Any light recommendations??
- Thread starter Paul Eggleton
- Start date
[/quote]02gf74":qbu2kwgo said:drcarlos":qbu2kwgo said:B77 said:
exactly hence why I charge my batteries at work.... or if at home, supervised by having a peep every 1/2 hour.
Good plan, could stick it in the server room with the Halon system in
. Don't think I'd be popular if it went though!Carl.
JamesM
Senior Retro Guru
My mates light packed up mid ride when the coil on the driver board fell off. Luckily he wasn't going quick downhill and he had second light. Mine still works, but I took it apart when I got it and made a few special modifications. I agree with all the charging concerns though. Put it on an extension lead, stick the whole lot in a large biscuit tin and keep a beady eye on it!!!
I picked up one of the cheapie cree's and I'm more than happy with it. If I had £100 though I'd buy on eof these
http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-lights/
or for a bit more
http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain- ... lumenator/
or for a bit more again
http://www.crgmoto.co.uk/gloworm-x2-led ... 1734-p.asp
both the guys above post regularly on Singletrack and are always answering questions and dealing with any issues.
this vid of the last light is impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNRVJHLxs7M
http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-lights/
or for a bit more
http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain- ... lumenator/
or for a bit more again
http://www.crgmoto.co.uk/gloworm-x2-led ... 1734-p.asp
both the guys above post regularly on Singletrack and are always answering questions and dealing with any issues.
this vid of the last light is impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNRVJHLxs7M
Back to the original query. I'd like to highlight the "beam pattern" as a key feature when you are out riding with these lights. In my experience the "hotspot" patterns as seen in some of the links above are not the best out on the trail.
Riding at night part woodland singletracks and part forest lanes I much prefer an evenly lit pattern. Preferably with a wide angle beam, especially for handlebar mounted lights. Wide beams support peripheral vision which helps out on the trails. And even at a now modest 900 lumens nominal I don't need a hotspot to look "miles" ahead with my helmet mounted light. YMMV. Notably the product pages at Dealextreme.com back then gave me information about beam patterns which I was looking for.
As for durability, I bought my first cheap chinese LEDs 4 years ago, no issues with any of the lights, switchgear, batteries or chargers. Just last month completed the annual 24hours MTB race for the third time with my current light so that is at least 2 years old. But this good experience may be simply luck on my part.
Similar looking products with double the nominal light output are now available at half the price I paid 2 years ago. That is development for you. But beware, in my experience very bright white light "drowns" some of the key information. For example I find it more difficult to separate moist from wet on local forest singletracks. Before LED's I used warmer tinted Halogen lights and though a fraction of the lumens they did a better job in that respect. That said, overall I much prefer the "floodlit" riding experience offered by the powerful LEDs.
Enjoy!!
For the Cloggie's, my mates use a Dutch supplier at MTBled.com .Notably several orders arrived with next day delivery. That's nice if speed matters, but you pay a bit more.
Riding at night part woodland singletracks and part forest lanes I much prefer an evenly lit pattern. Preferably with a wide angle beam, especially for handlebar mounted lights. Wide beams support peripheral vision which helps out on the trails. And even at a now modest 900 lumens nominal I don't need a hotspot to look "miles" ahead with my helmet mounted light. YMMV. Notably the product pages at Dealextreme.com back then gave me information about beam patterns which I was looking for.
As for durability, I bought my first cheap chinese LEDs 4 years ago, no issues with any of the lights, switchgear, batteries or chargers. Just last month completed the annual 24hours MTB race for the third time with my current light so that is at least 2 years old. But this good experience may be simply luck on my part.
Similar looking products with double the nominal light output are now available at half the price I paid 2 years ago. That is development for you. But beware, in my experience very bright white light "drowns" some of the key information. For example I find it more difficult to separate moist from wet on local forest singletracks. Before LED's I used warmer tinted Halogen lights and though a fraction of the lumens they did a better job in that respect. That said, overall I much prefer the "floodlit" riding experience offered by the powerful LEDs.
Enjoy!!
For the Cloggie's, my mates use a Dutch supplier at MTBled.com .Notably several orders arrived with next day delivery. That's nice if speed matters, but you pay a bit more.
As with most people who use BLOCK CAPITALS, you then say something that is completely wrong. The spec of the light you linked to is in no way the same, even if the lamp housing may be similar. The batteries are clearly different, ditto the battery charger. You simply won't get good batteries nor a good charger for that money. The Fluxient system has a two year warranty, which itself is a sign that the maker is confident in the quality and reliability of what they are offering. Your light has a six month warranty, which is a sign that the maker is not confident in the quality and reliability of what they are offering.B77":367ypvdu said:EXACTLY the same as
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360477864104? ... 226wt_1398
Same charger, battery pack, headstrap, all he's done is get an orange wash, a bag couple of tatty boxes and a bit of foam for only 60 quid more
Ripoff
Edit, been using mine (9 quid) every day/night since I got it, never failed been out in the pissing rain for the last few day no problems. What people don't seem to realise most of the stuff coming out of China is made for named brands and as such the quality is really getting up there and those components are then used in unbranded/no name items.
The whole of the 'proudly made in the US of A' thing is a load of crap mostly they are chinese manufactured components ASSEMBLED in the US, this gives the company the right to say 'Made in the USA'.
I think too many people are waaaay overthinking this. All this talk of thermal runaway and but what if what if !!!!! Oh my god THERMAL RUNAWAY !!!!!!!!!!!
You're more likely to get knocked off your bike riding in traffic.
And to say that Jim has only done five minutes work on his website is just silly. I would agree that more could be done, but he has done detailed luminescence tests on all of the lamps he lists, plus tests on any number of named batteries. And I haven't even looked at his work on diving torches. It is undoubtedly a substantial body of work, and I haven't seen anything to rival it.
Clearly you're right to say that a lot of what is coming out of China is very good, and makes the US brands look stupidly expensive. However to extend that to say that everything that comes out of China is good is clearly not right. The point about China is that it's a vast unregulated market producing a lot of trash and a lot of good stuff. The advantage of dealing with somebody like Jim/Torchy is that by doing all that testing, he can help us tell the wheat from the chaff.
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Just to expand on what Antony is saying this is the website with the research.
http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/
http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/
IbocProSX":xy1d7qgl said:
Halogen bulbs filaments chuck out light in a variety of frequencies = white light as perceived by the human eye.
LEDs don't - the LED itself throws out blue light some of which is converted to yellow using a posphor (look at a white LED when turned off and you see it is yellow) that fools the eye into thinking it is seeing white light.
