[Closed] Expensive lights

how are companys selling lights that fall apart if you look at them wrong still in business ?

Well I just sent my Lumi XPG-3 back after two years hard use with a minor fault. Fixed and shipped back same day at no charge. I must ride with lights for 9 months of the year, so having a quality product backed up by ace afterservice represents good value to me.

YMMV etc 😉

how are companys selling lights that fall apart if you look at them wrong still in business ?

cheap ones or expensive ones?

dunno really had experiances both sides of the fence (and on both sides of the till) until i moved to exposure (joysitck and maxx D ) 3 years ago.

3 years hard use - commuting, racing 24 hours , night riding and they still work like new.

So much so im going to get my mrs a new joystick despite the cost - even though other"torches" are availible.

Citroen and Rolls Royce still coexist in the car trade. Nuff said.

trail_rat - Member

how are companys selling lights that fall apart if you look at them wrong still in business ?

What, Hope?

haha their vision 1s are not very good at staying attached to the weedy bracket

but it was more lupines that had a high attrition rate.

one year our club was supported by zyro for a certain 24 hour race. and thus had a team full of lupines

EVERY SINGLE SET WE HAD FAILED IN ONE RACE ! by the end of it we were all back on our own lighting - IIRC we had a team of 4 a pair and a few solos in the race.

People like to feel good by spending ten times the amount on something only twice as good. Nothing at all wrong with that though, as long as you don't resort to bullshit to justify it. 🙂

Must be Lupine as I can afford Exposure, so they're not expensive 😉

I've cheap lights and dear lights, they all work well but the dear ones are just nicer to mount/use/charge etc.

Love my Lupine Betty light 🙂

And the Piko I run as a helmet light.

Both were reduced(Betty half price) and not had any issues.

It's my money and I like tarty bike kit, why not?

I have a 502b torch as a helmet light. On my second in 9 months

I also have a maxx d that I bought half price from a mate that never puts a foot wrong, gets used twice a week and has as good run time as the day I got it.

Sure, the maxx d was expensive new but it feels bombproof.

five years ago, if you wanted a decent output then you paid big money. I can't rememeber exactly how much I paid for my L&M Arc but it made me wince at the time.

now?
DX etc are cheap as chips but unreliable and effectively throwaway lights

lumenator etc giving the output but with backup/warranty.

If I was a product manager at exposure or lupine etc, I'd be shitting myself....

Can't fault my Hope lights, Vision 4 on the front and District+ on the rear, all running from just the one battery - worth every penny.

Because the DX ones are poor quality, flimsy, the batteries aren't very neat, the chargers catch fire, the lumens are much lower than claimed and the beam spreads aren't great.

I paid £120 for my last light and it's actually good. The £30 DX ones are just a bit crap- we sold them as something else where I used to work and EVERY one came back. Every one.

I'd use one as a back up light and there are some cheap chinese lights that are OK, some even good, but the ones you see most are crap. While I think above about £250 is madness, below £100 does't get you a quality product.

if I was a worker at exposure or lupine ans most other light manufacturers I would also be a tad worried
But are they manufacturers or just resellers of chinese lights that have come back and bitten them on the arse

Nonsense- the MJ-872 is a great little light and comes in well under £100.

I've not had a single problem with my Exposure Max D in nearly four years' very regular use. Nor with my DX head torch in about 3 years. What they have in common is that they're both all in one. If you could get a really good, cheap, all in one light with quick easy mounting to multiple bikes, then I'd be lining up for one. As it is, Exposure are about to get my money again, and I guess they probably will in another four years too.

what made me think about it was reading about a couple of new lights that are adding in features like speed sensitive output. it struck me as an act of desperation...

How the hell are brands that make expensive mountain bikes still in business? I can get a double expension mountainbike from Decathlon for £300.

If I worked at Santa Cruz, Turner or Ibis I'd be sh*tting myself.

Love my Troute Liberator. Planning my Spring 2013 purchase.

Most of my riding is at night so happy to pay a little bit more for the quality and performance ... and used last week to illuminate WWII tunnels under Dover cliffs.

jimjam - Member

How the hell are brands that make expensive mountain bikes still in business? I can get a double expension mountainbike from Decathlon for £300.

If you could go to Decathlon and get a bike for £300 that performs the same or better than many expensive bikes, this'd be a great analogy. You seem to be a bit behind the times though, it's been a while since the chinese lights were just a low-quality, cheap option.

There's still expensive lights that do offer a genuine advantage though but an awful lot don't.

I have a cheap bar light and an expensive helmet light. The bar light has let me down quite a few times by failing to charge (dodgy connection I think). The expensive light just works. I can't afford an expensive bar light but I wish I could.

Define expensive. Some people 'are considerably richer that yaou...'

I paid about £250 for my Ay-Ups 4 years ago and they have been going great since. Last winter I sent them back for upgrade and for £90 had brand new lamps. I totaled some battery cables in a crash but got them replaced at cost.

If I wanted a go I might try some of the cheap ones. However I am impressed by my setup and would buy again. It's not a disposable product.

Having done both sides its great that cheap lights are around to get people in to night riding (like me in first place) but once you've had the quality of say exposure then I wouldn't go back. Certainly wouldn't want to rely on dx lights for a 24 for example but why not for a quick blast around the woods once a week which is most people's bag anyhow

"what made me think about it was reading about a couple of new lights that are adding in features like speed sensitive output. it struck me as an act of desperation... "

or innovation.......It might not be a great idea but for every 10 great idea they come up with a crap one may slip through the net

I really like the look of their 800 lumen hub dynamo light system - now thats a good idea!

Well my mates are on their third winter season on their 1000lumen cheapo Chinese lights off eBay. They're not used for commuting but night MTB rides, so get shook around a lot, rained on and covered in mud, so are not having an easy time of it. I've just ordered some of the same but 1800 lumens. Great build quality and if anything like my mates, they will provide many years of reliable service. And if they break, I'll just buy another set. I can buy about twenty sets of these before I ever get close to the cost of something similar paying full price. Time will tell if it is a false economy, but at £17 each, even if I buy a set every season, they're still significantly cheaper than the expensive 'proper' ones.

I use L and M lights and not even bright ones (I find 200 lumens enough off road).I find the quality good and the backup excellent through Madison if they go wrong

Edric 64 - (I find 200 lumens enough off road)

if i ride alone i often use a joystick alone.

200lumens is absolutely fine for offroad.

i honestly think some folk are blind.

on the otherhand if you ride with 1000lumen monsters and they are behind you you get lost in your own shadow 🙁

This 200 Lumens is fine for offroad thing...surely the faster the you go, the further down the trail you need to point your light? You're not going to point a 200 Lumen light very far whilst still seeing clearly!

how much do you need to see ?

I did plenty 24 racing (solos , pairs adn quads) with 200 lumens when folks were using 1000 lumens - no need to see whats happening at my front wheel , ive already see that and decided where im going.

ok ive got 1200 lumens on tap now (and i ride slower) but i rarely ever use the full power settings.

My DX speshul is into its third year now, even if it packed in I'd replace it with the same.

My DX speshul is into its third year now, even if it packed in I'd replace it with the same.

That's the problem. If it packs up, it's straight in the bin. Not very much the attitude you'll expect from a MTBer. Whereas I am pretty sure if your USE, or Hope or lumi packs up, they'll be abble to fix/upgrade fro a small fee.

I've used a 200 lumen light (Light and Motion) to get three 2nd places and one 3rd at Relentless, a 3rd at the Puffer and 1st at the Puffer Lite and Hit the North.

200 is plenty, I now use 1000 and wouldn't say I'm much quicker.

One team mate ran a DX light at Relentless 2010 and it died on three laps 🙄

I've had a CREE XML T6 Torch, carried in my mouth, showing me the way at Relentless to four 1st place finishes 😉

Northwind

If you could go to Decathlon and get a bike for £300 that performs the same or better than many expensive bikes, this'd be a great analogy. You seem to be a bit behind the times though, it's been a while since the chinese lights were just a low-quality, cheap option.

I think you missed the point of my post, it was tongue in cheek, and more about peoples perception of worth/value etc. Some people will never see the value in something more expensive than what they have. There are plenty of people out there who doubtless believe their Carrera Banshee or similar is as good as a bike many times the price, and while they are okay they simply are not comparable with say, a carbon nomad with full Bos suspension.

There's no arguing with the fact that chinese lights have made night riding accessible to more people, and they do deliver a lot for the money. But there's also no arguing that their claimed lumens are grossly inflated, their build quality is shoddy, reliability is seriously suspect, and the chargers have been known to explode.

Compared to an exposure product for example they are inferior in every way except price, just horrible tat I'm afraid and nowhere near as powerful for quoted lumens. Some people don't mind paying for a quality product that is a joy to use, lasts, has great warranty and after sales support even if does cost a bit more.

Compared to an exposure product for example they are inferior in every way except price, just horrible tat I'm afraid and nowhere near as powerful for quoted lumens. Some people don't mind paying for a quality product that is a joy to use, lasts, has great warranty and after sales support even if does cost a bit more.

Is this another tongue-in-cheek bit? Or can I just chalk it up to hyperbole?

Is this another tongue-in-cheek bit? Or can I just chalk it up to hyperbole?

Take your chinese light down to your local bike shop and compare it to a maxx-d.

I've not bought any cheap lights. I tested the Magicshine and thought it was great for the cash, but didn't like the big battery pack. In terms of 'performance', I can't say my Lumi XPG was 'better'. They were both bloomin good.

But my XPG is two years old and has been used probably 100+ times. The head unit had a slightly loose coupling that I reported to Lumi. Sent back thursday, fixed for free, dispatched friday, arrived today. They even cleaned it 😉

I'm very happy to support a UK company with brilliant customer service and great products. That in no way means the cheaper stuff is 'bad and if more people are night riding, it's all good.

I borrowed one of the cheaper lights from a friend last year, not sure what it was exactly. Hard to argue against it for the money but I didn't like the beam pattern, very bright but too small spot with a wide but too dim halo effect. I found the very bright spot distracting. Also it was a bit heavy for a helmet mounted lighted and I didn't like having a battery in my rucksack. Now my AyUps may not be the brightest but they are more than bright enough. They are also very well made, I did manage to squash mine in a collision with a tree but they were still working and despite it being my fault they replaced them for the cost of postage. I like the small size, the flexibility of two light sources, having a spare battery, car charging option, brackets for two bikes, avaliability and robustness. I also got them upgraded last year and bought some spare parts for less than £100 all in. Given the cost of a lot of other bike parts I feel like they have been good value.

I bought a £30 DX a couple of years ago, this will be its 3rd winter and its been faultless why would I want to pay x amount of times more for something that is a little bit better.

What price freedom? Like Mr Smith I paid about £250 for a set of Ay Ups about 2 years ago. Assuming i night ride 1.5 times p/w, that equals paying £1.60 for the freedom to ride in the dark each time (my only choice 6-9 months of the year) - the freedom to ride AT ALL in the week. And of course that cost keeps reducing the longer the lights last.

If they didn't last years and years that would be a different matter.

Falkirk Mark, obviously you dont want to, so you wont. Some of us do, and we have!! Each to their own, really.

Its the same with all MTB kit. You can get an entry level bike for 300 quid, but some of us choose to spend more. Is my Carbon FS 10x better than an entry level HT? probably not, but I could afford it, and love it.