[Closed] Would you buy a UK made light anymore?

Yes, I have a trout light and an exposure light. Although my next light will be another exposure as having bought a cable free helmet light I want one for the bars too.

absolutely.

which is why i shop at USE exposure for almost all my lighting needs......(except when i wanted a road legal / car friendly beamed light for road use in the city - so i bought german)

the lads do a cracking job with product development - might not be the brightest but they dont release them full of glitches like other brands AHEM Lupine. and they stand behind their products for years - i had a 7 year old maxx D repaired for 15 quid a year or so ago after dropping it onto monoblocks. AND they support events around the uk with prizes , back up lighting , charging stations etc

whats not to like.

broken down into years of use the exposures have been a bargain.

Yip. Lumicycle for me for I guess much same reasons.

Yes

Mtb batteries, brilliant back up, great product at good prices, won't burn your house down while recharging.

Wouldn't buy anything other than Exposure.

Lumicycle on my bars, Exposure on my noggin.

Would buy again for both.

The only reason can possibly be because you feel the need to support UK production. Makes no economic sense at all from what I can see.

I made my own years ago when the current generation of LEDs were first released - was ahead of the curve for a while (even before Troutie et al were working with those LEDs), yet I struggle to justify the idea of updating what I have rather than just buying off the shelf something made in the far east.

Yep, I would. Four4th user here and very happy

http://four4th.co.uk

I probably would, if it was a snazzy, road suitable, all in one unit that ran on removable cells. A bit like a torch I guess, but with an ideal beam pattern.

"The only reason can possibly be because you feel the need to support UK production. Makes no economic sense at all from what I can see."

Hands up all those with what are now 8 year old chinese lights used pretty much daily during winter that still work , still perform well , and still have spares back up ?

Where does one get the chinese equivalent of a revo ?

Maybe.

I considered 4fourth when buying my last lamp. But even if they are better in every single way, they're not (to me) £300 better than my Chinese lamps, bright enough, wide enough, reliable enough, more than cheap enough. They do look cool though.

Yes - top end uk stuff such as exposure and four4th is very good with great race/event support and back-up.

Very crowded market now. I think you'd need it to do something that the others don't or appeal to the hand made, bespoke crowd. Those that don't like the Chinese lights have plenty of options. I made my own for many years but the latest Chinese ones are hard to beat and made the exercise pointless IMO. Yes the batteries and chargers are questionable but they are easily replaced with the same (chinese made) units sold by the UK sellers.

Another happy Four4th user. Over 5 years running a Genesis which still works perfectly and is still on the same battery so great vfm considering how often I ride at night. Plus the head unit is nice and small and weighs just 63g so it isn't noticeable on the helmet.

Hands up all those with what are now 8 year old chinese lights used pretty much daily during winter that still work , still perform well , and still have spares back up ?

You'd probably be on to a winner if you could integrate the battery - Exposure rule the roost on the point and for good reasons as stated above.
For service and longevity, I am completely happy with my Exposures

Makes no economic sense at all from what I can see.

I don't agree. They make economic sense because they're great quality, last and if they do have a problem, back-up is great. (Good support at events too). Can't stand outboard batteries too.

And I like supporting the UK where I can. So yes, total economic sense.

+another for Exposure. I buy them because they're bloody good lights, that they're made in the UK is a happy bonus.

Hands up all those with what are now 8 year old chinese lights used pretty much daily during winter that still work , still perform well , and still have spares back up ?

Before LED's took off I had some bodged together (Q5 LED?) 250lumen lights, 4 of them, powered from a bank of AA batteries. They outlived their usefulness.

My original 'bastid' P7 is still going strong on the commuter, on it's original battery!

My Smudge lumenator battery died.

My new Nitefighter BT70 Chinese light is doing fine.

Part of the point of chinese lights is I'll never need spares backup for the Magicshine (although there are spares available) because having cost about £5/year over that time it owes me nothing. If it had cost £200+ for the equivalent USE or Hope lamp dam right I'd expect it to be repairable in perpetuity, but that's not the point.

[quote=nickjb ]Yes the batteries and chargers are questionable but they are easily replaced with the same (chinese made) units sold by the UK sellers.

I wouldn't trust batteries and chargers direct from China, but then my "Chinese" light was bought through candbeseen - so not quite as cheap as the direct route, but still far cheaper than UK produced and with UK support and I presume decent batteries and charger. Though I'm using either my home-made charger or proper RC ones, and quite capable of rolling my own batteries (was rebuilding LiIon laptop packs for my Lumicycle lights when they still only supplied NiMH packs).

sounds like you used some shit lights if thats the case.

Id rather a quality product that lasts and doesnt let me down or need replacing often.

I've got a C&BSeen light and a different one I got from Ebay (Chinese).
The C&BSeen battery is dead and the Chinese one is still working fine (used about the same amount).
I only use the C&BSeen charger though.

I realise that they are both produced in China and I paid a bit more for the QC of the C&BSeen unit. I'd pay slightly more for a light with a decent battery and charger but cannot justify the outlay for Exposure etc given that I don't use them every day in the winter / race with them etc.

I'd definitely consider paying more for a self contained light for helmet use, but again, not Exposure price levels.

*Edit* I'd also pay for a decent guaranteed battery pack, waterproof etc (maybe with the option of a reliable charger) to pair with my existing lights. That might be worth looking at producing?

Si

[quote=rone ]

Makes no economic sense at all from what I can see.

You don't appear to have justified your assertion, not when mine cost 20% of a UK made one - no obvious problems with the quality, and as suggested above if it failed who cares about the back-up when you can just buy another one and still be quids in. Not that I'm seeing lots of reports of them failing.

Of course there are other reasons you might buy a £200 light, but economics isn't one.

I just did buy a British 'sourced' light a few weeks back.

Mainly for back up and communication ease. MTB batteries were great when one of the lights developed a fault. Repaired for free, and back within 4 days. Great to deal with, and their 'Lumen 2200 light is very bright, well made and reliable.

Saving a few extra pounds has always been a path to disappointment IMO.

Just ordered an exposure diabolo.
I don't want to charge stuff in a pan outside. I wanted a quality light that would last a long time and be backed up. The cost is reasonable.
Im relegating my 5 year old Ay up lights to bar & back up duty. But as a true 500 lumen each lamp with good optics they are still good lights.
Cost per use is tiny.

[quote=lardman ]Saving a few extra pounds has always been a path to disappointment IMO.

Strangely enough that's not been the experience of most of us who have bought Chinese made lights.

"if it failed who cares about the back-up "

depends if your riding for fun or racing/training i guess....

always fun waiting for your new light to come from china 70% of the way through a 24 hour race.

edit * strangely enough around here on group rides its always the chinese lights that give mid ride issues - normally cutting out completely never to illuminate again but we have had such gems as the bracket comming to pieces on rocky descents , we once had a battery catch fire - which somehow ended up under my car while smoking like ****.

twas entertaining times.

Of course there are other reasons you might buy a £200 light, but economics isn't one.

It depends, doesn't it? If, objectively, we agree that a UK-made light is "better" in some way, then it's simply a case of how much that's worth to you.

always fun waiting for your new light to come from china 70% of the way through a 24 hour race.

"if it failed who cares about the back-up "

depends if your riding for fun or racing/training i guess....

always fun waiting for your new light to come from china 70% of the way through a 24 hour race.

Except no ones had that?

In fact the only broken lights on this thread seem to be from Exposure, and Smudge.

[edit] you edited

Hope R4+ here, really nicely made bit of kit and bright enough

"Probably not that much worse than waiting 4 days to get it back from the UK supplier. "

what sort of events do you do that you would be waiting 4 days.....

the one time i had an issue with a lupine light i wandered over to the use stand and they lent me a light.

It was good

so i bought one - And every time ive been to a 24 hour event since - there they have been doing the same service.

Good lads.

Funnily enough I need a new 4-cell battery. Are Torchy's ones still alright?

[quote=trail_rat ]the one time i had an issue with a lupine light i wandered over to the use stand and they lent me a light.

So it appears you have a solution to your [s]Chinese[/s] German light failing part way through a 24 hour race. Though ISTM that spending £80 on two Chinese made lights would also be quite a good solution and likely to be more reliable than a single UK made light.

Solarstorm X2 has been good to me for about 3 years now. Makes a good head-mounted lamp.
Their XT40 has been in service on the bars for a couple of years but doesn't seam much more powerful than the x2, so I'm a bit underwhelmed with that.

Generally, up until a year or so ago, the outputs were rising rapidly year-on-year, so buying an expensive light that was made to last but would be outgunned within a year made little sense.
Performance seams to have plateaued a bit now, so I'd consider spending a bit more today.

Think I'll be buying a Hope R8 when the cycle2work thing comes around again. The light output and spread from that is way better than the XT40, so yes I'd buy a UK light now, though I haven't previously.

Four4th lights here. All good, no complaints and certainly no reason to buy Chinese.

I've got a Lupine from 8 years ago still works just fine and has a long run time , only 1000 lumens but with a helmet light that seems plenty. I have been on loads of group rides that have been spoilt by people having issues with cheap Chinese lights packing up mid ride and for that reason I am not a great fan . I'm sure all Chinese lights are not the same and obviously my light isn't made in Britain but I think that peace of mind is worth a bit extra , it's just about how much extra and does paying more always give you that.

Generally, up until a year or so ago, the outputs were rising rapidly year-on-year,

Performance seams to have plateaued a bit now, so I'd consider spending a bit more today.

I'll be using 1 for my helmet and 2 on my bars 🙂

[quote=stevied ]The LED manufactures have moved forward a bit in the last 6 months or so. You can now get 4000 lumens from a single LED

The efficiency hasn't changed much though*, so unless your rides are all 10 minutes long or you like carrying huge batteries, in a practical sense that makes no difference.

* and you have even more problems with heat dissipation from an LED with that much power going through it, not to mention the even more nerdy issue of a larger die size making optics less efficient.

The LED manufactures have moved forward a bit in the last 6 months or so. You can now get 4000 lumens from a single LED
I'll be using 1 for my helmet and 2 on my bars

I've got 2 higher end chinese lights, the excellent MJ872... They'd be 3 or 4 years old now, I've replaced the battery packs just because I don't take very good care of them and they're cheap. Everything else is good as new. I think I just timed it nicely just as lights got "good enough" and the lumen wars calmed down so there's nothing out there I'm really keen to upgrade to, chinese or UK.

No, they're not 8 years old. And that's a bonus, because it means I'm not using an 8 year old light. And I can do that because they're relatively inexpensive so I could buy a better light in the first place that's lasted a long time and remained competitive, but also I can replace it at will.

The heyday of the DIY superlights seems a bit past, to me- they really were kicking arse for a while but mainstream lights got better. I've a feeling that the more common really powerful lights got, the more the novelty wore off and the more potential buyers got a chance to see them in the real world and go, maybe not worth it.

So that largely leave the midrange ones and they compete directly with equivalently priced, high quality, more powerful chinese lamps. Once you get out of the bargain basement there's some great options- and that's more or less what a lot of the resellers are selling anyway. So you mostly get left with speed of delivery, and aftersales which quite likely you won't need.

I use Lumicycle's on the bars and a cheapo Chinese on my lid.

I love the Lumi's and while they're old (halogen) they seem to be indestructible and the battery seems as strong now as when new back in July 2010 - and they've been used pretty much every week on a regular 2hr night ride in the woods.

They're certainly proof that you don't need a ton of lumens to see in the dark and that the quality is worth the price.
That being said, to replace my set up from their current range would cost me at least double what I paid back in 2010, I'd love to buy from them again but they may well have priced me out of a repeat purchase 🙁
Been looking at the Hope stuff recently - R8 looks good.

I think I'm on my third of forth battery for the cheapo light in 2 years - it's done the job but I've certainly got what I paid for.