[Closed] Lights

Before you write off the hope light, you could see about contacting trout who is on the forum who could upgrade the internals of the light so it is as good as the modern lights.

You can also get battery pouches from smudge at mtbbatteries for better mounting of your battery pack or possibly look into housing it in a water bottle.

There's been loads of recent threads on lights, which generally turn into recommendations of all the options of 'Chinese lights'. Mainly these are ordered via Hong Kong or ebay and a lot of people buy just the light unit and source their own batteries and chargers from more reliable UK sources.

Here's a recent thread to trawl through:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/that-time-of-year-is-coming-again-whats-hot-in-the-lighting-world

If you want an all in one unit though, perhaps have a look at Exposure, although I am not sure what you will get for £200.

On the first page of that thread I have linked to, I posted some pics of a Moon XP1500, which I use. It's a great light, well made and comes with a helmet and bar mount, extension lead etc.
It's still on offer on Merlin for £100 and would be a good buy.

Here: http://www.merlincycles.com/moon-x-power-1500-front-light-55101.html?utm_campaign=googlebase-GB&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shopping&utm_term=Rechargeable+Lights&gclid=CPnMye2z1MACFfHKtAodIRsAow

Alternatively look at the offerings from :

mtbbatteries (search Google)
crgmoto (neninja on here, I think)
MagicShine

I bought mtbbatteries lights. Really happy with them.

It was a toss up between those and the gloworm ones for me, as the gloworms also got very good reviews from folks on here.

For £200 you could get a set off MTB batteries. One for your bars, one for your helmet. Having a helmet light really helps IMO

edit:The Lumenator & Lumen800 Combo £185 : http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-lights/

Having had issues with cheapo Chinese lights I settled on the [url= http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-lights/ ]Lumenator/800 combo from MTBBatteries[/url].

UK sales, quality control & support & fantastic lights (IMO). Bright enough (nigh on 3000 lumens combined) that there's no need for full power so you can extend ride times by running them at 75 or 50%. The 800 is so light I often mount its battery pack on the back of my helmet rather than running a cable into my camelback.

Edit: beaten to it.

I wouldn't recommend a Hope. They are quite old designs now and use old LEDs. They really need a redesign or even just updating with newer LEDs. I thin Hope have been very lazy here. The build quality isn't the best either quite a few failures but quickly fixed by Hope.

I have a Hope 2 vision and when I got it years ago it was a good light but its massively out classed these days. The upgrade from Trout is very good and has made it competitive again. But by the time you've factored in the cost of the light and then the cost of Trout's upgrade you might as well just buy a more expensive and better light from the start. Also I think Trout is trying to wind down so not sure if he's still doing that.

Also tried a few Exposure lights. Well built and good beam patterns but still very expensive for me. If you don't mind spending the money then you won't regret getting a Exposure light but they are not the best value for money.

The CRG Moto lights seems to be the best compromise between cost and performance. More expensive than the Magicshines and Solor Storm lights but also better quality and better beam patterns and not quite as expensive as the Exposure and other branded lights. When my current light fails and its time to buy a new one these are probably first on my short-list.

My riding mate has a Fluxient light from torchythebatteryboy on ebay, it's mental, I think it was just over £100, battery last for ages and comes with a 2 year warranty. Proper nice unit.

They do good looking torch style lights too, you could get a decent combo with batteries and warranty from torchy for £200

+1 for MTB batteries bar and helmet light set. The dragon bought them for my birthday and they're brilliant.

I knew this would be baffling. Some interesting links there though thanks people and that Moon on Merlin seems a very good deal.

if you want cheap and cheerful the Solarstorms are good, but buy a new UK charger, all as in the links earlier. For £25 you will have a bright light. Relaibility and safe charging not guaranteed but if you are careful where and when you charge it you should be able to avoid a fire ! There are horror stories of people crashing or getting stranded if they cut out mid ride, so I guess you take your choices. I have stuck with Exposure, which are very good, but pricey in comparison. I do actually also have a Solarstorm, which is very bright 🙂

I'd get 3 x [url= http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf-501b-cree-xm-l2-5-modes-led-flashlight-torch-1-18650 ]501b XM-L2[/url] torches (£6 each), some recycled 18650 cells (free from old laptops), a charger (£5), two [url= http://www.dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount-for-flashlights-and-gadgets-2cm-3cm-diameter-adjustable-15642 ]bar mounts[/url] and a [url= http://www.dx.com/p/universal-nylon-mount-for-flashlights-and-lasers-12000 ]helmet mount[/url] (another £5) giving you a flexible, upgradeable 3 light system for £30.

You can also use them as torches!

Solar Storm here. Mine was £17 last year. Just bought one for the wife for £15. Great light output for the money.

There are different levels of build worth considering.

[b]Exposure[/b] - all-in-one. A lot of people I ride with really like these as they are all-in-one, have great warranty and are powerful. They are also expensive. There are several other companies too, but other than either offering mega-brightness many are falling foul of the category below.
[b]
Middle ground[/b] - several companies make some sub £150 lights that offer nice performance with nice warranty backup and build quality. Some have been mentioned above - Glowworm, MTB Batteries, Magicshine, some t-shirt guy, etc. I haven't seen a good all-in-one unit, which is often why people stump up the extra for exposure. Lights, chargers and batts seem to be pretty good on these.

[b]Cheap as chips[/b] - It started with the original 'Bastid' P7 magicshine and now seems to have moved on to the Solastorm. All of the power of the middle ground lights above but with average build quality, random suppliers (some are copies of copies) and not particularly trustworthy chargers and batteries. £15-£25 prices make some of these failings easy to live with though.

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You pays your money, you pays your price.

Currently I run a Solastorm light unit, with proper 18650 batteries and separate charger. Total cost was about £45 and I'm happy.
I still have a perfectly working Bastid P7 and a single XM-L clone sat in a drawer.

I ordered the moon xp1500 from Merlin on Monday & it arrived & was charged & ready to roll on Tuesday night. it is amazingly bright with a nice wide spread beam that punches further ahead than i can ride flat-out.
well worth the £100.
if you take a look on treadz website you can do a photographic side by side comparison of the beam throw of loads of lights, really useful.

Hope r4 is available here in the endurance form so comes with an extra battery pack!

[url= http://www.evomtb.co.uk/hope-vision-r4-led-2013-endurance-2-x-4cell-uk-charger ]http://www.evomtb.co.uk/hope-vision-r4-led-2013-endurance-2-x-4cell-uk-charger[/url]