having to scroll through flashing modes to get to a lower beam setting (i.e. every time you see a car coming!)

Use a non-torch style light with a managed beam spread like the B+M pictured before and you won’t need to do this.
I’ve had a couple of years on an SON dynamo powered German-legal light and the way the beam pattern works compared to a torch-beam light is impressive, it really does improve how I see the road and reduce eye strain. I rode a torch-beam light again recently and was mildy shocked at how poor it was in comparison, the 2 lights have roughly the same output but the SON makes far better use of it.

The exposure strada mk5 is £189 at evans.
Signing up with a new email gets £5 off and there’s 3.9% TCB.
Alternatively you can use tesco club card point boost to buy Evans vouchers.

Ive had several cheap front lights and just decided that I wanted something reliable, with an excellent beam and with a good guarantee.

I ordered a b&m ixon core from Germany (the one linked to in the review above) and it arrived last week. I haven’t been out on the road since I’ve had it, have had a few off days, but it’s pretty good testing it in the local park with the dog.

Was just over £30 which is a bargain, the beam pattern is so different to my other lights – cateye volt 300, Leanne macro duo, SSX2, fluxient U2 mini, and a few others

I don’t have a dynamo and don’t immediately plan to but I also wanted USB charging for commuting

Another lezyne user. Swappable batteries and usb charging. I use the flash mode in conjunction with a dynamo but for dark lanes its goes on full.

-1 for Cateye.

The mounting system works fine for so long but eventually you have a light that constantly droops as you hit the slightest bump. Wouldn’t buy one again, useless.

Just a bit of a PSA maybe, Cycle Surgery seem to have some very good prices on lights just now. FWIW my own set up at the moment and I’ve had loads is a bar mounted Smart Polaris light which provides a flashing light so others can see me. I also use an Exposure Joystick mounted on the bars, this I can remove very easily when parked up and it doubles as a helmet light for mtb’in. Provides plenty of usable light for unlit country roads. I’ve used the ebay lights in the past but for ease of use the above wins hands down, the Smart light lasts ages and the Joystick can be popped of to charge without unwinding cables/velcro straps etc.

Well I finally bought one. After reading glowing reviews I went for the Cateye Volt 1200, and so far I’m impressed.

In comparison to my XML-L2 Cree torch, it is considerably brighter, the light is much whiter, and the beam has a much better spread. Even if you ignore the unit itself, the actually quality of the light just looks way better. I tested them side by side, and it made the Cree look cheap with a poor beam and hollow blue light.

One of my big concerns was that a few reviews had brought up having to scroll through the flashing mode when changing settings, but it’s actually not the case. The flash only mode only activates via a double click, so you just need to make sure you scroll through the modes slowly to avoid it. Would be nice to be able to scroll up or down modes, so you could go from high to low and back again, but it seems to be decent value in comparison to some of the competitors, so I can live with it.

Will see how the mount holds up, but I’m sure I can get a new one if it fails.

The 700 may well have been powerful enough for the road, but one of the deciding factors was the battery life on the 1200.

Four4ths Scorch job done
http://four4th.co.uk/products/lights/scorch/