It seems the gearbest nightrider batteries are said to be pretty good.

Iainc have you got any lights for sale? 😀

Muggo – nope, all gone now, thanks 😀

My 2016 MaxxD and Joystick are on their way from Wiggle. I tend to change them every yr or 2, that way they have a decent residual. My venture into Chinese eBay ones last autumn was an experiment.

I would be interested to know how much folk reckon decent lights work out at, cost wise per annum. I reckon running less than 2 yr old Exposure lid and bar combo works out at £100 pa for me.

I wouldn’t touch budget chinese lights . I’ve had a few and don’t like it when they just die . I’ve 3 2 fenix torches , one on helmet one on bars and a fenix bt20 . Bit more expensive but super reliable . Nothing worse than sorting out a light when it’s total darkness and your in the middle of nowhere .

What 18650 charger?
I don’t like leaving them charging overnight so would like something that would charge 2100s in about 7 at work.
I’ve got a nitecore charger and it’s not that reliable.

Nothing worse than sorting out a light when it’s total darkness and your in the middle of nowhere .

The only lights I’ve had that have just died on me while I was out on the trail was a Lupine HID one which cost around £400 back in 2005. Luckily I was able to ride down to the road following a mate. So how much it costs or the reputation of the brand isn’t a guarantee, but of course in general the build quality will be of a higher standard.
The newer Chinese lights IME are much better made than the original magicshine lights and it seems that even the battery packs are getting better if you buy from the right places and avoid the clones.

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

Tom, how did you modify the light to take the Hope mount? Would like to do this myself to another similar Chinese head unit I have.

Logging in, keep the links coming chaps

please beware some of those links are to unprotected cells. They may have a ntc (over current device under the top cap) but they’re is no overall protection circuit. You are relying solely on the light and the charger to cut the battery out in use.

Some of these imported lights are drawing well above the limits of the battery – I’ve had one battery returned as the customer wasn’t happy as it wouldn’t work. I asked for him to return the battery and also his imported light. It turned out the light was drawing just over 6A on full. The protection circuit was cutting off the current as part of its safety feature.

This is one reason why Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries get such a bad name, so please be careful.

Just imagine charging with a faulty charger. They’re is no over-charge protection for a start.

Can anyone confirm if the Nitefighter light heads are compatible with a Solarstorm battery?

Sure I saw a picture of the connectors on one of the epic mtbr threads linked previously on this thread and they were the solarstorm/old magicshine round connectors. It would be worth checking through them if you want to be certain. I’ve looked through that many mtbr light threads recently I’m not sure what light has what anymore.

Nightfighter headunits from gearbest fit / work with my magicshine batteries / connectors.

They also work with my solarstorm connector – but lack the screw on thingy to make them more waterproof.

Delivery from gearbest was 7 weeks from despatch til it was delivered in the uk.

No duty etc as usual.

There was a ping sound on this evenings ride, ignored it and carried on. Having arrived home 20 miles later it seems my rear light has escaped

Any recommendations ?

Smart Lunar R2 is a good rear light, as is the Moon Comet.

R2 requires aaa batteries. I use Duracell rechargeables- the ones that hold their charge and they last ages.

The Comet has a fixed usb rechargeable battery.

Tom, how did you modify the light to take the Hope mount? Would like to do this myself to another similar Chinese head unit I have.

Unscrew the original mounting from the light, remove screw (may need a slightly longer one M4?), apply locktite (obvs), screw hope mount to light. Simples 8)

Any recommendations ?

Lezyne Zecto drive is pretty good, big enough to to withstand a coating of mud and still be visible.

Request from a night riding novice…

Can anyone recommend two lights, one head and one bar mounted, that are cheap, bright enough (I don’t need a collapsed sun but I’d like to be able to see where I’m going) and come with batteries?

I’m trying to decipher the various options but it’s boiling down to the fact I don’t actually know how much I need. These will be used throughout this winter, the puffer (in a pair so no problems charging them up) and possibly beyond.

Perfectly happy to buy Chinese and do a bit of tinkering.

Cheers.

I ordered some lights from gearbest following this thread. but I then received this email. I used PayPal and
I have no intention of sending these guys a copy of my credit card and my passport. Is there. anyway round this or will my order get cancelled. Seems well dodgy to me never had to do this with DX.

Dear customer

Thanks for your order at Gearbest

Your order is now ON HOLD,we need to complete this one-time verification.

This is a standard anti-fraud check for online payment,please check our website for more details here :

http://www.gearbest.com/about/verify-payment.html

We will process your order as soon as we receive the payer’s ID confirmation.

Please provide us the following documents:

1) 1 color photo of your identity card or passport or driving license.

The photo must show clearly, the full name, expiry date, signature and address if applicable.

You can hide the date of birth and document number for your privacy.

2) 1 credit card photo of the card used for the payment

For your safety , please just show the cardholder’s name,the expiry date and the last 4 numbers.

If you have paid with a virtual credit card please us sreenshot of your electronic bills, which shows the card number and details.

If you have paid by Paypal?please send the credit card’s copy that you have registered in PayPal.

Stainypants – I wouldn’t even respond to that, i’d be searching to cancel the order by any other means asap.

Bloodsexmagik – hopefully someone can shed some light for you (snigger), I’d have a stab at answering for you but im 18mths out of date myself.
For the record – Smudge knows his beans when it comes to batteries – avoid cheap chinese batteries where possible – when users claim ‘the batteries are genuine panasonics (etc), this is a good thing.

I’d go for nightfighter BT21 on the helmet and BT40s or BT70 on the bars.

If you want to buy a separate battery pack (mtbr users seem to think the battery packs with the nightfighters are pretty good) then you can try these http://www.mtbrevolution.com

In September Hope are releasing some uprated lights including an R4+ that swapa out the XPG LEDs for some better Cree LEDs which I assume would still be XMLs of some variety. I think they will be doing an R2+ too.

As much as I like a bargain Hope lights are always good and have top notch back up. Never mind buying British!

hope linky

Oooh, integrated hope light. Take my money.

Thanks Muggo, appreciated.

Any other options? I could get a Solarstorm X6 and X2 for head from amazon for ~£35. This is cheaper than the nitefighter ones but if the batteries are inferior and will need replaced then it’ll work out better to get the nitefighter ones.

Be careful with Solarstorm lights from Amazon and eBay. There is a lot of inferior copies out there and most of them seem to be for sale on those 2 sites. I bought a SSX2 from eBay last year because I left it later than usual and it was next day delivery. It wasn’t anywhere near as bright compared to a mates X2 and kept dimming even when I was careful to switch it off when not moving.
Could have just been a dodgy unit, but I suspect it was an inferior made clone and now only buy through Gearbest as not had any issues with the few lights I’ve had from there.

What’s good for road cycling for about fifty to sixty quid?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xeccon-Link-Duo-CITY-COMMUTE-LIGHT-USB-charging-/291543299876?hash=item43e155b724

Thanks Matt; have you got one? Probably worth a go at the price, just a shame it has flashing modes and no medium mode.

Ok i was going to pull the trigger on the nitefighter lights but i have now read several reviews of bad transactions with gearbest, all of which have ended with the buyer well out of pocket. Is this just a few in a million or are there genuine concerns with this company? Would a fluxient light from torchy boy stand up againt the nightfighter?

I have never had a problem with Gearbest. I think the majority of people on MTBR lights forum have had their transactions go through ok. That said I did make an order for something recently from Gearbest and after 10 days it still hasn’t been dispatched which is unusual based on previous experience.

Philips SafeRide 80
Or
B&M Ixon IQ

(Road use)

@davidtaylfortn

I don’t have one, but someone in the club does, and being from TorchyTheBatteryBoy I think it would be a better bet…

Has anyone done a direct comparison of a SS X2, a Yingding and a BT21?

I had both a yingding and a SS x2 and found the solar storm had better light/beam but looked cheaper

For road cycling check out the cateye volt 300, I’ve been using mine in the daytime and it’s very impressive. It has a great pulse feature which is much better than a flash

jruk – Member
Has anyone done a direct comparison of a SS X2, a Yingding and a BT21?

MTBR is your friend

If I didn’t have the Magicshine MJ880U already then I’d probably be torn between the Yinding and the BT21 for a helmet mounted light, but most likely leaning towards the BT21 as it has the extra lumens on turbo should you ever need it.

This is insanely bright, but heat is obviously an issue so save it for the really fast runs.

Muggomagic that is properly bright.

I am now looking at the 1200 lumen front light from c and be seen purely because that will be enough light for the lid and its only £15 quid dearer and comes with lots of accessories. All this and its uk based so good support and quick delivery. Anyone had any experience with there lights?

User review here

CABS 1200

Seems ok for the money, just a little dated in terms of LED tech, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As you say though the trade off for less lumens is dealing with a UK retailer.

Thanks for that linky muggo, i tried a search on there and couldnt find it (user error i suspect). It did make interesting reading but what would like to know is what that author thought was the best light for that money as he said it wasnt the best light and not the worse either. As my budget is around the fifty quid mark i am back to thinking may be risk a chinese light….i used to be decisive but i am not sure now!
I will keep looking around and hopefully by the weekend i might have made my mind up.

It’s a tough choice as there are just so many options.

Personally I’d go with either the yinding or the BT21 and a XT40 or BT40s combo.