Chinese lights on ebay

[Devil2575]

I've been looking for a decent front light for my bike. The £20-£30 lights are fine on lit roads but my comute is on an unclassified back road that has quite a few pot holes and on dark nights my light is not really up to the job. I either have to risk running through potholes or slow down a lot.

So I started looking for brighter lights and was staggered at how much some of them cost. Not wishing to spend 3 figures I went onto ebay and noticed that you can get some lights for a lot less.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluxient-2000-Lumens-LED...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluxient-4xR5-CREE-LED-1...

There's also these which are a lot cheaper

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hot-SolarStorm-X2-Black-...

Has anyone had any experience of these. A lad I work with says a few of his mates have the Solar storm ones and they put out a lot of light. Is there a big difference between these cheap ones and the expensive ones?

Is there are reason why people spend £350 on lights?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exposure-MaXx-D-Mk6-Fron...

I certainly don't want to spend more than my bike cost on a light but equaly I don't want to waste my money on something that's cheap for a reason. I also don't want to have to dawdle along on dark nights!

[GaryGlitter]

Already a long thread about bike lights:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Watchman]

Exactly which £20 - £20 lights are you starting with?

I have 2x of these on mine with the optional prismic lens, and nothing else.



I can see almost as well as I can in broad daylight. Hard to imagine a more cost effective solution. Check back on Amazon from time to time because I got my last lot (I've got 6 on different bikes now) for just over 13 quid each (plus a fiver for each prismic lens).

[TheLemming]

Currently running the solar storm x2s both on and off road.

Bought a second set for spares just in case I had a failure. Amazing bit of kit :-)

[bulldog5046]

I'll give this one my personal recommendation:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4X-CREE-XM-L-XML-T6-LED-...

For the money i was staggeringly impressed. Well machined alu case, bright as i needed for riding unlit trials at night and sooo cheap! been tempted to get a second one just because they are so cheap, not that i need the extra output!

[Devil2575]

I got some from Halfords, a Christmas present so I didn't choose them:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

I guess my question really is what is the difference between £400 lights and the cheap ones like the Solar storm? On the face of it it would appear that the expensive ones are very over priced.

[Watchman]

You have definitely now wandered into the other thread, as linked to above. When you said "cheap Chinese lights" I thought you were talking about the ones I posted which have been the subject of many threads on here. It's hard to imagine a requirement for anything "more" than these.

And it's hard to imagine anyone spending anything up to 20 quid on anything else, quite honestly.

[donfisher]

Devil2575 said:

I guess my question really is what is the difference between £400 lights and the cheap ones like the Solar storm? On the face of it it would appear that the expensive ones are very over priced.

By all accounts the £400 ones are better made, have better lenses and generally have some sort of warranty. Whether or not the spread of light, output and build quality is 5x,10x or even 15x better than the Chinese ebay ones is in the eye of the beholder. People also like the fact that there’s a UK face to shout at if they fail.

It’s a bit of a lucky dip on whether the Chinese ones will be absolutely right out of the box, there may be a few niggles that need fixing on the casing or the battery holder. They also might fail to work again after long periods of no use, like after the break in summer when the nights start to draw in. At a pessimistic estimate I’d say there’s a 10% chance that it’ll fail within the first 12 months. But at that price, is it that much to worry about?

[Devil2575]

GaryGlitter said:

Already a long thread about bike lights:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Very illuminating thread!

[S10GTA]

Watchman said:

You have definitely now wandered into the other thread, as linked to above. When you said "cheap Chinese lights" I thought you were talking about the ones I posted which have been the subject of many threads on here. It's hard to imagine a requirement for anything "more" than these.

And it's hard to imagine anyone spending anything up to 20 quid on anything else, quite honestly.

Not this again....

[Watchman]

He started it.

[Devil2575]

Sorry! I hadn't seen the other thread before I posted this and I was confused as the the massive price differential between the top end systems and the ones on ebay.

[Watchman]

Devil2575 said:

Sorry! I hadn't seen the other thread before I posted this and I was confused as the the massive price differential between the top end systems and the ones on ebay.

Don't be. You're not alone. The other thread does cover all this but when threads drop off page 1, they're not always easy to find with the search. And judging by the replies here, there's on-going appetite to continue the discussion.

[HereBeMonsters]

I've got two of these Cree lights, can't recommend them enough. Not the most sophisticated solution (battery packs are pretty heavy and unwieldy) but for the money vs. brightness, you can't beat them.

[Daveyraveygravey]

I have two of the cheap ones, and the light is fine, the run time is fine. As someone else mentioned, the battery packs are a bit clunky and the wires connecting them are annoying if you're used to battery power.

I've managed to break the lug that the O ring goes round on one, and tore a velcro strap off the battery pack of the other. Neither of those are enough for me to say you need to go and spend over £200 on a light with a brand you recognise...

[lynus2004]

I have a couple of the cheap Chinese lights that I use as backups and I’m fairly happy with them, a chap at work showed me the solarstorm double light and to my eyes it seemed to have a better focus of light. The issue I find with my lights is that the beam spreads causing some annoyance to oncoming cars.

Cables can be a bit of a pain but I've dropped the battery into a converted water bottle to keep the rain away from it.

[curtisl]

I got one of these lights off of Amazon for about £23 and I am chuffed with it. It has three brightness modes and a strobe but I have only really used the lowest brightness as that has been enough. Off of one charge it has so far lasted about an hour and a half and there's no signs of loosing power yet. The only thing I have noticed is that there is a small flicker when going over bumps but it is a minor.

[Dixie]

I have a T6 one also. It amazes me how good it is for how little I paid for it.

[gazza285]

Daveyraveygravey said:

I've managed to break the lug that the O ring goes round on one, and tore a velcro strap off the battery pack of the other. Neither of those are enough for me to say you need to go and spend over £200 on a light with a brand you recognise...

You can get new mounting brackets for a fiver, I googled Magicshine spares and they came up. I use insulation tape on the battery cases as I do a for bit of off-road riding, just that bit more secure.

I have four sets, I've torn one Velcro strap, one battery packed up after 15 months and one broken mounting. Not bad.

[richardxjr]

TheLemming said:

Currently running the solar storm x2s both on and off road.

Bought a second set for spares just in case I had a failure. Amazing bit of kit :-)

Same here.

Much better than the single T6 XML and no need for a third party diffuser lens.

Said XML has been relegated to helmet mount for off road though, perfect combination.