I’ve just bought a Halfords 1600 bike light after seeing all the good reviews. On the website it advertises that there are 3 xm-l2 leds, yet the box says 1 xm-l2 and 2 xt-e leds. Is this a downgrade in quality?
Thanks.

A downgrade in online listing skills mostly I expect. Googling “XT E cree” brings back blurb like “best ever leds”. I’d hazard a guess that’s always been the spec and some has just see XML and 3 Leds and run with it. Perhaps the xml is better for spotlighting and the others for flood or similar?

Wouldn’t worry, battery will fail before the LEDs, you get 1600 lumens so it’ll all be good, used the ones i got last year at the weekend, honestly it was as clear as daylight for 10 metres ahead of me, a far cry from t’olden days!

I was just surprised they weren’t the leds advertised.
Apparently they used to use xpg2, so it’s had some changes. I just wish they had changed the micro USB to USB-C.

I use a magnetic micro usb in mine, just leave it in all the time. I do this because I’ve read a couple of reports of failed sockets on these lights.

I use a magnetic micro usb in mine

@martymac can you still put the cover on when you’ve done this?

Mines gone back on warranty, apparently not making them any more.

@molgrips i could have, if I’d trimmed it a couple of mm, so it didn’t insert as far.
But I just cut it off completely.
Fair weather rider, and it’s underneath anyway, minimal chance of any problem in my situation.

Interested in the magnetic idea. I’ve broken the charging port off twice on a Lezyne and once on the Halfords.

Anyone else have a problem with it holding charge? Mine goes half way flat in a couple of days without even being turned on

Sold out now?

Anyone else have a problem with it holding charge?

Mine was fine for a year or so then suddenly now it flashes when charging but will only turn on when plugged in. Suspect a battery issue of some sort.

So at least 2 failures in the small number, maybe 5, among my riding buddies makes me question their reliability/longevity.

On sockets mine was ok but I’m a bit wary of micro usb having had a few other lights fail at the socket.

My 500 cut out the other day in temps of about 2C or so. I think I will sew up a little neoprene sleeve to keep it warm.

mine is great (bound to fail now)

bit too bright if im honest. i never use the max light.

What is the go to handlebar mount for these as the rubber strip is ok and the plastic mount it comes with looks a bit poo.
cheers

I’m using the Halfords ones, which I bodged to make them much more stable, but I cannot recommend them without bodging in all honesty. The last time we discussed this people recommended alu ones from eBay.

I didn’t find the strap thing held it solidly enough on the bars, and the out front mount is too flimsy for proper off-road use imo. I found the best solution was an alloy go pro style mount from eBay for about a fiver. Solid as a rock and worked perfectly.

Cheers ordered one for £4

I’ve had one of these for 2 years now. The last 12 months its not been used but still took.about 2 hrs to fully discharge. I’ve tried charging it back up but its taking a long long time im.not even sure it’s charging. How should you recharge these, from a plug socket usb or from the computer usb?

@naffa you can probably use either, but you can be more confident of getting sufficient power from a plug than a computer. Sorry if this is obvious, but you are plugged into the port on the base (micro USB) and not the one at the back (full size USB) of the light aren’t you? And are the charge indicator lights on top flashing?

Computer USB ports sometimes can only supply a tiny amount of current. Plugs are usually more.

plug for charging. i use a hope qr mount. its a realy crapily designed bit of kit but it does mean the light can be easily removed which put me off of using the bolt on gopro style one

No problem with stating the obvious mate. Yes I’m using the micro usb. Im actually using a Samsung phone charger plug with micro usb lead. Is that likely to provide the correct charging rate?

Charged mine up yesterday that was about half full and it took at least 2 hours probably 3 try a different cable if you can as micro usb cables can be a bit poo after a lot of use.

Another mount option is the hope one which you bolt directly into the base of the light.

A problem with any GoPro one for me was that it relied on the plastic Halfords piece which is bolted into the light and can be a bit too flexible to reliably hold straight and firm.

I did prefer the position of the aluminium out front one but I switched to Hope in the end for solidity.