Properly dark

[Sandra6]

My first cycle home from work last night when I actually really needed my lights, and the blinking thing broke didn't it?!
I pushed the on button and the little red light on top that warns of low battery came on, usually gives me a couple of rides before it actually turns off, but nope, off it went. Fair enough, I'll buy new batteries before I set off -quite convenient being in a shop that sells them! I tried to get the light off which proved tricky, strange because last year it took to falling off on the cobbles quite a lot, anyway I pulled too hard and snapped the end right off.
Oops. New batteries in , still no light. New batteries put in by colleague the right way up - still no light.
I didn't really want to buy cheap lights and I didn't have enough money to buy decent ones and I definitely didn't want to walk home pushing the bike, luckily a quick ratch behind the bike hut desk turned up a fairly decent -working - light.
I still felt a bit too "dark" though, think I may need to treat myself to more lights come payday.

 

[hopless500]

My first cycle home from work last night when I actually really needed my lights, and the blinking thing broke didn't it?!
I pushed the on button and the little red light on top that warns of low battery came on, usually gives me a couple of rides before it actually turns off, but nope, off it went. Fair enough, I'll buy new batteries before I set off -quite convenient being in a shop that sells them! I tried to get the light off which proved tricky, strange because last year it took to falling off on the cobbles quite a lot, anyway I pulled too hard and snapped the end right off.
Oops. New batteries in , still no light. New batteries put in by colleague the right way up - still no light.
I didn't really want to buy cheap lights and I didn't have enough money to buy decent ones and I definitely didn't want to walk home pushing the bike, luckily a quick ratch behind the bike hut desk turned up a fairly decent -working - light.
I still felt a bit too "dark" though, think I may need to treat myself to more lights come payday.

Same here. First ride back in the dark from work and the front light failed half way. Given the potholes and the swathes of swampy silt down our lanes, that wasn't the best thing to happen. And I was going downhill, fast, at the time! Luckily OH's light kept going until nearly home so we managed ok.

 

[SquareDaff]

If you shop around you could get a Moon Meteor and Comet set for about £45 (well you could last year anyway). Both excellent lights and USB rechargeable.

 

[potsy]

This is why you should always have a back-up Sandra, I once got caught with no lights and was due to ride home at 10pm, had to borrow one of a colleague just to make me legal, was a horrible Tesco £3 thing that was green, never been so scared and invisible feeling on a ride

 

[hopless500]

If you shop around you could get a Moon Meteor and Comet set for about £45 (well you could last year anyway). Both excellent lights and USB rechargeable.

My front light's a Moon and that's the one that failed. It's relatively new too, and had only done about 10 miles from the previous charge. Strangely a friend who visited us last night also has a Moon (about 2 months older than mine) and his did exactly the same on the way over to us.

 

[Kies]

My front moon failed aswell. The rear is fine. I opened it up and had moisture :-(
Now i use a cheap T6 (front) and the moon (rear)

 

[potsy]

My front light's a Moon and that's the one that failed. It's relatively new too, and had only done about 10 miles from the previous charge. Strangely a friend who visited us last night also has a Moon (about 2 months older than mine) and his did exactly the same on the way over to us.

Which one is it hopless?
I have many (too many) front lights but the one I take with me everywhere is my Moon, it's the XP500 one so gives some decent amount of light, it does have faults like it no longer shows it's battery level state or whether or not it's being charged, but I have gotten to know how long it will last and charge it when I think it needs it.

 

[hopless500]

Which one is it hopless?
I have many (too many) front lights but the one I take with me everywhere is my Moon, it's the XP500 one so gives some decent amount of light, it does have faults like it no longer shows it's battery level state or whether or not it's being charged, but I have gotten to know how long it will last and charge it when I think it needs it.

One of these:

Moon Lights Light Comet Front

 

[SquareDaff]

One of these:

Open them up. Dab Petroleum Jelly around the rubber seal, close it back up. Did this with all of mine and have had no problems.

 

[hopless500]

Open them up. Dab Petroleum Jelly around the rubber seal, close it back up. Did this with all of mine and have had no problems.

I'll have a look at doing that. But not sure it's a water ingress problem. It just seemed to run out of charge really quickly. Although - would water getting in make it discharge quickly????

 

[SquareDaff]

I'll have a look at doing that. But not sure it's a water ingress problem. It just seemed to run out of charge really quickly. Although - would water getting in make it discharge quickly????

It did on my comets which are the same design as the front's you've put a picture on for.
They do discharge all of a sudden (all USB rechargeables do) which is why people have 2 of them and duration does degrade in really cold temperatures. I always charge mine every other day in the depths of winter when I have them running on full power/constant beam an hour a day in 4x15 minute sessions).

 

[Frood42]

I now have a Hope 1 up front as a replacement for my cheap cateye.
I like the dual steady/flash mode it has, and also has three steady brightness modes, with the brightest running the 4 x AA batteries down in only 7 hrs.

The cateye is now in the bag as a spare.

On the rear I have a cateye in the middle and two smart lights on the seat stays.

Hopefully I am seen with these on...

 

[hopless500]

It did on my comets which are the same design as the front's you've put a picture on for.
They do discharge all of a sudden (all USB rechargeables do) which is why people have 2 of them and duration does degrade in really cold temperatures. I always charge mine every other day in the depths of winter when I have them running on full power/constant beam an hour a day in 4x15 minute sessions).

Ok, thanks
It should have been pretty much fully charged, but I'll keep a bit more of an eye on it. Anyway, it's about to become the backup light as I've got a new one on order.

 

[Sandra6]

This is why you should always have a back-up Sandra, I once got caught with no lights and was due to ride home at 10pm, had to borrow one of a colleague just to make me legal, was a horrible Tesco £3 thing that was green, never been so scared and invisible feeling on a ride

I know, I used to have a set of knoggs as second lights, but the batteries keep running out in them -even when I'm not using them!!

 

[Wobblers]

My front light's a Moon and that's the one that failed. It's relatively new too, and had only done about 10 miles from the previous charge. Strangely a friend who visited us last night also has a Moon (about 2 months older than mine) and his did exactly the same on the way over to us.

Ah, Moon. I've got a Moon XP300 that behaves in a very similar fashion. Charge it up and it'll die after a rather short time, without warning. I also noticed that the low battery warning used to come on when it was cold, but the light would recover when it was warmer. I think that both are due to due to Moon using cheap low quality batteries: one day I'll need to open it up and have a look.

It does sound rather like Moon front lights should be avoided, doesn't it? (Strangely enough, the Moon Shield rear light's still doing sterling work after two years hard work!) I'd suggest replacing it with either a Smart Lunar 35 or a Phaart Aeon from Planet X: both are good in urban environments. It's best to partner them with decent rechargeable batteries such as Uniross Hybrios for reliability - that's what I do and I haven't had any issues with flat batteries yet.