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!

[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.

[Devil2575]

GaryGlitter said:

Already a long thread about bike lights:

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

Very illuminating thread!

[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.

[Devil2575]

Just ordered a Solar Storm X3.

Estimated delivery Friday 10th.

[Devil2575]

Silver940 said:

Devil2575 said:

Just ordered a Solar Storm X3.

Estimated delivery Friday 10th.

got one for Chistmas, seems good but not actually managed to get out mountain biking with it in the dark yet!

Mine will get used 4 days a week until the nights get lighter. I leave work between 5 and 6 so until it stays properly light until about 7pm it will be used. At the moment I also used lights on a morning if I leave the house before 8 am.

[Devil2575]

Got my Solar Storm X3 now.

Quite impressive for £35, it's certainly a lot brighter than my other light. It will be used in anger for the first time tonight on my commute home.

Quality wise it's ok. It's not quite there in terms of finish and feels a little bit hand made. Durability wise time will tell.

[Devil2575]

Thought I should follow this up.

Light was great last week. Amazing illumination of the road enabling me to go balls out on a road is very badly potholed in places and completely unlit.

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.

If anyone has a working light but no battery pack and want to sell me it then let me know.

But for now it's back to the old, dim, but reliable light.

I haven't decided if I want to risk another cheap ebay light or not.

The sad thing is for a few quid more it could be a really good product and still a lot cheaper than the stupidly priced branded ones you get in the shops.

[Devil2575]

R32 said:

Devil2575 said:

Thought I should follow this up.

Light was great last week. Amazing illumination of the road enabling me to go balls out on a road is very badly potholed in places and completely unlit.

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.

If anyone has a working light but no battery pack and want to sell me it then let me know.

But for now it's back to the old, dim, but reliable light.

I haven't decided if I want to risk another cheap ebay light or not.

The sad thing is for a few quid more it could be a really good product and still a lot cheaper than the stupidly priced branded ones you get in the shops.

Crap, I've just ordered one of these.

I noticed on the ebay seller I bought from, they clearly described the difference between a "real" one and a fake one. The way to tell seemed to be the colour of the circuit board, which should be blue rather than green : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SolarStorm-X3-3-CREE-U2-...

Out of interest what colour was your circuit board?

Black.

You may well be fine. Lots of peiople who have them seem to be happy.

[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.

[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

[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

[Devil2575]

dudleybloke said:

For a rear light I recommended the magicshine 808.
It will plug into the same battery as the front and is very bright and very well built.
Costs about £30 but is well worth it.

Do you need something very bright for the back? I use one of these:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cateye/5-led-r...

I only need the much brighter chinese lights so i can see where i'm going on an unlit road as opposed to a light just to make you visible to other road users.

[Devil2575]

sjg said:

There's a premium for really well designed, well made (in the UK) products. They actually make their light output, unlike the "5000 lumen" chinese stuff. It packs an excellent light and battery pack into a single unit, no faffing about with a pack velcroed to your stem. Proper electronics with real protection circuitry, throttling to control output if the light were to overheat, etc. The chargers and batteries aren't likely to burn your house down if it left charging. Good spares backup and useful little accessories like a rear light that can plug in and share the battery, or a little "get you home" battery if you need a bit more runtime. They have proper UK support and warranty (and support their network of shops pretty well too).

I wouldn't spend £350 on a Maxx-D, but I can completely see why someone would. If you nightride a couple of times a week for most of the year and it lasts a few years, the cost is totally justifiable.

The super-cheap Chinese stuff is hit and miss, although the battery packs are almost universally garbage (look at what an equivalent pack made from new cells cost and draw your own conclusions as to where they source them from). Please, please, please don't leave them unattended to charge, and ideally use a LiPo bag (available from R/C model places) to charge them in case they do go. Battery fires are nasty - these two got away lightly:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12...
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8...

That's all great but it still leave people like myself between a rock and a hard place. There is no way I have hundreds of pounds to spend on bike lights. My bike only cost £360.
It also doesn't change the fact that the expensive light will still have a massive mark up on it based purely on the fact that cycling is now the in thing for people with lots of disposable cash. If I can buy a smart phone or a lap top for £350 then there is no real reason why a bike light should cost that, no matter how well made it is.

[Devil2575]

yonex said:

I don't think its 'haven't got the money' but 'I think that's expensive?

Getting a bit bored of this thing where people blame others for the cost of things, chosing a quality product over an unbranded competitor with no warranty and hit and miss quality. The reason they're more expensive is because they are made with better parts and have a warranty which has to be serviced.

It seems fine to pay out for a smartphone or laptop, when my Cree failed in the middle of a Bridleway I was definitely reassured that I had paid decent money for the laptop sitting on my desk.

Buy them, don't buy them but can we stop slagging off others who make a different choice?

Edited by yonex on Friday 6th February 06:17

Fair point.