P7 Not that impressed

My P7 arrived last week and I had my first night ride tonight and I was not as amazed as I hoped to be from all the hype. I had only ridden with 2 C tesco torches on the bars and aa tesco torch on my helmet and this was not enough, so tonight I had the P7 on the bars and an aa on my helmet but am thinking I need more!! What are people using with a P7 on the bars? Have I missed something? I bought the 5 mode MTE SSC P7 from Deal extreme.

I read this and for a while wondered why your lights being crap meant you were disappointed with your Orange P7.

Yes, yes, I’m an idiot….

What are people using with a P7 on the bars?

Another P7 on the helmet.
Works for me.

gf, i thought that too. 😳

I was also rather lost at the beginning, wondering when the bike review was goint to begin

Thanks takisawa2, is it the same 5 mode one?

What are people using with a P7 on the bars?

Another P7 on the helmet.
Works for me.

Al this talk of tesco torches, P7, Ay-Ups etc, it’s way beyond me. Whatever happened to Nightsuns, BLTs and those new-fangled Stadiums?

rapidman123 – Really? Stupid question – you had it on the third setting (Max)? I was out last night with 12 other guys with a mixture of the most expensive lights on the market – none was any brighter than my P7 and TK-11 combination. Perhaps you got a duffer?

gingerflash – Member
I read this and for a while wondered why your lights being crap meant you were disappointed with your Orange P7.

Yes, yes, I’m an idiot….

Thought he was talking about a Specialized P7, god knows why 🙄 They don’t even make a P7 (they do make a P1 though)

Think i need to go to bed.

Gingerflash – I had my Stadiums with me last night as well though 😉

Sorry for the double post.
Stupid bloody interweb.

Yes. Same as yours.
I run my 5 mode on the bars & a 2 mode on the helmet.
Wouldn’t buy the 2 mode again though, low setting is too dim.

Mine is brighter than the Hope HID I had before.
Surprised you find it only little better than your Tesco C’s.
I’ve never seen a Tesco C type so cant comment.

Two P7’s is loads of light. I point the bar mounted one just in front & the helmet one further ahead. Work a treat.

Thanks for the replies, maybe I was just hoping for too much!! It is brighter than the tesco’s definately but I thought 1 P7 would be all I would need.
I just charged the batteries for about 2 hours until the light turned to green so guess they were fully charged. Looks like I need another P7 then for my lid unless anyone has a better helmet option to compliment the bar mounted P7?

Whatever happened to being able to ride with a single 10W halogen? Everyone seems to need more and more light these days…

Although saying that, those Lumi LED’s are quite tempting…

On a completely contradictory note:
I had my first ride with my Dealextreme P7 tonight and found it to be completely ace. Using a bar mount most of the time, tried the helmet mount, didn’t like the lack of shadows.

It’s the 5 mode one too.
One cell got me round my 2 hour ride.
Low is fine for in the village.
Medium is fine for unlit tarmac and easy wide trails.
High is super offroad.

I really don’t think you really need more light.
On High it is about the same as 30W of Lumi Halogen. Maybe a bit brighter.

For £50 all in. Bloody amazing.

1 P7 is all you need – just stick it on your lid.

Why folk use bar mounted lights to ride twisty trails baffles me 😕

my lupine HID battery died on me last week, so I’ve ridden two rides with a DX MC-E Torch (very similar to the P7’s) and am more than happy (running it on my head), though being a glutton I’m gunna order another for the bars..
All of my m8’s now have P7’s or MC-E’s or there on order.

Lupine battery = £110
2nd P7 torch & Battery = £35

No idea why your disappointed, there good or comparable to a Hope HID, Lupine HID or a Hope 4 – all of these were in use tonight (well the lupine in the past)

i love my P7, and I’m really impressed with it.

Was out last night with a group, mostly running new LED lights of some sort, though a couple were still using Halogen Lumi’s. Anyway, Was running the Airbike SL2 P7 light on my bars as per usual, and my new MTE P7 on my head for a bit extra.

My P7 is the 2 mode like this one rather than the 5 mode (I have a 5 mode R2 which is great too, but I find the 5 modes annoying), and used it on low mode for most stuff, whilst keeping the Airbike SL2 on my bars in low or medium setting, then for any DH stuff, I upped them both to full power, and had a combined 1800 Lumens or therabouts! It was like riding in broad daylight! Nobody else’s lights even came close by comparison.

Waiting to find out how long the battery lasts on low power, but I’m told over 5 hours. On a 90 minute ride last night, switching the light off when we stopped, keeping it on low for most things, then on high for the DH bits, the battery is still nowhere near flat. So Just keeping one spare battery with me should be plenty even for most uses.

I just charged the batteries for about 2 hours until the light turned to green so guess they were fully charged

When the lights go green leave them charging for another hour or so as they will trickle charge up to full capacity.

Yes, yes, I’m an idiot….

Well, I thought he meant an Orange, too.

I may well be an idiot, though.

Thanks for the replies, Looks like I need another torch.

I wish I’d put torch in the title, sorry for all wanting to see a thread about a bike!!!

rapidman123, I wasn’t too impressed with my P7 either and found it a big come down from my L&M ARCs. The beam was reasonably bright but poor spread and the light doesn’t travel far. My mate has one and loves it and having read the reviews on here I figured I’d picked up a duffer!

I now use it just for commuting and it’s great.

For off-roading I’ve gone back to an L&M ARC on the bars with 2xTrustfire TR-801s on my lid. By comparison I am extremely impressed with these. They are cheap as chips and give out a nice focused beam of light for 2 hours+. Plus they are light and cable free so I think I’ve got the best of both worlds. Another mate rides with just 2 of these on his lid without problems.

BTW I think people are after more light because many of those they ride with already have brighter lights which mean you are often cast in shadow if they are riding behind you!

I’ve got two P7 lights from dx
Not enough flood and when you hit a bump they both change modes!

Not a patch on my old lumicycle lights, very dissapointed with them.
My advice is mot to bother with them.

Mr_Krabbs you lucky bugger, i was gonna get that (but too slow), you got a great deal there! lovely lovely bike!

z1ppy.

I was kind of interested in trying one of these p7’s until I saw them mounted up on your mates helmets.

Don’t think I’ll bother now as they look like they’re a bit weighty and going back to the old days of Petzl’s and neck ache.

i really *****ing hate the fact some light company has named their light after my bloody bike!!!

MrNutt – Member

Mr_Krabbs you lucky bugger, i was gonna get that (but too slow), you got a great deal there! lovely lovely bike!

i was indeed a lucky boy. not wishing to rub salt in the wounds, it rides as good as it looks too.

I bet! waaaaaaaaaa!

if i’m honest i’m wondering if singlespeeding is for me. it’s really hard on my legs and i will probably end up selling it on at a big loss in todays economic climate.

if only i knew someone that would be prepared to take it off my hands for a reasonable price…..

Dogdrag
if they are changing mode on hitting a bump, this is not uncommon. it is because the emmiter unit is a little loose on teh battery tube.
Unscrew the front ring off, frome lens and reflector ( don’t lose o ring) and then screw emmitter unit in another half turn or so. don’t go too wild or you’ll move the LED out of its ideal position at the focal centre of the reflector.
this should stop the temproary loss of continuity which casued mode shift on bumps. not uncommonon p7s but easily remedied.
sorry for shpelling mishtokes……half pished!

singlespeedstu – Member

z1ppy.

I was kind of interested in trying one of these p7’s until I saw them mounted up on your mates helmets.

Don’t think I’ll bother now as they look like they’re a bit weighty and going back to the old days of Petzl’s and neck ache.

Stu, they’re lighter than they look. About 200g including the battery and a mount all up. Yes that’s more than the Exposure Joystick, but at a fraction of the cost. Also, it’s still significantly lighter than the Hope Vision 1 including 4AA batteries. You do notice the bit of extra weight, but it’s certainly not enough to give you any neck strain! Christ, my Giro E2 is about 300g, with a 200g torch on that’s about 500g all in. The lightest DH lids are about 1000g all in, MX lids from about 1250g upwards, and Superbike full face lids about 1400g upwards. It’s not an issue honestly!

waihiboy –
i really *****ing hate the fact some light company has named their light after my bloody bike!!!

It must be a light bike then…

sorry missed series of updates.

SSS they really don’t weight that much, I forget mines up there – as mboy says.
Remember too theres talk on here of upgrading them with turboferrets remote pack and so the option to chop down the body/or use a dummy battery

As you can see my m8’s have now all taken to them, a couple ordering 2 ontop of there hope HID’s, just to take the piss.
The last few (5) should be here for this week… I think I might need another too..