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Simontm

Veteran
I know yet another one but I've just had to bomb down to my dad's after a neighbour called about a suspected stroke. He's fine - bit of low blood pressure according to the paras - but even in a village just outside London, going fast in the pouring rain my catseye picked up bugger all on the crap road.

So, I don't have the money to go up the wall but any sub £50 ideas for a front light?
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
Have a look at the cateye beam chart
http://202.215.251.86/data/resources/hl_chart14.pdf
The App for the ipad is better

Santa is bringing me the volt 300 for xmas. I think this is a little more than your budget, but looks bright on the charts.

Cheers Keith
 
OP
OP
Simontm

Simontm

Veteran
Thanks all. My issue was that with this new ambient (?) street lighting that cuts the light pollution, my lights just get absorbed into the ether so cannot pick out the bumps and pot holes on rubbish such as the road from the station down to my dad's.

if that makes sense.
 
OP
OP
Simontm

Simontm

Veteran
If you're dependent on your bike for transport then decent lights are definitely worth investing in.

In London and environs, it's the being seen bit that's important so this is the first time that I've noticed the lack of forward light!!
 

shouldbeinbed

Rollin' along
Location
Manchester way
I know yet another one but I've just had to bomb down to my dad's after a neighbour called about a suspected stroke. He's fine - bit of low blood pressure according to the paras - but even in a village just outside London, going fast in the pouring rain my catseye picked up bugger all on the crap road.

So, I don't have the money to go up the wall but any sub £50 ideas for a front light?

Have a look at the cateye beam chart
http://202.215.251.86/data/resources/hl_chart14.pdf
The App for the ipad is better

Santa is bringing me the volt 300 for xmas. I think this is a little more than your budget, but looks bright on the charts.

Cheers Keith

Evans have the volt300 for just under £50 right now. It is an excellent light, well worth the money . works as a to see by light and with dual mode can be the only light you need. *battery charge or small spare permitting*

It is a long lasting battery for the output but is a sealed unit USB chargeable one so no AAs in the saddlebag
 

annirak

Veteran
Location
Cambridge, UK
I've just gone through finding a light which is legal on UK roads (not nearly so many as you might think) and casts good light.

In your price range, there's the Ixon IQ Premium. It's a great light and, by all accounts, shows the road pretty well. The version which is in your price range comes without rechargeables and charger, so you would need to supply those yourself. For 58, you get the light with batteries and charger.

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b--m-ixon-iq-premium-led-headlamp/aid:703598
http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b--m-ixon-iq-premium-led-illumination-set/aid:703616
 

Kestevan

Last of the Summer Winos
Location
Holmfirth.

John_S

Über Member
Hi Simontm,

I appreciate that this is over the £50 budget but for the price I've been really impressed with the Trelock LS 950 (https://www.trelock.de/web/en/produ...erie-frontscheinwerfer/8002095_LS_950_ION.php) that I've had over a month now.

I wrote about if in this forum post just in case this is of any interest.

http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/trelock-lights-and-lux.170522/

It's £61.67 on Rose Bikes but coming from Germany you do have to pay £7.60 postage. However given the RRP price of the light when it was tested in the links that were in my previous post I still think that although the light is above your £50 budget if it's something that you could stretch to or save up for this road headlight does perform well.

If it's a light that you're interested in it's worth just checking your handlebar size as mentioned in my previous forum post just in case you need to get a seperate mount for wider handlebars.

I hope that some of this helps and good luck finding the right headlight for you.

John
 

annirak

Veteran
Location
Cambridge, UK
I looked at the beam comparison between the Trelock and the Ixon IQ Premium here and I wasn't impressed with the Trelock. That's what sent me towards the Ixon IQ Speed Premium in the end. I liked that the Trelock had more settings and more variable brightness but, in the end, it's the beam shape that I was looking for and the Trelock was too narrow.

Compare the Ixon IQ Premium:
153.jpg

versus the Trelock LS 950 Ion:
229.jpg


I think it's pretty obvious why I like the Ixon IQ Premium better.
 

John_S

Über Member
Hi annirak,

That's a really interesting post showing clearly the beam patterns and the difference between the two. I think that's a really useful visual example and really helpful to give anyone a good visual aid as to what to expect from the light and what will suit them best.

I'd say that with respect to my recommendation that I'm not a professional tester nor to I work in the cycle media as I’m just an ordinary everyday cycle commuter and can only speak from the experience of the lights that I've had.

I'm still happy to recommend the Trelock LS 950 because speaking just from personal experience it's the best ever headlight that I've had to date and the strength of the light and the length of the battery. The buttons are also easy to use and I can change between settings with gloves on which i like. However I've not tried loads of lights so I'm sure that others can find other lights that suit them better and that's the great thing about these forums because you can get loads of feedback from people who have real world use over a prolonged period of time as opposed to a tester who gets to use it for a relatively short time.

On my daily commute I do find that the Trelock LS 950 out performs the majority of other lights that i see others using. There are some other with arguably more powerful output spread over a greater field but I think that sometimes I'm blinded by people coming towards my with MTB lights throwing light all over the place whereas I think that one good thing about the Trelock is it is designed for road use and I think that in Germany they have fairly strict laws which govern beam patterns/directions etc.

Whilst thinking about beam patterns there are some good examples on this website although quite a few of the examples are slightly off the OP topic because lots of the ones featured on this website are dynamo lights as opposed to battery powered ones.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/headlights.asp

Anyway I think that the example of the light from the Ixon IQ looks very impressive and I hope that all of the posts help the OP to find the right light for them because there are different lights out there that will suit different people according to their circumstances and use.

Thanks,

John
 
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