Sorry, I probably do this topic every year but I shall continue to do so until I find the the right light…

Need something reliable, bright enough for potholed and completely unlit roads in the depths of winter darkness, good to be seen with, decent battery life…basically the holy grail. But preferably not with a price tag of £400.

Currently have a number of chinese torches, and tbh, they’re great. Do just the job. And I like that you can carry spare batteries. However they have two failings:

1. Two out of four have had reliability issues, cutting out unexpectedly – not something you want if you’re doing 40mph down a pitch black descent.

2. I’ve not yet been able to find a decent and flexible mount, which can easily be transferred to different bikes in different positions.

I’d happily run two torches (one for backup), if I found a decent mount. But I don’t mind spending more for the Grail. I’ve seen roadies pottering about with super bright lights, some with a pulse on top of this for urban riding, and they look great, but I’m usually in the car and unable to ask them about them! I fear they might be ludicrously expensive though.

The Magic Shine ones I’ve been tempted by but I’m unsure about reliability.

Ease of use is a definite bonus, with only practical settings. I.e. no rave strobes to make you look like a tit in traffic when looking for a lower setting!

I use a gloworm x2 bar mounted on the road bike. More than enough for country lanes at speed.

If I wasn’t using either a dynamo light (USE Revo) on my equilibrium or the Supernova lights on my e-bike then I’d happily commute with a Cateye Volt 800. USB charge, nice spread of light and if the Volt 300 & 700 are anything to go by super reliable. Bracket very easily transfers between bikes.

Gloworm X2 here – never had an issue.
Way more light than I’ve ever needed even off-road .

I’ve used the first version of this for a few years and it’s been great.

Gloworm here too, and a Joystick on the lid as backup in case of failure. Had a light cut out on me off road, not funny, not risking it on road.

I often use the X1 with spot and light battety, very near setup.

Dynamo FTW, got one on my “wet” bike and it’s fully awesome. Recently ridden the race bike for a few commutes and a cheeky morning ride and I can’t believe how irritating having to remember to charge a light was…

I have a 2008 Exposure Joystick still going strong, which I’ve had zero problems with.
I also have an Exposure Flash as a secondary ‘be seen’ light which I’ve had lots of problems with but they’ve fixed it under warranty every time. I also have an Exposure Trace which appears to have resolved the problems with the Flash

Who be Gloworm, and how come I’m not familiar with them, whilst everyone else is?

And I would love a dynamo….but this must fit different bikes, so it’s a no, no.

I use a B+M Ixon Core as a back up for my dynamo light. 3 hours full beam, 15 hours on low. Very small, fully sealed, USB rechargeable and it has a beam pattern designed for road use which illuminates the road instead of lighting up the trees. About £30 from the German online retailers.

Here you go

http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/p/19975/gloworm-x2-dual-led-front-light?variantId=97142&gclid=CjwKEAjwjMauBRDH-bOCo56b13wSJABA2-Hv4izMlRv8tuiBfhMWtQbWRQSiov1B9H_wFp0Djry0BRoCOITw_wcB

I’m liking the look of that Ixon Core – found some beam shots/videos on You Tube, looks great value for the money.

Last year a ran a lezyne power drive. The beam is designed for the rad with nice throw and plenty of spill.
They’ve changed models this year so worth taking a look.

Cateye Volt1200. Lasts on full for 2 hours which is pretty good but eco mode lasts for 17 hours and is more than adequate for all but the darkest roads. Mounts are simple and really cheap.

Also my local cycle surgery had some awesome sales on last week on lights. A cateye nano shot plus (600lumens) was £100 with 60% off! At £40 that is a bit of a bargain.

philips saferide here (bit like that ixon one, has a lensed beam so you don’t blind every other **** on the roads)

I’ve been really impressed with my Cateye Volt 300

I have a Lezyne Duo in my lid as a helmet light

Fluxient U2 mini if I need more power

Not had to use MTB lights yet

I use a couple of Light & Motion Urban 800’s on my country lane (or offroad) commute across the Quantocks.
USB charging (when I get to work) and plenty of light for the downhill bits (45+mph).

+1 for the Cateye volt 300.
I got mine with a spare battery and a charging station for £60. (Can’t remember where from)

Gloworm are a NZ company distributed by Using in the UK. Small, light, bright and great optics.

http://www.ison-distribution.com/english/searchresults.php?PHPSESSID=0but33rq7t2baoth56drg0g681&brand=GLOW

Do NOT order from CRG Moto if you Google and find light listed on their site. Search on here instead. Guy appears to have been great, then vanished but left his site up. Didn’t reply to any of my warranty queries (Ison sorted very swiftly)

Cateye Volt 1200 for my country lanes commute. Full beam for a couple of tricky, pitch black descents but otherwise the low power is enough. Also, riding with full beam makes it harder to see oncoming headlights in dark lanes, which you’d otherwise see long before.

Caveat – says ‘not for road use’ in the instructions. This wasn’t stated on the website I bought it from.

I have a exposure axis, easy to switch between bike with this fitting. The remote allows easy switching between settings so you can dim the light with out having to fiddle with the light its self. Very happy with it served me well last winter.

I find the Volt1200 has a great “squared” beam pattern that works quite well on the road Just be considerate and aim it downwards, not set at drivers eye level (which a surprisingly large amount of inconsiderate ***** do).

Just thought one annoying thing with the cateye is you have to cycle through it’s 4 modes if you want it on full for a dark section and then back to low again which is a bit annoying. The better Lezynes have a really useful “race” mode which allows you to cut it down to just high and low options, really good.

Another +1 for the Cateye lights. I’ve got a Volt 300 and it’s just about bright enough for pitch black lane commuting, although my commute is only properly dark for the final 2-3km. Battery life seems great, it’s compact and light, feels sturdy, easy to charge etc. I like the ‘pulse mode’ too – always on but pulses brighter for visibility. All good, although I’d go for a brighter variant (or a second light) if you spend a lot of time on completely unlit roads.

All this talk of fading light and dark evenings is making me sad 🙁

I use Exposure Strada Mk 5.
It’s awesome, the full beam on a dark country road is enough that other riders with me, turn their lights off, and sit behind me as it is that bright.

I also like the remote, which means I can place the button the top of the drops, so that I just move my thumb when cars are coming, and put it into dip mode.

I used a solarstorm jobbie from a US based company last winter. Silicone bands to secure it fitting 31.8mm or 25mm bars without a problem. More than good enough for a 4 hour ride at stupid speeds downhill on road on the middle power setting.

I’ve got a Light & Motion Taz 1200 that’s a couple of years old and at the time had the best balance of output and spread. USB rechargable and it has a thick rubber belt mount (for want of a better description) which means it can be moved between bikes in seconds.

Looks like the Urban 800 is the 2015 equivalent.

The massively useful and brilliant road.cc light comparator is at the bottom of the above link; scroll down and compare beam shots to your hearts’ content.

I messed about with a few different options until…

I use Exposure Strada Mk 5.
It’s awesome, the full beam on a dark country road is enough that other riders with me, turn their lights off, and sit behind me as it is that bright.

I also like the remote, which means I can place the button the top of the drops, so that I just move my thumb when cars are coming, and put it into dip mode.

It is pricey but if you do a lot of riding on the roads at night then it is worth it.

On the back of this thread at silly o’clock this morning I ordered a B&M IQ Premium from Rosebikes for £60ish with delivery – seemed a good combination of roadie beam, a bit more lumens and cost of all the ones discussed.

Found this review on road.cc, which includes their beam shot comparison pics at the bottom to play with:

http://road.cc/content/review/143552-busch-muller-ixon-core-front-light

Grrrr, the url installer isn’t working for me?

Cateye Volt 300 – had for ages. Rechargable and plenty bright enough for dark country roads.

You dont need 1000 lumens on a road bike

I’ve been using a “mtbbatteries” ‘V2’ XML Light which I initially bought for Mountain Mayhem. It has since been used on my Roadie which I also use for commuting in the Winter.

Does everything I need.

My LBS lent me a Volt 1200 to try, and it was very good, but I preferred the beam pattern of my Urban 800.
As with the Cateye the main improvement of the 800 would be to add a race mode (as some other L&M models already have), because scrolling through 4 settings can be a drag.

You dont need 1000 lumens on a road bike

Depends how fast you go. 😯

When I’ve done overnight ride like the BHL L2B night ride, the Exposure Six Pack goes on the road bike and pah to everyone else.

Otherwise I stick with my Race, Diablo or Enduro

Gloworm have a new light coming out which was shown at euro bike called the cx700, this will be 700 lumens with an internal battery this will be great for road bikes.

Indigo5, a former Kickstarter project. Good size and run times with internal battery. 5 settings with an 1800 lumen max. 15% off with VFOI code

Oh, my topic’s back… Still looking btw. Tempted by the Cateye 1200. One thing that puts me off is the description in one of the reviews, about having to scroll through flashing modes to get to a lower beam setting (i.e. every time you see a car coming!)

It’s things like that I want to get away from, and why I’m prepared to pay more than the £20 it costs to buy a mega-bright Chinese light. It can’t be that difficult to make something that just works exactly the way you want it to?

That’s one of the reasons I like the lezyne. Theyre programable so you can set them up not to have strobe,flash etc.

Hi,

Go to eBay.

Type in bike led light

Select any of the Cree XML lights (about (£16).

Fit to bike

Job Done

Having commuted and MTBd in the dark for years these are the best value to money. I have had one set die after a couple of years use but other than that reliability has been faultless. They are easy for fit with the rubber bands and the battery packs are light and small.

The light beam is more than enough for all road conditions etc. I have the 3x Cree light and rarely put all 3 leds on. On 2 leds it is like a good car dipped beam. On 2 leds I have to charge the battery about once every three days (about 1hr 15 run time each day). If I remember to change to 1 led in the street lit bits I can easily get a week between charges.

I know you have mentioned the scrolling through the beam settings. TBH as I leave it on 2 leds most of the time its not an issue. I have the light left of my stem (drop bar CX commuter) and I can easily switch through the beam settings if required. Only occasionally get flashed by cars if I have the lamp adjusted too high but with the band fitting you can push it back down in a second.

My 2p worth.

Regards

Tempted by the Cateye 1200. One thing that puts me off is the description in one of the reviews, about having to scroll through flashing modes to get to a lower beam setting (i.e. every time you see a car coming!)

It’s just a power setting, not a dip beam. You’ll dazzle oncoming traffic on the low setting if the beam is not aimed down.

IME with the 1200, you’ll use full power rarely on the road. It’s good for spotting hazards, but like I said further up the post, it overpowers to the extent that it’s harder to see oncoming headlights from far off. On my commute I only use full power for a 30sec descent down a potholed, concrete track which is getting on for 25% gradient. But if you want one lamp for on and off road, the 1200 might be the one.