Chinese lights on ebay

[Watchman]

S10GTA said:

Watchman said:

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

Devil2575 said:

However the light died. First one of the LEDs went out so foolishly I opened it up and a wire snapped, a very cheap piece of wire at that. While trying to repair it it got properly broken so is now in the bin.

This is why people will spend more. I often do 30/40/50 mile rides in the evening, and if my light was to pack up miles from home I'd be in trouble. You pay for the quality.

As above - he bought a different one to the one I pictured. My comment stands.

[duncancallum]

I've just ordered a 6xcree xml t6 unit from amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00F5QJ5UA/ref=...

I will see how it goes.

[TheLemming]

S10GTA said:

This is why people will spend more. I often do 30/40/50 mile rides in the evening, and if my light was to pack up miles from home I'd be in trouble. You pay for the quality.

As has been covered repeatedly in other threads - always carry a spare battery, a spare light and a spare battery for the spare light....
Doesn't have to be as good as the main light, just good enough to get you home from where you are.

I had a fun evening when my battery went flat, plugged in my spare and that was dead too - it was my charger that had failed. The remaining charge in my spare light wasn't enough to get home - which is why I now always have an extra battery for both.
Riding offroad I have my main light and two torches. As well as spare batteries (they aren't big, heavy or expensive so there's no excuse).

A ten quid cree torch is good enough as a spare (actually used one as a main light for a while till I discovered bigger lights were much better).

The Chinese cree lights are cheap enough to buy two.... That gives you a spare light and a spare battery and charger in case of failure.
Ref the triple and sextuple emitter lights mentioned in this thread - I've used the solar storm x2 on high precisely once and that was in truly torrential rain with spray everywhere. Aside from that ten minute period its on low 90% of the time and brief periods of medium on 20mph+ running.
While I'm a great believer in "overkill isn't enough" when it comes to lights, the ones with more emitters seem to just drain the battery faster without actually lighting up the terrain any better....

[Barchettaman]

Devil2575 said:

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.

Here´s a plan.

Take a can of this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/No-Nonsense-Line-Marking...

and, in daylight, spray round the nasty potholes on your back road commute.

Even better, email http://www.fixmystreet.com/ or http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ with the details.

You´ll be doing everyone a favour.

[TwistingMyMelon]

I have 10 miles of unlit roads that are potholed, this is what the £20 cree x1s are best suited to, 2 or them work better than my car headlights!!

The quality varies, both mine are slightly different but have never let me down and have lasted heavy rainstorms serveral times

They are overkill in town

I always run 2 x lights on front and back and have a spare cateye in the bag. Even if I spent £200 on a light I would never trust not running another light on the bike.

I can see why people spend more but on my commute it wouldn't be worth it and I could even end up with a worse light.

[Devil2575]

S10GTA said:

Watchman said:

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

Devil2575 said:

However the light died. First one of the LEDs went out so foolishly I opened it up and a wire snapped, a very cheap piece of wire at that. While trying to repair it it got properly broken so is now in the bin.

This is why people will spend more. I often do 30/40/50 mile rides in the evening, and if my light was to pack up miles from home I'd be in trouble. You pay for the quality.

My issue with paying for quality is that the branded lights you buy in shops are supid prices. It's almost like someone used a random number generator to decide on the retail price.

You could easily produce a light like the Solarstorm X3 for twice as much and it would be a good quality item. You could then sell it for £70 and make a nice profit.

There is no need for any bike light to cost £300+ IMHO. You can buy a laptop for that that has about 1000x more components.

As a recentish entrant to the UK biking scene I really do get the impression that a lot of the high end stuff is about extracting cash from people with more money than sense.

[Devil2575]

Barchettaman said:

Devil2575 said:

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.

Here´s a plan.

Take a can of this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/No-Nonsense-Line-Marking...

and, in daylight, spray round the nasty potholes on your back road commute.

Even better, email http://www.fixmystreet.com/ or http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ with the details.

You´ll be doing everyone a favour.

On some sections the entire surface is broken up and potholed.

[duncancallum]

My cree 6x Xmlt6 turned up. And I am impressed. Good build quality and a light which gives your retina a sun tan.

My only gripe is the mount its a bit cack but that's easy sorted

[loudlashadjuster]

Devil2575 said:

On some sections the entire surface is broken up and potholed.

Use the can but spray 'FIX THIS st' and log with pic on fixmystreet

[boyse7en]

How many Lumens do i need for a front light?

My commute home last night (in admittedly pretty horrendous conditions) showed me just how poor my AA-powered front light is.

Various Cree lamps on eBay vary from 270 - 5500 Lumens, which seems to be a massive variation.

I'm looking for something that will illuminate the Tarka Trail (old railway line now cycle path) in the dark and rainy nights.

[Tiddy1]

1200 luimins is plenty for dark unlit country roads, I run mine on dip for most of the time

[anonymous-user]

Devil2575 said:

My issue with paying for quality is that the branded lights you buy in shops are supid prices. It's almost like someone used a random number generator to decide on the retail price.

You could easily produce a light like the Solarstorm X3 for twice as much and it would be a good quality item. You could then sell it for £70 and make a nice profit.

There is no need for any bike light to cost £300+ IMHO. You can buy a laptop for that that has about 1000x more components.

As a recentish entrant to the UK biking scene I really do get the impression that a lot of the high end stuff is about extracting cash from people with more money than sense.

That'll be me then

I spent £260 on a Lumicycle Explorer after three Chinese Cree's. The last light decided to run out of juice when I was heading downhill at a fair speed, luckily there were enough street lights at the time. The other Cree after 2 winters worth of use had a runtime of 25-30 mins from a full charge using the mid setting. When it was brand new It was good for 90 mins or so. Total investment in Chinese crap so far £110. For that investment I had to remake all the mounts and even then they weren't that solid. There was no warranty, the battery leads and the way they were put together was cheap, obviously. It's a gamble what you get.

With the loomie I have a warranty and someone on the phone to talk to. There are a ton of battery options and older models are upgradeable for a half decent amount. You can run 2 or 3 lights off of a battery and the run times are huge. Technically the light output is the same as the Chinese lanterns but one of them is not being honest as the Lumicycle is brighter, better spread and a better colour. There are other little touches in the design. The switch on the back is a toggle type which is simple to use, on the highest setting if you flick it up again it will give you 3 mins (IIRC) boost, or it will run in permanent boost if you want it. All the leads and the connectors are properly sealed and the mount is solid, yes, I would expect it would be as well! When it is low on power it de-selects the higher modes and the little LED tells you it is low, it doesn't just go out. Runtimes are as follows; 14hrs flash, 6 low, 2.5 high, 1.5 perm. boost. Swapping to the larger battery you can double all of those.

Lastly, the charger. If you open up the chargers supplied with the cheap Cree's you will find a very basic circuit with sod all in the way of protection. I used to charge mine in a an old biscuit tin with a slot cut in in case the batteries did anything bad. I have seen exploding chargers and batteries, they make a mess.

So. Call me a mug if you wish. But I have a light that I can rely on for 2, 3 or 4 hrs in the dark night after night, I just can't be assed with stty components that need messing with and impact on the time I have to ride. Is the thick end of £300 alot of money for a light, yes, but when considered as a whole it's one of those investments relating to the sport which I think deserves a premium.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 30th January 12:14

[Barchettaman]

lynus2004 said:

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.

Neat solution, I might nick that idea!

[TheLemming]

Sealed batteries - I've never had an issue with a battery pack getting wet.

The current ones are these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WaterProof-Battery-pack-...

Cheap, sealed, 6 cell. Should be good for 6hrs + I've not run them flat yet.

[Devil2575]

I thought I'd updated this but I guess not.

I bought another cheap Chinese light shortly after my last post. A solar storm X2. Cheaper than the first one but better quality components and wiring inside. It's been brilliant, doing the commute through winter in all weathers and longer night rides. The best bit is that I have two batteries courtesy of the first light so I carry a spare. Battery life is good, easily lasting for a good three hours especially since the lowest setting is fine for the road.

Edited by Devil2575 on Friday 30th January 22:01

Edited by Devil2575 on Friday 30th January 22:03

[dudleybloke]

My original £17 Chinese eBay lamp is doing fine with 14 months use. Its still getting just under 3 hours use per charge on full power.
Fantastic bit of kit.

[Devil2575]

yonex said:

So. Call me a mug if you wish. But I have a light that I can rely on for 2, 3 or 4 hrs in the dark night after night, I just can't be assed with stty components that need messing with and impact on the time I have to ride. Is the thick end of £300 alot of money for a light, yes, but when considered as a whole it's one of those investments relating to the sport which I think deserves a premium.

Edited by yonex on Friday 30th January 12:14

Horses for courses I guess but not everyone can afford premium prices
prices. If it wasn't for cheap Chinese lights I'd still be struggling on with what you buy in the shops for my limited budget.
I stand by what I said. The cost of the expensive lights is so far removed from its manufacturing costs it's silly. Feeling like you're being excluded from certain aspects of cycling because it's become the popular with the affluent middle classes is annoying.

Edited by Devil2575 on Friday 30th January 22:02

[anonymous-user]

Devil2575 said:

Horses for courses I guess but not everyone can afford premium prices
prices. If it wasn't for cheap Chinese lights I'd still be struggling on with what you buy in the shops for my limited budget.
I stand by what I said. The cost of the expensive lights is so far removed from its manufacturing costs it's silly. Feeling like you're being excluded from certain aspects of cycling because it's become the popular with the affluent middle classes is annoying.

I guess but I have made the light a priority, mainly because the Chinese one let me down. There is very little that is 'reasonably' priced when it comes to kit and the mark up on most things is huge, phones, cars, general tech.....

[voicey]

bulldog5046 said:

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!

So I bought one of these and am very impressed with it. I have a few questions though...

1) How long does the battery last on strobe? My commute is 25-30 mins each way and I'd like to get a feel for how often I have to charge it up.

2) Does the little green LED on the button run the battery down much when the light isn't in use?

3) Where do people put the battery pack? At the moment I have it on where the steerer joins the stem but have loads of excess cable to deal with.


Cheers...

[richardxjr]

Please don't use a light like that on strobe. For the road, steady low power and angle it down so it illuminates the road doesn't blind others.

I 'only' have single and double T6s (a few years old now but still working fine), wouldn't use any of these owl burners on strobe on the road. Each lasts over 6 hours on steady low.

I put the remote battery packs in the saddlebag.