Well no not really, just thought i’d share my recent experience in case its of any use to anyone else. After trawling through the (many) threads on which light to buy for some winter night riding, I ended up going for the 1200L offering from C&B seen. So the light dropped through the door, I charged it up, strapped it on and hit the trails. Having spent last winter riding with just a 300L head torch, it was like riding in car headlights and with a really decent useable (imo) spread of light. I was really impressed with it, (and still am) However on the second or third time out, while tightening up the Velcro strap holding the battery pack 2 the frame, the stitching all came loose meaning I was unable to secure it to the frame. I sent C&B seen an Email that evening enquiring if the cases were availiable to buy separately due to what had bappened and the next day received a reply from them apologising and offering a free replacement. 1 day later a brand new case dropped through the door, not 48 hrs frm my 1st Email! Sorry if I’ve waffled on quite a bit but I really wanted to let people know of the outstanding service I received from C&B seen and will definitely buy from them again. I fail to see why anyone would want to spend £100+ on a light tbh

Ive had a rather similar experience with my 1200l Cree that I got for a mere £27 on ebay, I thought, why the hell not? It’s £27 and if I dont like it I can just have it on my helmet as a backup

Cant recommend these cheap chinese lights enough 😀

Nice back up there I see BUT you fail to see why others spend big bucks ONLY because you haven’t yet. If you were to spend more, you’d get more. This isn’t just lumens but outright quality in every direction. Sounds like you got a good light though, I’m not knocking it.

Have fun and watch out for the boogeyman!

Rob

Yeah your right there Rob, I guess what I really meant was “I’m more than happy with the light I’ve had for my money and couldn’t see myself ever paying more.” However I suppose if I took out a £4-500 3k lumen super light my opinion may well change!

My magicshine has been great over the past 18 months.

I have just added a headtorch from aldi. For £12 it’s perfect, a mount from eBay for £3 and sorted.

Sometimes I hint that my light is too powerful, yes mad I know but it’s almost like ridding in the day compared to 10 years ago.

@trailhound, thanks for the acknowledgment man. You really did get a good service anyway and that’s something that many products don’t have these days, sound like your money was very well spent mate.

I have put the battery for my magicshine light inside a water bottle and have then used cable ties to secure the battery to the bottle. its a lot easier than attaching the battery to the frame each time

Was thinking about doing that myself, just never got round to it yet.

However on the second or third time out, while tightening up the Velcro strap holding the battery pack 2 the frame, the stitching all came loose meaning I was unable to secure it to the frame. I sent C&B seen an Email that evening enquiring if the cases were availiable to buy separately due to what had bappened and the next day received a reply from them apologising and offering a free replacement. 1 day later a brand new case dropped through the door, not 48 hrs frm my 1st Email!

So you bought something that was either faulty or badly made and they replaced it as they should.

I fail to see why anyone would want to spend £100+ on a light tbh

Because I could, I wanted to, I have a great set of lights that weight 168g for lamp, battery & mounts. Have a high quality lens with good beam pattern, ongoing support with out of warranty parts supplied at cost. Lamp upgrades available at near cost over the life of the product. Any other reasons required?

robsoctane – Member

Nice back up there I see BUT you fail to see why others spend big bucks ONLY because you haven’t yet.

Nope- I’ve ridden with lights costing several times more than mine that weren’t any better.

I don’t really rate these super-cheap ones much personally, too focused a beam, but there’s a lot of middle ground.

my 808E 12 months old and fine so far, C&B S 1200L light with different lens on the bars , sorted!

few riding mates have Hope 4’s, brighter all round beam, but i cannot afford the ££ so have to make do

give it a couple of more generations and the supercheap lights will have beam pattens matching those of the better lights on the market

will force down the prices of the more expensive lights too

give it a couple of more generations and the supercheap lights will have beam pattens matching those of the better lights on the market

will force down the prices of the more expensive lights too

Na, I think the limit is about £100. Look at magicshine, they still do the fairly basic P7 which is a very good light for £30-£50. But I’ve just bought the new ~2000lumen one from smudge and there’s a huge gulf in quality. Mainly the new light’s beam is far more venly spread whereas the P7 has two distinct circles of light, a spot whthin a wide beam. Magicshine make similar ~£80-£120 lights so that to me suggests that’s what it costs to manufacturer/sell a good quality light. in the future the P7 style cheep lights will get brighter (they’re already claimed to be 30% brighter than the original 900 lumen), but similarly ~£100 lights will get brighter at the same rate. The lights (both cheep and expensive) won’t get much better (no need frankly, although people said that at 500lumen, now trouts riding round with 6000+), they’ll just get brighter.

true about the ££ but means the more mainstream companys with have to sharpen their pencils

Smudge lights are ace, and getting one soon 🙂

in all, a good deal for us!

trialhound – i had exactly the same problem with mine after the second ride…but i didnt see the point in getting in touch with C&B Seen…i just got the needle and thread out and stitched it back together,,,sort of….if only i knew then what i know now…. 😕

i would have paid more for a fancier set of lights but as i already own a set of cateye abs-30’s i couldn’t really justify spending any more to the wife…but for the money i have to admit these lights are brilliant!!

TBH with most of these single-XML lights, they could be improved without making them much more expensive… Mostly it comes down to the reflectors/optics. A less tightbeam setup might need some more expensive parts but it’d still leave them in “bargain light” territory and it’d make them into really good lights rather than just OK lights. The actual package is decent so a tweak would make a big difference.