Lights

So, leaving all that irrelevant crap about lasers to one side, what you actually mean is that you can see it's switched on from half a kilometer away, not that it actually throws any illumination that actually lets you see where you are going. Woopie.

At least Pistanator and Mr.Smyth are funny when being dismissive, and mdcc_tester is always knowledgeably dismissive. You appear to just being argumentative, and boorish. Also, therefore rather lacking in usefulness. Irrelevant? Yes. Deeply uninformed? Ditto.

A quick update on the Blackburn Mars Voyagers I bought a while back

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=55549&PartnerID=2812&awc=2698_1289397031_50d5c2e8afe5a53d93452f6e5ad8a068

Seemed great when i got them, alas after not a huge amount of use, the rear started acting up due to grit getting in between the button mechanism and the rest of the light so you couldnt push in the refractor thingy to turn it on, the front looked to be holding up well untill i just now went downstairs to find the rubber had snapped on it and it was lying on the carpet next to my bike. Meh.

At least Pistanator and Mr.Smyth are funny when being dismissive, and mdcc_tester is always knowledgeably dismissive. You appear to just being argumentative, and boorish. Also, therefore rather lacking in usefulness. Irrelevant? Yes. Deeply uninformed? Ditto.

Utter crap as usual. I've given an accurate report of an excellent front light, as posted same for rear lights.

Your posts are about as illuminating as your AA "1/2 Km throw" torch.

Utter crap as usual.
Please expand.

as an auxiliary device to warn off passing traffic I find a bar plug flashing LED incredibly effective

Hope District rear light

Out early 2011, but not cheap mind £95 RRP

Rear light. £95. Fook da Pope.

Finaly decided its too dangous to keep using a cateye for my rear light (TL-LD600)
I'm on my 2nd one and they seem to suffer from vibration battery death
Unless you stop and give them a good bang - they are either at halfpower or dead completely

Looking to replace it with either a RSP Night Flare or X-Light
Can anyone recommend either?

These look good.
http://www.nightlightning.co.nz/endurenz%20details.htm

The website on the other hand.

Seen a couple of bikes with lights attached to the hubs so they spin round.
Probably more decorative than actually helpful though.

Finaly decided its too dangous to keep using a cateye for my rear light (TL-LD600)
I'm on my 2nd one and they seem to suffer from vibration battery death
Unless you stop and give them a good bang - they are either at halfpower or dead completely

Looking to replace it with either a RSP Night Flare or X-Light
Can anyone recommend either?

It seems that you have a certain preference for a light that looks and is shaped just like Cateye TL-LD600. Certainly The RSP Night Flare and the X-Light look to be nearly exact copies. But for brightness, there is none more powerful of its type, than the BLT Fantom XR9. For a lower price alternative, there is the truly excellent RSP Astrum Rear.

just got this and a smart R1 from the same seller, both unbelievably bright.

rsp is aluminium, which is nice.

But for brightness, there is none more powerful of its type, than the BLT Fantom XR9. For a lower price alternative, there is the truly excellent RSP Astrum Rear.

the blt fantom looks like a front light
do you mean the blt super doppler dx ?

Thanks tommy, my error. I shall make the correction.

EDIT:
Amazingly, that error was there for absolute ages, till you spotted it. ;) Good man.

great looks like a value purchase.

I'm not sure it's as bright as you think, 8,000 MCD is only 0.76 lumen if we assume a 20' degree viewing angle.

http://www.gizmology.net/LEDs.htm

The brightness of LEDs is measured in millicandela (mcd), or thousandths of a candela. Indicator LEDs are typically in the 50 mcd range; "ultra-bright" LEDs can reach 15,000 mcd, or higher (the 617 nm Luxeon Star (part number LXHL-NH94) can reach 825,000 mcd).

By way of comparison, a typical 100 watt incandescent bulb puts out around 1700 lumen - if that light is radiated equally in all directions, it will have a brightness of around 135,000 mcd. Focused into a 20° beam, it will have a brightness of around 18,000,000 mcd.

The Exposure Flare on the other hand puts out 75 lumens... a tad bit brighter than 0.76 lumens.

Sometimes it's worth spending the money.

The BLT Doppler has 3 LEDs giving each 8,000 MCD looks powerfull enough for my needs.

But actually managed to fit my Cateye problems - it wasnt the actual light but the crappy mounting they come with - replaced it with a mounting for a different light and now its not dying on me.

So poor of cateye not to get such a basic part right.

niterider minewt mini-usb - packed in completely, 11 months old.

Contacted supplier (wheelies) who were very helpful asking me to return it so they can get it back to the distributor for examination and finger crossed repair or replacement.

fwiw, I liked it while it was working, only gripe is that the headunit casing has a kind of hood around the lens which shields it from view by the rider - means that it if cuts out (as mine did) or if you just run out of battery power - you may not even notice immediately (e.g. if riding on well lit streets where your own lights throw may be less evident).

thought i'd take a chance on a magicshine from dealextreme (the single lamp one) - got an email last night saying it was shipped, hope it doesn't take too long from that point, as I'm having to use a blinky light of one of my kids bikes at the moment which is not filling me with confidence (although i guess I should now question why I'm happy to let them ride with it...)

fwiw, I liked it while it was working, only gripe is that the headunit casing has a kind of hood around the lens which shields it from view by the rider - means that it if cuts out (as mine did) or if you just run out of battery power - you may not even notice immediately (e.g. if riding on well lit streets where your own lights throw may be less evident).

On un-lit roads this bug is a feature: Almost any light coming directly from the lamp would be brighter than the return from the road, so make it harder to see where you are going.

I've got the impression a lot of you have tried out a Cateye TD-LD 600 or 610 and given up on it. Well mine has worked excellently for a year and a half. I think edscoble said a few pages back that some work and some don't. Shitty quality control I suppose.

Anyhow, I was wondering if someone wants to give me their unwanted LD-610 mount? So I can attach it on my second bike as well.

£20

Any good?

Anyhow, I was wondering if someone wants to give me their unwanted LD-610 mount? So I can attach it on my second bike as well.

Wondering, are you mounting your light Horizontal or Vertically?

Sorry I cut mine mount off - you can buy spares but its daylightrobbery

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cateye/light-spares/

Best I've used so far in london, super quick and easy to attach/detach with no permanent fixtures (for the vain bike preeners among us...) front - when on still-beam will point out the potholes yet stil small enough to put in your pocket. everyone seems hyped about rechargeable lights but honestly i can't be arsed to recharge ever 6 hours or what ever, this = 2 x batteries (CR2032) and gives 100hrs burn time.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/topeak-topeak-highlite-combo-ii-light-set-prod21997/

I bought a set of the Electron Terra 2's based primarily one Skive's review.

To be honest I can't add much as the review is spot on and comprehensive. Massive thanks to Skive for pointing me in the direction of these.

My commute is on pitch dark country lanes & these lights are pretty much perfect. I put them on high for about 1/2 hour per day and the charge easily lasts a week. They light up the lanes extremely well - probably 20-30 metres in front but they don't seem to be dazzling other traffic.

Agree with the comment about commuting. My bike's securely parked at work so I leave them fixed. Getting them off is easy but putting back on in the dark is a bit fiddly.

Only other thing to add is I was surprised how small they are.

Highly recommended - cheers Skive.

Electron Terra 2
http://www.electronlights.co.uk/lights/rechargeable/terra-2
bought a set of these and used them t'other night on the TNRC.
have to report that i'm very impressed.
battery life was excellent, we were out for 8 hours of riding and i had these on medium pumping them up to high on the descents, still plenty of life when i got back home.
the on/off button is easy to find and simple to use in the dark, this button changes to red when you hit 20% or thereabouts of battery remaining.
with the 2 lights one has a wide beam and the other a spot and both work well together. the light output is very good with a very usable throw and a white colour to it.
both the units come with a fixed attachment, they are easy to whip on and off but not ideal for a commuting situation as the whole thing needs to be removed.
the units are small and seem fairly tough.
the battery pack is secured by a velcro tab, not too bad too look at and the unit doesn't move once on the frame.
charging seems to take 8-10 hours. a small light on the charger signals when it's charged.
not sure on the weight but would be similar to any other front light set-up.
the price has to be the main pull here though as you can source them from your friendly local online bike shop for just £80 pounds.
i had done a fair amount of research and not found anything that offers this much light (240 lumens) with the battery life for the money.

i will update this post once i've had the lights on full burn for the duration.

Best I've used so far in london, super quick and easy to attach/detach with no permanent fixtures (for the vain bike preeners among us...) front - when on still-beam will point out the potholes yet stil small enough to put in your pocket. everyone seems hyped about rechargeable lights but honestly i can't be arsed to recharge ever 6 hours or what ever, this = 2 x batteries (CR2032) and gives 100hrs burn time.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/topeak-topeak-highlite-combo-ii-light-set-prod21997/

CR2032 are rated 225mAh at 3V, so to reach the performance you've listed they'd have to be drawing at most 14mW. Luminous efficiency for LEDs is very optimistically 100 lm/W so that's giving out at best 1 lumen.