annual charge-up then run down of my old std 4-cell Chinese laptop battery

Li-ion packs are best stored at about 60% and full discharges reduce the life of the cells.

Checking in for later reference..

think i’m gonna bite the bullet and buy a joystick mk10 this year. and stick with the tumble&fall 2000 alleged lumens thing on my bars.

This is the first year I’ll have to embrace the dark winter nights!
Is there anything wrong with the Lezyne lights? Seem good value and there’ll be good support.

Are Exposure the only ones who do a self contained light as opposed to a sperate battery pack? Would prefer an all in one but looking for a minimum 800 lumen?
Willing to try a solarstorm that people mention but am i right in thinking its best to order a more reliable battery pack for them?

What a reasonable estimate for a Solarstorm X2 on full chat. I was thinking around 1000 lumens

Would prefer an all in one but looking for a minimum 800 lumen

mk10 joystick is advertised as being 800 lumen…

There are more self contained lights now. Like the look of the fenix one

http://reviews.mtbr.com/2015-lights-shootout

Mtbbatteries Lumenator on the bars and Solarstorm X2 on the lid for me. Plenty bright enough, and they were needed in t’woods yesterday evening. The lumenator battery pack is under the stem (70mm stem not too much of a squeeze). The X2 battery pack is in the top pocket of my small camelbak. I use a small loop of Velcro around one of the bottom rear vents on my lid to keep the cable in check. It is a minor inconvenience when the mechanical gremlins strike, but not a massive issue.

P.S. last night’s ride was the first where lights were really necessary – does anyone else find the first half an hour of a new lights season terrifying? I was slow to pick out shadows and even when I did, my mind didn’t seem to be able to process it quick enough. The result was lots of pinging off of wet rocks and spinning rear tyre. After about 30 minutes it was fine – but up until then it felt like being back to night riding square one.

So where is the most reliable source and cheap for the solarstorm lights? Is it ebay?

From what I’ve seen eBay seems awash with copies of variable quality.

Edit: I tend to buy from gear best these last couple of years as they do head unit only options and up to now they’ve been pretty reliable.

Thanks muggomagic, will take a look at them now.

If you’re after self contained relaibility, my Mk9 Joystick is on the classifieds 🙂

Iainc my budget is far lower than that.

Has anyone bought anything from ledsupermall.com? Some interesting prices and they will supply lights with a uk plug. Never heard of them before and not seen them mentioned on here either.

Gear best are doing the Nightfighter BT21 for £16
Head lamp only or £38 for Head lamp, battery and charger

Looks like a great little light. Should be perfect for helmet mounting.

Muggomagic that is a very interesting deal. Which is better a solarstorm or nitefighter?

Nitefighter is far better than the Solarstorm plus if you go for the set you get a decent battery pack with BAK cells. Gearbest seems to be the go to place for Chinese lamps at the moment. Also consider the Yinding from Gearbest. I wouldn’t get the Yinding from anywhere else as they are inferior versions (see the thread on MTBR for the full story about how they the decent version)

Nitefighter it is then. Whats the norm for delivery times?

Not sure. I think it’s somewhere in that thread, but it’s 16 pages long and I only skimmed through it. One of the benefits of the BT21 seems to be being able to use Gloworm optics to get a better beam pattern.

You’ll be looking at around 4 weeks if you go for the standard free delivery option. It’s why I start looking now, so they hopefully arrive before the end of Sept.

posting to find later – tempted to replace my halogens this year.

Cheers muggomagic, have been dithering for ages but that Nightfighter ticks allot of my boxes.

I cant really tell from gearbest website but does the nitefighter work with magicshine battery packs or am i best buying the full bundle?

I will add I’ve not got mine yet, so don’t blame me if they are crap 🙂

According to that mtbr thread they have the same round connection as the older magicshine and solarstorm lights. They also say that the batteries are pretty good.

Who else can i blame muggomagic as it certainly cant be might fault for buying it! 🙂

Any chance you could put a quick review when yours turns up? Saying that i will probably order it this weekend anyway

Will do. I’m only getting the BT70 though. I have a Magicshine MJ880U that I use on the lid. I might get a BT21 as a spare though. After all you can never have too many lights to choose from.

There are good reviews on MTBR forum for all of the Nitefighter Lights. One thing to consider with these lights is the LED tint which is neutral white. Most other lights are cool white. Neutral White leds are seen as the in thing on MTBR light forum as they have better rendering than cool white. The only down side is if you plan to mix with an existing cool white light as it may not be a great mix. With the BT21 being so cheap at the moment (usually retails at around $32 on Gearbest) it may be worth getting either the BT40s or BT70 for the bars and sticking the BT21 on the lid!

I have found Gearbest to be around 3-4 weeks although it has been a week and they still haven’t dispatched some gopro adapters which I ordered!

i’ve got the Bt20 lights, they’re brilliant.

i’d even say that the highest setting is brighter than you really need, and i’ve got crap eyesight.

I followed the lengthy light thread this time last yr and bought a reccomended Solarstorm X2 Cree U2, battery and a UK Magicshine charger. It’s sat on my shelf since and never been used apart from to test when I got it. Not sure whether the battery will still be optimum. email in profile if anyone wants to make me a sensible offer 🙂

I am trying to post my set up, but it keeps crashing

Solarstorm x6 on the bars, held on with a hope mount.

Battery last 2 1/2 hours on full, but will be replaced with a mtb batteries/magicshine once it’s proper dark. Held in place with one of those cylindrical containers you used to get with Chinese batteries, modified to fit bottle bosses.

Cree XML-t6 mini tourch zip tied and carpet taped to helmet, very light and does a good job of filling in and lighting throug the bends.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350800657075?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Big light http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Z53ZW2S?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

Batteries http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Panasonic-NCR18650B-3400mAh-NCR-18650B-18650-3-7v-Li-ion-batteries-case-/291543814256?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

Charger from the same place http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluxient-2A-charger-for-Torchy-Magicshine-Solar-Storm-etc-/291543840055?hash=item43e15df537

Light mount http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/hope-universal-handlebar-mount/rp-prod23533

How is the x6 Tom? Any beam shots?

Oh and I’ve Just had the shipping notification from gearbest. So the BT70 is on its way.

tom200 – that mount looks good.
Anybody know of any 35mm bar mounts that will bolt onto these magicshine/solarstorm/nitefighter lights?

The x6 is good, the beam pattern is fairly even, maybe could do with a bit more spread. It’s way better than the x2 it replaces.

The hope mount has quite a lot of adjustment, so I recon you might get it to fit 35mm bar, worth a punt for the price.

Might be a good time to re-post my QR water bottle light mount lash up.

I am selling an unused Solarstorm X2 setup that I bought online on the back of the light thread last autumn. I can send details if anyone interested. It’s going up on the classifieds in a mo.

Sooooooooooo, what category do these BT21 / Gearbest batteries & chargers fit into? Are they in the burn your house down category or generally seen as ok?

Buy cheap lights, but get better batteries (XTAR, torchythebatteryboy etc.) and a Nitecore charger.