Any light recommendations??

[Paul Eggleton]

I need to sort some lights out to continue riding throughout winter. Can anyone offer any recommendations. I don't fancy spending more than £100 unless I have to....seen some on Evans over £700!!! :shock: :shock:

 

[gtRTSdh]

£100! Search ebay for cree led's you should get a twin headlight setup with rear light and a battery pack for £50

 

[02gf74]

you can read this if you want or just buy this lamp.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-CREE-XML- ... 3f1d0b829c

 

[Anthony]

There are some very cheap offers on eBay and some people find they work pretty well, but others find them shoddy or unreliable.

Although Cree emitters are very good and the XM-L T6 is a very bright spot, the only part of the lamp in the link that was made by Cree is the emitter. It is being sold as a Cree lamp, but everything else was made by God knows who and to God knows what standard. So you're talking about the reflector, the housing, the electrical connections, the controls, the waterproofing, the bar mounting, the quality of the batteries, the quality of the battery charger, and the general design, workmanship and reliability. All the things you're going to depend on are no-name.

The list of details seems to look ok, but check on Cree's website and they say the lumen output of a XM-L T6 is 1,040 lumens, so how does the eBay seller make out that his light outputs 1,800 lumens? By making it up. And if that isn't true, what else is? He doesn't even say what type of batteries they are, nor the burn time.

To be fair, even 1,040 lumens is very bright and it's going to be far brighter than an Exposure Joystick (£130 for 400 lumens). But how long will it last? Will it let you down suddenly? Will it fail in the rain? Will the batteries lose power after a few months? Is the charger a smart charger (certainly not) or do you need to keep an eye on it? If you look at the breakdown of the cost of higher quality lights, most of it is in the batteries and the charger, rather than the lamp itself.

I guess these things are so cheap though that you could maybe buy two and take the spare out with you every ride in case the first one fails.

Personally I would have more faith in this eBay seller, who has 100% positive feedback on over 9,000 sales and has done a lot of research if you check out his website. His price is higher than the cheapest, but a lot cheaper than the big names. He says there's a two year guarantee on this lamp, presumably through him, so maybe he is worth a try.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300783148568

 

[mikee]

2 takes on this
the cree xlm's in 900 lumen format are great about £18 each so 2 on the bars and one on yer helmet is more than adequate

the other option is an e-bay search for lupine /nite lites/ stadium
etc , old tech but good lights , no one wants them anymore so cheap as
i got a set of lupines for £18 , they are brilliant (a £500 light )
only last an hour and 3/4 but a nice halogen glow as opposed to the led white stark light , mix the pair and you have the ideal set up

 

[drcarlos]

There are some very cheap offers on eBay and some people find they work pretty well, but others find them shoddy or unreliable.

Although Cree emitters are very good and the XM-L T6 is a very bright spot, the only part of the lamp in the link that was made by Cree is the emitter. It is being sold as a Cree lamp, but everything else was made by God knows who and to God knows what standard. So you're talking about the reflector, the housing, the electrical connections, the controls, the waterproofing, the bar mounting, the quality of the batteries, the quality of the battery charger, and the general design, workmanship and reliability. All the things you're going to depend on are no-name.

The list of details seems to look ok, but check on Cree's website and they say the lumen output of a XM-L T6 is 1,040 lumens, so how does the eBay seller make out that his light outputs 1,800 lumens? By making it up. And if that isn't true, what else is? He doesn't even say what type of batteries they are, nor the burn time.

To be fair, even 1,040 lumens is very bright and it's going to be far brighter than an Exposure Joystick (£130 for 400 lumens). But how long will it last? Will it let you down suddenly? Will it fail in the rain? Will the batteries lose power after a few months? Is the charger a smart charger (certainly not) or do you need to keep an eye on it? If you look at the breakdown of the cost of higher quality lights, most of it is in the batteries and the charger, rather than the lamp itself.

I guess these things are so cheap though that you could maybe buy two and take the spare out with you every ride in case the first one fails.

Personally I would have more faith in this eBay seller, who has 100% positive feedback on over 9,000 sales and has done a lot of research if you check out his website. His price is higher than the cheapest, but a lot cheaper than the big names. He says there's a two year guarantee on this lamp, presumably through him, so maybe he is worth a try.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300783148568

To add to this Lithium batteries are dangerous pieces of kit when not charged correctly (have a look for thermal runaway) and some of the cheap no name chargers have burn't out or exploded and so have some of the batteries. When I go for a new light I'm going to use the guy above as he really seems to have done his research. I think i'm going to go for this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Inton-XM-...rnsTorches&hash=item4607f0b291#ht_2357wt_1139

Carl.

 

[gdb2b]

MagicShine 808E. It will give somebody a suntan at 100 yards. Its throw and difusion are quite good. Decent controls. Decent charger. Small unit that puts out a lot of lumens. This is a see AND a be seen light. You can shine deer with it.

Until I got this light I would not ride at night. Very comfortable riding at night now. Good unit, good reliability. I typically don't endorse much, but I will do so for this. Am considering geting a 2nd one for my helmet, as I am that impressed...

 

[B77]

There are some very cheap offers on eBay and some people find they work pretty well, but others find them shoddy or unreliable.

Although Cree emitters are very good and the XM-L T6 is a very bright spot, the only part of the lamp in the link that was made by Cree is the emitter. It is being sold as a Cree lamp, but everything else was made by God knows who and to God knows what standard. So you're talking about the reflector, the housing, the electrical connections, the controls, the waterproofing, the bar mounting, the quality of the batteries, the quality of the battery charger, and the general design, workmanship and reliability. All the things you're going to depend on are no-name.

The list of details seems to look ok, but check on Cree's website and they say the lumen output of a XM-L T6 is 1,040 lumens, so how does the eBay seller make out that his light outputs 1,800 lumens? By making it up. And if that isn't true, what else is? He doesn't even say what type of batteries they are, nor the burn time.

To be fair, even 1,040 lumens is very bright and it's going to be far brighter than an Exposure Joystick (£130 for 400 lumens). But how long will it last? Will it let you down suddenly? Will it fail in the rain? Will the batteries lose power after a few months? Is the charger a smart charger (certainly not) or do you need to keep an eye on it? If you look at the breakdown of the cost of higher quality lights, most of it is in the batteries and the charger, rather than the lamp itself.

I guess these things are so cheap though that you could maybe buy two and take the spare out with you every ride in case the first one fails.

Personally I would have more faith in this eBay seller, who has 100% positive feedback on over 9,000 sales and has done a lot of research if you check out his website. His price is higher than the cheapest, but a lot cheaper than the big names. He says there's a two year guarantee on this lamp, presumably through him, so maybe he is worth a try.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300783148568

EXACTLY the same as

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360477864104? ... 226wt_1398

Same charger, battery pack, headstrap, all he's done is get an orange wash, a bag couple of tatty boxes and a bit of foam for only 60 quid more
I don't think he's done a lot of reasearch just taken a few photos and spent 5 minutes on the net.

Ripoff

Edit, been using mine (9 quid) every day/night since I got it, never failed been out in the pissing rain for the last few day no problems. What people don't seem to realise most of the stuff coming out of China is made for named brands and as such the quality is really getting up there and those components are then used in unbranded/no name items.
The whole of the 'proudly made in the US of A' thing is a load of crap mostly they are chinese manufactured components ASSEMBLED in the US, this gives the company the right to say 'Made in the USA'.

I think too many people are waaaay overthinking this. All this talk of thermal runaway and but what if what if !!!!! Oh my god THERMAL RUNAWAY !!!!!!!!!!!

You're more likely to get knocked off your bike riding in traffic.

 

[02gf74]

.... back in the retro days we used Ever Ready lamps with filament bulbs - filament bulbs being pretty unreliable due to the filament breaking yet we did not scare ourselves about leaving the ouse in case we get stuck without lights. We were less mollycoddled in those days so still went out and/or else took a spare bulb.

Thermal runnaway is good if you need to warm your hands after fixing a puncture in the pi%%ing rain.

I've got one of the lamps - similar to the one in the link but £ 2 more expensive. It will be going on the bike pretty soon, well for sure by the tme the clocks change so we'll see how long it lasts.

Interesting point about the CREE LED output - there is one seller, chinese ofcourse, that is claiming 2400 Lumens from a single CREE.

 

[drcarlos]

There are some very cheap offers on eBay and some people find they work pretty well, but others find them shoddy or unreliable.

Although Cree emitters are very good and the XM-L T6 is a very bright spot, the only part of the lamp in the link that was made by Cree is the emitter. It is being sold as a Cree lamp, but everything else was made by God knows who and to God knows what standard. So you're talking about the reflector, the housing, the electrical connections, the controls, the waterproofing, the bar mounting, the quality of the batteries, the quality of the battery charger, and the general design, workmanship and reliability. All the things you're going to depend on are no-name.

The list of details seems to look ok, but check on Cree's website and they say the lumen output of a XM-L T6 is 1,040 lumens, so how does the eBay seller make out that his light outputs 1,800 lumens? By making it up. And if that isn't true, what else is? He doesn't even say what type of batteries they are, nor the burn time.

To be fair, even 1,040 lumens is very bright and it's going to be far brighter than an Exposure Joystick (£130 for 400 lumens). But how long will it last? Will it let you down suddenly? Will it fail in the rain? Will the batteries lose power after a few months? Is the charger a smart charger (certainly not) or do you need to keep an eye on it? If you look at the breakdown of the cost of higher quality lights, most of it is in the batteries and the charger, rather than the lamp itself.

I guess these things are so cheap though that you could maybe buy two and take the spare out with you every ride in case the first one fails.

Personally I would have more faith in this eBay seller, who has 100% positive feedback on over 9,000 sales and has done a lot of research if you check out his website. His price is higher than the cheapest, but a lot cheaper than the big names. He says there's a two year guarantee on this lamp, presumably through him, so maybe he is worth a try.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300783148568

EXACTLY the same as

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360477864104? ... 226wt_1398

Same charger, battery pack, headstrap, all he's done is get an orange wash, a bag couple of tatty boxes and a bit of foam for only 60 quid more
I don't think he's done a lot of reasearch just taken a few photos and spent 5 minutes on the net.

Ripoff

Edit, been using mine (9 quid) every day/night since I got it, never failed been out in the pissing rain for the last few day no problems. What people don't seem to realise most of the stuff coming out of China is made for named brands and as such the quality is really getting up there and those components are then used in unbranded/no name items.
The whole of the 'proudly made in the US of A' thing is a load of crap mostly they are chinese manufactured components ASSEMBLED in the US, this gives the company the right to say 'Made in the USA'.

I think too many people are waaaay overthinking this. All this talk of thermal runaway and but what if what if !!!!! Oh my god THERMAL RUNAWAY !!!!!!!!!!!

You're more likely to get knocked off your bike riding in traffic.

Have a look at some of the damaged chargers on that website and decide whether you are willing to take the risk then, the charger may look the same on the outside as cases are prefabbed at one plastics plant and sold on mass to different manufacturers for assembly into chargers so unless you can prove you have stripped several chargers like is evidenced on the website you are hardly qualified to judge.
Also having worked with charger designers for the military suppliers where we had to make li-ion chargers from scratch I can assure you that thermal runaway is very real and is created by incorrectly charging li-ion if the charger pulse is too long or at the wrong voltage. A quick explanation. Basically each cell must be pulse charged at a specific voltage for several seconds and then the pulse has to stop for a certain time. While charging crystals grow from the anode inside the battery towards the cathode, when charging stops the crystals break off and dissolve and the charge must be stopped long enough for this to happen. If the charging is incorrect the crystals grow and contact the cathode shorting the battery out from inside and this is when thermal runaway happens ending with either a useless and bulged battery, fire or at worst explosion. You appear to have been fairly lucky to this point but as has been said you usually get what you pay for and being cheap one may be good, another poor.
At least someone out there has found a supplier that care about quality and compared to the major brands are still cheaper.
You may be likely to be knocked off your bike in traffic (I guess you have access to the statistical proof of this) but I wouldn't want to risk a fire in my house for want of £50.

Carl.