lights

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EL187s is a budget LED setup which will not touch the performance of Hope Vision LED, but at this price difference you wouldn't expect them to. They will be very bright to look at, but will not have the power to provide vision at distance. However they have the advantage of long burn time which the Hope definitely does not.

It depends what you want them for. For pitch black night riding - where you need to see where you are going - I couldn't recommend them. But for night street riding with street lamps they should be fine. It's no good shining a light against a nice white wall to see how bright it is - dirt and tarmac soak up light, and the low angle means you get less reflecting back at you.

If you are going to do night riding on singletrack you need plenty of power, and I always recommend one light on the bike and one of the helmet. The reason for this is that a straight ahead beam is only good if you are going straight, but you also need to see round bends. A helmet light which follows your line of vision is just the job.

You also need enough battery power to cover your expected ride time, plus enough extra to cover emergencies such as puncture repairs. Remember that anything that can go wrong during the day can also go wrong at night, and if your lights fails you are snookered.

I regularly ride solo in pitch black conditions, a mixture of forest fire roads and singletrack, so I fancy I am speaking from some experience. If you are going to rely on your lights to get you home in pitch blackness, DO NOT buy a budget solution.

The Ay-Ups which I use have a combined power of 580 lumens and with a spare battery pack (included) I get six hours of burn time for both light sets (or twelve hours for one light set). They are waterproof, bombproof, extremely lightweight and have very few moving parts to go wrong. They are expensive, but no more so than the Hopes.

Marv