I am just about to press "buy" for the DX bike light and am going to buy a P7 torch to helmet mount. How bright is the torch on low (2 mode version) and what is the run time on low?

cheers

rob

Bright enough to get you seen, and fine on streets with lights but not great for riding in the proper dark (IME). No idea of run time solely on low.

may just go with the bar mounted bike specific light then

Delivery takes time too – ordered mine on 4 Sept, just got an email to say it's shipped, ETA in another 7-10 days!

Oh well, it's much cheapness!!!

baby is due at the weekend so may be preoccupied for a while 😉

I'm using a 5 mode P7 Torch on it's own mounted to my helmet.

Low = Easy climbs/ being seen
Medium = Harder Climbs/Flat/Faster Road bits
High = Descents

To be honest on high you really couldn't want more light. If you do you are probably missing the "point" of nightriding.

billoddie – what is the "point" of night riding?

The P7 makes a great cheap helmet light on full, the low is a bit too low, not sure it would put me off getting another if I needed one. But I guess it's what you what it for.

Lets see how you lot helmet mount these torches then

considerably chunky

"billoddie – what is the "point" of night riding? "

Ummmm riding in the dark, ie with less light than in the day making it a bit different?

If you are riding around with 2500lumens you don't get a different experience to riding in the day.

I'm putting 24hr racing to one side here.

I ride at night and want the same experience as in the day.

Which P7's you guys using?
I am tempted by this http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12060 looks really good and the reviews are good too.

For me riding in the dark is just that – riding in the dark – reason is due to having to work until its dark and then having time to ride. Nowt to do with making it different, just a necessary evil imo of winter time. Less light means going slower = shit

I mount with one of these on my helmet
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12000

Dimmadan – thats the version everyone was using last year (SKU 12060), its a good choice as the 5 as the low can be used on road,, the problem with the 2 mode and the bike specific light is the mid/low setting on them is a little too dazzling for road use.

Has anyone had any success in mounting the bike specific light on the helmet?

I used an old led headlight bracket to mount the bike specific light on to my helmet with the help of 2 velcro straps to secure it. No pics at the moment.

is it any cop? or is it to floody?

I've seen it done, with the bike specific light on the helmet, but I don't know exactly how he did it. Velcro and cable ties I think.

I use the 2-mode torches… These ones: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12325. High beam is more powerful than the bike-specific light, but low beam's a bit too low, 2 of them gives enough light for non-tech or slow riding but it's not as much as I'd like. Still, they're dirt cheap and they're good.

ROFL snap on two counts.
1) Kid due imminently (next week);
2) Just bought a DX bike light.

I've been using two P7 torches, one on the bar and one on the helmet until now. On high they last an hour but I'd have thought on low (for a 2 mode) they'd last several hours. I'm sure I read it's 3 hours on medium (5 mode version) and I've had them last the duration of 2 hour rides when switching from med to high.

I've bought the bike specific light as I've started running them on high all the time as my mates have got brighter lights and I get shadows as a result! To be honest I could manage but I thought the 50 notes worth the risk to try out a more specific solution and give me a spare P7.

As for helmet mounting, I use one of these on my Bell Slant but it has horizontal 'bars' between vents on which to attach. It depends on the design of helmet as to whether you want one of these or the kind that theboatman uses.

Hopefully this setup will last the year (the P7's lasted all last winter with no problems). Next year maybe I'll get a troutlite? 😀

Duckers, are people still using it or is there something better?

dr_brakes, you looking to sell your P7 torches, batteries, charger, etc cheap then? if so how many modes, what batteries, and what price? I migth be interested,, mail me.

Dimadan – People are still using the 5 modes (and other torches), although a lot are moving to the P7 bike light (because of the longer run time) or buying troutelights. My reason for having 2 torches over a single light is that if one goes dead or stops working I've got a backup.

I am getting a troutelight when he has them the 1000 lumen to sell but want a helmet mount light to start the ride with as its not dark till 7.45 at the mo.

I've just been out with my new DX light. It only took 11 days to arrive here (incl the Aug bank holiday). Very impressed – not too floody; the beam looks quite vertically oval, and there's a bit of peripheral light too. It seems to mount quite stably, though I find changing the mode does move the light on the bars, and it's a pain going via flash and off, to get from low to high. The flash mode is very bright, and probably too bright for road use.

I might put my Tesco torch back on my helmet and have that as well, but I was more than impressed with the DX one.

Duckers, I'm still planning on using one torch on the helmet so I'll probably keep the other as a 'spare'(especially given some peoples reliability concerns!).

Either way I'll wait and see what the bike light is like first. I'll give you first refusal if I do decide to get ride of the 5-mode torches in due course though.

I'd also always want two lights just incase. Even an Ay-Up or Maxx could 'die' if hitting a tree at speed for example? I like the head mounted support on twisty wooded singletrack for seeing what's coming too.

after seeing the burds P7 yesterday on a night ride I ordered one too ….. it makes Teej's helmet light look like a candle

goog, was that the 5 function one?

its the 2 function one

This one's the P7 I use:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16091
the only reason I chose this rather than the MCE one that is featured above is I preferred the look with the stainless bezel. I don't have any helmet mount pics so far, but believe me, on normal (first setting) it's quite bright enough with the DX Bike light to see clearly at normal road speeds, on faster, more tricky stuff, high (third clicky) it's phenominally bright, easily brighter than a Joy Stick, for a fraction of the price, plus you can buy half a dozen 18650 batteries and carry a couple of charged ones when you go out for a ride. I mount mine with home-made double-sided straps, but there must be someone does double-sided Velcro straps with a buckle on the end to pass the strap back through to tighten it, about half a metre long?

Not necessarily quite so relevant now the new bike specific DealExtreme light is out, but if you are looking to extend the run-time of your P7 without needing to swap batteries over, you could add a Turboferret external kit.

Cheers, Rich

This the P7 bike light you guys are talking about?

I've just bought myself a LED Lenser Police Tech Focus torch for helmet mounting after buying one for her indoors to use with her job.

It arrived today from Amazon – £23.95 + 12AAA batteries for £4.

I'll do a quick review of it in a few days with some photos.
I doubt it'll be as bright as the Deal Extreme offerings, but I'm only using it as a supplement to my 12/20w Lumi halogens & it uses normal AAAs which was a big advantage for me. I am not sure I can be bothered with another charger for another specific product.
Build quality seems top notch, it's nice and small, has a focusable beam and it has flats machined onto the side of the barrel so a machined mount should be nice & easy to get sorted.

I don't get all this 'whats the point of night riding with lots of light' thing people keep droning on about. I ride at night because I have to (well I don't, I could take the car) – commuting across a moor in winter I want as much light as possible. I don't do it for a different 'experience' man, I do it so I can still ride a lot in winter.

The p7 torch – yep got one. On high it's fine but if you use it helmet mounted you could do with another light on the bars so you can use one the helmet mounted light to light into the distance and one for a pool of light round your wheel.

It's a bit heavy helmet mounted at first but you get used to it.

Run time is around 1 hour on high, but its a 5 second job to swap batteries. Or buy a battery pack from smudge and a dummy cell type thing from turboferret for longer run times.

I doubt it'll be as bright as the Deal Extreme offerings, but I'm only using it as a supplement to my 12/20w

That's only going to be 1/3 to 1/2 of the brightness of the £8 2xAA torch that you can get from Tesco? And it weighs about the same.

Joe

joemarshall – sorry but that's wrong. I have already compared the one I got my other half to the Tesco torch (that I bought last yr) and the Tesco one is nowhere near as good.
Why do you think otherwise?

I haven't weighed them – but the LED lenser one feels lighter (I don't have the Tesco one with me to compare) & is MUCH better made.
I did post some pics comparing them on another thread, but I can't find it. Search doesn't seem to go far enough back – so here they are again:

Tesco Torch:

LED Lenser Police Tech Focus on NARROW:

LED Lenser on WIDE:

There is a dull patch on the 'wide' setting, but putting it about half way between narrow & wide sorts this out & it's still loads wider than the very focussed beam of the Tesco torch.

Just ordered all my P7 bits. £44 for P7, 2 sets of batteries, charger, all the plug adaptors and bar mount. We shall see in 14+ days if it was worth it!

joemarshall – sorry but that's wrong. I have already compared the one I got my other half to the Tesco torch (that I bought last yr) and the Tesco one is nowhere near as good.
Why do you think otherwise?

Oh okay, I thought the tesco torch was the same brightness as my £10 dealextreme 2xaa one, which was significantly brighter than either my home made theoretically 120 lumen light, or the blackburn x3 60 lumen light. This is also rated at 60 lumens.

oh well, just goes to show, you can't trust the numbers off any of these guys.

Joe

Yep, I don't think the numbers mean a lot to be honest. It's how it actually works that is the important thing.

I didn't have a helmet mount with me, but I took the torch out last night on my ride to shine around in the woods & it's pretty impressive for it's size.
As I thought, fully wide it is a bit dull in the centre and to be honest, too wide for helmet torch purposes. Focussed just to the point where the dull centre vanishes, it still has ample spread to supplement the bars & I think will make a great head torch.
I will be sorting out a mount this w/end for it and maybe getting some photos over the weekend. Can't wait to actually try it on a ride.

RE: what's the point of night riding…

I like to ride 3 – 4 times a week if I can, in the winter night riding is the only way to realistically carry on. I don't do it for the 'experience'