Light for night endurance event

[aerobrain]

Hi

I seem to have enroled myself on a 24hr London 2 Paris ride next year and want to start thinking about suitable front lights.

No idea if it's possible to get all of this but I would like it to fulfil the following:

1) Integrated battery (tried an external battery and it was a bit annoying)
2) Bright enough for "see where I'm going" not just "see me"
3) Long enough burn time to last all night (This I see as the sticking point, it'll be mid July so at least it's shorter nights)
4) Ideally around £100

Slightly breaking my own point 4 this seems to be a good deal at Evans at the moment:
http://www.evanscycles.com/search?query=cateye+volt+1200&x=0&y=0

I'm just not sure if the Low setting would give enough light?!

Any advice very welcome :-)

 

[fossyant]

Hope vision one and carry some spare AAs

 

[aerobrain]

Hope vision one and carry some spare AAs

Yeah that looks cool, have you got one? Is it bright enough for pitch black riding?

 

[aerobrain]

Hope vision one and carry some spare AAs

What sort of burn time do you get?

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Three brightness settings and brightest is quoted to last 2 hours but is 'oh it's daylight' time. Plus a flashing low battery option. I didn't need the brightest setting on the Whitstable Fridays run anyway. They do suggest using good rechargeables, I have eneloops which work fine.

 

[srw]

For £100 you could buy 24 of these.
http://www.7dayshop.com/products/7d...lashlight-with-mount-blue-ring-7DS-ML-214BLUE

At £7 a pop it was a steal. At less than £4 it's a no-brainer.

3 AAA batteries will easily last all night, and fresh batteries give the brightest light you could want. The only disadvantage over the more expensive bike-specialist options is that the light beam isn't shaped to illuminate the road.

Exactly which bit of the ride is going to be overnight?

 

[aerobrain]

For £100 you could buy 24 of these.
http://www.7dayshop.com/products/7d...lashlight-with-mount-blue-ring-7DS-ML-214BLUE

At £7 a pop it was a steal. At less than £4 it's a no-brainer.

3 AAA batteries will easily last all night, and fresh batteries give the brightest light you could want. The only disadvantage over the more expensive bike-specialist options is that the light beam isn't shaped to illuminate the road.

Exactly which bit of the ride is going to be overnight?

I'd really want a shaped beam, it will basically be riding all through the night, sounds like the ferry gets to France around nightfall.

 

[BalkanExpress]

I have a couple of Vision 1s and you will not go wrong with one.

However, these are a a bit brighter and a cracking price at the moment
http://www.bike24.de/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;menu=1400,1410,1411;product=67793

Alternatively, You might also get lucky and find a mid sized Exposure light among Evans ex-display offers

 

[srw]

I'd really want a shaped beam, it will basically be riding all through the night, sounds like the ferry gets to France around nightfall.

Is a shaped beam worth £96? Not to me it isn't. The last night ride I did was on a mixture of mainly unshaped beams, and on substantially used batteries. I didn't feel the lack.

For the princely outlay of £8 you could buy two of those lights, try them out and if you really don't like them (you'll not find anything brighter for less than 10 times the price) you'll still have two emergency back-up lights. I tend to keep one of them attached to my handlebars as an emergency backup light (or a main light) for all night rides.

If you're getting to France (presumably Calais) around nightfall you'll need about 8 hours of reliable lighting, and very little of your riding will be on lit roads. If you go down the battery lgiht route that means replaceable batteries - most of the rechargeable lights last considerably less time. You've also got to factor in the cost of batteries for all of your night training rides - I'd want to do two or three half-night rides, as well as at least one all-nighter.

If it were me I'd be looking at getting a front wheel with a dynamo hub and using a 7-day-light cheapo job as a backup. It'll be budget-busting, but probably less than you'll think.

You might find this page useful: http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/p/lights.html and I believe that audax UK also have a page.

 

[aerobrain]

Is a shaped beam worth £96? Not to me it isn't. The last night ride I did was on a mixture of mainly unshaped beams, and on substantially used batteries. I didn't feel the lack.

For the princely outlay of £8 you could buy two of those lights, try them out and if you really don't like them (you'll not find anything brighter for less than 10 times the price) you'll still have two emergency back-up lights. I tend to keep one of them attached to my handlebars as an emergency backup light (or a main light) for all night rides.

If you're getting to France (presumably Calais) around nightfall you'll need about 8 hours of reliable lighting, and very little of your riding will be on lit roads. If you go down the battery lgiht route that means replaceable batteries - most of the rechargeable lights last considerably less time. You've also got to factor in the cost of batteries for all of your night training rides - I'd want to do two or three half-night rides, as well as at least one all-nighter.

If it were me I'd be looking at getting a front wheel with a dynamo hub and using a 7-day-light cheapo job as a backup. It'll be budget-busting, but probably less than you'll think.

You might find this page useful: http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/p/lights.html and I believe that audax UK also have a page.

Surely you want a light that will illuminate the road for safety reasons. My thought being if I can have a decent light that lasts 6-7hrs then that will see me through to at least dusk when I could use a backup light for 2-3 hours?! Just thoughts at this stage, just don't like the idea of going for a light that you say doesn't illuminate the road. I know it's only cheap but if you're saying it doesn't do this then doesn't seem worth trying.

Cheers for the links, will have a read :-)

 

[aerobrain]

Is a shaped beam worth £96? Not to me it isn't. The last night ride I did was on a mixture of mainly unshaped beams, and on substantially used batteries. I didn't feel the lack.

For the princely outlay of £8 you could buy two of those lights, try them out and if you really don't like them (you'll not find anything brighter for less than 10 times the price) you'll still have two emergency back-up lights. I tend to keep one of them attached to my handlebars as an emergency backup light (or a main light) for all night rides.

If you're getting to France (presumably Calais) around nightfall you'll need about 8 hours of reliable lighting, and very little of your riding will be on lit roads. If you go down the battery lgiht route that means replaceable batteries - most of the rechargeable lights last considerably less time. You've also got to factor in the cost of batteries for all of your night training rides - I'd want to do two or three half-night rides, as well as at least one all-nighter.

If it were me I'd be looking at getting a front wheel with a dynamo hub and using a 7-day-light cheapo job as a backup. It'll be budget-busting, but probably less than you'll think.

You might find this page useful: http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/p/lights.html and I believe that audax UK also have a page.

Hmmm it says one of those 7dayshop ones fell apart when he received it :-/

 

[DefBref]

Not all of 7dayshop's stuff is good, though - one of their back lights fell apart before it got out the front door

 

[aerobrain]

[QUOTE\]Not all of 7dayshop's stuff is good, though - one of their back lights fell apart before it got out the front door

[/QUOTE]

But it's still one of their lights is my point, doesn't seem to fill you with confidence :-/ I may still order one as I've got long enough to give it a go, just with srw saying it doesn't light the road well and the fact corners must have been cut to make the light cheap enough to sell at that price I'd always be waiting for it to fail.

Probably perfect for commuting etc as you can carry a spare and if it fails you're not far from home.

 

[aerobrain]

Well I've ordered one with the 1100mha batteries so will hopefully give first impressions soon!! ;-) Worst case it can be a torch for the car lol

 

[srw]

Surely you want a light that will illuminate the road for safety reasons. My thought being if I can have a decent light that lasts 6-7hrs then that will see me through to at least dusk when I could use a backup light for 2-3 hours?! Just thoughts at this stage, just don't like the idea of going for a light that you say doesn't illuminate the road. I know it's only cheap but if you're saying it doesn't do this then doesn't seem worth trying.

Cheers for the links, will have a read :-)

It does illuminate the road - it's bright enough that the lack of shaping pointing light only at the road doesn't matter. It's just that it's a round light, not a light that's carefully shaped to only illuminate the road.

The front lights I've linked to are substantial, reliable bits of kit with a metal barrel. Many Fridays use them as their only lights; I've seen Dellzeqq use one as a backup.