As above, for more than a decade I’ve said “nah, sod night riding, I’ll stay at home, it’s warm and there are chairs” but another winter of bitching about going to the gym seem less appealing if anything.

eBay is full of ‘Cree’ (don’t know if that’s a brand or a thing) lights that promise to turn night into day for less than £20, but as Hope still want £200 for their version I assume that you can indeed spend too little.

Any recommendations?

The solarstorm Chinese lights are good on eBay etc.  Just be wary charging them. I charge mine in a tin outside. They last well. I get about two hours. Full of Chinese lumens. I’ve had two for about 2 years. About £20 with obligatory “free gift” of a rear light.

The chinese ones are a no brainer.

Buy from amazon if you want some come back.

For the money they are a one season job without feeling to hurt in the wallet.

Solarstorm are cheap, but you risk a dodgy battery and the head unit I had would fill up with water on a wet ride. So for cheap and decent I reckon something from mtbbatteries is on the mark. Good back up too. If you are going to ride a lot in all weathers, then four4th, exposure etc do end up worth it.

Solarstorm is fine for a start-up set, cheap, bright and last OK. As said above, be careful charging, mine are in a tin where I can see (and smell) them.

I don’t night ride as I shift work so find time in daylight hours.

I have thought about it & would buy from MTB Batteries or similar. The concept of buying something from China that’s so unsafe you need to attempt a weak effort of fire proofing it in a metal box to save your house is just silly.

A big bunch of us night ride in Swansea, every Thursday. We’ve all had lights fail at various points, but not surprisingly it’s the cheap Chinese ones that tend to fail more often. (Quite often if they are used every week in Welsh winter weather.)

Also, pay more and you get better mounts, better spread of light, better batteries and chargers. I’ve had cheap lights that vibrated so much that they were almost unusable until I bodged the mount.

Evolva X5 from Amazon. About 35 quid. Had<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> mine a year now and it’s been faultless. Good light, dipped beam as well, battery seems to last yonks.</span>

Supplemented with a Lezgne Macro 700 for 35 on my helmet, job done

I have a magicshine complete with charger and battery you could have if you want to try it out without splashing lots of cash. It is gathering dust in my shed and I would rather someone use it. Happy to post it if you can donate something to a worthy cause?

It is like this:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj7sKa0s5TdAhXIsKQKHd3XD64QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fbhp%2Fmagicshine&psig=AOvVaw39D6z3dfameDuU2GqaKFiV&ust=1535705622674054

I wanted a taste of cheap Chinese lumens but I didn’t want to have to have the fire service on standby every time I charged them… so I bought two of these from eBay:

… and I power them both simultaneously with one of these (which I’ve used for years, and trust):

All works well, fairly inexpensive, super bright, lots of use time, and incredibly safe.

Lights: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-Bright-CREE-T6-LED-Cycling-Bike-Bicycle-Front-Light-Lamp-Headlight-USB-DC/122369824991?hash=item1c7dcf58df:m:mw4YMdfQIEdGnXaZeKS0fsw

Battery: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-20100-Capacity-Technology-Black/dp/B00VJSGT2A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535619049&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+power+bank

…and, of course, you can keep your phone topped up as well!

The solarstorm Chinese lights are good on eBay etc.  Just be wary charging them. I charge mine in a tin outside.

I charge mine on the kitchen side. Next to the window, just like I charge my L&M light. Neither of them have caused any worry.

I did have a kettle from Argos that exploded once though. I don’t boil water in a tin outside.

I have cheap torches from DealExtreme and a wickedly expensive light from Lumicycle.

I don’t regret either.  The Lumicycle one earns its money by staying lit when going over bumpy ground.  Not something the £5 (very bright) torches are very consistent with.

i find the solar storm quite spotty – it needs a single flooy lense. it is quite bright but not much more than my homemade 10yr old STW design self made teapot light.

i love my teapot light its been ace.

I’ve a MTBBatteries Lumenator that I should sell really, as I never use it anymore…

@ambientcoast – Your light set up looks v. interesting.

What are the run times like?

Do you think that USB powerbank will fit into a water bottle?

Do you think that USB powerbank will fit into a water bottle?

It’ll fit into one of those tool bottles with the wide opening, but tbh it’ll be ideal for a rear jersey pocket, with light on the helmet, which is infinitely better for night riding anyway…

@superleggero – the max I’ve run them for is a ride of around 3-4 hours, and the battery indicator was still showing about half full at the end. YMMV, though.

My lights are slightly different to the ones I linked to and were actually just £4 each at the time. They’ve got three levels of brightness (but no flashing mode) and sometimes I’ll ride with only one of them plugged in to the battery if I’m also charging my phone at the same time. Pretty flexible setup, actually.

The battery I linked to is the same one I use. I keep it in one of these (https://www.alpkit.com/products/fuel-pod-medium), but it should easily fit in a bottle cage. I originally tried a RavPower battery pack that was about the same size (cheap deal at Amazon), but it couldn’t deliver the power the lights needed and kept auto-switching off after 30 seconds or so. I then spoke to Anker customer service about whether their battery packs would be up to the job and they assured me there’d be no problem – and so far, they’ve been right.

Oh, and my house hasn’t burned down yet, either. Which is always a positive.

Added to my cheap collection last year and grabbed a set from 7dayshop.com.  Pretty impressive.

I’ve got one of these on my bars –

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nitefighter-BT40S-1600-Lumens-Cree-XP-G2-Neutral-White-LED-Bicycle-Bike-Lights/123308560509?hash=item1cb5c3507d:g:xZ4AAOSwav5as2pM

And one of these on my helmet (4000k) –

http://kaidomain.com/bike-lights-and-bike-accessories/Bike-Lights/BL2s-2-x-Cree-XM-L2-U3-White-6500K-2-Groups-of-2-to-3-Mode-2200-Lumens-Bike-Light

Then get 2 battery packs from someone in the UK like Torchy or MTBBatteries

Be under £100 for a great set of lights and safe batteries.

If you want cheap, but uk tested and guaranteed then try a Brite-R Duo. The mount isn’t brilliant (wont fit a 35mm clamp handlebar), but I managed to bodge on one of their universal mounts which did the job.

I’d still probably be using mine if the clamp arrangement had been better and I hadn’t found a more powerful light that’s all in one unit without a separate battery pack for £50 in a sale (Ryder alumina 1600 from Cycle Republic).

ambientcoast

the battery I linked to is the same one I use

I have that same battery, does it power the light/s on all their modes ie L/M/H with no issues?  Would be good if there was a selection of Cree light units designed with USB portability, ie with differing optics – flood, spot etc.  (Thinks) I’d be wary of hammering and clattering along with that nice lithium powerbank on the top tube though.  Should be ok in a jersey pocket or tight fit in a well-padded bag tho as long as connector stays put

I would also invest in a NiteCore TIP Cree . For around £18 iirc  you get a thumb sized , light weight , micro usb chargable , waterproof torch. 4 light  levels , low is probably not useful ever, but full chat turbo mode will get you 15 mins of usable light . Or if you  have a  mechanical you can power down the 3000lumen job and stick the nitcore in your  gob whillst  fixing the puncture  etc.

Turbo mode  will also  get  you back to  the car when the 3000lumen lamps go flat ,,might have to  slow down , but they really are  very  bright for 15 – 20 mins only, go down 1 level for  45mins i think

@Malvern Rider

Yep, it powers two of those lights – one plugged into each USB port – in any of the three modes, without a problem.

My Alpkit top tube bag has some padding, but the battery’s not usually the only thing in there so there’s not much clanking around. For really rough stuff, I’d put it in a small dry bag and velcro it super tight to the frame somewhere so there’s zero movement. The cables for the lights are ziptied to the bars and stem so they don’t move much at all, or exert any pulling force on the battery connection.

Never had a problem with connectors popping out. There’s as much friction as you get with any normal USB plug and port, so it’s fairly secure.

Sure there are better lights and battery combinations, but I’ve heard some proper horror stories when it comes to charging cheap batteries!
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I was light shopping last year and did a bit of reading around batteries and chargers and properly scared myself 🙂

I ended up deciding that “cheap” meant “generic light units, but with batteries from a UK supplier with genuine CE-marked chargers which won’t explode or set on fire”.  I still managed to get a decent set of lights for around £100.

On the bars, one of these (STW Recommended, no less..!):

https://www.brightbikelights.com/starrylight-rx02-dual-beam-angle

… and on my helmet a Fluxient U2 Mini from torchy.co.uk.  It looks as though he’s not selling those exact units through torchy.co.uk, although IIRC I think I bought mine from his eBay shop.  I had to bodge the helmet mount a bit since out the box the mount is quite long, making it feel heavy due to the leverage on the helmet, and making it prone to catch tree branches, etc.

I’m fairly happy with the setup.  The batteries last very well, and the two lights work in tandem fairly well — I can ride confidently with them.  In an ideal world the RX02 would be a bit floodier and brighter, and the U2 Mini would be a colder colour and slightly less of a tight-focus spot.  But for the money I’m not complaining!