Cree lights direct from China on Ebay

Sorry because this is yet another light post!

I’ve heard a few positive comments regarding these cheap £30 lights on the net.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-CREE-XML-XM-L-U2-5000LM-LED-Bike-Bicycle-Head-Light-Lamp-Rechargeable-Battery-/221309170453?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&var=&hash=item33870df315

Maximum 5000LM or so they advertise but has anyone on here bought any?

Mine has been fine. My mate has the same model as those. Its super bright. Expect that battery holder pouch thing to fall apart as soon as you take it out the box though

Ive got 3 sets, cant fault them for the money. As mentioned above one of the straps on the battery holder fell apart in my hands straight out the box.

Got to worth a go for £30 as all the other powerful lights are a fortune, Hope, Exposure etc!

I use a set of Hope visions that cost a fortune…all my riding mates have the cheap Chinese ones as per the ad above, as do my two sons….they are MUCH brighter than mine, to the extent that when they ride behind me, I can’t see!!

Given the knowledge I now have, I would buy the Chinese lights every time – you can buy a hell of a lot of them before you get up to the price of a set of Hopes, etc!!

I’ve been running a few £13 sets of a different type for 2yrs now and they’ve been faultless. My riding mates have been running them for a few more years than me and I think between about 5 people there’s only been one dodgy charger.

I’m sure if you did a back to back with the expensive units you might find some differences, but for the price difference you really can’t go wrong in my opinion. I bought 3 sets – use two when riding and keep a third to cannibalise for spares should I every need to.

I have a 1500lm chinese light, is this really over three times brighter?
I find it astonishing for £30.

Go on.Spoil your self and buy a Liberator.
You only live once. 😀

The light is OK (I bought a head unit) but it is less than 1250 lumens from a comparison to my other lights.

The problem is the battery and the charger (look at other threads on here) so I personally would go for this package:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Solarstorm-X2-High-quality-UK-upgraded-edition-6100mAh-Keeppower-Panasonic-pack-/121227584924?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&var=&hash=item1c39ba259c

The light is great, it actually feel pretty nicely-made and the beam is much better than my old Chinese / Deal-Extreme light.

The battery not so much. Cheaply made and a charger that feels like it might take down your house in a fire. The first battery I got just didn’t work, eventually got a replacement but I don’t feel safe charging it, and I don’t really trust it not to give out half way around a night ride.

That UK battery deal above seems like a clever option – I’d recommend that over buying a Chinese one.

I’d second what TurnerGuy said – Olly sorted me out with one of those kits (via this forum!), and I’ve been out on 4 hour rides alternating between high and medium settings and still had battery life left when I got home. It makes the whole night ride thing much better knowing that you’re not running a roulette about whether your batteries will suddenly die.

Bunch of us clubbed together and bought a batch of 10 of them, worked out at £21 each (incl delivery and duty)
Of the 10, 2 of them have dodgy battery run times, and 1 of them only had 1 LED working (its been replaced under warranty), and several of the battery pouches have failed.

Bit of a gamble, but its pretty much paid off, when they work, they’re superb.

I run 2 of the 1800 lumens ones..

been really good so far, for off road riding.

A couple of weeks ago 6 of us were out for 3hours, at the end the only 2 lights still working were the cheap cree’s
I did the last 3miles on the wheel of one of the guys wheels and I was able to figure out where I was going, we tried him following me but I cast a shadow so big I thought Batman would’ve mistaken it for his call.
I also had a stack of personal records on strava cos I was scared of being dropped.
Now all of us have the Crees and the 2 that had them bought another set each.
You can’t go wrong for that price, the helmet mount is a real faf but does the job.

Read this thread

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/solar-storm-x2-mid-term-report