Advice on lights

[zzpza]

I'm planning on doing the Exmouth Exodus and the Dunwich Dynamo. I've done some night riding, maybe a couple of hours at the longest so would like to get some practice in before the events. So I've been looking into a decent set of lights. I currently have three Cateye HL-EL510 on a bar extender (arranged for far, left and right focus points). I was thinking about doing the same again with the newer HL-EL530. Is this a good idea or are there better options?

I guess I would need about 7 hours of battery life? I don't mind carrying lots of hi capacity NiMH AA batteries. I'm willing to spend about £150, but don't want to spend needlessly (though I may be pushed up a bit if it's worth it). I only really have first hand knowledge of the Cateye stuff. I don't know how they compare with other manufacturers. Any and all comments / suggestions appreciated!

Jules.

[mike]

if you're going to spend 150 quid, plus batteries, I'd investigate a dynamo hub & light.  It might cost a bit more up front but saves soooooo much faff.

[kyuss]

With £150 to spend you could buy something a bit brighter than 3 cateyes and free up a bit of bar space.

Ay-ups have gone up in price a bit recently (and lost the UK distributor, which is a shame) but you could probably still get the roadie kit with an extra battery giving 12hours of light for about £150. It's a twin lamp setup too so you'll still get the ability to stagger the light.

Or if you'd rather use recharable AA instead of a dedicated battery £140 would get you 2 Hope Vision 1's, which would blow the cateyes out the water.

[Chris N]

B+M Ixon IQ.  4xAA, 5 hours, 40 lumens, €60 (from bike24.com).  You'd only need one.

[TimO]

The Exposure Joystick is a fine little light, but it'll only last around 10 hours on the medium setting.  I guess the best way to use it on a ride like the Dun Run or Exmouth Exodus is to use it on low when the local lighting is fine, and switch to one of the two higher settings when necessary.  It's lifetime on the brightest setting is only 3 hours or so, but 24 on the dimmest.

I've got a triple piggyback cell to plug into mine, and that ups the lifetime to 12 hours on the brightest setting, and 96 on the dimmest!  Buying a piggyback cell does however (i) increase the price substantially & (ii) somewhat defeat the CFD (Cable Free Design) aspect.

The Joystick is available with either a helmet mount or bar mount, but the bar mount option costs more.  It is well designed and manufactured though.

[frankly frankie]

The Cateyes are well behind the curve.
2x Hope Vision 1 would be my choice at the moment.

[Charlotte]

Try just the one Hope light to start off with.  Run it at full whack (three and a half hours on Hybrio NiMH with mine) and buy some spare battery holders for quick changes.  I'm hugely impressed with mine.  You may find that one is actually well enough for this sort of gig.

[frankly frankie]

She's right.  One and a visibility light to tide you over any lit bits.

[Greenbank]

B+M Ixon IQ.  4xAA, 5 hours, 40 lumens, €60 (from bike24.com).  You'd only need one.

Definitely. Can't recommend this light enough. I'll be using one for London-Edinburgh-London.

Plus you'll be 100 quid under budget.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Or a Fenix torch.

I have the cheapy, E20. Lasts 3hrs on 2 AA cells. 100lumen

The fancier model has flashing, low and turbo modes. But I like the focusable beam on the E20.


About £2x quid and you get a really good waterproof torch as well.

[Jaded]

I think the Fenix would be a good choice too. There's a Velcro bar mount thing they sell that makes mounting the light pretty easy, and you'd get by with two sets of AA batteries

[tatanab]

B+M Ixon IQ.  4xAA, 5 hours, 40 lumens, €60 (from bike24.com).  You'd only need one.

Definitely. Can't recommend this light enough. I'll be using one for London-Edinburgh-London.

Plus you'll be 100 quid under budget.

And another happy user.  Don't forget that on the low setting of 10 lumens you get 20 hours life.  I find the low setting enough for really dark lanes rides with descents of up to 30 mph.  I find I use the higher power setting more for the nights where there is a cloudy sky and everywhere seems murky.

Particularly for the group rides the low setting will be fine.

[David Martin]

One of the lads at the club has a fenix.. not the cheapest version, but pound for lumen it puts my Ay-Ups to shame. Definitely worth looking at. (No, not into the light with your remaining eye).

..d

[Regulator]

Try just the one Hope light to start off with.  Run it at full whack (three and a half hours on Hybrio NiMH with mine) and buy some spare battery holders for quick changes.  I'm hugely impressed with mine.  You may find that one is actually well enough for this sort of gig.

+1 for the Hope...

But if you want 'frikkin laser' lights, then it has to be a Dinotte.  My 600L did the Dun Run on a single battery pack and it copes with doing the FNRttC easily on one pack.  You don't need the high power setting for most roads without lighting - the lower levels are more than adequate.  You only have to use the high powers setting when there's stuff to avoid (e.g.  off-roading at night).

I'm currently lusting after the 800L... but that'll have to wait until I get a job.

It's worth shopping around as some of the dealers are doing Dinotte's at fairly good prices at the moment.

[andygates]

I'm a traditionalist, normally riding with a Li-Ion 12W halogen Lumicycle.

For the long overnight rides, I swap the 12W for a 5W bulb.  Plenty.

[nuttycyclist]

if you're going to spend 150 quid, plus batteries, I'd investigate a dynamo hub & light.  It might cost a bit more up front but saves soooooo much faff.

+1

My only regret is that I bought the solidlights without the rear light connector (wanted all power going out front and was happy with battery rear).

It's still a faff sometimes remembering to change batteries/deciding whether they have enough juice left for an overnight ride.  Had I gone for a dynamo rear as a backup then it'd have been the ultimate faff free setup.

[CommuteTooFar]

£150 = cheap dynamo hub + B&M IQ Cyo

[andrew_s]

B+M Ixon IQ.  4xAA, 5 hours, 40 lumens, €60 (from bike24.com).  You'd only need one.

+1

Note that it's not 40 lumens, it's 40 lux.
They would be the same if all the light fell in a 1 sq m patch of road, but it lights up a considerably bigger patch than that, and hence has more than 40 lumens.

[andygates]

A good generator setup is golden -- for one bike.  If you move lights around a lot, rechargeables are a hell of a lot more affordable.

[Greenbank]

A good generator setup is golden -- for one bike.  If you move lights around a lot, rechargeables are a hell of a lot more affordable.

A good dynohub setup is golden -- for bikes with the same wheel sizes. A spare Solidlights cable is all I needed for the second bike. Moving the wheel and solidlight+mount between bikes takes all of 60 seconds.

If you have mixed wheel sizes (i.e. 26" and 700c) then it dynohubs get even more expensive.

I use dynohub lighting for commuting and Audaxes with more than 3 or 4 hours of night riding (Dun Run, non-summer 300s, and 400s and above). For anything with less than 4 hours dark (i.e. 200s and summer 300s) I'll use a battery powered B&M Ixon and carry a spare set of batteries just in case.

LEL is a special case. I'm just going to throw batteries at the B&M Ixon and enjoy a lighter, faster, front wheel.

[CommuteTooFar]

I gave up on battery lights when contact problems plunged me into the dark.  I had a spare battery and the led had not failed.

[zzpza]

well, i might have gotten a little bit carried away... 

i quite liked the look of the exposure joystick light that grub has and road-runner linked to. very bright and good angular coverage. then i thought i could save some money by not buying an off-road light for my XC forrays into the woods and get one light that i can move between my road bike and mountain bike. this kind of rules out the dynohub idea (though it hasn't fallen on deaf ears, if my cyclotouring holiday ideas come to fruition it would be good for charging all sorts of things. it just might have to wait for the next 'financial year' though).

before i knew what had happened i had an exposure maxx-d and red-eye in my basket and was typing in my cc details. no new toys for the bikes for the next six months!

[TimO]

Yikes, you went from a Joystick to a MaXx-D...

If that just precludes further expenditure for six months, you've got a bigger budget than me!

[frankly frankie]

I gave up on battery lights when contact problems plunged me into the dark.

I gave up on generators for similar reasons.

[clarion]

If When I go over to a hub dynamo, I will carry a small back up.  A Cateye EL-135 will get me home whatever.  And it doesn't take up much space in the toolkit.