Hi,

I need to get a good powerful front light that can handle commuting 30mi most days and take all the punishment of the peak district.

I’m currently looking at the new Glow worm, exposure and hope lights all of which look really good and powerful. My problem is that I keep finding lights that are at least £100 cheaper and claiming 3000 lumens output these look good to but I’m guessing they don’t have the build quality. My current electron lights are not up to the job I’ve had loads of problems with them on rides and the connection has now gone twice. Currently I’m siding on the more expensive models but it’s a tough choice when you see offers like these.

http://www.bikelightsuk.com/front_bike_lights/fluxient_3xu2_3000_lumen_bike_light_upgrade_xml2_leds_2014_model_P593.html

Does anyone have experience of using these lights ? If so some advice would be a great helps.

Exposure all the way! I’ve used them since they came out and they just keep getting better.

For commuting, one of the smaller fronts would be ok but I just use my Maxx D on low.

GB

Fairly sure you could get that light for less than half that price.. mind you the batteries and charger you’d get with it would possibly be half as good if not less..
Do a search for lights/solarstorm/yindling and see what you can get for around the £30 to £50 bracket.
Some will be uk sellers, some you might need to wait a coupla weeks for them to come from the far east.

Commuting a decent distance everyday? Exposure Revo dynamo front with red-eye plugged in for the back.

No need to spend more than £100 on lights these days with all the cheap Chinese ones out there.
Just budget for a replacement charger and battery pack, cos you might need it. Smudge at “MTB Batteries” will sort you out there.
Also, expect around 500-600 lumens per XM-L led, not the stupidly exaggerated figures that they all come out with these days.
But, lumens mean nothing, its all about how they are used/built into a light.

I tried a Hope R4 , it was very disappointing, the beam pattern was pants. I now have an Exposure Maxx d, much much better.
I tried a cheap chinese light and kept getting a total blackout whilst riding

Exposure Strada is an excellent light. I bought the Mk2 when it was on sale for £150 from their outlet store. It is now £100. Buy it now! I also have the latest Joystick from Wiggle at £55. Combined that would be 850 lumens, that I consider overkill for road commuting. For well-built value for money, I recommend the Cateye EL620, which can now be had for £40. Mine has survive some assault and battery at the hands of Teen1 (who forgot to clip it in properly), and it had a serious car wheel-light encounter.

Just received 4.5 stars in a recent test and the battery lasts for a daft long time. Ordered mine around an hour ago

http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-lights/the-lumenator/

Thanks guys all good stuff. Definetly want to avoid the total black out situation I’ve had it before. Would these sub £100 lights stand up to the abuse? The glowworm tested in a bucket of water is certainly impressive. It difficult to cut through the lumen bs and tell how good these lights really are. Any other factors that can be a judge of quality?

Lots of Lumens is bad, is is how what you have is used that matters. Blinding traffic, or pointing the light at the floor to avoid blinding traffic are both equally pointless.

At the moment there are very few designed lights, most are glorified torches. If you want proper bike lights look at philips, AXA, Busch ind Muller. Either battery or dynamo.

Myself and a few mates have recently bought Gloworm, I have the twin X2 and it’s all I use. Brilliant.

How do you find the glow worm on and off road?

Another Gloworm X2 and X1 user here. Great lights, great backup, warranty, top quality battery, electronics and waterproofing.

If you can afford £150 on lights, buy some Gloworms.

I you can’t, buy the quality Magicshine lights, the mj880u is a good example.

If you want an all in one package, with no cables, go for exposure. The Maxx-d is a good trail and all round light. The Toro, with 3x xpgs is a tighter beam and excellent for use on the road.

Exposure are at a premium, but are a UK company. The beam and build quality is the same as Gloworm, just differently packaged. (The electronics inside the X2 are excellent).

One day I’ll draw a flowchart for this, but some good questions you need to think about….

Do I want the light to be working, and warrantied for 2+ years?
Do I want an all in one unit?
Do I want to buy UK made?
Do I want to buy UK sold?
Do I care about battery life? I.e. do I charge and discharge my batteries a lot?
Do I need a specific beam pattern? I.e. tight, or floody?

You can buy something like the Solarstorm, for £35, then buy a battery and charger that won’t explode, but you’d be better off buying something with a decent warranty, high quality cells, sealing, heat regulation and backup.

+1 Exposure. Yes they cost more, a lot more, than the Chinese stuff. But they are reliable, with good warranty incase you have problems, they are bright, well made, simple, and safe.

Gloworm is great off road, and on road too. There are changeable optics, so you can run a tight beam or a floody beam. Easy to change with one Allen key.

The light can be easily pointed up or down without using a tool, so to avoid blinding traffic is pretty easy,

If you’re a stw premier user you get a 10% discount too so get £15 off at crgmoto. Just check out the Tuesday treats crgmoto news item.

🙂

I have two cree lights off ebay which I assume are the cheap chinese ones people talk about. Awesome! Excellent quality, they’ve both lasted over a year in all conditions. Very bright on full beam. Cheap and replaceable batteries. There’s some talk about some batteries being prone to overheating but I found out I had some of those after about six months, never had a problem. I back them up with some cheapo flashing lights.

Half of my commute is on mostly lit roads, all I really need is flashing lights there. The rest is on unlit footpaths. Even going very fast the cree’s are ample. Sometimes when it’s busy I feel the need on the road to turn the cree’s on. Nobody can miss them.