Right, I need some LED light advice!

Want some decent LED lights for around 150 quid. The Airbike SL2 lights on planet-x-warehouse are 125 and the spec looks amazing. Anyone got one? How many LEDs does it have? Whats the light/running time like?
Other than that the Hope Vision 2 LED looks pretty good.
Need advice cos I wanna hit the trails after work soon!

hope vision twin here – great light and great backup from hope

For that sort of money I would be looking at helmet mounting either an Ayup or Hope Vision 2.

I have the Airbike SL2 lights – got them for the bargain price above. They seem nicely made and the light and the battery unit isn’t very heavy at all – just over 300 grams I think.

In use the light is simple to use – three settings which get progresivley brighter and a flash mode. Run time is a claimed 3 hrs on ‘high’ which I;ve yet to prove as I’ve not done a ride that long on them yet!

On ‘high mode’ the claimed output is 700 lumens, which, for the price, blows the competition away. I have found the beam pattern a little bit floody though (I run them on my bars) and will be getting a head torch soon I think. I’m sure you could bodge a bracket somehow to run the SL2 lights on your helmet but the cable to the battery is short so you’d likely have to carry that on your head too – might be a bit heavy.

Isn’t the SL2 being ‘a little floody’ a good thing? (I’m a night riding rookie) Surely you want it to illuminate the whole trail your riding? What are the disadvantages to this?

Same experience as shortbread_fanylion here.

It’s very good for the money. Certainly when you put it up against some of the competition at over twice the price, you wonder where the extra money is going. It consists of one Seoul P7 4 core LED emitter, which I believe (though correct me if I’m wrong!) runs at approximately 12 watts.

It’s not the brightest light in the world, but it’s certainly plenty bright enough, and I don’t know of anything close to it in price that’s as bright (that’s bike specific at least). I prefer the floody beam myself, though I have ordered a Cree R2 250 Lumen (same LED as the Exposure Joystick) torch from deal extreme to go on my lid to provide a bit of extra light “where I’m looking” if you get me.

OK, a deal extreme P7 torch is going to be pretty much the same light, and half the price, but it’s also significantly more of a faff. The Airbike SL2 light battery is 3x 18650 Li-ion cells i believe, which means the 3 hour run time on full beam is realistic. Personally I could not be doing with stopping to change the battery over every 45 to 50 minutes (fully discharging a Li-ion cell damages them a bit) whilst on a ride, what a ballache!

Oh, and the Airbike is one of the lightest lights (as in weight) on the market, it’s less than 400 grammes all up and that’s including 3 Li-ion cells. Those P7 torches are about 300 grammes without a battery in.

Sounds like the better and cheaper option is an SL2 over a Hope vision 2. I only want a light to get me into night riding, and anythings better than going out on road and mtb rides with a Halfords LED light set!!

if you only want to give it a try use the P7 torch. You can spend real money afterwards if you like night riding.

Oh, and the Airbike is one of the lightest lights (as in weight) on the market, it’s less than 400 grammes all up and that’s including 3 Li-ion cells. Those P7 torches are about 300 grammes without a battery in.

300!!!!!!!!!!!

Try 148 (AK-P7) and then 48 for the battery.
Dont make stuff up if you dont know!

Just weighed one of my MTE P7’s…131 grams on its own, 179 grams with an 18650 cell in.

Mine run for 1hr 5 mins on highest setting, but the mid setting on the 5 mode is bright enough for climbing / fire-roads etc. Alternating between mid / hi mine will last for our 2hr night ride on the same cell.

If you’ve got £150 to spend then lucky you. I’d go for the Airbike SL2, I think the Ay-Ups are somewhat surpassed now by the competition having some 600 lumens total from 4 lamps.

The advantage of the ayups is they run on lower power – so are more efficient meaning light for longer from the same battery

I think the Ay-Ups are somewhat surpassed now by the competition having some 600 lumens total from 4 lamps.

While I can’t disagree that they’ve fallen behind a bit I think it’s actually 720 lumens from a set.