[Closed] USB chargeable lights...

I've just bought a Lezyne micro drive (£40). It's only got 200 lumen but I used it last night on a long wet ride through the country lanes and it was fine. Reckon a couple of these on the bars would work well. And they are tiny and super light. And they just plug into your computer. No leads etc.

mk6 joystick comes with a usb lead charge it as well as the standard (mains) charger. I expect you could buy a spare usb lead to charge other eposure lights if they didn't come with one as standard. No idea what the charging time is like on them if you use the usb though.

+1 for Lezyne, I got the 350 lumens one and its great for the helmet.

Both my Maxx D and Diablo come with usb charging leads

I've had the Lezyne macro drive for a couple of months. It gets used mainly for road rides. Very happy with it so far, it's stayed waterproof and stuff. IIRC the spec is at least as good as the minewt.

I got the Moon X-power 300 from Wiggle for about £45. Great little light, perfect for commuting and could do as a back up light for MTB at a push. Replaceable battery too - I don't think you can replace the battery on more recent Lezyne lights. Price has gone up a bit recently, but with a discount voucher you could get it closer to £50 I guess

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/moon-x-power-300-rechargeable-front-light/

EDIT - it's just jumped up to £81! That's a bit pricey now 🙁

Is there only me that thinks USB chargeable, well, pretty much anything apart from phones, is a bit limiting?
Why should you need to turn a computer on to charge your lights? It doesn't make sense to me. Far easier just to plug it into the wall.

They'll almost certainly come with a wall plug too PP, the Moon certainly does. I guess the thinking is that most people will use a computer at work so why not use it if it's already on.

I have a Moon light too, not sure if it's the 300 or 500 (it was free with Cycling Weekly). I'm very impressed; it's perfect on its own on the bars on the road bike and works well on the lid on the MTB (with some C&B Seens on the bars).

Pete - you do just plug it into the wall (you get a phone-style USB plug charger with it) but you also have the option of charging it from a PC - handy for commuting types who spend all day at a PC.

If there's a mains charger, fairy nuff I suppose. 🙂
We had one that was USB only. The novelty soon wore off.

how long does it take to charge a maxx D from a usb ?

Actually, if you subscribe to Cycling Weekly for £67 at the moment you get a front and rear light free

http://www.magazinesdirect.com/subscription/cycling-weekly/16892671/cycling-weekly.thtml?utm_medium=Banner&utm_source=BRAND%20WEBSITE&utm_campaign=QYC%20Xmas%20Oct%2012%20MPU

Or, alternatively, you buy some lights for £67 quid and get a year's free subscription to Cycling Weekly...

I use the computer at work to charge, it's on all day anyway and saves me the money at home 😉 Carrying a short piece of wire beats carrying a hefty old style charger around too. Must be more environmentally friendly to make, too.
This season, I've bought Cateyes - the Nano Shot and a Nano Shot Plus, I'm very happy with both for commuting and the bigger "Plus" gets used for pootly trail rides too. So far, very good.

@IHN Is that right a 6 month sub for a Moon lightest? 😯

That's pretty/very/extremely good.

nope

a subscription consists of 52 weekly issues ....

the 67 quid is payable by direct debit twice for a year ....

i guess you could cancel after the first it but they may ask for their lights back 😉

or half the lights bike. 🙂

I use the Moon 300 as a helmet light and it's great, I usually run it 2 down from full as well.

That's pretty/very/extremely good.

Have you ever read Cycling Weekly - it's just a Tester's W*** mag.....

You'd have to pay me £67 per issue to read it. And provide latex gloves to pick it up with, god know whose had it before you.....

I've got the new Niterider Lumina 650 (£87 from CR, with their seasonal discount 😀 ) and it's excellent: Much smaller than my previous MiNewt USB 250, and the beam is spot on for dark, country lanes.

Agree with PP here.
Where there's an office computer there's a wall socket so why bother with usb?
Does anybody really commute so far that they cant recharge their battery overnight at home?

Is there only me that thinks USB chargeable, well, pretty much anything apart from phones, is a bit limiting?
Why should you need to turn a computer on to charge your lights?

Er you don't.

USB charger means it's compatible with loads of other chargers for phones etc. This is enormously useful. I only need to take one charger with me when I travel for work for three different devices.

Light and Motion Urban 500 here. Fab, and you can off-road with it too. Outstanding imo. I also use it with a helmet mount to compliment my trout thingy, and it doesn't look that much dimmer despite supposedly being 1/5 the power.

I found oddities charging my Exposure Diablo, charging from the supplied plug adapter, via the USB cable gives me around 2 - 3 hours burn time. Recently I used the same cable to charge the light from a mac plug used to charge iphone/pod/pad, and after an overnight charge, the burn time was halved.

I can only guess this has something to do with the voltage. Reading between the lines, unless manufacturers state that its a standard USB charge, making the assumption that all usb cables work on the ieee USB standard, is false.

[i]Have you ever read Cycling Weekly - it's just a Tester's W*** mag.....[/i]

I have absolutely no idea what this means.

I got the last subscription deal to get a 'free' Moon500 light. It cost me £100 I think, for which I got £130's worth of light and a magazine with enough content (just) to while away my 20 minute lunch break whilst eating my sarnies.

footflaps - Member
That's pretty/very/extremely good.
Have you ever read Cycling Weekly - it's just a Tester's W*** mag.....

You'd have to pay me £67 per issue to read it. And provide latex gloves to pick it up with, god know whose had it before you.....

I've never read the mag so I'll take your word on the content. I was referring to the light set for £67, but it turns out it will cost £132. So if you like the mag it's a good deal.

Anyway FWIW I use a Joystick up front and a Blackburn Mars on the rear, it's not rechargeable, but's it's built really well and the batteries last about 1.5 commuting seasons.

Charging weirdness with iusb devices is down to current drain I think. Some usb ports will shut down I think if too much current is drawn. My phone won't charge at all fro the socket on my laptop on standby, but other phones do.. and it takes forever when the laptops on.

The Light & Motion rep told me that if you use an ipad usb charger they can supply more current and the batteries charge in half the time, a normal usb socket can only supply 500mA AFAIK.

Yeah I use the ones that came with my Motorola phone or the Mrs HTC.

Philips Saferide 80 lux is another option. It has a proper beam shape for on-road. Though not cheap. http://www.bike24.com/p240657.html