What lights are people going for?

techguy

Hey,

So i'm currently using the Cateye HL-LD17 light set. They're pretty basic and not really that bright.

I'm looking to upgrade this set to something brighter and have come up with these two choices..

Cateye TL-LD610 - e28 [What do people think of this?]

NiteRider MiNewt Mini 300 - 300 Lumens - e99

Moon X-Power 500 - 500 Lumens - e132

NiteRider MiNewt Mini 600 - 600 Lumens - e150

[EDIT:] MTBatteries 100 Lumen single LED light - 1000 Lumen - e78 :O Has anybody used this? Too good to be true?

So from checking out a lot of front lights on Wiggle it looks like the power rating is directly proportional to the price [all the way up to e800 :rolleyes:]. So, my question is where should I draw the line and how many lumens should be ok for me?

I'm going to be commuting here in Dublin if that makes a difference? Like I won't be cycling countryside lanes or anything like that. Just your average city/suburb lighting in winter mornings/evenings.

Has anybody any experience with the above or any similar lights? Basically I need to be convinced that I need to pay this much money.. or will a cheaper but weaker light suffice?

Thanks in advance..

Paul Kiernan

I was using the Cateye which is a very good light but I've switched to this which is cheap as chips and even brighter.

The front is also extremely good and I keep it in flashing mode to annoy our friends on the motoring forum. I have the Lunar 25 too and it doesn't appear to be noticably brighter despite being bulkier than the Lunar 10.

The front and rear set under £20 from Planet-X including delivery.

Lumen

Beam patterns are more important than pure output (lumens) but a well designed light putting out more than 200 lumens should illuminate the road nicely.

Lux is a measure of illumination and depends on distance to the target, typically 10m for the German tests. Anything over 30-40 lux @10m is good.

You don't need to pay loads of money.

Long discussion here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055705708

...or just buy a Hope Vision One, Philips LED or Fenix TK11/12.

donal2000

I use the below front light for commuting. It's an excellent light and more than up to the job - I've had drivers in traffic looking around when on flash mode - it's that bright.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=14398

Check out Electrons webpage and it shows the light in use at night:
http://www.electronlights.co.uk/lights/front/micro-5


I use the Smart Lunar 1 Watt Rear Light. Great light but only downside is it aint waterproof:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=56546

doozerie

I recently started using a Smart Lunar Rear Dual LED and like it. It has two 1/2 watt LEDs in it so in theory at least it can push out 1watt when both are lit. You can choose from various lighting modes with it, personally I favour a mode where both LEDs are lit but they slowly fade from full brightness to a moderate level of brightness and back up again - I find bright fast flashing rear lights to be quite blinding/distracting when I'm behind them and when I'm in the car I always find it harder to gauge my exact distance from cyclists using lights in that mode. I suspect I was an insect in a previous life and still can't help focusing on bright lights. This light meets both my needs of being plenty bright enough, but also having a relatively gentle element of flashing to it to make it more visible in all weather conditions.

I've used Cateye front lights for years but I've never been entirely happy with them. The ones I've used have given out good light but I've found they've been either too bulky/weighty (my current one takes 4x AA batteries) and/or they've been too fragile (they've usually broken at the mount point over time, rendering them unusable without significant bodging). I also have a version of this SSC P7 torch as a front light (reviewed here). It claims 900 lumen but I believe that in tests they fall short of this. Whatever it puts out it is capable of inducing a headache in its low output mode and its high output mode is into "melt yer eyeballs" territory (not unlike a car headlight on full beams). I've used it in high output mode on a few occasions only, mostly during the snowy weather of last winter when the impatience of some drivers tended to outweigh their concerns for the safety of other road users - it's hard to ignore/dismiss this light bearing down on you in high output mode! One issue with the SSC P7 is the relatively short run time, it loses hands down to Cateye on that, but I get a few hours on low output mode and generally just carry a spare rechargeable battery with me anyway.

I'm still searching for a front light which is bright, robust, small, weatherproof, has a long run-time, has a good beam pattern, and doesn't cost the earth. My current Cateye and SSC P7 cover pretty much all of that range between them, but I don't know if it all exists in one light.

Seweryn

I use the Moon XP500. I have no comparison with anything else, as this is my first bike light. It does the job well, it is compact, the light output and spread of light is fine, is well made and the unit is USB rechargable. I use it on flash mode in the morning and on medium to high setting on the way back home in the evening. The highest 500 lumen setting is very bright, but obviously drains the battery quicker.