What Lights???

gchamp

I am looking for some lights for cycling my road bike on unlit roads. I need to be able to see what is ahead of me when going about 20-25kph.
Also needs to hold a charge for at least 8 hours to last a complete nights nonstop usage. I have seen some for about €150-200 but that just seems to be mad money for me. I am not looking to light up the road for miles, just enough to see far enough ahead to know that I am not going to hit a tree branch hanging out from the ditch or anything. Does anyone have any suggestions / recommendations?

Lumen

Confused about the "hold a charge" bit. Do you need 8 hours continuous runtime?

Hmmzis

If not for the battery time requirement then any of the SSC P7 based systems would do (about 40ish eur on ebay). For a battery to power a decent light emitter for 8h non-stop it would have to be quite big (and heavy).
Maybe combining a pair of weaker lights might do the trick one pointing onto the road (for potholes) and the other directly ahead (for low branches etc.)

There was a huge thread about bike lights for night riding a while ago. Maybe there are some good suggestions for specific models.

Surveyor11

Cateye Cube does it for me, the darkest part of my commute is heading through the Phoenix Park, does the job. The beam is fairly concentrated (i.e. small enough spot).

Lumen

Hmmzis wrote: »

There was a huge thread about bike lights for night riding a while ago.

Front Light For Dark Country Road Commute
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055705708

Lemag

This is pretty bright. I have the 25 Lux version which is not as bright and has done the job quite nicely for me in non lit areas. I've taken it out in fairly horrid conditions also and haven't had any waterproof issues.

edit - the 25 Lux lights will run for longer.

dewindygap

Fully agree with Lemag. Couldn't justify the spend on the +100€ lights and liked the reviews of the Philips lamp but could not afford 2 (1 for the wife) so we went for the Smart 35 Lux which arrived last week (2 Smart Lunar 35 Lux Lightset 2012 - 35 Lux Front - 1/2 Watt Rear Unit Price: 92.74 EUR from CRC) and have been very happy with their illumination on unlit country roads these past few nights.

gchamp

Thanks for replys guys.
@ Lumen I had a good read through that older thread. Loads of reading & good suggestions in it, Thanks.

spyderski

dewindygap wrote: »

Fully agree with Lemag. Couldn't justify the spend on the +100€ lights and liked the reviews of the Philips lamp but could not afford 2 (1 for the wife) so we went for the Smart 35 Lux which arrived last week (2 Smart Lunar 35 Lux Lightset 2012 - 35 Lux Front - 1/2 Watt Rear Unit Price: 92.74 EUR from CRC) and have been very happy with their illumination on unlit country roads these past few nights.

Id be sending them back to CRC so - £34.49 stg each here:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/LISMRT35FR12RR/smart_lunar_35_lux_front_with_1_2_watt_rear_light_set

dewindygap

Aha....knew there'd be 1. I don't mean to digress BUT having done a quick tot at that site I get :1 x Smart Lunar 35 Lux Front With 1/2 Watt Rear Light Set
€42,63 Subtotal€42,63 changeIE Delivery €6,18 Total€48,81 I got 2 sets for €92.74 with free p&p. BUT I have no doubt somebody will come up with a better price. Was out again tonight and am still very pleased with them.
BTW I already had bought the rear lights 2 years ago following a good tip-off on this site but decided to go for the 2 light set above just to have another spare rear light as they are SOOO good.
I meant to mention in my previous post that I have tried all the cheaper sites [Dealextreme, Focalprice etc (in fact I have a drawerfull of cheap lights) but altho they give out good light, they fail badly on build quality, i.e. unreliable over bumpy sections of road, constantly failing when you need them most. Not really sure what the exact reason is but the common denominater between them all seems to be the battery storage unit which they all seem to use.
Apologies for digressing.....must be the pints

spyderski

Oh, fair enough, my bad. Just the "unit price €92" led me to believe it was €92 each. Just bought a set myself from Planet X, could have saved a few euro with CRC So......

Head The Wall

The Smart 25 Lux F + R set was available with overshoes and a beanie delivered for E40 a few weeks back. That was a bargain

ednwireland

yaaay dealextreme lights shipped after a month on order :mad:

(mind should expect that it was the same last time)

EC1000

ednwireland wrote: »

yaaay dealextreme lights shipped after a month on order :mad:

(mind should expect that it was the same last time)

I purchased a magicshine from dealextrememe a couple of weeks ago and then received a refund of the total amount yesterday with no explanation as to why this was happening. I can only assume that they have no stock and no prospect of any but it would have been nice to receive some sort of explanation