What budget MTB lights for night riding?

I’m looking at getting some budget mtb lights for a local and easy mountain bike night ride. Ideally I’d like to keep it on cheaper side as not sure how often I’m going to get out.
There’s a few on amazon for about £25 but ares they any good?
Any suggestions or advice?

Cheers

Check eBay for Solarstorm X2 or X3, less than £15 and they’re very good. The downside is that they’re a separate battery so a bit more hassle to put on but I doubt you can do better for that money. I have a set from years ago and it’s still working well, I only switched to a single unit light for ease of use

Bikehut 1600 on offer.

Have a look at Planet X, they have some of the Chinese specials for not much more with batteries and chargers that I’d probably trust more than ebay/amazon ones. I’ve bought a Strix from PX and for what it costs it’s great.

Defo look at the Halfords bike guy 1600 for the bars and 1000 for the lid
Would cost about 100 quid
Solarstorms etc are ok but battery’s are poor,chargers are poor so ye buy proper battery’s for them it all adds up
Plus the bikehut stuff is wire free

Cree – can be found on amazon/eBay etc. Always served me well for 2 nights rides a week through the winter. Endurance is about 3 hours but when not on challenging terrain I do turn the brightness down.

The Halfords 1600 is the best cheap light I’ve ever used. More than £25 but better than many lights which cost double or triple the price.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/LIPXAHL1600/planet-x-supalux-al-led1600-lumen-front-bike-light?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg8i6jJTG9QIVcmHmCh1f4QKLEAQYAyABEgJEufD_BwE#LIPXAHL1600

Those look a right bargain and slap bang on your price point too..

Plenty of usable Chinese lights on eBay/Amazon, but +1 that current best bang for your buck are the Halfords lights. Self-contained, decent run times and I find a 1600 on the bars and the 500 on my helmet more than enough for night rides round the woods – for anything other than singletrack just the helmet is usually enough TBH.

Halfords 1600 on the bars / Moon Vortex 1000 or 1300 on the helmet. Job jobbed.

Another shout out for the Halfords 1600 on the bars. But that Planet X one should also be fine.

One thing I would do, whichever of those you get (if you go for either), is remove the original mount (the O-rings can slip a bit on the planet x type mount, and the halfords one can be wobbly) and use the Hope universal one:

https://www.biketart.com/accessories-c5/lights-c661/hope-qr-handlebar-mount-plastic-p33470/s96039?utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=hope-qr-handlebar-mount-plastic-hlsp403&utm_campaign=froogle&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gclid=CjwKCAiA866PBhAYEiwANkIneGd40XslArpuP_QdSBKr6hJZg6hmphzaewVjnHdXLZhD_Ljll3k1rRoCoGYQAvD_BwE

I found a rotor bolt worked perfectly to attach that to my Halfords light.

I have Solarstorm lights and in use they are great, ridiculously powerful for the money – but as above the chargers and batteries are dodgy/sometimes downright dangerous unless you spend a fair bit extra on them. If I was buying now I’d prefer all-in-one also I think.

Im standing by my solarstorm lights. 12 months now, battery life still great and none have blown up while charging

Had solarstorm once. In heavy rain the head unit failed with water ingress and the battery life was poor. Once upgraded with a better battery and the head unit re-sealed it was ok. But you would be better with a MTB Batteries one or similar from the outset.

I would add to this that I have two mtb batteries lights and they’ve been fantastic. Good spread of light, rock solid. Separate battery though, but easy enough to strap to top tube

Bikehut 1000 on the bars and an old solar-storm X2 on my lid still, adequate for my trundles…

The X2 only gets turned on for the more spicy off-road bits, and is there if I need a backup.

I’ve also got an old XML ‘bastid’ that works if needed.

The external battery pack lights have the advantage that you can change the (often crap) packs, but the wires are annoying and messy and TBH a nicely integrated light on the bar is far better. Those PX jobbies look similar enough to the bikehut ones to be worth a punt…

I’m with funkrodent. Those PX lights are/look exactly the same as the Magicshine MJ-872 which were selling for four times the cost of the PX unit.

I’ve had the Magicshine 872 for years and it’s been superb for 3 hr XC rides.

And well thought of back in the day;
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/accessories/lights/front-light/magicshine-mj-872-front-light-review/

Having purchased and replaced, I’d avoid anything that is a eBay Chinese special.

Bikehut 1600. Look for deals.Mine was 30 quid on ebay new from ???????.
Solarstorms are fine but batteries have iffy run time and pack up rapidly. Chargers are best used at the end of the garden in a bunker. Or at least don’t leave them charging in the garage unattended.

Anyone know if that Planet X light battery will mate with a Solarstorm light unit SS charger? My SS battery is borked so looking for a replacement. Running it as a helmet light and happy to keep the light itself…TIA

I recently bought a few sets of lights from PX and fore the money they are great!

Supalux on the bars and Strix (which they don’t seem to sell at the mo) on the lid and it’s more than sufficient for fast as you dare* night riding.

*You may dare faster…

If you are interested i have some MTB lights you can have for £25 plus postage, they were made by luminous lights (from here a few years ago). Not used them in ages as back road riding; they work and charge ok, let me know and i can send pics etc

instanthit – tried messaging you but it wouldn’t go! I’m interested if it can be run as a helmet light…

rascal, not suitable for helmet use, bars only, they are not lightweight.

This makes a great helmet light for £33:

https://outlet.e-bikesdirect.co.uk/bicycle-accessories/lighting/moon-meteor-vortex-upgraded-2020-waterproof-ipx5-bike-front-light?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhKOpzsTS9QIVy7TtCh09IglPEAQYBSABEgLdZfD_BwE

Edit – Moon sell a universal helmet mount for £7.99 but I prefer the go pro style one that slides into a gopro stick on mount personally.

I’ve got the Halfords 1600 light and it’s decent,but this is better

What light is that?

What light is that?

Some no name light off Amazon ,click the preview button and it takes you to it. Don’t be fooled by the 5000 lumens stats ,it’s nowhere near that,but it is brighter than the halford 1600 light and only costs £26

Ok, thanks. Some people saying the bracket isn’t up to much?

Some people saying the bracket isn’t up to much?

It’s cheap and cheerful,but does the job of keeping the light on the bars

The Hope universal QR mount is a tenner and will probably solve that problem if the Victoper one is anything like the Halfords, X2 or a million other cheap lights. I’ve got a pair of Lumicycle QR mounts that are roughly the same design as the Hope version and they must be over 15 years old.
As said above, unbolt the mount on the Halfords light and mount the Hope QR with a SPD cleat bolt or similar. Job jobbed.

The Victoper looks interesting and won’t be 5,000lm. It also looks like it probably contains two 18650s or similar, much as the Halfords 1600 Lumen does. Part of me is interested in a real-world review, part of me wants to just keep using the Maxx-D I treated myself to on B2W a few years ago…

Sort of thread resurrection!

Up to last winter I was using two of the solar storm X2 lights that I’d been using for the last 7 years. One of them gave up the ghost towards the end of last winter. I’d got an old single LED light knocking around (don’t know what it is)and have been using that on the bars. But its lacking, the remaining X2 on the helmet over powers it. So I bought an X3 thinking it would be brighter than the X2, however it’s not.

Are the lights mentioned in the thread still the best budget buy? Or is there something else at the budget end?