Offroad lights on a budget

[drystonepaul]

I've a few mates who ride with the lights recommended by BarneyRubble and Orange71.

They do seem to be very good and well worth the money. Sadly they weren't on the market when I bought my Exposure Maxx-D a couple of years ago.
Definitely comparable for brightness and a good beam spread too.

 

[gbsimpsa]

I use a Fenix TK11 on me lid fpr throw and an orange peeled reflector Fenix L2D on the bars for flood. They use Cre emitters. Cost me less than 80 quid for the both a couple of years ago.

I've done the Bonty 24/12 a few times now and the combination was awesome. Comparable to lights that cost hundreds.

 

[cchris2lou]

I use the magic shine too .

great light .

2 years of daily use to commute , plus one weekly night ride .

 

[Andy B]

another magicshine user here too, brilliant bit of kit for the money & it it does go wrong, hell it's only £50 & there's a new 1400 lumen one for not much more now, it does look a bit mickey mouse though....

 

[BerthaPog]

Another Magicshine user here - for the money, it's more than fine. I got the one with the hard battery case http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mj-808-ha-iii-ssc-p7-c-sxo-3-mode-900-lumen-led-bike-light-set-44459, as some peeps at work with the bagged battery had minor water ingress issues.

 

[mcmteam]

I've not had a decent light since the good old days of BLT systems & halogen types. I bought an LED lenser torch a couple of years ago, & using an old bracket mounted it on the handlebars.. It sounds a bit pikey, but at 90 lumens it was pretty much perfect - although off road it needed a flood beam to compensate.

A couple of months back, I bought a 3.7v P7 ssc led unit (just the led, with small heatsink) from the net for about £7 The led I have is rated @ 900 lumens if you can safely and sustainably drive it, and will take as many amps as you can throw at it.

The clever bit is that most lithium ion laptop batteries will have around eight 18650's inside - each cell is 3.6/7v (on the tester) and rated at 2,400mah. Even dead batteries have good cells, and these work a treat.

It's a bit fiddly, and these things create heat, but as the basis of a diy/budget project these are perfect.

I'm getting round to finishing it, but for around £15 (depending how you do it) it's literally blinding for the money.

 

[dyna-ti]

Ride during the day

Tarra boomp

 

[Xesh]

Try Dealtime extreme. They have some really good lights for very reasonable prices. My Brother has a set and they are brilliant. Quality might not be as high as some of the more famous brands, but at 1/4 of the price they are still worth it.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ha-iii-ssc ... -set-25149

One of my mates got that one and he's had nothing but trouble with the plug adaptor. He got a UK charger from Magicshine in the end and it's been fine ever since.

I've got this one: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ha-iii-cre ... uded-30864

It's a 5 mode but it does come with a UK charger. Even though it's a series 1 battery I've had no problems with it. Probably because it's on my commuter bike which is fitted with mudguards.

@TedC: Even Magicshine UK say the series 1 battery was dire. In fact they've never sold that battery in the UK at all.

 

[Xesh]

.......A couple of months back, I bought a 3.7v P7 ssc led unit (just the led, with small heatsink) from the net for about £7 The led I have is rated @ 900 lumens if you can safely and sustainably drive it, and will take as many amps as you can throw at it......

P7 have a maximum recommended driving current of 1 amp. You might be able to go higher but the lifespan of the LED will be drastically shorter.

......The clever bit is that most lithium ion laptop batteries will have around eight 18650's inside - each cell is 3.6/7v (on the tester) and rated at 2,400mah. Even dead batteries have good cells, and these work a treat........

I hope you're going to fit the electronics to the battery pack. Lithium batteries need a current and voltage regulator, as well as over-charge and deep-discharge protection.

A mate of mine accidentally left a battery on charge overnight and it fried the circuit board in it. He thought he'd be clever and remove it as he thought it wasn't necessary. When he used his light the battery went from a full charge to flat in about 20 minutes (he'd had 3 hour plus runtimes from it before). When he re-charged it the cells got so hot that he couldn't touch them and that was only after charging them for an hour or so. :shock:

If you want a battery pack with the minimum of fuss then get NiMH cells, especially if you can find some that are used for RC cars, etc.

If you want a super long run time then try these: http://www.component-shop.co.uk/html/body_vp13000f.html

Bearing in mind the F cells are larger than D cells and are apparently rated at 13000mAh! :shock: Also there's an M size cell which is even larger! :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[mcmteam]

Yes, but cheers for the heads up - voltage & current regulation did occur to me once I'd researched the battery ratings so I bought the corresponding regulator, but I hadn't any real concerns about lifespan, realistically the led's and batteries are cheap enough, and even in 2000hrs of usage will be in a few years, by which time they'll be 20p each

One thing to note is I've almost blinded myself twice, these things are bright.

Messing round with different lenses was fascinating, I was able to project a perfect image of the individual led units (4 in a square configuration) over 100m or so, onto a wall..

Getting the right lens & reflector is a bit of a lottery but I've had some good results when retrofitting the unit into an old (early led) torch.

The main concern is conducting the heat away now..

edit: I have a pro peak II charger, so the charging aspect is covered. Otherwise, this can be a hurdle..