I assume all the chargers use the US style pins? Or is there a UK one (can’t open the ebay links from work) available too?

Both mine are US. Shaver adapter from the pound shop fixes it and adds a fuse to the system.

Cheers swavis.

flatpat – I did mention above but I ordered from Lightmalls on the 9th September and not got it yet. Google Lightmalls and you find some worrying stuff.

What’s occurring with battery and royal fail?

Ordered mine from lightmalls.

Took a while to arrive – around 2 weeks £34 including and additional waterproof battery. Came with a UK charger

I use mine as a helmet light along with a C and B seen light on the bars.

Considering the X3 for the bars. Current set up is fine but just fancy trying it because I can!

Too late now grum! I’ll cross my fingers and hope. Actually 10-30 days is possibly a little too long for that, so I’ll just stick to hope bit. I’m used to waiting for DX.

decided to bite the bullet and just ordered one for £21 off ebay

The solar storms in OP are all from fast tech, with another on order.

@nickjb great idea on the poundshop adapter for fuse addition.

@flatpat the nitefire one looks identical but with no charge indicator, so perhaps more of a clone than just the labels

Hi all,
Tuesday was the first night ride of the year for me. I treated myself to an X2 for the bars and a T6 for the helmet from fleabay – Really impressed for the money, can’t go wrong for the price.
The only thing – I should have bought an X2 for the helmet too for the little extra. The unit is lighter and smaller than the T6, with the better, wider beam.

mike get the t6 on the bay, and upgrade to an X2 for the helmet. 😉

Got mine here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-5000Lm-2x-CREE-XML-U2-LED-Cycling-Front-Bicycle-Bike-Light-Headlamp-X2-UK-/111154856805?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Camping_LightsLanternsTorches&hash=item19e1588365
Uk supplied with a uk 3 pin charger with red/green led charger, very quick delivery and no customs probs.

Just ordered a solar one from lightmalls… jeezo theyre cheap considering what you get!

My Solarstorm arrived today. Cant believe how small it is.Now need to try it out.

Got mine yesterday, it’s amazing for the money. Light looks pretty well made, batteries are questionable. Any ideas on the best way to mount this on a helmet, it gets real hot so I doubt Velcro would do?

Looking at the link above: it indicates that the switching for on and off is different to high/low and also strobe. Does this mean that you can have it on, say high, switch it off and it comes back to where you left it.
The thing I hate about LEDs is all the options. All I want is on and off with high/low . Ideally that would be two switches so that changing modes doesn’t go through off and on /off doesn’t mean flicking through modes.

Got an x2 in the post already. Pretty tempted to order a second head unit now for full on noggin and bar fire power.

there’s only one switch, press for low, again for med, again high again for off. if you hold it when the lights on it will stobe on that setting.

Although there’s this:

3 emitters in a single round can for ~£15

@eltimmo, get some strong sticky backed velcro, and use a couple of zip ties as final security, doesnt budge

@cookieaa, I’ve got one of those… Unless they’ve changed the driver, it’s pointless, it doesn’t run all 3 LEDs at full whack. You either get all 3 on reduced power, or 2 on full power, which is pretty similiar in effect. So it might as well be a dual really.

The beam’s a little tight too- the size of the unit makes it a bar mount really. Shame.

I’ve ordered the X3 from DealExtreme although they seem to have cocked up with lead times and asked me if I wanted to change my order.

I have supposedly changed it to a regular X2 with some more bits but it is still showing X3 on my order.

Whatever lands I’ll take some pics and update this thread 🙂

eltimmo.
Can you avoid the bloody strobes completely then? Its bad enough having to cycle through steady beams but strobes are a grade 1 pain.
Many lights seem to have to go through off to get to the start of the cycle again. Why? Its dangerous.
And when you switch it off and then on you don’t remember where you left it.
My Femoto back light cycles with light clicks. To switch it off you lean on the lens quite hard. A different pressure does a different job.

Can you avoid the bloody strobes completely then

Yes. One of my pet hates, too. I don’t want strobe so having to cycle through it is a pain. The solarstorm just goes low-mid-high-off. The strobe is only accessed by a long press so easily avoided.

Hi Cruzcampo, thanks for the review.

I’m looking to get some sola storm for my helmet and there seems to be lots of places to get them from, I’m worried they are not all the same quality etc.

Can you send me a link to where you got the ones producing the light from your pics please, very impressive.

CHEERS

Also what would you recommend for the bars?

Seems like Lightmalls haven’t even sent mine out yet (ordered early September).

Dear Graham Wynne
I’m really so sorry for your order delay , as it’s busy season and Christmas is coming , So there are so many parcels from China to oversea, and as China customs is very strict , they check every parcels , especially the parcels which include batteries .It’s hard to ship out . So HK post are fall in collapes , you can search this news on google .
We are trying our best to solve this issue with our carrier . Later we will send your order via Sigapore airmail , it will delivery to you about 5-15days .Once we get the new tracking number , will let you know .
I’m so sorry again , hope you can understand !
Any problem , please let me know .

nibby – Member

Hi Cruzcampo, thanks for the review.

I’m looking to get some sola storm for my helmet and there seems to be lots of places to get them from, I’m worried they are not all the same quality etc.

Can you send me a link to where you got the ones producing the light from your pics please, very impressive.

CHEERS

Also what would you recommend for the bars?

Morning,

I’ve got all of mine from here, no failures, and great stock batteries,

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10003977/1285800-solarstorm-x2-cree-xm-l-u2-4-mode-2000-lumen-led-b

As shown in the review the best setup, is SSx2 on the bars, SSx2 on the helmet, run both on medium and it gives outstanding trail illumination. Switch both to high and get ridiculous trail illumination 😯

SSx2 on bars and helmet combo

@grum i’ve not read great stuff about lightmalls recently 🙁

Many thanks, just ordered a couple.

How do you mount to the helmet etc?

anywhere recommended for spare batterys if needed?

sorry for all the questions!! I’m new to this night riding lark 🙂

all the best

Sticky double sided velcro, one piece on helmet, one on flat underside of light, with a couple of zipties if your likely to encounter low branches.

Thanks again, now what about extra batteries 🙂

Will this do for sticking to the helmet etc?

velcro

After spending a bit of time in local woods on Thursday night I think I’ll stick with the X2 on the bars and the XML-T6 on the helmet.
The X2 is an awesome floodlight, but I find the T6 is more concentrated with a longer throw to the beam, which is handy for looking a bit further down the trail.

nibby – Member
Will this do for sticking to the helmet etc?

velcro

that looks fine nibby, it says heavy duty so should stick!

I’ve had an order in with Fasttech for a couple of weeks. The tracking number doesn’t show up on Singapore Post’s site and Fasttech won’t refund until Singapore post return the parcel. I’ve now raised a PayPal dispute.

Two weeks isn’t that long for shipping on a boat and sometimes the tracking numbers just don’t work for whatever reason. Fasttech seem to have a pretty decent rep (unlike Lightmalls where I ordered from 🙁 ) – I wouldn’t be panicking just yet.

My two Solarstorms just arrived from lightmalls. 15 days after dispatch. Both have uk chargers, seem to work perfectly and are ridiculously bright. Looking forward to the next night ride!

The x2 received 3weeks ago..

Charged as directed and worked for 5days, with approx 1:15hrs runtime on high. Now the head unit won’t give full output but the battery works fine as powers up another magicshine light I’ve got. Also the UK charger doesn’t work and now have to use the adaptor type.

Anyone else have same fault? a bought the light with battery & charger from UK seller is Sussex on ebay but not appear to be there now. (choice of red and black)

I ordered mine 12 days ago from china not received it yet, but not too worried as it gave an estimated delivery date of between 17 Oct and 4 Nov – If it starts getting much into November I’ll give them a shout

Looks like I may have jumped the gun.

The lack of a valid trace number is what worries me. The other thing is that PayPal disputes are time limited (45 days?), so if I wait too long I won’t have any comeback.