I’ve never been a lights user as I don’t commute and previously never needed to ride at night.

Not being able to run at the moment, and a new baby has changed this situation and I’m looking for some good reliable lights for both on and off road.

Looking on eBay the options are endless. What can anyone recommend that are tried and tested and decent?

Links would be very helpful if possible.

I just bought this SolarStorm set, and it seems phenomenal for the price.

I have advised my brothers and others to buy them as well. They seem entirely capable for off-road as well as commuting use.

Nightfighter BT40s are good if like proper thick wires, soldering and good batteries.

Bucket loads of previous threads on the topic.

Problem with bright lights for off road is that they blind traffic on road..
Id say something like the new Exposure Strada mk6 (i picked mine up for £203).. 1000 lumens and dimmable for road. Couple with a helmet light (could go cheap really bright Chinese option so you could turn it off or right down low for roads).

Having ridden with cheap bar lights for the last few years and having various reliability issues its nice to have a light that i can trust and wont switch itself off if i go over a bump or suddenly run out of power mid ride..

Bucket loads of previous threads on the topic

Thanks for all your help.

I feel somewhat overwhelmed.

The solarstorm set looks good, working on a budget (also due to new baby) so I reckon it will be worth a go for the price.

Cheers!

Bucket loads of previous threads on the topic

It’s a reasonable point – worth a search.

Wanted to order quickly and posting from my phone.

It’s not like every thread on here is unique is it. anyway, quick answers are always available here, and rather than opening a thread just to waste their own time to complain about it, some people chose to help.

Now I’m sorted, so thanks to those who helped.

Solarstorm x2 is OK for off road although x6(eBay) IMHO is a better bar light for similar money. Nightfighter BT40s has better spread than Solarstorm x6 but be careful where you order from as some China dealers are have less integrity than others. Look for reviews on the sellers as well as the lights. For off road 2 lights is a minimum. You need a light with spread on the bars and a more spotty and light weight one on the helmet (like the x2). For road use and particularly urban cycle paths I would not use an off road light due to dazzling. This would be more appropriate for road use Halfords rechargeable

The cheapest lights are crazy value but do usually have downsides, and basically never have good chargers. I paid a wee bit more, around the £80 mark gets you up to the top end of the chinese lights and they can be far superior- proper charger, quality battery, better build quality… The Magicshine MJ856 at £80 is the updated version of the excellent MJ872 and comes with a quality charger and battery. 4 times as expensive as a solarstorm but better beam pattern and less likely to burn your house down.

I’d really like to try the Nitefighter BT40, it’s a similiar unit and half the price. The charger isn’t the usual scary rubbish but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily any good

abductee – Member

For off road 2 lights is a minimum. You need a light with spread on the bars and a more spotty and light weight one on the helmet (like the x2)

No you don’t. 2 lights is a good idea if only for a spare but modern floods have such good reach, it’s been a few years since a spotlight was necessary let alone necessarily the best idea.

I use a pair of powerful floods and much prefer that- it gives a better field of vision and more natural ride, all the spotlight was doing was creating an annoying hotspot. Your vision adjusts to the brightest spot so that detracts from the wider vision. Good enough for night downhill racing…

(the exception to this, is if you ride with other people with atomic spotlights; because then, their spotlight will still mess with your vision. This is kind of annoying)

3 light solar storm, one for the bars one for a helmet light, all you need for around £30!

No worries, just that I can’t be bothered to type the same responses yet again 😀

But… buy cheap, buy twice (or three or four), and be very careful about import batteries and chargers, especially if you value your house and family 😉 . Forget the expensive prices, there’s a base price for batteries. Ebay China specials are below that price and that can only mean they are knackered recycled laptop batteries. At best they might last 6 months, but likely they’re not connected properly, short circuited (dangerous), and has no over or undercharge protection (also dangerous). Buy British for batteries at least. Yes they will be more expensive but that’s the proper price.

And … Four4th 😉 . Not cheap, but worth the money.

Northwind – Member
No you don’t. 2 lights is a good idea if only for a spare but modern floods have such good reach, it’s been a few years since a spotlight was necessary let alone necessarily the best idea.

Not sure if we agree with the 2 lights thing? Bar light will cast shadows to reveal surface texture and a helmet light will look around the corners and add light futher down the trail. In terms of more spotty on the helmet I don’t mean a spot as such and agree with what you said about that. It certainly applies to the first generation single XML reflector lights. What I meant about a helmet light was a beam with more throw than a flood (like the x2). Suppose the degree of flood or throw required is dependant on how technical/fast your trails are.

A single decent helmet light is more than enough for any off-road. I’m no slower at night than during the day.

I run a gloworm X1 on my helmet with a 2cell pack also mounted on the helmet, no pesky trailing wires. Knock the power back for climbing and fire roads and it easily does a 2 hr ride which is all I do anyway.

Are the chargers OK on those Solarstorms, or do people normally buy separate chargers?

abductee – Member

Not sure if we agree with the 2 lights thing? Bar light will cast shadows to reveal surface texture and a helmet light will look around the corners and add light futher down the trail.

2 is better but you said “minimum”, which it’s just not.

abductee – Member
What I meant about a helmet light was a beam with more throw than a flood (like the x2).

Aye, but that’s the point, these days a strong flood also throws a long way. On the very fastest straightest trails you can run out of throw but for normal riding you only need to see as far as the next corner or significant feature. Basically light up the furthest away thing that you’re thinking about.

I don’t think we’re far off agreeing tbh! But a low quality spotlight like the X2 is just not very effective compared to equvalent light in a wider throw, like the MJ872. At the very cheap end there’s a lack of good quality floods, because good beam patterns are harder to do than spotlights and not as immediately impressive but as soon as you get out of the landfill lights you can move away from that.

butcher – Member
Are the chargers OK on those Solarstorms, or do people normally buy separate chargers?

Impossible to say, might be dozens of factories churning out lights branded and looking like them but with various levels of QC.

Try the ‘Lumenator’ from mtb batteries which is currently £105 inc p&p. Reliable light with decent Panasonic cells with protection circuit in waterproof battery pack and a decent UK charger, so won’t burn your house down. Used by plenty on here and supplied by a trusted UK vendor (who posts on here as ‘Smudge’) who had a reputation for standing by his products. I’ve been running one for over a year and it’s been faultless. It’s also received 4.5 out of 5 when reviewed in this month’s What Mountain Bike with a best for value rating if that’s important to you.

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

johnnystorm – Member

Impossible to say, might be dozens of factories churning out lights branded and looking like them but with various levels of QC.

Though with the X2 I’ve never seen any charger options that aren’t crap tbh. Decent chargers cost a little more, it’s hard to do at £20.

There are UK sellers on eBay doing the X2 with a uk 3 pin plug.

Are these any safer than the normal China sourced stuff you need an adaptor for ?

As above, who knows what they are selling? I’ve bought UK seller stuff on ebay that’s come direct from China. They might just be a bloke who got a discount for buying 100 at a time from Alibaba.com

Neal.. Congratulations on the baby btw. The first few months are always the worst and the interrupted / lack of sleep plays havoc with ride recovery.

What did you go for?