Lights

Climbing up the brightness scale keeps convincing me that the brighter the better. Naturally, not blindingly bright, but I feel quite happy to have moved away from thinking that shitty little £10 lights were enough. Add a Lumicycle for country lane days and I'm pretty happy. Could do with a few more lumens on the rear light though.

B&M make excellent light, as they should being German.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stvzo

"German bicycle lighting standard written by non-cyclists designed to force cyclists to subject themselves to increased danger by requiring the use of sub-optimal bicycle lighting systems."

A friend of mine was stopped in Leipzig and given an on-the-spot fine. The reason? Her front light was not heavy enough.

I am struggling to search this thread properly with the new search format but would like some advice. Apologies in advance as this has probably been answered many times before.

I need a cheap light set for my beater:
sub £20 (they will get lost eventually, either by forgotten and left on the bike when locked and nicked or just go missing).
Quick to snap on and off the handlebars and seatpost when locking up.
waterproof enough to deal with Manchester's winters
Cheap and readily available in the supermarket batteries

Is there a generally acknowledged "best" in this category?

No.

No.

Fair enough, I've had few that do all but one of the above categories. I'll stick to what I know then.

Best rear light I've had is Smart Lunar 2. It can be obtained from On-One for silly money sometimes and is not too expensive at RRP. Obviously its not as bright as the £100+ lights but it beats most cheaper ones in my opinion and has survived cycling in all weather and 2 winters.

I've had a few cheap rears from Smart and found that the plastic clip always breaks at some point and I have to tape it up very messily. Have they improved the design at all?

Do you mean the clips for that hold the battery case onto the reflector or the one that clips into the seatpost mount? I've always thought all look flimsy and was initially concerned about the battery holder/reflector clips but I open and close mine weekly (its always on when I'm riding and use rechargeable batteries) its been open well in excess of 75 times (at a guess) with no issues. The seatpost clamp is still in place and looks good, but I never move it, just unclip the light.

I have one of these coming my way for the winter
http://four4th.co.uk/products/lights/scorpion/
I'll write it up when I have tested it.
Seems like a well made piece of kit, pretty well thought out.

lights again at 845??
already... fuck, summer on been going a while

I mean the seatpost mount. The ones I used had a bit that stayed on the post and the light had a sort of long thin plastic bit that slotted into it, that is the piece that snapped off with 2 different lights while riding.

Sounds like the design is the same. Snapping while riding would be a real pain.

Like the look of the four4th light - mint green flash - cool.

I recommend Lumicycle for front and rear lights. Pretty pricey, but awesomely bright and the bottle battery pack lasts for ages.

If it's just to be seen, rather than for seeing most cheap ones should do. The main failing ime of the really cheap ones are the attachments, rather than the lights.

Personally I'd get two sets. One on the bike and another on your bag. Plus the advantage of them being on your bag is you don't forget them or leave them on the bike.

Yeah just to be seen really. The best I've found so far in my 15+ years is these:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cateye-sl-110-loop-light-set/rp-prod64510

But i've just lost my front one, and the rear has run out of battery, I don't like that they use some weird watch style battery that I have to buy online, and they aren't very bright...

I have seen a few of these in TT's - incredibly bright even in bright sunlight.
V impressive

I'd also recommend the Smart lights. This set for £20 is good value http://www.wheelies.co.uk/p50016/Smart-Lunar-35-Lux-Front-with-12-Watt-Rear-Lightset.aspx?

I prefer the lezyne femto over the cateye loop. the plastic on the cateyes got really grubby and needed wiping down. both use the same batteries but i found they last pretty well as long as they don't come on in your bag which is a problem with both types.

I've been looking at those as an alternative, maybe I'll give them a go and just order a load of the batteries off amazon if they work ok.

Yeah coming on in the bag/pocket is a pain!

That four4th light looks mental.

Not legal in the UK though, it's the green light that is the problem.

The things you can't do:

1. Run blue lights if you're not an emergency service
   
2. Run green lights if you're not a paramedic/medical doctor
   
3. Put a red light facing forward
   
4. Put anything other than a red light facing backwards
   
   

A green light, facing backwards, is a guaranteed fine.

That may be no issue on a country lane, during the day... but in London during the evening? I suspect it's a matter of time.

Nice disclaimer they have on their page though, and the relevant law is here:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/regulation/11/made

Really not going to be an issue outside of a city though.

The green light is only on when used in TT mode

Ah yes!

Right you are. Ignore me.

Damn nice light then.

Between Hope and Four4th that's two incredible tail lights on the market now.

The green light is optional, and for daytime it is apparently incredibly visible from a distance .
There are three modes, and each has two power settings, and the green on high during the day will give me peace of mind (probably pointlessly, the texting driver still won't be able to see it!)
The other modes are OK and legal for night time riding.
I know it is overkill, and I said the same when I first bought an Exposure Six pack, but I wouldn't be without that now!

got a Lezyne Macro Drive front light last week, wondering if anyone else has come across these issues:

• the blinking charge light never turns constant (fully charged) even after more than a few hours. I've just switched it to a USB wall plug thing rather than my computer, in case it's just not getting enough charge.
  
• it makes quite a loud high-pitched hum when it's on. okay so on busy streets it's unlikely to be noticeable, but on quiet roads it might. and in flash mode it's really kinda annoying (eeeee-------eeeeee------eeeeee------eeeeee----- etc)
  

Nope, sounds fucked