I'm after some lights for road riding now that it's dark whenever I'm out of work. I'm looking down two different lines-
1- Cheap and nasty chinese Cree style thing. My concerns with these are twofold. One that they are very bulky and not a contained battery and light unit, so are a lot more messy, and two that they are not very reliable. My experience of their unreliability is based on off road riding however. The appeal of these is the lumen count. Very bright and very visible, but also good where there's no street lights.
2- A nice self contained unit like a Lezyne. I know that these have a lower lumen count but they have a proper UK distributor, are more reliable and the lumen counts will actually be closer to what's claimed. I used to ride with a 200 lumen Light and Motion light and it was excellent and bright enough for road riding.
Has anyone got any recommendations for something like this up to about £50?
Cheers
Just buy the USE Flash/Flare rechargeables. They're bright enough without being stupid bright which actually works against you by stopping any visibility of you being a cyclist.
I have the lezyne macro drive. It has a good battery indicator, a beam that is good enough for moderate road riding, you can see ok on unlit lanes (300 lumens?), but I would not want to go daytime speed. Also the battery is limited at full power, I use the 200 lumen setting most of the time.
My experience with chinese stuff has also been unreliable, I would not want one as my only light.
Off topic slightly- the best rear lights I have used are the lezyne microdrive and the moon shield 60. I prefer them both to the flare (1st gen) Both give a lovely pool of red light on the ground behind you and charge by USB.
I've just ordered a couple of the cheap chinese 1800 lumens ones. Plenty of my mates have them and have been running them for a couple of years now and they've been perfectly fine with no quality problems and are amazing. they are so good they do night rides in woods and they light up the way ahead to almost daylight levels. The quality is also pretty good with good quality rechargeable batteries. I've just ordered two units off ebay for £17 each - one for the handlebars and one for the helmet. At those prices even if you have to replace them every couple of years or so they are still way more cost effective than the more expensive ones - which are still mostly manufactured in China probably by the same manufacturers.
I use a magicshine P7 and their rear light. Cheep and so far reliable.
I can see the appeal of an all in one unit, but out work bike shed is fairly secure so I've no qualms leaving them on and only take the battery off on a friday night to charge it.
Personaly I think in terms of being seen on the road a lights a light through and once you get brighter than 99p LED lights it's just for your own benifit. Being seen by cars is more to do with what you're wearing, so stuff like altura night vision jackets and reflectors make far more difference.