Battery versus Rechargeable lights.

[classic33]

Come November, you might find lights are required for both the morning & evening rush hour/commute.

Built in, non replacable/hard to replace batteries are taking us down the throwaway route. Stops working, because of the battery, it gets thrown and replaced.

 

[raleighnut]

You'd have to go back a long time to find a period when there weren't a lot of cars on the road. Private car ownership has been the norm since the 1970's and has probably flatlined since reaching saturation point.
Night time cycling is not something I have ever witnessed much of in my lifetime. Most commuter and recreational cycling has always been a daytime activity. Only a small minority of workers doing shifts tended to ride at night, and almost no-one at all would do a recreational ride after dark, unless you include riding home from the pub!

I ride a lot at night, the roads are less busy and it's cooler, also my favourite time of day is the 'False Dawn' where a clear sky goes from black through violet into orange. I normally stop and smoke a big un whilst watching the sunrise.

 

[raleighnut]

You'd have to go back a long time to find a period when there weren't a lot of cars on the road. Private car ownership has been the norm since the 1970's and has probably flatlined since reaching saturation point.
Night time cycling is not something I have ever witnessed much of in my lifetime. Most commuter and recreational cycling has always been a daytime activity. Only a small minority of workers doing shifts tended to ride at night, and almost no-one at all would do a recreational ride after dark, unless you include riding home from the pub!

I ride a lot at night, the roads are less busy and it's cooler, also my favourite time of day is the 'False Dawn' where a clear sky goes from black through violet into orange. I normally stop and smoke a big un whilst watching the sunrise.

 

[Blue Hills]

Yes i ride a lot at night.
But no way would I do it with the old old never ready generation of lights my dad used (he was only using them in town), far too dangerous.
Luckily you can now ride all night with modern lights that need not cost a lot at all. None of my favourite night riding headlights cost more than £20.
(I do have two hope vision 1s but now rarely use them, beam pattern on my others is better)
Pretty much all my lights use rechargeable AA and AAAs, only usb a lidl special which i got mainly for touring use.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I do different things depending on the ride. Lights with enclosed batteries don't tend to have the same runtime as with often larger external battery packs, so I swap around depending on the ride. I work off the theory that a group night ride with more riders = more light available so everyone can use lower settings thus extend run time.

On the rear my FLY6 camera light is rechargable and always on, will usually have a secondary AAA powered light on a different pattern

 

[the_mikey]

I'm wondering which lights people are using, particularly ones that use AAA, or AA batteries, I was curious recently and all of my googling and searching for such lights was relatively fruitless.

 

[raleighnut]

I'm wondering which lights people are using, particularly ones that use AAA, or AA batteries, I was curious recently and all of my googling and searching for such lights was relatively fruitless.

I've had my Cateye ones for yonks, 20+ yrs for a couple of them.

 

[the_mikey]

Come November, you might find lights are required for both the morning & evening rush hour/commute.

Built in, non replacable/hard to replace batteries are taking us down the throwaway route. Stops working, because of the battery, it gets thrown and replaced.

A couple of years ago I bought a couple of LED lamps on Amazon that had replaceable 18650 lithium Ion Cells, these were certainly bright enough and had long run times, and could charge via USB but they don't seem to sell them anymore, which is a shame but I still have them and use them regularly but I can't recommend them as they have no brand name or model number to go by!

 

[classic33]

I'm wondering which lights people are using, particularly ones that use AAA, or AA batteries, I was curious recently and all of my googling and searching for such lights was relatively fruitless.

I've CatEye rear lights(AA), two new and unopened. I've also "C" cell lights, which on a commute or leisure ride the weight makes little difference.

On the quad, it's a lead acid battery front light, weight isn't really an issue. Function over fashion, but fashion is pushing ever smaller lights.

 

[RoubaixCube]

I'm wondering which lights people are using, particularly ones that use AAA, or AA batteries, I was curious recently and all of my googling and searching for such lights was relatively fruitless.

Topeak READLITE MEGA used to get a fair amount of praise years back i still have one for spare. You can still get them but prices seem to be a bit silly though for such an old light.

 

[Blue Hills]

I'm wondering which lights people are using, particularly ones that use AAA, or AA batteries, I was curious recently and all of my googling and searching for such lights was relatively fruitless.

I use a Lidl one - four AAs - one cost me well under a tenner, the other maybe about £6. Have done the Dynamo with it.

They don't do it any more (hope it returns in some form) but I think it turns up on ebay quite often.

Also this:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/lighting/busch-muller-ixon-iq-premium-front-light/

which for some reason I got for a shade over £20.

4 AAs.

Really excellent light though a tad delicate - you need to be careful with it.

The important thing about all those lights is that they use the german standard beam pattern.

Light where you need it, not trying to impress anyone.

 

[NorthernDave]

I'm wondering which lights people are using, particularly ones that use AAA, or AA batteries, I was curious recently and all of my googling and searching for such lights was relatively fruitless.

Poundland do a very acceptable 5 LED rear light that takes a couple of triple A's and has more flashing patterns than you need.
They also do a front light, but that's nowhere near as good.

 

[RoubaixCube]

Ive just found my Smart Luna R1 light - Runs on 2xAAA batteries. This was another light that was raved about back in the days... Ive also found my cateye 610 too...

I think a while back i must of had an rear bicycle light addiction. Ive got so many of them! I did sell a lot of them off though. I think my problem was cosmetics - Id buy the light, fit it on the bike and decided i didnt like the look of it and was always too lazy to get a refund so chucked it in a box for spares.

I have quite a few of these 'pound land specials' too...

I got them free with the torch lookalike cree lights that i bought off ebay for £5-8 a peice. Not quite sure what to do with them really.

 

[classic33]

Ive just found my Smart Luna R1 light - Runs on 2xAAA batteries. This was another light that was raved about back in the days... Ive also found my cateye 610 too...

View attachment 534392

I think a while back i must of had an rear bicycle light addiction. Ive got so many of them! I did sell a lot of them off though. I think my problem was cosmetics - Id buy the light, fit it on the bike and decided i didnt like the look of it and was always too lazy to get a refund so chucked it in a box for spares.

I have quite a few of these 'pound land specials' too...

View attachment 534393

I got them free with the torch lookalike cree lights that i bought off ebay for £5-8 a peice. Not quite sure what to do with them really.

The Poundland rear light is a BikeHut ripoff. Just a change of wording on the backing card.

 

[Blue Hills]

Ive just found my Smart Luna R1 light - Runs on 2xAAA batteries. This was another light that was raved about back in the days... Ive also found my cateye 610 too...

View attachment 534392

The cateye 610 is a very good light. I bought several a while ago for fear it would be discontinued in the mad rush to usb fixed battery things.