Good MTB lights

[MarinMartin]

As you know I am attempting both mountain mayhem and twenty four 12 this year as my final attempt due to deteriorating health. I am doing the 24 solo on both for a local mental health charity so I can go out with a bang.

Now the bikes are nearly ready but I'm having difficulty finding a good light. In a dream world (also known as my mind) the exposure lights would be perfect but let's face it I'll never be able to afford them. Hiring is not an option as I need my own set for future adventures (I might have to give up racing but I'll never give up riding completely and I'm hoping to try something a little less punishing on my body).

The main thing I need is a set of lights that not only provides a good light output, but lasts a few hours (hence exposure would be ideal but Im bordering on scraping together £50 not £250). In terms of output my solarstorms lights are bright enough but the battery life is terrible lasting only 40 minutes on high so I would need 10+ batteries to last me the night.

I'm hoping someone has a good second hand set available at an affordable price or a good alternative as I'm running out of times and starting to panic. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Peachy!]

I’ve bought a pair of these Lezyne power drives for MM on sale at Halfords, they are brilliant (literally)

https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-l ... bike-light

 

[MarinMartin]

What is the battery life like on those though? I heard they only lasted about an hour at a time in which case my solarstorms are the same. I need the battery life more than anything

 

[Peachy!]

I got two & half hours after the first charge... for my MM set-up I have two lights and the extra power pack which I got on Amazon.
BTW I’ve been riding most of the time on the lower setting and it’s more than adequate (although of course not in amongst the trees)

 

[Madmax1993]

Re:

The bikehut 1600 lumen light is worth a look. It's a beefy unit, so best mounted on the handlebar and puts out a decent 1600 lumens on maximum power. It doubles as a powerbank too, but I've done 2-3 hour rides and not run out of battery. It's £50 new, so pretty good value really.

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

My solarstorm runs for abour 4 hours on a single charge on full; Time for a new battery pack?

 

[MarinMartin]

My solarstorm runs for abour 4 hours on a single charge on full; Time for a new battery pack?

I've got 5 batteries for it and all the same. If I could find a decent battery pack that lasted that long I would just do that.

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

What packs are they - where from? Some of the Chinese packs have dummy cells.

Have you considered using RC car Lipo batteries?

 

[MarinMartin]

Re:

eBay specials. That's all I could afford or find other than the £50 packs. Always put up with them as only used them on local trails etc but now I need good ones for the event . Not sure how you would use RC car batteries.

 

[hamster]

A lot of the Chinese packs use secondhand cells reclaimed from old laptops. I have done similar repairs using Panasonic 18650 cells from a decent vendor (NOT eBay) like https://18650.uk/ and then solder them into the pack instead of the Chinese ones.