Lights

Just ordered a set of the cheap ebay lights that adoubletap and aserota were talking about. £5.60 shipped from HK, they could be bargain of the century if they work like they have for you guys. If they give 200mins of good light, then getting some half decent rechargables and just doing them at weekends will do me fine.

Here's the link again if anyone's interested.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

they seem to have changed the listing slightly for those HK cree lights....this one is working for me:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5w-LED-CREE-Flashlight-Torch-Bike-Bicycle-Rear-Light-G-/150440340100?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item2306f16a84

Just bought two so hopefully they work well....will update when I get them....

I ordered 2 of them yesterday, 4 lights for £11 is crazy.

they seem to have changed the listing slightly for those HK cree lights....this one is working for me:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5w-LED-CREE-Flashlight-Torch-Bike-Bicycle-Rear-Light-G-/150440340100?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item2306f16a84

Just bought two so hopefully they work well....will update when I get them....

looks good anyone know quick they suck juice out of batteries?

few pages back there is some talk on them

About 3 hours IIRC

Yeah I've got them. Mine died at about the 3 hour mark but got pretty dim a bit before that.

NiMH batteries and charger ordered so hopefully I'll get the most out of them.

Tempted to get a Hope Vision 1 for £75 from CRC too, I really shouldn't though.

Just in the process of ordering one of these magicshine rear lights from dealextreme to complement the front, with a splitter cable to run both off a single battery pack. Only worry is that it might be too bright...(£37 shipped, but can be bought from MagicshineUK for £45 (+£7 p&p) to get it quicker.)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.42077

3W rear light, jesus. I want one. my 0.5W RSP Astrum is already painfully bright.
the road behind you will look like this:

I saw a 41W LED in a magazine at work yesterday, totally insane.

I want one.

WTF?!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiKzrnKR3Ts"]YouTube
- Wicked Lasers Torch[/ame]

FFUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuu......

WTF?!

YouTube - Wicked Lasers Torch

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsIHyRyETKg"]YouTube
- Wicked Lasers Torch - Scrambled Eggs[/ame]

Great. More heat than light. Ideal.

^ cool. If you take it camping, you don't need to buy a torch and a stove. Multitasking objects ftw.

its only £130 + shipping etc. Funny when you go to a bikeshop here and see all this
overprices dim plastic crap.

oops.....Battery Lifetime: 5 Minutes

hahaha

Much as we all hate cateye, there's an EL530 on gumtree this week for £20 which is quite a bargain. I've had one for nearly two years now.

If anyone is in the market for a top of the range tail-light, I've been running a new Hope District over the past few weeks and I don't think they get much better or brighter than this.

The brightness/intensity of the light is incredible, I've had comments from motorbike riders asking about it, very reassuring to have in low-light/darkness/poor weather when out on the lanes. Bit overkill for the town, but it's another cracking piece of kit from Hope. Easy to use, robust, can run from the same battery pack as your front, relatively lightweight, and weatherproof.

http://www.hopetech.com/page.aspx?itemID=SPG210

usual point about overly bright rear lights having their place, but being very unhelpful for group night riding

Much as we all hate cateye, there's an EL530 on gumtree this week for £20 which is quite a bargain. I've had one for nearly two years now.

Its the brightest 'get me seen' front light in its price range on the market.
Only draw back is the battery life: 10 hours full bright then 40 hours reserve light. The CATEYE mount brackets arent good, the trick is not to overtighten the plastic thumb screw.

yeah BMMF, that thought has occurred to me. Despite a diffused flood (as opposed to a beam on a headlight) on the lowest setting it would still be rather annoying to follow, and enough to warrant a punch if on the strobe-disco-pulse. Not one for the DD...

We've been quite successful with DIY diffusers on the TNRC, even for less powerful lights like the Blackburn 4.0 or the Smart 1/2W thing (both of which are too blinding to follow when fully charged).

I'm currently using red electrical tape (having previously tried white), I think someone used quite thin black gaffa tape, and there have been velcro'd on plastic caps with a few holes punched in.

I use the Blackburn 3.0 with red tape diffusion for group rides in the lanes, the Smart with diffusion for winter daytime training (in town, or the lanes), and the Blackburn 4.0 without any diffusion for daytime racing (non-bunch). Might as well use them all, seeing as I've somehow accumulated them over the past few years.

Commuting-wise, I just have a Knog Gekko (3 LED), which is more than ample (as long as you've got a mudguard), and a knackered old Electron backupz thing on my bag for contingency's sake.

[/nerd mode]

PS. If the mounting bracket will allow it, a good tip for über-bright rear lights that might blind companions is to angle them downwards at 45 degrees. There's still plenty of light to be seen by, the rear tyre gets lit up (even if black), and no-one loses their night vision.

^very good points. Angling the Distact at the ground will make anyone in the area feel like they're in Das Boot - albeit without the claustrophobia, pipes and water.

A tip in return - apologies, I'll sound f*cking patronising if you know this, but I'm amazed at how many people don't - but when riding at night, get over on-coming-car-dazzle by closing one eye as they approach, and you can maintain a good level of night vision. Particularly good when it's a full-beamer. Oh, and open it once they've passed.

^that's a good one, except for the 2 occasions when I was wearing contact lenses and managed to 'sweat one of them out of my eye' during a climb/hammerfest, and had to ride one-eyed for longer than ideal. Now wear glasses mostly (and carry spare glasses). It's getting ridiculous how much stuff I have to stash in pockets these days.

A helmet visor/cap peak also helps for car dazzle. And if you happen to use a helmet light of some sort, it's easy to 'flash' them as a reminder to dip their full beams.

I much prefer these threads when they're about actually using stuff rather than quoting fucking lumens and prices etc. :)