[Closed] Cheapish and reliable lights

I have used Smudge's (MTB Batteries) for years. Great service and back up. Can't comment on the other brand.

I've got c and b seen's 2400 lumen front light set and a city slicker rear light. All worked fine throughout the last two winters and were working when I recently dusted them off for this winter. Only issue was a charger which stopped functioning after 12-18 months, but they sent me a new one with no charge. Great service.

These are my only decent set of lights so far (dodgy chinese torches previously) so can't compare to others.

I've got a BNIB Gloworm X1 you can have for £110. In terms of quality, it's a step up from either of the offerings you link to above as its a bespoke made unit rather than a Chinese bulk buy in job. Normal RRP is £144.99...

Ive been using the MTB batteries V2 light for three years now In fact i've got two of them, one on the bars, one on the lid. Reliable, durable, and batteries are still going strong.

On full power you'll easily get more than two hours constant use 5 at half power, but my night rides don't last longer than that.

The lid mount is good, but the 'rubber band' bar mount is prone to moving around a bit. I bodged a mount from another fitting i had. Also, the bloke who runs it answers e-mails and has fixed one light when it went pop after two years, for free.

the right price, the right brightness, all good.

I've got c and b seen's 2400 lumen front light set and a city slicker rear light. All worked fine throughout the last two winters and were working when I recently dusted them off for this winter. Only issue was a charger which stopped functioning after 12-18 months, but they sent me a new one with no charge. Great service.

These are my only decent set of lights so far (dodgy chinese torches previously) so can't compare to others.

i've had the candbseen 1200lm lights for the last 3 years and they have worked flawlessly. in comparison to the cheap chinese ebay specials that some of my mates use, mine perform better.
the standard 4 cell battery gives you up to 3 hours run time on max power, but after incorrect storage of the battery 18 months ago this dropped to just over 2 hours so i bought the 6 cell battery for £20 and now i have a max run time of 6 hours on full power.
now i just need to buy a spare headlamp so i can have a backup light using the old battery.

i cant fault these lights at all

My BT70 arrived last night.

So far so good, battery looks like the genuine panasonic one, cables are very beefy, charger isn't the usual chinese one, might be better, I don't know, certainly didn't get as hot, it does do 2.0A though so will be keeping it away from the other batteries just in case!

Light itself is well made and sealed (apart from the worlds most pathetic O-ring on the lens, might put a smear of silicone on that instead).

Output is very bright, very wide and very even (only tried the diffused/wide lens so far) which will be great on the bars.

Go-pro mount puts the pivot almost inline with the lens, might be an issue with the weight being behind the clamp, but hopefully the go-pro mount should hold it pretty tight.

Weight seems reasonable, it's big, but not as heavy as it looks. Still not one to mount on your helmet if you ride anywhere with trees!

For £50 it looks like it'll be a bargain.

The V2 light is very nice but basically, doesn't make very much light- it's totally adquate to ride with though. Depends what you want.

Trouble is, so much of this is hard to really objectify- frinstance, lumen claims are often lies but even if they weren't they're not very useful, because beam pattern is just as important. And beam pattern's a matter of taste. And not everyone wants the same from their lights, I like lots of grunt and wide beam and basically to feel as much like daylight as is reasonable and I hate bright spots, ymmv, some people like chasing dots.

I really like these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAGICSHINE-MJ-856-4-CREE-XP-G-LEDS-1600-LUMEN-BIKE-LIGHT-/161860254901?hash=item25af9f7cb5:g:QPkAAOSwiLdV-cSg
Newer version of my lights but basically the same deal. Not massive lumen numbers but a superb beam (for my taste), and comes with a good charger and battery. But another person might say they lack range

@northwind....

I find that the V2 provides plenty of light to allow me to go a very similar speed along a trail as i would in the sunlight. You can of course find brighter lights, but do we really need to see for 100m down the trail?

Spread os beam could maybe be a little more even, but power is plenty for riding under 40mph off-road. 😉

If only there was a magazine that had a current issue with a lights test including a set for £54 that they recommended......