Wasn’t sure about riding off-road at night so bought a couple tesco torches and a twofish lockblock to get involved.

After a couple of rides, I’m really enjoying it and need to get out more. Problem with the torches is:

1. With both of them helmet mounted I get neck-ache from forcing myself to look down all the time.

2. If I move one to the bar I find the beam to narrow and the lockblock always seems to work itself loose at the worst possible moment.

So, enough with the whole false economy thing, need a decent bar mounted flood that won’t move around and will let me get on with riding rather than faffing around with batteries and keeping the things attached.

Any suggestions appreciated. Budget is £150 max. So far I’ve only had a recommendation for a Hope Vision LED 2.

Bar is a Use Atom by the way.

Cheers
JP

P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7

The P7 is not false economy, m8 tied one next to his hope hid last night, and we might as well not even bother running the Hope for the light it puts out vs the P7.
I cannot believe how good the P7’s are… We were in absolute amazed by the HID tech over the last few years but the P7 is miles better.

http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Airbike.html if you want a bike specific kit.

Or the cheap and cheerful way

P7 Torch http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12060
Charger http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105
Batteries http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790
Converter http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2709
& a mount, http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12000

Thanks for the info z1ppy.

Main thing I’m after is a decent flood that will sit firmly on the bars and not something which is too much of a spot (which was my main worry from another torch).

But from what I can make out, the P7 combo comes to about £50 from your shopping list above so it might be worth a punt after all?

Cheers!

I’ve got the Airbike SL2 from Planet X (£125 while stocks last) and can definitely reccomend it. It is more floody than most other lights (though only the same as the P7 torches, as it’s a P7 bike specific light!), but in a way that’s good. You don’t get the trail penetration that you get with some other lights because the P7’s are very floody by their nature, but I now combat this by running a Cree R2 torch (fairly narrow spot beam, VERY penetrating) on my bonce, exactly like THIS one. The Airbike light lets you see pretty much everything around you, the R2 torch on my head allows me to get slightly more detail from what I’m pointing my head at, and it seems to be a good combination that works for me so far.

Also, the R2 torch will get 2.5 hours from a single 18650 battery on full charge, so you’re not likely to need to swap batteries on a ride. This is the major gripe I have with the P7 torches as they last less than an hour on a battery, and swapping batteries out on the trail is a bit of a no no as far as I’m concerned, and hence why I paid a bit more than twice the price and got the Airbike SL2 as it has a battery pack with it that lasts 3 hours on full beam. The Airbike light is still less than half the price of its rivals anyway!

Contemplating my next effort for a head mounted light as 2 of THESE mounted on my lid side by side, modified for use with an external battery pack. They are tiny, and only take a CR123A battery cell normally (no use as they don’t last long), but their diminutive size and weight means that 2 of them on my lid will be as light as my current torch easily, will chuck out twice the light, and with an external battery pack in my camelbak will have as long a runtime as I require based on the battery I choose!

Just a side note too, good as a Tesco torch is for £8 when compared to an old maglite or any other cheap torch, on the lowest setting the Cree R2 torch I have puts out as much light (estimated 60 lumens or so), and it has a medium and high setting as well! It’s also marginally lighter, a bit shorter, and arguably better made. If you’ve been riding offroad with only 2 tesco torches to light the way, then you’re going to be in for a nice surprise when you get a powerful light!

Another vote for the airbike sl2. Fantastic value, great flood light.

You must ride like my missus, concentrating in front of her. I never look closer than 20ft away unless its seriously technical and slow, then I am looking down all the time lol.

thanks for the info mboy and snowslave. I did look at the SL2 on the on-one site a couple of days back. Can’t quite work out how it’s £185 on-one and £125 planet-x for what looks to be the same light with a different mount?

coffeeking – it’s always seriously technical!

This P7

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18695

is digitally regulated and I get almost 2 hours useful light on high out of it. Last week it did 4 days of 20 mins to work and then 20 back when it started to dim.

If the lockblocks are moving then replace the velcro with zip ties and do them up tight.