue about biking, but my hubby loves MTBing! I need ur advice on lights for night riding??

I’m on a super super tight budget after having baby number 2 and not being back working yet, but I’d really like to try and find him some lights to use this winter...he really wants to go out night riding in our local forests. I have no clue what to look for! Even if they were lights that will just last the winter and I can get him good ones once I’m back at work....

His other request was a gro pro....that’s obviously not gonna happen lol!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

fenix

I think you're looking at getting two lights. One on the bars that can be more powerful and then a more focused beam on the helmet.

Magicshine do decent ones but I'm not sure what's the latest version.

Hopefully someone up to date will come along.

billycool

Hiya,

Welcome to the forum.

The challenge is always finding good lights at a sensible price!

I went down the route many years ago of buying cheap(er) Chinese cree LED lights from eBay etc. They were never as advertised and the batteries/chargers were sometimes suspect (you have babies in the house - you don't need that stress).

A lot of them have got better and plenty of riders seem to find something for c.£40 that works for them. I'm sure that you will get some recommendations soon.

Personally, I now go for branded lights that cost more but are, in my opinion, more reliable/safer.

The other main criteria is how bright they are. Most bike lights now have LED bulbs and are measured in Lumens - the bigger the number, arguably the brighter the light (unless it's some cheap rubbish). The brighter the light, the more you can see! Really helpful on off-road riding. Brighter lights tend to cost more and also use more power, so they need bigger (more expensive) batteries. The `burn time` (how long a battery lasts) is also important. Most will last up to a couple of hours (or longer) - again it depends how much power you are using.

As a guide (and this is purely a personal thing), I like 800+ lumens as a minimum. Some riders have 2 lights, one on the handlebars and one on the helmet. When off-road you need to see plenty enough in front of you - particularly if riding at speed and/or over uneven ground. If hubby is just cruising through the woods and nothing too mental, then a 600 lumen light might be enough.

I have a `up to` 1500 lumen front light with 4 LED's (Hope Pro4+) which is about £200 worth and has it's own separare battery pack. It's really bright and I usually run it on it's 1000 lumen setting to save the battery. That will easily do 2 hours+ ride time. That is supplemented with a small flashing twin LED for use on the road sections, so cars know I'm a bike. It also serves as my backup light if my main light fails. There are also options for extra bar lights and helmet mounted lighting.

You certainly don't need everything, but you do need a sensible amount of light or it can end it tears.

There are some deals out there at the moment. As long as he doesn't go too silly, £40-£50 should get him something that will get him started (don't forget that he'll need a rear light as well but they don't cost much). A lot of people ride with a smaller `spare` front light just in case your main one fails. It's not nice being in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black.

I'm sure you will get plenty of suggestions. I don't have time to look now but I saw this on offer at Evans:

https://www.evanscycles.com/lezyne-mirco-drive-600xl-ktv-light-set-600-10-lumen-EV366214

I have a couple of Lezyne lights and get on well with them.

There are loads of Cyber Monday etc deals. It can be a bit overwhelming. Have a look and let us know if you want any opinions on stuff.

What is your preferred budget?

Ref the Go Pro option. You can get sensible `action cams` for about £40 on Amazon and they actually aren't too bad. Go Pro's are good but you don't have to have one.

Happy shopping.

monkimark

Double post

monkimark

If you search ebay for 'cree bike light' you'll get loads of options, it depends on what you want really.

I don't do a massive amount of nighttime mtb riding so didn't want to spend much on lights - I have a cheap ebay setup of a solarstorm x2 on the handlebars which is probably enough on its own but I'd always carry a spare battery as even keeping on lower settings where possible I wouldn't risk much more than an hour on it. Battery packs are available in various sizes (they're basically shrink wrapped AA size batteries grouped in 4 or 6) - i'd always have the bigger one. As mentioned above the battery packs are not the best and I've had a couple that stopped charging properly after a few months.

I also have a smaller cree light on my helmet powered by a USB power pack that I carry in my rucksack. My next handlebar light will probably be a USB powered one bacause the battery packs are more reliable and available but you need a way to carry the battery pack - ideally something waterproof. I'm thinking of using an old water bottle with a hole cut to put the cable through.

If you do go down the cheap, ebay route be careful to select a UK seller as a lot of them are from china and delivery time for xmas may be an issue

slowbike

I quite like the look of that Planet X one - but have no experience of it - or what 30w equates to when all the others tend to be in Lumen - and even that's subjective ...

This is what I currently use - on road and off -
https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-lights/bike-lights/bikehut-1600-lumen-front-bike-light - £50 and you can get BC discount off (if you're a BC member)
On road I use it down several notches - offroad it's fine, until someone turns a sun on behind me, but then it's just a case of out-sunning their sun. The only addition to this light for offroad is another one mounted on the lid so you can turn the light to see where you're looking - I use a cheap cree torch that I had previously for this ...

slowbike

oxoman said:

The planet X works out around 1500, 1600 lumens. Battery life is impressive.

What does it do timewise at full power? The Halfrods one indicates 2 hours at full, drop it one level and it's 3 hours +
TBH, I've never used it at full power for 2 hours ...