I don't get where you're coming from, they work, have you heard any horror stories? Lets face it they're probably made in the same place as the expensive ones. 700lm or whatever, they're bright enough for serious speed. I've ridden in a group where the others had really expensive lights & quite frankly the one I bought was their equal or better.
Recommendation on MTB Lights?
- Thread starter Jussa
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JamesM
Senior Retro Guru
I doubt they're made in the Hope or Exposure factories. Acera and Dura-Ace mechs are both made by Shimano though.
I've heard stories and seen broken ones. I've taken a few apart too and not been very impressed with what I've seen. They are bright but are also cheap and poor quality.
I've heard stories and seen broken ones. I've taken a few apart too and not been very impressed with what I've seen. They are bright but are also cheap and poor quality.
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I have a Light & Motion Stella 150 - amazing light, outstanding build quality and excellent battery life. Rarely do I need the full beam setting. Recommend it.
have one of those Chinese lights for more than 2 years now and it served me more then well over that time.
Only thing I found annoying is, that when I use them during wintertime (temp. arround -10°C) the cables are refuse from beeing flexible (they tends to harden like a wooodstick) plus the connectors are not waterresistent.
beam and light pattern are good enough for me at all riding conditions in the night.
one month ago the battery pack seems to have a loose connection - sometimes the lamp works - sometimes not. So I checked the battery pack for some bad soldering at the print plate, but is was the print plate itself, as I was in a need for the lamp, I unsolder the print plate and resolder the cables to the batteries directly.
No idea what the plate is good for, but the lamp is working as supposed, also recharching works fine and the battery pack has not been exploded since then
Maybe someone over here can enlighten me what that printplate on top of the pack is good for (controlling discharge and recharge maybe ?)
Anyway you cant get wrong with one of these lights (some clones do have better batteries and battery management systems)
Only thing I found annoying is, that when I use them during wintertime (temp. arround -10°C) the cables are refuse from beeing flexible (they tends to harden like a wooodstick) plus the connectors are not waterresistent.
beam and light pattern are good enough for me at all riding conditions in the night.
one month ago the battery pack seems to have a loose connection - sometimes the lamp works - sometimes not. So I checked the battery pack for some bad soldering at the print plate, but is was the print plate itself, as I was in a need for the lamp, I unsolder the print plate and resolder the cables to the batteries directly.
No idea what the plate is good for, but the lamp is working as supposed, also recharching works fine and the battery pack has not been exploded since then
Maybe someone over here can enlighten me what that printplate on top of the pack is good for (controlling discharge and recharge maybe ?)
Anyway you cant get wrong with one of these lights (some clones do have better batteries and battery management systems)
raymondluxuryyacht
Senior Retro Guru
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I agree you don't need to spend over £100 to get a decent light these days. There is plenty of choice. I use a fenix tk15, but their new bike specific lights look better still.
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JamesM":3qrt9fzs said:
I'm basing it on the fact that when both lights are compared next to each other in a dark forest, the cheap light appears to be about twice as bright.
Perhaps they aren't really 1800 lumens and perhaps the Maxx-D isn't 900 lumens, I have no way of quantifying the brightness accurately.
I've also seen similar lights fall due to moisture getting to the batteries and cables being pulled out. I'm under no illusions about the build quality of each light, and the weaknesses of the cheap ones.
Although the smooth pool of light the Maxx-D is lovely, I can honestly say that I prefer the power of the XML-T6 and find the more concentrated 'hot spot' more useful when riding off road.
JamesM
Senior Retro Guru
I think the early Maxx-D had 960 but it had a diffuser which as you said gives it a clean fairly floody light. The XML has around 700 to 800 lumens but has a focused torch like beam so it will appear brighter and will have more throw as the light is concetrated into a smaller area. Personally I don't like the resultant hot spot when using the light on the bars as it's rarely pointing where I want it too. That's why the likes of Exposure and Hope use diffusers to get rid of the hot spot and spread the light more uniformly. Focused beams work better as helmet lights.
