Hello,
I’m after some lights for night riding. I’ve read the reviews in the mags but they seem to test a cross section of lights with different costs and was wondering what the STW collective would recommend. There’s just so many; Exposure, Hope, Lupine, DX, Ay up, Troute, spokebloke, magicshine, Lumicycle, etc etc.
Some have 1 LED, some 4 or 6.
Looking to spend ~£200-250 and would like a nice helmet torch thingy and a bar mounted job. I would like a nice carry case jobby to protect them if possible, a good mount and run time of 3 odd hours. Moon on a stick?
Any help would be greatl appreciated as I’m absolutely lost with it. Thanks.

I was stuck on what lights and ayup were suggestd so i got a set and they are fab night riding is a lot of fun well chuffed with them.

Looking to spend ~£200-250

Trout or Luminous then.

I have bar mounted ay-ups and a fenix on my lid – works well. My mate has the full ay-up enemble and I honestly can’t see how you would want more light. I find it a very versatile kit too – coming with car charger etc.

Whatever you decide, you’re right in wanting a lid light – night laps at 24/12 or SiTs etc really warrant one on your head so you see what’s coming before your bike is pointing in that direction.

Trout or luminous at that money or magicshine / spokes blokes lights for a load less money

Hmmm, that ay up V4 kit does look nice….
May be able to dig a little deeper for a kit like that. Do I need that much light? Is it a lot of light?
The troutlight lib is £270 odd so the ay up kit looks like it could be better value; that right?

you can get more light for less money. Teh v4 ayup in total will not be a huge amount brighter that a magic shine / spokesbloke and way less than a trout or a luminous.

Very neat nice units the ayups tho

The advantge of more light is you can turn them down and thus get fantastic run times as LEDs are more efficient at low power. So a trout / luminous at half power is the same ( similar) amount of light to a magishine on full – but will run longer fromt eh same battery.

Hmm thanks Teej. I like the fact that the ay up includes all of the bits and bobs in a tidy box but the trout is brighter plus he seems like a thoroughly nice chap!

Brighter the light the better really, but you need to factor in what’s the beam like, run time, how well made they are, mounts, and stuff like that. For my first go at night riding I borrowed a set of lights from a lbs and compared with a mate’s. I’d say try some out if possible, borrow off a mate or shop or see if a local posse have a spare set. When you’ve tried it you kind of know much more about what you’re looking for really. Night riding is brilliant

Ay-up used to do a kit with the 2 sets but without some of the extras (basically 2 sets of lights, 2 batteries and all attachements) that was a bit cheaper. Can’t find it on the website now.

For me the head mounted light was what I was after, so that’s the route I went down. Best bet to try both ‘systems’ and see how you get on.

Ay ups customer service is great. I smashed mine into a tree and although they still worked they were a bit squished. They replaced them no probs and all it cost me was the postage, which I thought fair enough as it was my own fault. Although they cost more now than when I got mine two years ago (or was it three) you get more in the kit so given the weakness of the pound they are probably better value than they were then. You can get brighter but I like the challenge of riding in less light than normal and I like the complete package, three batteries, plenty of mounts, car charger etc. Have even shared them with a mate when his lights failed on two occasions, just swapped helmets and kept going.