Cheap Chinese lights

Thought I’d show some photos of what you get for those interested. I am personally impressed with the product and though I’ve not used them much yet, I know from a number of mates that they should be good for at least a few years of hard use.
This is what you get in high quality packaging
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What’s in the box[/url] by wobbliscott[/url], on Flickr

The lamp unit itself is of the highest quality CNC machined and anodized housing and feels really nice quality and very lightweight
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Lamp unit[/url] by wobbliscott[/url], on Flickr

I got a replacement polycarbonate diffuser lens off ebay for a fiver so one unit can throw a wider more diffused light. I’ll have this on the handlebars with the other on the helmet. The standard glass lens gives you an intense spot with a diffused bright halo, so ideal for spotting detail while the other produces a lower intensity and wider light pattern, which should be better and less dazzling for road use.
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Diffuser lens on the left[/url] by wobbliscott[/url], on Flickr

I’ll post up some photos in the dark but they are mighty bright. They are advertised as 1800 lumens and I can believe it. They were £17 each, though on one the plastic mount was broken – it must have been damaged in transit on the slowest boat from China, but they offered me a discounted third unit or some money back, so great service from the vendor. I chose the discounted third unit for about £9. I can probably repair the plastic bracket and have a spare for my commute bike, or use it for spares, or as a hand held unit for camping and walking. Anyway I’m looking forward to using them in anger.

what make are these and where did you buy them? C ould really do wtih some night lights but doin`t want to spend a fortune!!

They are advertised as 1800 lumens and I can believe it.

They’ll be 700-800 lumens max, each.

There are dozens of threads about these on here and few mods to make them better/safer.
Just remember, you get what you pay for, don’t charge them unattended, like when you’re sleeping.

I have these lights and have found them great but noticed a slightly dimmer light after a few rides so contacted supplier and they sent out a replacement battery free of charge!

to be honest Any rechargable battery can pop and bang. Nothing should ever really be left recharging unattended. Laptops, phones, lights, rc toys etc all have the potential to go wrong and probably somthing like 0.1% will

I’ve had ones like these for two years, still going strong and both still last over 3hrs on full power.

My advice to anyone buying these is bin the charger they come with and buy a better one in the UK. I’m sure it’s the chargers over charging
causing the probs. My chargers went wrong very quickly so that’s what I did. The charger cost me 7quid and was much better quality.

@ Hopk1ns,
Where did you buy your new charger from please?
Ebay only seem to do Chinese chargers.

This is he seller I used, but they don’t appear to have any in stock at the moment. There are other similar, or the same units on ebay from other sellers at different prices.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271070233244?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Though they may not be 1800 lumens, and units that look identical are offered as 1000 lumens or 1200 lumens from other ebay sellers, they’re definitely more than 700 – 800. Like I’ve said, many of my mates have these or similar units and when compared to one mates couple of hundred quid 700 lumen lights they were noticeably better. He was a bit cheesed off to say the least and relegated his expensive light to his commute bike and got some of these for his night riding MTB lights. You may get what you pay for, but they’re only bike lights at the end of the day so not much to them. They’re definitely better than the £30 cateye style LED lights and I’m not really sure what you’re getting with your other lights that cost hundreds of pounds as these feel like quality units and I know they are robust. One of my mates had a battery issue, but just got some replacement batteries in the uk. Ok, you may get a warranty with the expensive ones, but I’m willing to take the risk. I’m sure they won’t last forever, but if I get a few years of use out of them, they’ll owe me nothing.

The only thing I might do as a belt and braces approach is to wrap the battery pack in insulation tape to make sure they’re properly sealed. As for the charging thing, I never leave things on charge unattended anyway. Time will tell if they turn out to be a wise purchase or not.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Though they may not be 1800 lumens, and units that look identical are offered as 1000 lumens or 1200 lumens from other ebay sellers, they’re definitely more than 700 – 800.

How exactly did you determine that? A single XM-L T6 will do 910 lumens at the maximum current under ideal conditions. After optical losses, reduction in output due to it heating up, and the possibility that it’s not being driven at full current, I’d say that 700-800 was pretty realistic. Lumen inflation is pretty universal, so the light you were comparing it to probably wasn’t what it said it was either.

It’s always possible that it’s driving it at beyond its maximum rated current, but no chance that it’s anywhere near 1800.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

at 17 quid you can afford to buy ten times and it’ll still cost less than the big brands!!!

agree the chargers seem garbage on the cheap lights though, especially with a sketchy chinese adapter. got one of the £17 lights as a back up light to leave in the car, but intend on using my proper charger that came with my uk sourced light to charge the battery

main problem with my chinese ebay special is it has an extremely tight spot which i hate – going to tin foil the reflector to make a flood beam

pdw – I determined it by direct comparison with some other lights that were supposed to be 700 or 800 Lumens (can’t remember) and cost a few hundred quid and these beat them hands down for both brightness and the spread and coverage. Only a relative comparison rather than an absolute measurement of light output, but my point is that though they may not be throwing out light as advertised, but the light output is probably right relative to the expensive units. They are what they are and plenty bright enough for the job and spending hundreds of pounds wont buy me more light.

Go on – i’m willing to be proved wrong, but at this price i’m not too fussed if they turn out to be a crappy purchase. I’m not buying these blind. I know of about 15 of these and similar units that my mountain biking mates have been running for a few years now with no problems or deterioration of performance, apart from one failed battery pack. Some things are cheap and nasty, but some things are cheap because you’ve bought direct, and are not lining the pockets of a chain of middlemen, importers and distributors. I’m happy to pay full price for expensive products, like the bike itself, but not for minor accessories like lights.

Have got 2 of these from UK seller with UK charger, Think they are great
Could you post the link for the diffuser.
Thanks

Me & all my little riding group all use them…you have to spend £200+ to match the brightness, could replace every year if needs be, very highly reccomended

Is it the American diffuser? Post some pictures of the comparison when you get a chance

2 Things I’ve found about these.

1. The mounts are rubbish! I replaced it with this (clicky) which works far better.

2. The batteries are rubbish. Even the proper MagicShine ones are pretty pants. However the lights do have a voltage regulator in them. Mine is running off an old 4000MAh 9.6V pack I had from a RC plane. Runs fine and gets around 3 1/2 hours on full tilt. Heavier but then I used to ride with Halogen lights and a lead-acid battery…..

had one set for over a year with no probs at all, just got another for work bike , super value , interested in the diffuser .

These look exactly the same as my C&B seen ones. I probably would have punted for an ebay job but wanted them quicker. So far after a month of use the C&B seen light is working fine.

Argonne – Got my charger from magicshine.co.UK, was a better one than they came with.
http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/categories/Bike-Light-Accessories

Been running 2 for the last 6 months, claimed lumens for mine are 1200 but cant confirm however they are effective for what I use them for so good enough. I have the 4 mode one and we have about 12 guys in my cycling group who use them with no reported issues, the mounts are a little tosh though.
Impressed by the price, I can only get mine for 20GBP and I am guessing Im a little nearer China than you?

Heres the link to the light diffuser:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261119985356?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

It says that as the polycarbonate diffuser lens is thinner than the glass lens you’re replacing and you may need to pad out the gap with an O-ring or something, but I had no problems.

Didn’t get a chance to get out to take photo’s of the light pattern last night but will do.

timbo678: Yes, my ‘little group’ use them as well as more expensive units. There is nothing wrong with the expensive units, but from their experience there is nothing wrong with the cheaper units either – and i’m talking night MTB riding and not the commute to and from work, so these lights are getting a fair bit of hammer. I’m not advocating one or the other, but am just trying to document my experiences. Anyway from quite a few posts on here from owners of expensive light units about the value of the warranty that comes with them, spending big on lights doesn’t appear to be a guarantee of buying people better reliability or quality.

Ok so the cheap lights need new diffusers chargers mounts and possibly batteries. Cheap is adding up 🙂

Got my Ay up lambs upgraded for 45 each so similar ball park.

@ hopk1ns
Thanks, just ordered 🙂

i’ve been using a 15 squid focussable head torch for a while. fantastic. dazzle full beam drivers. just got on like above delivered thos week. head torch and bike mount. said 1200 lumens but not that w. but solid kit. strill to use it but the £17 free delivery price from HK makes these light tests in the mags look ridiculous especially as a number of these £400-500 lights are based on what I got for seventeen squid.

Hi guys.
It’s not the lamp units that are the cheaply made parts it’s the batteries and chargers.
The bulbs and housings are very cheap to make with good quality materials but its the batteries and chargers that are the killers.
They are rebound for exploding and shooting flames across the room.
YouTube it and see. Best thing to do is buy the kit them bin the batts and charger and buy some safe uk stuff
They will cost a few quid but you don’t want them exploding in your house or worst still when it’s strapped to your bike.
But I certainly agree with the point that these crazy priced lights are not worth what they cost.
Torchy the battery boy does great reviews and some of those lights costing over £400 were blown away by units costing a fraction of that.
Do your research and you’ll save a lot of dough and be lighting up the wildlife.

Ah, but with the cheap chinese lights you don’t get a nice little “Hope” logo stamped on it, that stamp must cost a bit.

It takes the piss what specific MTB lights companys are charging. And you can say “I’d rather pay a little bit more and have something that works” but the fact is your paying alot more for something that does the same job. I’ve been running two (one helmet, one handlebars) for 2 years now n no bother at all, yeah you might get horror stories of exploding batteries but you don’t get the hundreds and thousands of people going on youtube saying “oooh, my lights are working ace, nothing more to report” or “Chinese Battery Charges With No Problem Whatsoever” cos no one would watch it. You will always get people who think “Oh, this is much more expensive so it must be much more bettererer” I think those people have more brass than sense.

Hope everyones having a fun sunday.

True true true.
The marwi I got for £40 was something like £600 upon release. You need to check if you still have your brain in place spending that much.

Off to test my 2 yr old cheapo Chinese light at 7.30pm, not been used since last year so it will be interesting to see how the battery holds up.

The only prob I can see with using UK sourced batteries & chargers is that there is no info on the light or battery to indicate what spec the battery the light needs – can anyone advise please if it matters that much or could we use anything similar?

Cheers, P.

A wee tip. Unravel the charger cable whilst charging, don’t leave it tied up with the wee wire round it, the heat can build up in it and melt the wire coating. Not good.

To the OP, in no way are these CNC.

Usually it’ works like this.
2 batts=7.2-8.4v
3batts=11.1-12.6v
4 batts=7.2v double the mah or 14.4-16.8v
And so on.
My marwi uses 9cells divided into 3 for 11.1v-12.6v 6600 mah

Worked perfectly, batteries lasted 2 hours with no dimming. Two more sets on order.

Ah, but with the cheap chinese lights you don’t get a nice little “Hope” logo stamped on it, that stamp must cost a bit.

In defence of Hope you do get a bit more than just a logo – after 4 years of use my Vision 4 died last week, I posted it back to them Tuesday morning and it was returned Thursday afternoon fixed free of charge.

In defence of Hope you do get a bit more than just a logo

I had their read light and they couldn’t be bothered to strain relief the cable into the battery pack, so a light tug and it ripped out. For the money they charge I’d expect better quality – the cheap Chinese stuff is better made than Hope.

the cheap Chinese stuff is better made than Hope

Having seen the battery pack for the lights in the OP, I doubt that (though I’ve not seen the Hope one you mentioned – presumably you sent it back and they fixed it anyway?)

But my point was more about customer care and service than quality anyway.

I tired that diffuser but it only cost me about £2 maybe 18months ago. I thought it was worse than the standard one.

I tried an XML light with the diffuser, really didn’t like it at all- just meant that the hotspot was a distracting shape.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Exactly. One for the bars and one for the helmet.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Exactly. One for the bars and one for the helmet and still have spent less than half the cash of a ‘main brand’

Been using mine for 3/4 years, still not managed to burn the house down either when charging them up overnight..

Out of curiosity, how long have you had to wait for yours to arrive? I’ve been waiting 3 weeks so far and hopeing they will arrive sometime soon.

Set one of my DX experience lasted 3 full years of both regular two-three times a week muddy hill commutes, plus a regular night ride. The clicky button finally stuck and refused to free up, so I binned it. Units two and three followed (I now being We), 2 now being a year old and 3 just a few weeks. The output has gone up with each set and the battery life seems similar throughout. No problems with batteries, chargers etc, equalling Exposure in my experience and bettering Hope.
2 claims 800 lumen and floods out a 400 lumen Hope Vision 2 on the bike next door to the extent that you can’t even see if it’s switched on.
3 is noticeably brighter again.
We’ve run the tandem with both of them a couple of times and at full whack, they disintegrate cars at 100 paces.. Ok, I made that bit up but you get the idea.
Like others have reported, I’ve several friends running DX or Magicshine lights, all with positive experiences. My only modification is to wrap some tape around the bars to make them thicker and the rubber fastening band therefore tighter. Doesn’t budge.

So, we’ve been running these for 4 years without any issues that I can report and the total spend is still under £100.
Why on earth would anyone pay £300-500?