Lights for Complete Dark Path

horhif
horhif Posts: 7
edited September 2011 in Commuting general
Hi everyone.

Can anyone please give me a bit of advice on buying lights.

I commute to work, and now with the winter coming, I need to get a light. I cycle half the way to work on a path, which has no lights. its a cycle path, so its flat.......its just that its no lights so pretty soon, when im making my way home, it'll be in complete darkness.

now i've seen there are loads of lights for sale on the net........all with different lumens specs.

i saw this one, but is it a bit of an overkill? (it takes me 45mins to cycle along the path that will soon be in the dark! :)

the light is a : SSC-P7 1200Lm

however, would a 500 lumen light be enough?

thanks for any advice

:wink:

Comments

  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    I do fine with 180 lumens, for dark royal park. 500 would assuming it's really that be fine.
  • Long_Time_Lurker
    Long_Time_Lurker Posts: 1,068
    As long as you know the route you will be fine, especially if it is a bike path. You just need something to light the path directly in front of you so that you can see potholes and broken glass.
    You only really need something stupidly bright when you are doing off-road trail riding.
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  • spen666
    spen666 Posts: 17,709
    ay -ups the way to go
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  • bartimaeus
    bartimaeus Posts: 1,812
    Have a look at the MTB What Lights? sticky. The SSC P7 you mention sounds like a Magicshine, and these can be bought for about £30 I think... and they are VERY bright. Bright enough for trail riding at night.

    I've an SSC P7 torch and a helmet mounted XRE for night riding... far too bright for general road use, but you can switch modes to spare the oncoming cars.

    For a cyclepath you don't need anything that bright but if you ever find yourself deep in the woods you will be glad of all the light you can get.
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  • alan_sherman
    alan_sherman Posts: 1,157
    I say this on most what lights threads - but it is especially apt for commuting. Just get a hub dynamo and a decent LED light. I use a B&M Cyo. Buy, fit, and it is always there giving enough light to ride in the pitch black, no charging batteries that fail, no blinding oncoming riders as the beam pattern is properly designed to light the road not other people's retinas.
  • tarbot18
    tarbot18 Posts: 531
    i use 2 cateye el320 s on a coast bike path that is pitch black and i struggle to see sometimes and they are rated at 1000 candle power each. im looking at swapping 1 for a cateye el530 with 1500 candle power soon , the moral is get the highest power you can, you can always tilt the light down a bit but only you know how dark that particular bit of path can get and look at reviews for spread patterns etc for peripheral lighting.
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Led Lensor P7. Lights up the road like daylight, and quite happy in pitch black descents 30mph.

    There are a few threads around, as I was looking for something for a pitch black sportive through the country, and certainly didnt want to break the bank. I read this on one thread

    "If you wish to light up a country lane sufficiently to ride along at 15+mph, you are looking at the the best part of £100 for a front light as a starting point."

    and proceeded to freak out, so looked harder, and was gonna get either the p7 or fenix L2D (now called something else) and someone said of the p7:

    "Fenix L2D is washed away by a P7. Try them both at the same time and you wont even know the L2D is on.
    I had the L2D before the P7 came out and loved it. Then the P7 came along and it was a totally different ballgame."

    Got my light and mount for 60 quid all in (www.londontools.co.uk) but im certain you can get it cheaper.

    Just need some rechargables as battery life (on full blast) is about 6h. Probs get 20h at half beam.

    http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... 06&start=0
  • bartimaeus
    bartimaeus Posts: 1,812
    Er, I believe that a Lenser 'P7' is a CREE LED (XRE?) and not an SSC P7 LED... I've heard good things about the Lensers, but an SSC P7 LED is roughly 3 times brighter than a CREE XRE (but the burn time is a lot less!).
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  • DrLex
    DrLex Posts: 2,142
    coriordan wrote:
    Led Lensor P7.
    [...]

    Got my light and mount for 60 quid all in (www.londontools.co.uk) but im certain you can get it cheaper.

    [...]

    Used the T7 version on my old MTB - ideal. Got it for under £40, but I see that Amazon have it for exactly that.
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  • diy
    diy Posts: 6,473
    edited October 2011
    As Bartimaeus has said.

    either the torch route
    1 or 2 of these or these (400-450 otf lumen)

    a mount this
    or this

    some 18650 laptop batteries from old laptops or ebay

    A charger

    or the complete light (approx 800 otf lumen)
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  • bobbygloss
    bobbygloss Posts: 317
    tarbot18 wrote:
    ....swapping 1 for a cateye el530 with 1500 candle power soon....
    I used an EL530 for a couple of years on unlit roads. It is very bright, but only in a very small spot so you need a headtorch to help. The EL610 gave a much more useful spread of light until it got full of water too many times. Cateye website used to have a useful sketch of the beam patterns of different lights for comparison, but I can't find it now.
    I've gone for Magicshine and torch this year, pretty much what DIY has linked.
  • diy
    diy Posts: 6,473
    IMO any manufacturer that quotes candlepower or even lux (the metric equiv of candlepower), is deliberately trying to mask the fact that they don't have very bright lights.

    a claim of 1500 candlepower for a light that has a reflector and a focused beam is meaningless.

    Given that LED efficiency is reasonably well defined the real way to know output is to look at either the LED spec and driven amps, the wattage of the LED or if that is not know the run-time given a defined power source.

    a 1w LED will produce a max of 80-110 lumen
    a 5w LED about 400-600 lumen
    a 10-12W LED about 700-1000 Lumen

    There are lights that claim 5,500 Candlepower that cannot product more than 1,500 Lumen.
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  • shouldbeinbed
    shouldbeinbed Posts: 2,660
    diy wrote:
    1 of these (400-450 otf lumen)

    a mountthis

    18650 x2 from dealextreme too

    A charger
    Cheers DIY, just gone for the above combo £26+ all in and should be with me in a fortnight.

    it will be used on my folder backup bke and to supplement the existing lighting on my regular ride.
  • cyberknight
    cyberknight Posts: 1,238
    pity you have orders , you could just have bought this , complete with charger and battery pack .....

    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ssc-p7-3-m ... 8650-50947
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  • diy
    diy Posts: 6,473
    Which is inferior to this:

    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t6-waterpr ... -set-82510

    Which I also posted a link to. TBH a 2.4-3Amp p7 or XML is overkill for road use
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  • cyberknight
    cyberknight Posts: 1,238
    diy wrote:
    Which is inferior to this:

    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t6-waterpr ... -set-82510

    Which I also posted a link to.

    Fair enough, although the OP went for the torch route which i was referring to , no need to bite my head off .
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  • diy
    diy Posts: 6,473
    I was editing - as it looked rude. as I said those all in ones are over the top for road use. An 800 lumen light is going to be really annoying given its about a 10th of the size of a car headlight with approx. the same output.
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  • shouldbeinbed
    shouldbeinbed Posts: 2,660
    cyberknight wrote:
    pity you have orders , you could just have bought this , complete with charger and battery pack .....

    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ssc-p7-3-m ... 8650-50947

    Yes, I've looked at those in various powers a few times and always come to the conclusion it'd be OTT for what I actually need. It's for seeing by on my folder which I don't use daily anymore, nor on as much of a dark route or on as many trails when I do have to use it for commuting. My lighting kit on my main bike is plenty good enough already - it's done me proud through winters and nights - that I don't need such a high powered backup. Also as a camper a nice new really bright pocketable torch will always come in handy.

    thanks for the nudge tho, genuinely appreciated.
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    This may help http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=11751.0

    The cateye light I had was useless.

    My fenix lights were a revelation - so much light from a small torch.

    Then I got the magichsine - blows the fenix away. I'm happy doing an offroad trail in pitch black at speed with the magicshine.
  • horhif
    horhif Posts: 7
    much appreciated :D

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