Anyone tried their newish 1600 lumen effort?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs

Looks a bit generic but was thinking I’d get a light with a guarantee for £50.

Be interested to know what the run time is? the 1000 looks like it could be good for evening rides on the road.

Just ordered the 1600 with the remote switch. Should have it tomorrow.

There’s one review on the halfords site and the guy says he gets 2hrs at 1600. I’m not expecting that to be true but it’ll be a bonus if it is. The light has 3 XMLs and 3 battery cells so I’d be expecting it to get a little over 1.5 hrs on 1600. I’ll be using mine on 800 mostly with the odd 1600 blast for descents/flat out parts of the ride so it should manage 2.5hrs. Obviously this is just guesswork. If it’s terrible Halfords are pretty good with returns.

I haven’t got the bike hut one but another light that Cycle Republic sell called the Ryder Alumia 1600 which maybe quite similar inside (although I think it only has 2 leds). Used it a few times now and when used at full power it goes from blue to amber on the power meter in about an hour. I’m not sure then how long it takes to get to red then flat as I’ve not been riding for long enough in the dark yet this year to find out. Maybe it would eek out 2 hours but I suspect not quite.

I’ve just took the plunge brought one for a trip to Afan tomorrow. Looking at it and it has a powerbank function which will come in handy for audax and touring duties.

I assume it’s a rebadged something but I’ve never seen that design before. TBH 1600 lumens from 3 XMLs is easily doable and wouldn’t drive them hard so could still get a good life from 3 18650s. Mode memory’s a nice sign, always says it’s not just the cheapest crappest board they could find. Pretty tempting!

Be really interested to hear how you get on with the mounting, too… That’s always fixable if it’s bad but it’d be nice if it works.

It looks a bit Leyzne-ish

Cant see a weight on the halfords site – specs look good but might be too heavy for helmet use?

Northwind. The Bikehut light uses a gopro mount. Part of the reason it interested me in the first place (the remote is another). I already have gopro bar mounts fitted to bikes for a more powerful ext battery pack light and a go pro mount underneath the garmin outfront mount on my roadbike.
I want this for shorter rides so I won’t have to **** about fitting battery packs and connectors.
Will let you know what it’s like. beam/runtime etc.

Comes with an out-front mount too.

For those of you who have picked one of these up what are your thoughts on it?

Story corner time

Now children sit down and finish your milk and cookies while I start…

I have the light here. In the box there’s

The light unit with rubber quick mount fitted
A stabilizer block for the quick mount
A USB to Micro USB cable
Replacement GoPro style mount
Plastic Garmin/Gopro outfront mount including 2 keyed rubber reducer rings to fit different bar diameters
2 allen keys
Very thorough instructions in english with diagrams

The light itself appears very well made and well thought out. Alu case, nice soft rubber buttons, battery life/charge indicator leds along the top, sturdy rubber plugs covering each USB port 2.0 for the powerbank on the rear and microUSB for charging and the remote connector underneath.
It has 3 XP-G2 LEDs (whatever they are)
the size of the unit is 115mm x 34mm x 44mm
the weight is 234g incl quick mount and stabilizer (it’ll be lighter with the go pro mount attached)

The adjustable rubber band on mount it comes with allows easy remvoval/fitting without the need for any permanently fitted baracket or tools and is actually fairly decent. it’s bolted onto the underside by a single 4mm allen bolt. This has silicone rubber on the base and a small dog to stop it rotating/vibrating loose. The design includes a silicone/rubber stabilizing block to help it grip your bars more securely. This mount without the stabilizing block would probably be fine for roadbars or commuting but there’s no way it’s secure enough not to move if used off road or hard street stunting 😉
With the stabilizer block it’s actually really secure. Not entirely convinced it would stay put on the roughest terrain but a millinion times better than the generic chinese O-ring style mounts.

The Outfront mount is possibly one of the best plastic outfront mounts I’ve ever seen. it’s stiffer than most aided no doubt by the moulded with hollow honeycomb section underneath. I’ve used quite a few Garmin/Gopro OF mounts to run a garmin and a chinese lamp together and all but the Alu ones have flexed, some so badly that even road riding the vibration is so bad you can barely read the garmin and your light noticable shakes on the road ahead. This one seems a lot stiffer. The Gopro mount bolts on below by 2 allen head screws and the garmin mount by 2 allen head screws above. Both are well made and fit well. (not all generic ones are) The OF mount also comes with 2 rubber/silicone rings to shim it to anything between 22mm and 35mm bar diameters (35mm go pro/garmin bar mounts are like gold dust) great for someone like me with multiple bikes from multiple eras. I’m not planning on using this mount as I have a quality alu one on the only bike I use a garmin on (roadbike) but will definitely be keeping it as a spare.

It’s almost charged now and I’ll be using it to find my way through the woods to the pub after tonights story comes to an end.

Talking of which…

You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out more.

Now clean your teeth and off to bed…

Remember to take your dishes to the kitchen on the waaaaaAAYYYYYy!

These are good, don’t stick out as much.

Used with this for my Evolva X8

Seriously doubt I need another light, but that looks great, waiting for a review of the beam as it might be useful for commuting.

I bought one of these after seeing this thread, thanks flatpat.

Initial thoughts are it’s well made, not too big and has a decent amount of modes. I was drawn to it by the GPS on top light on bottom out front mount because it looks a lot neater than my current set up with cables to batteries everywhere.

Also got the remote lever (which at only a fiver was a steal) and that will make changing settings on the go a lot easier. Seems bright from my testing it in a dark room test.

For 55 quid in total it really seems like a good deal and I hope I don’t end up disappointed in the end.

The out front mount comes with a Garmin mount, I have a Wahoo but was able to turn the computer mount 90 degrees and fix it in place with a couple of small bolts threaded into the plastic body of the mount.

Blimey – looks like a good all in one solution.

I’m currently riding on the road with an old Spokeshirts bike light with separate battery & to be honest it’s a bit of a faff, especially as there’s not much room on the bars.

Might be a good solution for the road bike, although I’d really prefer one of the german-spec non dazzling lights.

hmm, it’s not the sexiest of lights but for £50 from a place where you can take it back if you have any problems it is hard to ignore.

I only rode the light for probably 8 minutes (sober) last night. A fast road descent, streetlit residential street and some woodland single/double track. Not the worst ride to the pub here. 😉 I’ve no idea how many minutes it took me getting home. (Say half an hour mainly on full) and hadn’t even used one bar on the battery indicator

Beam review:

Bright AF, quite floody with shitloads of throw. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m not sure how to describe the beam so you’d understand but with the light on full power it shines all the way down the hill to the pub (400m?). and with the light pointing straight forwards and dipped only a tiny amount if I manual my Ebike (much  higher balance point than normal bikes) The light still reaches the ground infront of my wheel. No other light I have does this at the same angle and it’s nice and wide to the sides too.
No weird hotspots.
the next 3 lower brightness modes are all useful for proper riding the bottom 2 are more of a commuter be-seen kinda deal than something useful to ride by.
A couple of the strobe modes could actually be used to ride by when you’ve almost drained the battery fully.

The wee remote feels like an old skool kinder egg toy, Not a bad thing, old skool kinder egg toys were genius. Not like the 3 piece crappy cartoon figurines they put in them these days. push the lever up for one sec to switch on/off. push it down once to change mode. it’s a very light action and like an excited milf easy to flick fast. 😉

it’s really intuitive and easy to cycle through all the (too many really) modes quickly. it doesn’t attach to the bars all that securely. I think it might be designed to be fitted to a grip/bar taps as well as bars and as such isn’t a tight fit on a 22.2 section of bare bar. I think I might pad my bar out with a slither of mastic for it.

Brightness: 1600 Bright AF, Next one down brighter than a Solarsun X2, next again probably a little less than an X2 (like X2 medium)

The rubber mount didn’t budge at all. Stuntage wasn’t high though and the trails riden are far from gnarly.

It’s £50 all in with BC discount.

Really pleased with it. Will take it out tonight for a proper (Sober) ride.

OMG I’m too **** hungover… thnak christ you’re all still at school 😉

@Andyl

As a sex toy it’s actually a decent size, a bit short though and could do with tapering more at the tip. you’ll probably want to remove the bar mount completelybefore use. it should also be pretty discreet in your manbag

 like an excited milf easy to flick fast.

I had to double take on this!

Are you still a bit drunk? 😀

Yes

I’m no different sober though

Thanks Geex, just ordered one and the remote to collect within the hour.  Sick of crappy battery packs flapping around the bike and been looking for a unit which has a remote to compliment my Diablo.

Oh… Now I’m sobering up. I just stuck the light back on charge for tonight and remembered. I hadn’t fully charged the light before using it. So ignore anything I might have said above about battery life. Will report back about that after a proper ride.

Assuming the LEDs on the top are for battery indication, is there anyway to know when using it on the out front type mount that the battery is getting low? A rear warning led or something on the remote?

Yes. but I’m far too Strungover to explain it

To cheeck (not that there’s any need) Simply put your hand under the light, the green light from the LEDs will reflect onto your fingers. The shorter the light reflects the less LEDs are lit.
The reason there’s no real need is the light automatically switches to a lesser mode when the battery starts to die. Plus with use you’ll begin to learn roughly how long it will last anyway. Switch it off or onto min when stopped and use lower settings for climbing and it should last a decent length of time.
Even if it had unlimited battery you don’t be one of those **** who puts 1600lm on and turns to face the others every time they stop. Do you?

OMG that was way harder typing that than it should have been.

I think it’s your round?

Does it have an easy method to toggle high for descending and low for climbing? Or do you have to cycle through all the modes each time?

Can you consistently count to 5, 6, 7 or 8 with confidence?

would others rate your thumb flicking technique as effective?

if Yes to both of the above, then Yes there’s an easy method to quickly choose the correct mode for the next part of your ride.

If you lack either of the above skills you may struggle. And not just riding bikes after dark 😉

So so thought I would give a bit of an update now I have ridden with my light in anger! I’m impressed, battery life is outstanding and cycling through full and dipped beam gave me 3hrs with half charge left at the end of the ride.  I use the light with an exposure diablo on my helmet for reference…

The remote is great, albeit is a loose fit so needs some modification and the rubber attachment strap for the main light is not great.  I will look at modifying a GoPro mount.  Really impressed that the unit game with a Garmin put front mount, be useful for the road bike.  Look a bit shit on my ‘Nduro sled!

My main criticism is all the shitty functions! You have to cycle through.  It’s bloody annoying, basically from dipped beam to full power requires about 30,000 clicks of the remote….I soon figured when it gets to strobe function the next click is full.  But it’s so annoying.  Overall happy with the purchase, couple with the Diablo it’s a pretty descent light set for night forest riding

A slither of masic tape round your bar and the remote mounts far more securely. mine is butted up against the inside of my right lockon collar, very easy to reach and doesn’t move now. I by think the size of the plastic clamp it was designed to fit over a grip and/or bar tape rather than a bare 22.2 bar.
I’ve found the rubber light mount surprisingly secure. Do you have yours done up properly tight?

It takes 4 flicks of the (very easy to flick quickly) remote lever to go from from full dipped to full blast.
Join molgrips in remedial arithmetic at lunchtime.

I need to space out the outfront mount to fit my bars, but it should be a more solid fit than the rubber clamp.

Remove is a cable into the light unit so unsure how that impacts waterproof capabilities – unless the plug has a huge rubber cover on it?

if Yes to both of the above, then Yes there’s an easy method to quickly choose the correct mode for the next part of your ride.

It might be easy, but it still takes longer which is the issue.  Although to be fair if there’s a bar mounted remote it’s not so hard.

Although then again, for those of us that run droppers and front mechs and GPS units the bar area’s getting a bit crowded!

I wonder if I could rig up my phone to give voice control?  ‘Ok Google, full beam!’

I don’t see the lack of sealing around micro USB port when the remote is plugged in as being a huge problem but if you do, silicone sealant or sugru around the usb connector might be enough to keep the worst of the wet/crap out

Mine is 7 clicks from full beam to full beam I just counted…I’ll get molgrips to save you a chair Geex 😉

i actually made the remote fit fit snug by adjusting the strap and will modify it further to improve.  It’s a ‘light touch’ switch and I rather it have play so it doesn’t snap in the inevitable off… as for the light mount.  I had it done up tight yep with the additional rubber support boot.  Found it to slightly ‘nod’ over rougher terrain, it needs a more secure fixing for sure…for me anyway I guess it’s the challenge with all in one units.

im very impressed through, it’s a good light for the money the beam pattern, whiteness of light all spot on.  You would be forgiven for thinking it a light 3 or 4 times it’s price

I like your writing style for product reviews geex, I think I’d buy more bike mags if you did the product tests 😀

No Rusty. come back tomorrow lunchtime and try again.

Here’s your homework.

The light has 8 modes.

Now count with Geex…

One… (1600lm)

Two… (1000lm)

Three… (640lm)

Four… (240lm)

Five… (15lm)

Six… (day flash)

Seven… (flash)

Eight… (pulse)

Keep counting (starting anywhere in the list) until you ‘get’ that it takes 8 clicks to get back to the same place. It’s ok if you need to use your finger to keep your place in the list while you count 😉

Now here’s the difficult to comprehend part…
full lowest (15lm constant) beam is 4 clicks from full HIGHEST (1400lm constant) beam.
Just as it’s 4 clicks from full highest back to lowest.

It took me two terms to escape Mrs Leaper’s lunchtime remedial arithmatic detention centre in P3. I’m a **** boss at it. Trust me.

@hooli – Um farely deesent ut writin aswel 4 u boy hoo niver reeley went too skool awl that mush

I didn’t look at the connection for the remote, but there is a large rubber bung that seals it to maintain waterproof status…if that is unplugged then the innards are exposed. If you remove the micro USB plug then moisture can get in to the plug…so it would be better to plug the hole that the rubber bung leaves when it is removed…just to make sure it remains watertight.

If the remote plug has a rubber bung that seals that space then not an issue.

Whaaaaat?

or maybe just don’t remove the USB remote plug?
Like I said, if you’re really worried sugru the micro usb plug to seal the hole when plugged in (not that it really looks to need doing). when the plug is removed just put the rubber bung back in.it’s permanently attached to the light. or if you’re really really worried don’t use the remote at all in the wet.
TBF being from Halfords. if it breaks from water ingress they’ll replace/refund.

You’re probably overthinking this aren’t you?

Ah Geex, I understand you now.  Apologies.  To be honest, there is no need to count.  When it flashes strobe style I know next click is full beam.  Still shit but hardly a deal breaker.