[Closed] Lights

http://troutie.com/

Thought trout was cheaper than that.

Troutelight well worth the money!

Yeah I guess so looking something a bit cheaper I guess

Thought trout was cheaper than that.

dealextreme are fine to deal with - i've sent kit back and had replaced under warranty without any trouble.

try geoman in the usa he sells magicshine lights but has VERY GOOD backup

Sadly Geoman died last month. The business is still going I believe .

Sorry Shorty I cannot come close to the Chinese for prices

Sorry Shorty I cannot come close to the Chinese for prices

You need to get yourself down the job centre and hire all the dole bludgers to work for hotdogs in a factory somewhere in middle england producing your lights, then you can start to get close.

Not complaining that your pricing is very high they must be high for a reason.

try geoman in the usa he sells magicshine lights but has VERY GOOD backup

Shipping is $35-$45 which compared to nothing from DX is a bit pricey 😉

Alternatively

A mate has one of these and its pretty good:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/LIABP7/airbike-p7-everlight-sl

seems a little better put together than the Magicshine/Bastid - but its not as good as my Troutelite!

Nice Webby Trout.

Hope it goes well

I'm currently torn between Magicshine, Airbike P7 & Hope Vision 2. First two are cheap & cheerful options but would I be better going for the benefits of Hope for warranty & quality?

If you have any warranty issues with the Airbike then I'm sure On-One will look after you

[i]Not complaining that your pricing is very high they must be high for a reason[/i]

Price isn't hi, when you consider what you're buying.

Unfortunately, few in the recent threads I've seen here, seem to take a balanced view when considering lights, tending instead to focus on price alone.

Lights like mine and Trout's are UK developed and UK produced lights, using latest tech, using quality components AND quality [u]batteries[/u].
Oh, and don't forget the lumen / Lux count.

Like me, Trout pays a UK Manuf for housings. That guy has a mortgage and taxes to pay here in the UK.

And I'm certainly doing what I can to source from UK Ltd, do my bit for the UK economy.

I also source hi quality components, from western sources, where wage demands are higher, which is then reflected in price for parts.

imo, lights from Me and Trout are great vfm when one takes a balanced view of what they are buying, its not just about the price.

If it were, we'd all be riding Tesco specials.

🙂

Luminous has just about said what I was going to say

it is all said in here about my costs to make a light
but it is a pretty long thread [url]
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/trouties-new-light-is-on-the-way-update-to-all-interested-folks-who-emailed-me [/url]

I am sure you will find a light from the £50 bastid up to the outragous lupine stuff you will find your price point .

imho, decent lights are one of the forgotten 'things-that-changed-the-way-ride': aluminium rims, disc brakes, suspenion, mountain bike specific geometry.

And riding lights.

Winter is now a good time for riding - get home in the dark, no dog walkers, empty trails, go riding like it's day time.

lights will double the number of rides you can do in a year, even the expensive ones are a bargain.

AhWiles.

Good point, well made.

I agree with ahwiles....

A couple of years ago I was in the position of having to decide on what bike lights to get as I really didn't want to stop riding through the winter just 'cos it gets dark early. Most of my riding gets done after work.

I was a bit apprehensive about spanking ~£250 on some lights, but finally plumped for some halogen Lumi's. I bought at a time when LED's were just gaining a following, but were a fair bit pricier. To be honest, after the first ride, I was completely happy with my decision and the cost had been forgotten.

Get the best you can afford and have fun. A friend of mine has a Hope 2 and it's a pretty good light. My only issue with it would be that the clamp needs allen keys, which can be a faff when it's dark, compared to a glorified QR. Although his is a couple of yrs old, so perhaps they've changed that....?

For me the DX lights were the sensible option.

Never been much for night riding and needed something cheap, that would do the job.

The on-one lights looked ok, but with so many people using the DX lights and 25 quid cheaper, might as well try it.

If I like it and I'm flush in the future I may well buy some fancy 300 quid ones, but I doubt it.

I'm very happy with my four4th LED. Not sure how it stacks up to the others available but I find it brilliant (better than a friends Hope).

http://www.four4th.co.uk/index.html

Over the last 20 years I've had BLT, Nighsun and Lumicycle. Nightriding has always been fun but these modern LED packages are making it better; think extended run time and neater/lighter set ups = more possibilities and hence more fun.

Edit - helmet mount is so much better than bar mount IMHO.

have you tried both?

(helmet + handlebar)

even better.

The four4th light looks really nice and sounds very good however bit too much of a stretch for my budget for now.

Have to say the four4th looks nice as some others of the British made ligths. Two questions about them:

1. Several of these lights use XPE while the troutie mini uses 2 xpe and 2 xpg. In a different thread Luminous suggested that for homebuild xpg LEDS might be best ([url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/diy-bike-lights ]clicky[/url]). What is the difference between these two?

2. Are Hope Lights build in the UK or are they merely UK-designed?

And, especially for Luminous a third question :-): On your website I only see the 601 light. Do you have anything else on the drawing board for the next winter (particularly something smaller which may be less bright). Hope so!

OK here goes

first up the bastid uses a SSC P7 which is really 4 leds in one package
as is the MCE both very similar in output

plus points a lot of lumens from one unit easy to build in to a light

minus point they produce a wide floody beam wich runs out of puff further down trail and to get a good throw need a large reflector / optic

the Cree XRE R2
its really mostly good points here
a good beam from reasonable sized optics and reflecters and the quad or triple with the 35 mm optics is still one of the bench marks for a great light
but development has stopped for the XRE led
still a great led and should be cheap to build a light from cepting they now are getting hard to obtain so prices wont drop .

XPE came along next and with it my LL light using 6 of the wee beasties
these are a tiny package and a real great led to use
as is its more lumen packed brother the XPG .

which should have been better but was a flood monster

now the buts

in the small optic world the narrowest beam is still a fairly floody 16 degrees and the XPE throws the longest beam of the 2 in the same optic
the XPG even with its larger power cant send its lumens as far .

so in my 4 led I like to use 2 of each so we get 2 floods and 2 throws .
and in my opinion it gives a great best of both worlds .

I also use 2 cold white XPGS and 2 Natural white XPEs as I find the colour rendition of the trails is a lot better .
as cold whites tend to be too harsh

OK I too am on the hunt for a cheap light, and whilst I would dearly like to support UK built lights I just can't justify that kind of money on a bike light again. What actually is the 'bastid' light? I take it its a stw forum-given name and not a badly named product... between me and the gf I've got two mte p7's and an exposure joystick maxx, and would like another so we've each got one on teh bars and one on the helmet.

I'm also interested in DIY, as I was fairly handy with a soldering iron a few years ago and with fixing up a broken collar bone I need something to keep me busy. I'll need to have a root through those threads though.

Also, I'd like to turn the mte p7's into a light unit and separate battery unit. I'd like to be able to run them with 2 batteries rather than carry a spare and change when the one starts to go flat, has anyone heard of anyone doing this?

Thanks for the answers Troutie! Basically, the XPG was supposed to be the greatest light of them all now, but somehow didn't quite live up to its prospects? Interesting stuff!

A pair of DX SKU12060 MTE P7's here. Total outlay of about £75. Cant imagine why you'd need more light than 2xP7's. They are torches though, so no matter what folk say they are a compromise in some areas. Get about 1hr 10mins on full from a cell, switching med-hi gets 2hrs easily. Plenty for my night time rides. If I could spare the cash for a Trout kit I'd get one, but myself & several other friends are very happy with our P7's. Have gone through two winters with mine now.

Nice round-up there by Trout.

I agree with those conclusions from my experience of using those LEDs.

I would just add, that although the XP-G didn't entirely replace the XP-E, due to its larger Die size and the effect that had on its output, etc.

You can run the XP-G at a higher current than you can the XP-E, which in itself, may be a feature some people would prefer.
Many is the e-mail I've had, from people who actually prefer a very wide beam.

Pascoa341.

Website is becoming a bit embarrassing now, its just the one page.
I've not the time to progress my learning to the point where I can produce a better website.

Today, there is just the one model, the 601

During the next 6 weeks, there should be at least two more lights avaliable, subject to final testing, assembly and pre-orders.

😉

Good stuff Troutie - stuck a few questions on the other thread. Will probably place and order when I return from holiday.

Do you accept credit cards? 😉

Ay-Up all the way.

Ok, never been out night riding before so I'm after a handlebar mounted light as well as a helmet mounted light.

What budget setup should I go for that will work well?

Bosh - Ay-Up look good but a bit pricey.

Think I'm going to go for two magicshine lights, one for head the other for handlebar.

I do like the trout lights though.