New Lights for 2022 Commuting

photonic69

Need a new front light for commuting soon. Looking at spending around £80. What's great and on sale now? Not too bothered by runtime as longest time is 35-40 minutes. Needs a good mount. Fed up with rubbish ones that slip around all the time.

andrew_s-2

A Lezyne Pro 115
https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Lezyne-Lite-Drive-STVZO-Pro-115-Front-Light_238079.htm
coupled with a GoPro mount adapter (bolts on the underide of the light in place of the supplied rubber mount).
https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Lezyne-Go-Pro-Adapter_112006.htm,
and the GoPro mount of your choice.
One of these, to allow the light to go in a quarter turn Garmin mount, would seem best, as it would allow quick & easy removal.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402232547023
https://www.amazon.co.uk/KOM-Cycling-Compatible-Adapters-Computer/dp/B084WYS8M5/ref=sr_1_8

The main thing is not to try to mount the light upside down. You'll get a very poor beam pattern if you try.

daniel_b

I used to use a Ravemen PR1200, but have since passed that on to my partner for her winter bike, but it's still an excellent light and within your budget.

Check out reviews on youtube/internet.

The brackets are rock solid.

https://fawkes-cycles.co.uk/ravemen-pr1200-usb-rechargeable-dualens-front-light-with-remote-p11403

The 'remote' with this 1200 is wired, so maybe not that useful in reality.

Battery life is good, and it tells you how many hours you have left on the top of the light, relevant to which light mode you are in at the time.

As my commute is through unlit country roads, I have since moved to a pair of these, one of which would be £14.75 over your budget:
https://fawkes-cycles.co.uk/ravemen-pr1600-usb-rechargeable-dual-lens-front-light-p11414

33% more lumens, and this time a wireless remote, which I find pretty useful, I have mine down on the drops - and a useful find for me, is that the single remote can be connected to both lights, so I can just blip the remote once to sort both lights, as opposed to be fiddling around on top - I didn't think I would use it, but it is actually useful.

Build quality is stunning, they exude solidity, the mounts are very good, and cheap - you can buy quick release ones and ummm not quick release ones, and they are only around £5-6.

Both the 1200 and 1600 double up as a power bank should you need it, and work very well.

The usual beam has a car headlight filter on it which is meant to mean it is not dazzling to oncoming traffic, and it has a full beam option for if you need a ton of light with no oncoming traffic.
As with the Lezyne above, this means it can only be mounted as pictured.

My only gripe with this light, or these lights, is that if you go full beam, when you turn it off it goes back to the brightest non full beam setting, as opposed to the mode you had it on before.
Which means you need to press the button a number of times to get back to where you were etc.

dannbodge

I use an Exposure Sirius mk10
£60 (wiggle)
900 lumens for 90mins and much more on the lower settings.
Small and very light (pun not intended)

Plus because it's just a circular mount, they're super easy to get 3D printed so they can fit below a garmin mount etc (which is how mine is mounted)

N0bodyOfTheGoat

See if your local Lidl still have thier ~£13 light set in stock, the front at least apparently is certified for the German lighting standard, Stvzo. There was a cycle "middle of Lidl" event in recent weeks.

I'm back using my March '20 set again for the commute in the now dark mornings at 0600.

seanoconn

Just managed to lose the bracket for my front light (Mrs oconn tidying furiously and chucked it in the bin most likely) so I’m after a new one too.

City commute, no unlit roads, want good battery life. Do any of the above fit the bill?

Are rechargeable worth it? Regular replaceable battery powered seemed to last for ages.

photonic69

Thanks for all the suggestions. Looks like a great choice. More keen to have one I can mount upside down under the bar. I find that whenever I top mount a light the rough roads just shake it so it points up/down no matter how tight I get the mount. Upside down tends to make them more stable. The Exposure Sirius looks nice, however that mount upside down I'd be worried that it would shake out of the mount every time I hit a rough patch of road - yes, our roads do seem to be that bad. Especially at night when you can't see that far ahead to avoid the nasty patches.

daniel_b

The ravemen mounts have never shifted/rotated at all - and that includes crashing seated through a sunken manhole cover, that buckled my rear wheel!

That goes for both the QR version, and the permanent fixed one - I do wrap some innertube around the handlebar extension bit as well, but I'm fairly sure they have a rubber insert as well.

The rest of my commute is peppered with horrendous road surfaces, so I personally get vibrated all over the place, but the lights remain exactly where I set them.

dannbodge

photonic69 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions. Looks like a great choice. More keen to have one I can mount upside down under the bar. I find that whenever I top mount a light the rough roads just shake it so it points up/down no matter how tight I get the mount. Upside down tends to make them more stable. The Exposure Sirius looks nice, however that mount upside down I'd be worried that it would shake out of the mount every time I hit a rough patch of road - yes, our roads do seem to be that bad. Especially at night when you can't see that far ahead to avoid the nasty patches.

This is how my Sirius is mounted. It's a custom mount that I designed and printed. I've never had an issue with it falling out and that includes rough roads, up and down curbs etc.

The Rookie

The Sirius 10 (currently £70 at Wiggle) is fantastic value, exposure lights always punch well above their quoted lumens in use.

singleton

My experience is that the early lezyne lights were excellent but more recently they have big lumen numbers but poor useful road illumination.
Exposure are excellent but pricy.
I have a rave man pr1200 which is now on the MTB and is very good - I would also recommend it.

seanoconn

Is the raveman pr1200 over kill for a city commute?

daniel_b

seanoconn said:

Is the raveman pr1200 over kill for a city commute?

Not in my opinion, as you can run it in low mode, and it will last for ages between charges - I like the way when you change modes it tells you how many hours are remaining, as I find that helps me use the light sensibly to ensure I can get home.
I normally get circa 5+ hours out of mine, which is 2 full commutes, I often run them in fairly high mode in the winter months on unlit country roads.

It's a properly quality product, not just the light itself, but the mount too.

You could potentially further make it more viable (Assuming you have multiple bikes in the household) by buying extra mounts to make it easy to move about as required.

Though I have to say, I do wonder why the industry don't make the handlebar mounts so that the light can slide on from the rear, as opposed from the front.
I've never had a Ravemen light fall off I hasten to add, but if the light came in from the rear, and most people will have their brackets angled downwards, the chance of a light falling off would be miniscule.

Could it be a tactic............

photonic69

So an update. I was just about to pull the trigger on the Exposure Sirius BUT then saw it had its own proprietary charge cable and not usb. This was a deal killer for me. In the end got a Cateye Ampp 800 for £35 off amazon. Seemed silly not to. Will be tested thoroughly this week. Mount seems very stable.

davidof

photonic69 said:

Need a new front light for commuting soon. Looking at spending around £80. What's great and on sale now? Not too bothered by runtime as longest time is 35-40 minutes. Needs a good mount. Fed up with rubbish ones that slip around all the time.

what distance are you commuting and are the roads lit or not?

photonic69

davidof said:

photonic69 said:

Need a new front light for commuting soon. Looking at spending around £80. What's great and on sale now? Not too bothered by runtime as longest time is 35-40 minutes. Needs a good mount. Fed up with rubbish ones that slip around all the time.

what distance are you commuting and are the roads lit or not?

Too late. Bought one now.. Seems to have favourable reviews. Also on a budget right now as having double glazing and conservatory done over the next few weeks so gotta look after the pennies. Also need new winter tights/shoes/gloves/helmet etc as my kit is wearing out.

https://road.cc/content/review/267987-cateye-ampp-800-front-light

Anyway, roads mostly lit. Worst bit is a fast 40mph section sweeping downhill right hand bend where the street lights are sparse and often a crosswind and a patch of potholes. It's only 1/4 mile section but tricky. Also last part is an unlit cycle path for about 1/2 mile. I can avoid it by going on the road but it adds distance and time.

dannbodge

photonic69 said:

So an update. I was just about to pull the trigger on the Exposure Sirius BUT then saw it had its own proprietary charge cable and not usb. This was a deal killer for me. In the end got a Cateye Ampp 800 for £35 off amazon. Seemed silly not to. Will be tested thoroughly this week. Mount seems very stable.

Strange as my mk9 Sirius charges from USB fine.
yes the plug isn't a micro B or USB C connection but the lead plugs into a USB

photonic69

dannbodge said:

photonic69 said:

So an update. I was just about to pull the trigger on the Exposure Sirius BUT then saw it had its own proprietary charge cable and not usb. This was a deal killer for me. In the end got a Cateye Ampp 800 for £35 off amazon. Seemed silly not to. Will be tested thoroughly this week. Mount seems very stable.

Strange as my mk9 Sirius charges from USB fine.
yes the plug isn't a micro B or USB C connection but the lead plugs into a USB

No, it's the fact the charge socket on the light isn't micro/mini usb. I'm forever losing cables for charging stuff and if I need to charge at work I'd have to have a second cable. It's just easier when cables are all the same.

dannbodge

photonic69 said:

dannbodge said:

photonic69 said:

So an update. I was just about to pull the trigger on the Exposure Sirius BUT then saw it had its own proprietary charge cable and not usb. This was a deal killer for me. In the end got a Cateye Ampp 800 for £35 off amazon. Seemed silly not to. Will be tested thoroughly this week. Mount seems very stable.

Strange as my mk9 Sirius charges from USB fine.
yes the plug isn't a micro B or USB C connection but the lead plugs into a USB

No, it's the fact the charge socket on the light isn't micro/mini usb. I'm forever losing cables for charging stuff and if I need to charge at work I'd have to have a second cable. It's just easier when cables are all the same.

Ah thats fair enough.
I ended up buying a spare one for keeping at work which I agree, was a pain

photonic69

Well. The light had its first proper test tonight. Very impressed. Good spread of light with a fair amount of throw. Full power is certainly very bright and would dazzle anyone approaching so needs careful angling down. The mount is rock solid, so much so that when I wanted to angle it up a bit on the unlit bike path to get a bit more throw it was too stiff to move. I had to stop and loosen the clamp to adjust before I could continue. If I had one niggle about it I would prefer a little more focus and throw as on the unlit path you need to be totally on the game to see dogs and owners being walked. Overall very happy with it.