To USB, or not to USB...?

[si_c]

Not sure I could charge USB at work if I had to unless using a portable battery pack.(some barsteward would probably nick the lights)

Definitely doable - just get one with two outputs so you can charge front/rear at the same time.

Having said that my rear usb cateye doesn't need charging for at least a half week to a week of normal commuting (say roughly an hour and a half daily), my front battery light uses 18650 and needs charging daily.

I now use a dynamo front.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

How odd. Mine are fine. Last for yonks in a diddy cateye

What brand do you use?

 

[Lonestar]

Definitely doable - just get one with two outputs so you can charge front/rear at the same time.

Having said that my rear usb cateye doesn't need charging for at least a half week to a week of normal commuting (say roughly an hour and a half daily), my front battery light uses 18650 and needs charging daily.

I now use a dynamo front.

Not a problem with rear two smartlights and I have 4 spare 18650's in a charger waiting ,for my two front lights and it's never been a problem either.

I've also got the magicshine on the rear but only use it as backup now since I stopped using flashing on the rear.(during night time anyway)

 

[subaqua]

the ones I have from Ali Express are OK . I set them on Blink and use the dynamo for seeing where I am going

 

[Blue Hills]

I tried rechargeable AAA's. They wouldn't hold their charge overnight never mind power anything for long.

Your batteries were shot then, you had maybe ruined them with a cheap fast charger.
Of course the beauty of such lights is that you can just change the batteries.
For the OP's application I would unreservedly recommend cateyes using standard rechargeables. In fact I have laid up stocks of one cateye cateye light as the headlong rush to USB will probably kill it off soon.

 

[guitarpete247]

I use the Aldi, Moon Nebula copies and swap them between bikes. Don't know what battery life is but it seems pretty good. I charge them occasionally.They haven't gone flat yet though used on most rides. Had t get new mount for new bike which has larger tubing. I bought regular moon mount from eBay.

 

[si_c]

I use the Aldi, Moon Nebula copies and swap them between bikes. Don't know what battery life is but it seems pretty good. I charge them occasionally.They haven't gone flat yet though used on most rides. Had t get new mount for new bike which has larger tubing. I bought regular moon mount from eBay.

They last between 4 and 8 hours for me during winter commutes, less when I use the brightest flash.

 

[Blue Hills]

They last between 4 and 8 hours for me during winter commutes, less when I use the brightest flash.

Cripes, that's not much. Another reason to use AA and AAA cateyes cateyes and the like as "to be seen" flashers.

Am doing an overnight ride in october. Those maybe wouldn't last the night.

 

[si_c]

Cripes, that's not much. Another reason to use AA and AAA cateyes cateyes and the like as "to be seen" flashers.

Am doing an overnight ride in october. Those maybe wouldn't last the night.

That's pretty decent considering it only takes an hour to charge up. There is a flash mode that lasts around 20 hours, but in winter the cold reduces that to about 12-15 hours.

Thing is they are so cheap and light that I keep two on the bike, and they are very very visible.

 

[Blue Hills]

No problem at all to charge things longer/overnight.

I could charge my AA/A s in an hour but wouldn't, except in extremis. It would fry fry them/reduce them to the level of your usb usb lights.

As for visibility, I think folk need to bear in mind that there is no evidence that nights have been getting darker over the last decade, so this brighter brighter technology is chasing nothing.

 

[si_c]

No problem at all to charge things longer/overnight.

I could charge my AA/A s in an hour but wouldn't, except in extremis. It would fry fry them/reduce them to the level of your usb usb lights.

As for visibility, I think folk need to bear in mind that there is no evidence that nights have been getting darker over the last decade, so this brighter brighter technology is chasing nothing.

Absolutely, but I commute in gloomy over winter, often when the light in the sky is low, so my feeling is that brighter lights make me more visible on those morning rides. Once it's properly dark and the roads are quieter, then any old light will do.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Cripes, that's not much. Another reason to use AA and AAA cateyes cateyes and the like as "to be seen" flashers.

Am doing an overnight ride in october. Those maybe wouldn't last the night.

My Lidl Crivit rears will last all night, as I left one on before I went to bed and it was still going strong next morning after a total of about 7 hours lit since it was last charged. I haven't yet tested the capacity of the front one, but I'd imagine on low setting it would last a respectable time, as it is far larger and heavier than the rear, which is tiny.

 

[Blue Hills]

You mean the Lidl USB I take it? I got one the time before the one just gone - am assuming that it is the same light - the one with the (luckily optional) auto function? My only venture into USB - haven't used on a night ride yet but I get the impression that it is pretty good - would have been good for the OP.
The Lidl 4xAA light that came before it is also excellent - I got through the whole of the Dunwich Dynamo with it on one set of batteries - serious dark night-time riding.

It was so good that I never put the Hope Vision 1 on the bars.

In truth (whisper it gently) you don't have to spend much these days to get perfectly good night time lights.

I dread to think what the marketeers have got up their sleeves to keep their margins up on these things. But it will be interesting watching the game unfold.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Yes the Lidl/Crivit set is USB recharged. I just plug them into my laptop port when I'm not using the lights. The settings on the front are default auto with manual override. They go to default brightness on the first press of the button, then you can manually adjust them from high, medium, low, then off with further presses. The latest ones have a battery level indicator on top showing 1-4 bars. I'm currently testing the front light battery life right now. It's been on for 3 1/2 hours so far and is still showing four bars on the battery. I'll report back on it later either when it expires or I need to use the lights to go down the pub with, whichever event occurs first. I'm impressed so far and would happily invest in a set for each regularly used bike.

Edit, it's just gone down to 3 bars!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

@Blue Hills, I've aborted the front light test after 9 1/2 hours continuous lit time. It had just dropped down to one bar on the battery, so I would suspect probably had at least another hour or more left in reserve. Theoretically, if 9 hours is 3 bars worth, it might go for a whole 12 hours from full to empty - but the trouble with LED's is they don't gradually go dim, they just shut off suddenly once their feed voltage drops too low. Therefore I wouldn't push my luck on the road trying to squeeze every last minute out of the battery! 9 1/2 hrs was on the low setting, which is perfectly adequate for moderate speeds on streetlit roads. You might need it up a notch if riding rural roads with no lighting, in which case the battery life would be shorter, but on the face of it, they do seem to have enough staying power to last all night if used economically and not on max output. For the money, I think they are excellent value.