Apologies for yet another lights thread, but I’m hoping to draw on your experience to help me.
My regular ride is 2 hours of steep uphill slog though singletrack woodland followed by open moorland ride and then back. I often leave when it’s light but I’m limited because I can’t see where I’m going on the way back. I’m not into all out night riding (yet) but looking for something to start me off, or at least allow me to depart at dusk.
I’m looking at either the bar mounted 900 lumen magicshine in its various guises, but don’t fancy the bulk or separate battery, but it’s <£100.
I prefer the idea of a powerful helmet mounted all in one light, but as a “buy well, buy once” quality. I’ve been recommended the exposure joystick (200+ lumen) at around £150 or pushing the boat out to the 900 lumen diablo at £200ish. Like the idea of compact, stick in backpack and use when needed. 3 hours burntime will see me right.
What’s best as a stand alone light? Is 240 lumens enough for dark woods?
(If I like night riding and can justify the cost then I might one day get a trout light, but not yet and not this year)

The Diablo will be a bit short of run time. Saying that they made it brighter this year so the middle setting might well be good enough for your sort of riding. It’s fu*kin bright on top setting considering the size of it!

The Joystick is fine on the road but not gutsie enough offorad as a standalone in my experience.

No idea on the Magicshine.

1) remember to take all lumen claims witha large pinch of salt – most are quoted at theoretical max – actual output is about 2/3 of this so make sure you are comparing like with like

I have a (estimated real)180 lumen and 500 lumen light the 180 is enough on its own for low speed stuff so long as no one is about with a stronger light, both together gives plenty of light for the speeds I travel at.

Teh various DX bike lights and torches are such good value that its hard to see past them especially for a trial.

So 240 ish lumens is plenty to ride by but might well limit the speed at which you can ride.

i use the joystick as a helmet light coupled with a bar mounted cateye tripleshot the tripleshot gives me a a good view of what’s directly in front and the jostick is used to pick out turns etc before i get there so i can anticipate what i’m going to do in advance, the joystick does give enough light for night riding but i find is best used as a spotlight for looking further ahead. hope this helps.

That’s brilliant, thanks chaps. I really don’t know how the lumens equate to what I need, so the replies help to give me some idea of benchmark. I do all of my riding solo and it’s a rural area (i.e. pitch black at night). I’m a bit reticent to buy from abroad via deal extreme (warranty, what to do if it packs in etc) – are the exposure lights worth the premium, quality wise (and made in uk etc)? I guess I’m looking for something that will make a ride viable if I can manage to get out just before dusk (was hacked off last winter of missing rides because the 2nd half of my ride would be in darkness). Not a fast rider and fall off a lot.

Joystick does (I’ve got last years) if you’re just a pootler. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

The new one will be brighter for sure, though apparently it’s a bit of a narrower beam/more central punch.

Joystick on it’s own is fine for me on my own, though it does get drowned by shadows in a group of big/bright/brash lights. But I’m usually at the back so not too much an issue. I whack on a white eye for those situations as it’ll still run for 1.5hrs with the white eye.

if you go for the Diablo, shell out and buy a single piggy battery at the same time, extends run time to 2 hours on max, or double that on medium (which’ll still be theoretically more powerful than joystick on max)

Thanks, Imabigkidnow. Loooking at the specs, I would be a little short of burntime with a Diablo, as you say. I’ve just had a look at the piggyback batteries at one of the online retailers. They say that it comes with a velcro attachment. Has anyone attached both of these to a helmet? Does it work well or will I need the neck muscles of a Charolais bull to keep my head up? Is the lead long enough to stretch to the backpack?

I’ve got an Exposure Enduro (720 lumen) and the DX light, helmet mounted. Only use one at a time, and at the moment it’s the DX- it puts out more light, though not as evenly. I’m looking to upgrade imminently though, probably to Exposure again, because i love the allinoneness and runtime on a single battery is better.
Good thing about the DX si that if you buy one and decide it’s not for you then you’ll lose maybe £!5-£20 on it on the classifieds. You’ll lose a lot more on an Exposure light.

I’ve got a joystick and a DX.

If you can only have one, I’d go for the DX. The battery isn’t that heavy and you’ll appreciate the extra light in woodland.

And with the extra cash get one of the fenix torches (i.e. like a joystick) for your helmet.

Or as an alternative – the Ay up Ultra Lite. I have just got one as a helment light and is really light even the battery. Think it is 400 lumens.

The Joystick and back up battery weighs bugger all. Saying the the Diablo isn’t noticable on the helmet either.

You can run a piggyback from you jersey pocket or backpack if you like. They do a long cable one.

had the dx for 18 months now, and its never missed a beat
very bright, battery lasts well(about 3 hrs)
for £60 ish you cant go wrong, looks like they have improved the battery now, was looking on the website today, that was one of the complaints re the older version like mine

I have the dx light as well as a lupine, and for 5 times the amount the lupine is a rip off, hardly noticable difference. Very pleased with it, if I was going for one light I would get the dx one, warranty is ok, heard of one person having a problem and they replaced it.