Any recommendations for decent lights for commuting in the darker nights now? Must be cheap due to risk of getting nicked, and am strapped for cash. USB charging would be nice?
Around £30 or so I’m thinking. Any suggestions?

PlanetX have some cheap usb lights. Pretty bright and fine for general commuting. Should get change from £30. Probably enough to buy two sets and have a back up.

Going to say the same – PX !!

The OJOS is great for what it is on the front, pretty bright – been using two all year, other than the pitch black canal commute in deepest winter – but I think they will be bright enough.

Also their cob rear – dogstar – really bright – I have two.

Lidl at the moment have a set that are stvzo certified for about £12.

The rear doesn’t look bright, but being stvzo it has a built in reflector so actually looks really bright from a car.

without going retina burning amazon specials which are somewhat overkill for road only use but decent if you want to use them for mtb as well (at reduced power on the road), then I’d do a mix of Planet X lights for the christmas tree effect. The following bundle costs £34 delivered

For the front

Dogstar 240 mounted down on a fork leg

Locus AL4 on the bars

Then for the rear

Dogstar 100 mounted low on a seat stay

COB 28 mounted on the seatpost

Then for the helmet, a dual front/rear light

Super Mini 2 way

https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/accessories/lights/rear

https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/accessories/lights/front

The Lezyne hecto 500 is another good commuter light. £30 and USB recharchable.

Update to the PX lights – use code PXBANK15 for 15% off so total is 29.98 delivered

Halfords Bikehut

Anything by Moon

How often are you commuting, what distance, and are you able to charge lights in work?

If not very often and not very far then buy cheap.

A few of us here ride 10+ miles to and from work every day and none of us run really cheap lights because they fill up with water and stop working with amazing regularity. Even when they don’t get waterlogged, it’s not a great feeling to be half way home and find that your main light has just sputtered out and you’ve got the darkest part of your ride to come. We have regular boring conversations about this subject, when yet another light has failed!

The Specialized Flashback rear light has become my go-to – it’s lasted about 2 years now. Front depends on what I grab but through the worst of the winter is normally a Lezyne 700lm. I’ve probably had it for about 3 years, and they don’t make that model anymore. They do various models with different outputs but they are over your budget. I’ll also put a couple of spares on the bike, but they will be cheap ones.

My wife bought me Planet X lights for Xmas 2 years ago. I don’t have them anymore – they are disposable if you use them every day.

Im looking to replace a Moon meteor 250 which has finally died after 8 years or so. Before that I had Hope lights which , again, died after a fair length of time. I ‘ve had what I would call expensive lights , and whilst the performance was good for the times, Im sure equal performance can be had for much cheaper these days, with the way technology improves.
I use them maybe 3 or 4 times a week, commuting about 12 miles every round trip. I live in Wales so waterproofness would need to be good, especially as we head into autumn.
I have also considered a dynamo hub as my main bike is a boring old mans tourer but I love it.

I’ve been looking myself and just seen that MTB batteries, who’s stuff is bloody brilliant, are presently doing their Luminator 800 for a bargaintastic £55

I can’t see anything beating that on a quality/reliability for price basis. That’s an absolute steal!

thanks for this thread, and for the PX recommendation and code.

ordered 3 lights yesterday lunchtime (front, rear and helmet) for £23 all in and theyve just arrived this morning.

they certainly seem bright enough too, dont think theres any chance of not being seen with these!

i know PX sometimes get poor feedback but credit where credits due.

cheers

Nice one folks. Just ordered a couple of Planet X back lights (one for the seat post, one for my bonce) for when the nights start drawing in a bit. Its nice being able to commute (mostly off-road) without needing to think about lights, but I don’t think that’s going to be for much longer

I got some Lidl lights, they’re ace for my ~2 mile trundle to work and back.

Planet X lights are great except for the rubber strap. It tears pretty easily if you’ve got thick bars and you need to get it on tight enough not to slip.
Having said that, at 6 or 7 quid a pop, it’s still worth a punt.

So, as a result of this thread, i bought the Planet X jobbies (with 15% discount, cheers whoever put the code up 🙌).
I got the most expensive ones front and rear ( still cheap jough!). No real instructions except a little bit printed on the box of the front one. Mentions a charging indicator but when I’ve put mine on to charge just now, no indicator light to be seen. Have I got a dodgy one? The rear has a little red power indicator when I charge it.
The button sequences are identical as the moon one which its replacing too, from what I remember.

Yep, think either the cable or charging port is dodgy. Ran the battery until the light extinguished, clearing all the charge it was delivered with, light will not charge at all.Have opened up a warranty query with Planet X, we will see how that goes, I’ve never bought from them before.
On a happier note though, the Moon light is back from the dead! Some strange shit happening in this house lately. It was absolutely dead, would not switch on at all, woukd not charge, and now , a few days later, its OK again.

For my “pseudo” commute (I work from home so have to pretend with an evening ride) i just bought some CatEye Black EL 135 – TL 155 of Amazon normally £30 i got them for £13. I like the fact the they are easy to remove in case potential perp fancied them too.