A decent commuting light?

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fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Both are secondaries for on road, well lit commuting. My 6w halogen BLT, whilst not up to some of your lamps is OK, combined with a 3w halogen rear bulb.....

Only thing, I believe the 510 doesn't flash ?
 

simoncc

New Member
I don't see the need for expensive lights. A cheap set of LED lights are easily bright enough for urban lit roads, especially now that white LEDs are so bright and flashing mode is legal. As for unlit roads I'd have to cycling at motorbike speeds before I needed a light to brighten everything up for yards ahead. At cycling speeds an LED light gives me enough light and time to react to the curves of the road.

Even pre-LED, when I used battery lights, I hardly ever used my front light to actually see where the road was, even on unlit roads. It was there to make me visible to drivers, and LED lights do that very well.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Depends upon how old you are SimonCC - my eye's aren't as good as they were.

I managed a 20 mile each way commute, with 60% of that unlit, with my old BLT's - they cost me about £80 in the early 90's (those and Nightsun were the brightest). I used the BLT with a 3w front (adjustable beam in spot mode) and a halogen Ever Ready D cell unit for wide spread- was fine - they are still going strong.

They've had two replacement lead acid batteries over the years, and one additional halogen bulb. The batteries are only about £7 from Maplin for a 4.8ah battery.

The current LED's are good - e.g. the 1w ones - I thought my older cateye (3 x led opitcube) was fine for the roads, but some of these new ones are fantastic.

You do need at least two sets of ligts, and maybe some 'backupz' attached to rucksack/pannier - dead cheap to run.

This is what my BLT's look like for those interested.......

DBCommuterFrontLights2.jpg

DBCommuterRearLights.jpg
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
MrP that's mad...tiny little things aren't they.....!!!

That BLT rear looks good - just gone for a Blackburn Mars 3 as a supplement for my rears.
 

Origamist

Legendary Member
simoncc said:
I don't see the need for expensive lights. A cheap set of LED lights are easily bright enough for urban lit roads, especially now that white LEDs are so bright and flashing mode is legal. As for unlit roads I'd have to cycling at motorbike speeds before I needed a light to brighten everything up for yards ahead. At cycling speeds an LED light gives me enough light and time to react to the curves of the road.

Even pre-LED, when I used battery lights, I hardly ever used my front light to actually see where the road was, even on unlit roads. It was there to make me visible to drivers, and LED lights do that very well.

LED torches attached to the bars or helmet are not expensive.

As for needing powerful lights, I'd always rather have more light than too little, particularly when descending at speed.
 

Origamist

Legendary Member
When I said I'd rather have more light than too little, I wasn't thinking about quite this much...

2827830920_7405646fae.jpg
 

wafflycat

New Member
andylaw79 said:
Well it's going to be my first winter on the bike and I'm after a bit of advice on a decent front light. Most of my commute is on well lit A roads but have a 1 1/2 mile unlit section so need a good all round light.

Had my eye on a set of Ayups for a while (good reviews from a number of people on the forum), but missus anylaw is now expecting our first nipper and cost is an issue - "sorry love can't get that ...... I've just spent £150 on a set of lights" probably won't wash.

Any recommendations at about £50-70 anybody?

Look in detail on the various online websites. When I bought my two Cateye 530s due to online offers at the time, buying the two cost me only £10 more than buying one!
 

Iceniner

New Member
And I've just ordered one of these for the rear. It'll be interesting to see how bright it is-

p4140_250.jpg


http://www.dotbike.com/ProductsP4140.aspx?A=11&TRACK=DDI

Mr Paul, ive already beat you to this! Ive been riding around with one of these for the last 4 months or so!!!

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=12085 - ive put some screen shots of it on here too.

Only things to really say is that i found mounting a bit of a pain so had to make my own mount, not pretty but did the job, also the magnet on/off switch can be a real swine at times. However the brightness of it leaves a lovely red glow on the floor as i cycle along.
 
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