Lights - Am I just tight?

[okgo]

Each to their own.

I personally like the clean design of the exposure lights, they work well, are built like tanks, and so far have not missed a beat coming into their 3rd winter.

[Agent XXX]

Just a word of caution from a fireman friend of mine, don't leave the chinese ones on charge unattended. EVER. They are good but they do have a tendency to 'self combust' if left for too long on charge.

[BoRED S2upid]

OP your not the only one my lights cost less than £20! I only ever ride in dusk rather than pitch black but they put out a good deal of light and have several different strobe settings I'm confident cars can see me. Spending hundreds is madness IMO.

[Pachydermus]

BoRED S2upid said:

I'm confident cars can see me.

it's not just about cars seeing you though as you'll understand once you thump into a massive pothole hidden in the dark.

[deckster]

BoRED S2upid said:

OP your not the only one my lights cost less than £20! I only ever ride in dusk rather than pitch black but they put out a good deal of light and have several different strobe settings I'm confident cars can see me. Spending hundreds is madness IMO.

But surely you can understand that there is a world of difference between riding on the road at dusk, and riding down pitch-dark towpaths (presumably with the chance of a good dunking if you get it wrong) and beyond that, to riding narrow trails with dropoffs and lots of damp tree roots. Different lights for different purposes and all that.

[gazza285]

Some Gump said:

You lot spending hundreds on light are mad in your heed!

Ebay, Cree bar light plus less daft flashlight style one to mount on your head.
Planetx phaart / bleep x 2 to the rear (seatpost plus right chainstay.
Planetx "it looks like a knog frog but it's 1.50" x 1 mount on back of helmet, x1 on bottom of front fork.

Almost identical to my set up, and my Chinese Cree batteries have yet to combust.

[Watchman]

warp9 said:

Watchman said:

But for the money, and because they have a decent mount, you can't beat these:

http://m.lightinthebox.com/en/dark-knight-k2c-4-mo...

They were 11 quid at one point but even at this price they're outstanding.

I agree they are good lights and mount, but I found running the cable to the battery pack, mounting the pack and then messing around undoing the battery to charge to be a real faff, so went back to the cheap Chinese cree bar mounted ones.

I'm sorry, I don't get what you're talking about. The cheap CREE ones have the same under-saddle-mount battery.

The battery takes less time to remove from my bike that it took to type this sentence.

[Stiggolas]

I too use a couple of Chinese CREE lights, one 5000 lumen and on 7200. These are clearly Chinese lumens and not a patch on proper ones! I bought a Tura 1600 lumen light from the Cycle show this year for £60 (I know, extravagant)and it puts out more light than the other two put together. I do a fair bit of trail night riding (much more fun at night on local trails) and managed ok with the first 5000 lumen unit until I was given the 7200 job. Now I've got the Tura I'm worried about the retinas of oncoming cyclists.
I have since found that the old 5000 lumen light has the best wide beam pattern so I use this when following someone where I don't need to see miles and the Tura if I'm up front.

[Rich_W]

I rode through a well known London Park this morning. Pitch black. No cars as the gates weren't open for cars that early.

A guy coming towards me had a light so bright I genuinely thought he was a motorbike from a distance! He flicked it down to low level when near others, but what a thing it was!

I'll stick to my £30 Cateye combo of front and rears.

_*_*_


Then a few moments later, following a guy on a old skool bike, (sturmey archer!) no lights, wearing a dark business suit.

As we waited at the traffic lights I asked him if he'd ever considered buying a couple lights?
He told me that he didn't need them as he had quick reactions.
I suggested that it wasn't for him, but for cars to see him.
He said he'd be fine. I left him to it.

I hope his quick reactions are faster than his pedalling

[okgo]

Shame the three s I saw in the same park this evening didn't have the same light.

I shouted LIGHTS quite loudly at all 3.

[Herman Toothrot]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000-Lm-CREE-XM-L-XML-T6...

Another vote for cheap Chinese Cree ^ is the one I have, I was out tonight for 2 hours on the MTB using one I ditch the elastic band and use two jubilee clips one round the light body one round my bars to lock it securely on. Then I have two battery packs stuffed in a water bottle in the cage in case one pack runs out, in the cage in a bottle all nice and secure. Easily as good as a friends mega bucks Hope lights.

[yellowjack]

Herman Toothrot - I might just give one of those a whirl. At c£13 delivered it's not much more money than a set of front and rear lights from my LBS which, for £8 (no batteries), claims to put out about 130 lumens and runs on AA batteries.

I do wonder about the reliability and safety of these *import lights though (*I know a lot of lights, even from 'proper shops', are imported). I just think that if they were really as good (and safe) as claimed, then someone like Wiggle or Evans would already have cornered the market by selling them with a back-up warranty system that you could actually have confidence in. But yes, at this sort of price you can't really lose...


...even if you have to charge them on a concrete driveway at the end of a long extension lead!

[Devil2575]

looksfast said:

So, the mornings and evenings are dark and I am considering cycling five miles or so to the station down unlit canals. It so happens that in this months MBR there is a test of lights - great! I completely understand why off road one might need two front lights, but given that there will be some on road to my journey, I also need a rear light as well for part of the journey.

So in my mind, I think that I want half decent lights, but nothing extravagant. I am thinking that maybe I need a budget of £100 at most. Then I read the tests in the magazine and one of the lights (not the winner!) was over £700!! Who spends that on a bicycle light? It wasn't even the only one at that sort of price. Am I being naive about the cost of these things?

I would use an old bike for the station as it needs to not tempt the criminals, if I went all out on lights, they would very soon be worth more than the bike itself. Any other ideas?

Cycling has become the new golf and as such you can pay silly prices for lots of things. Someone will pay it because it's expensive.

You're not being naive, you've just got your head screwed on properly, unlike a lot of people out there.

I use a chinese one on my road bike that is bright enough to enable me to go balls out in the dark, but even if you want to buy from a shop in the UK you can get a more than bright enough light for a lot less than £700. Lad I work with has an 800 lumen cateye that he got for £70.

Edited by Devil2575 on Thursday 27th October 12:55