dark nights and mornings

If you're on unlit roads/lanes then you'll need a decent front from the likes of Exposure, Magicshine etc. They won't be cheap but they pump out the lumens.

check out all the sales at the mo and dont be afraid to spend a decent amount on lights - they will make soooooooo much difference. Remember you'll need 2 sets front and rear in case one fails/runs out of battery etc.

Normally you have a main light to see by (always on) and a secondary light as backup set to flash mode to ensure people see you (if for some insane reason they havent noticed your funking great big main light -)

The human eye will see movement first, so I find hi-vis ankle bands REALLY useful... I know but honestly, they work. You can get 3M snap bands from Halfords and they really get you noticed (and also negate the "must have pedal reflectors argument)

However: as above... 2 sets front and rear, make sure they are angled down so as not to blind oncoming traffic

I run a Magicshine mj-880e and a Hope Vision 2 at the front, with a Hope District 3 coupled with a Cateye LD1100 at the rear. My commute is 12 miles each way mostly NSL country lanes

I also like to run down the river /canal path alongside the Trent in Nottingham even over the Winter and put the front lights on full brightness when bowling down the tracks... great fun!

And make sure you carry a second set with you. As well as having reflective clothing etc

Seajays wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:

Anyway, anyone else buy one of the Ebay lights with huge claimed lumen figures?? I heard there were a few that were actually worth getting.

I got one of these last week (getting prepared for winter): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111250557576 - seems pretty bright when I shone it at my wife... she did throw something at me when I did it repeatedly though...

I have one and it is super bright but bought a new higgher capacity battery for it as the ones provided were useless

Light spread can be easily dealt with by just adding tape to the lens.

The 'Chinese' Cree do tend to vary a bit, but the ones I have had have all been good. Not 3 hours run time on max, more like 2, but hey, 15 quid?

Yeah. Battery packs from China over the last year have been diabolical. The ones included with the Solarstorm are a prime example of that (even Torchy said "nice light, crap battery" when comparing it against the trustfire i mentioned).

I actually ordered a six cell pack with one of the last lights i ordered from Lightmalls (or was it DX, i forget). Binned it the day after i received it. Ordered a eight cell rubberized pack from Kaidomain to get even longer runtimes than three hours with my Trustfire twin head lights.... it could only run it for an hour despite having twice as many cells than the Trustfires. Suspected dead cells or that they might be out of sync so i broke it down and charged them individually........no dead cells. Hour and a half was all i could get from it after i'd finished.

At that sort of quality i'd of needed a 16 cell pack just to match the 4 cell Trustfire packs that came with the lights and a 32 cell pack to double the runtimes.

I also dug out two of the oldest Chinese 4 cell packs i got years ago with my first XM-L lights. Just plain affairs in blue shrink wrap. One of which was dead (drained and rusted from never being used for a couple of years). Managed to harvest two working cells from it and added them to the other 4 cell pack to make a homemade 6 cell pack (half height Green Giant sweetcorn tins make a great battery case)..... Second best battery pack i own, after the Trustfire ones. Even outperforming Magicshine and other 'boutique' battery packs i've bought over the years.

Which says a lot for the quality of current Chinese packs that come with the cheaper lights if they can't even outperform some rusty old cells that weren't considered 'state of the art' even back then. It's something of a false economy in my eyes. Yes, the lights are great at their sub £30 price points but you then have to hunt around and spend anywhere up to £40 on a decent battery to run them. That's why i went for the Trustfire twinhead over the Solarstorm twinhead. When i got mine the Trustfires where about £6 dearer than the Solarstorms but saved me having to splash out on a decent pack, a better 'Hope' bar mount and even had better battery cases (rubberized battery, rubberized case, not fabric.. so easier to clean and with better straps). The remote switch was just a bonus (with a five stage battery indicator built in).

Oh! And if you liked the rotating heads, then also take a look at something like this Ultrafire YL-03 tri-head design.....



The beams point in slightly different directions to give more flood (one ahead, the lower two down and to the left and right) so good for a offroad light.

MrKev83 wrote:

I've got one of the Chinese ones with separate battery pack. Only way I can fault it is it sometimes moves due to only being attached by elastic. I can cope due to the price

I've just gotten around that problem by modifying an old CatEye mount I had lying about.

Thanks for the inspiration!

For me; 2 x Moon X300's & a Knog flashing LED light at the front, Moon Shield and Knog flashing LED light at rear.
Hi Viz Backpack Cover, cycle jacket with reflective bits and reflective gloves, 2 of those Hi- Viz plastic trouser clip things wrapped around the top tube for some side-on visibility.

The Moons are usb rechargeable off my work pc, I carry spare batteries for the knogs and a Petzl Tikka Headtorch which is a backup 'get me home' front or rear light.

This might sound like overkill but it seems to do the trick (he says, touching wood nervously...)