Front Lights

[permajeo]

Hi all,

I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike. I've looked at these

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=14142

and this

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=20053

I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to spend more than £80 - £100.

All comments/advice/experience welcome.

Just so you know I do about 100 miles a week @ 15mph (ish) mostly in the dark (until Spring 07)

 

[Pinky]

"permajeo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike. I've
> looked at these
>
> http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=14142
>
> and this
>
> http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=20053
>
> I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to spend
> more than £80 - £100.
>
> All comments/advice/experience welcome.
>
> Just so you know I do about 100 miles a week @ 15mph (ish) mostly in
> the dark (until Spring 07)
>
>
> --
> permajeo

I have just bought a B&M Ixon from Kinetic -- LED

It was £60 from there ( I had batteries and chargers) It costs £75 with
batteries and charger.

Good light with bright and less bright( in town) settings and an low volts
indicator which tell you that you have 1/2 an hour on the lower setting!
Very good out of town with a good broadish beam

My only problem was that it took a month for Ben at Kinetics to deliver!

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

 

[mbike]

I just bought the 1.25 watt LED from Maplins for £24. More than enough
light to see by at 20mph. Another £1 buys a pack of drain pipe O rings
from the DIY to hold it to the bars. The whole thing is at least £20
cheaper than a pucka LED cycle lamp of the same power.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97730&criteria=PROFESSIONAL LED TORCHES&doy=31m10

Mike

 

[mb]

permajeo wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike. I've
> looked at these
>
> http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=14142
>
> and this
>
> http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=20053
>
> I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to
> spend more than £80 - £100.
>
> All comments/advice/experience welcome.
>
> Just so you know I do about 100 miles a week @ 15mph (ish) mostly in
> the dark (until Spring 07)


Out of the two, I'd go for the Cateye.
I just bought one of these, from this seller:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300042035051
Very nice light, good enough for what you want. Or he has other lights
(Sigma).

Postage to UK is 15 Euros, he posts very quickly.

--
Mike

 

[Anthony Jones]

mbike wrote:
> I just bought the 1.25 watt LED from Maplins for £24. More than enough
> light to see by at 20mph. Another £1 buys a pack of drain pipe O rings
> from the DIY to hold it to the bars. The whole thing is at least £20
> cheaper than a pucka LED cycle lamp of the same power.

Are you sure about that? Trelock LS-600, Cateye EL-320, Smart Nova. All less
than £30.

Anthony

 

[Pinky]

If I had found that eBay site while I was looking for the Ixon I would have
gone to him to buy. Very happy with the light but it was expensive but the
traditional Kinetics long delivery time is not acceptable. His web site says
that he is a one man band.
It seems to me that he should take on assistance and fit his service to his
public image on his website. I was also looking at his info about the German
recumbent trike -- the Scorpion but he scared me off with his total lack of
response to my emails about my Ixon purchase.

In fact it wasn't until I had placed my order that I found the page saying
he was a one man band. Sorry but not good enough!

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

"mb" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> permajeo wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike. I've
>> looked at these
>>
>> http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=14142
>>
>> and this
>>
>> http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=20053
>>
>> I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to
>> spend more than £80 - £100.
>>
>> All comments/advice/experience welcome.
>>
>> Just so you know I do about 100 miles a week @ 15mph (ish) mostly in
>> the dark (until Spring 07)
>
>
> Out of the two, I'd go for the Cateye.
> I just bought one of these, from this seller:
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300042035051
> Very nice light, good enough for what you want. Or he has other lights
> (Sigma).
>
> Postage to UK is 15 Euros, he posts very quickly.
>
> --
> Mike
>

 

[squeaker]

Trelock LS600 works for me (up to ~20mile/hr on unlit roads), but a bit
difficult to find in the UK. IMHO (unless you want to spend lots) must
haves are LED, a battery low light that indicates ~3/4hr run-time left,
a plug in charger, a sensible beam shape (not a cone) and no stray
light. I strongly suspect that the current German regs compatible
lights are the way to go; the Ixon has the advantage of being easier to
find in the UK (and e-bay).
http://www.jos-international.com/in...GXMBFVMSEZUDEYIDC&DocId=0002&pg=1&prod=79&nb=
might be worth enquiring about too?

 

[Anthony Jones]

squeaker wrote:
> Trelock LS600 works for me (up to ~20mile/hr on unlit roads), but a bit
> difficult to find in the UK.

I recently got one for the girlfriend from here:

http://www.cyclesurgery.com/ProductDetails/mcs/productID/1024454/

That one doesn't come with a charger though.

> I strongly suspect that the current German regs compatible
> lights are the way to go;

Couldn't agree more (for on-road at least).

> the Ixon has the advantage of being easier to
> find in the UK (and e-bay).

And that it takes 4 batteries rather than the awkward-to-charge 5 (relevant
only if you don't get the plug in charger obviously).

>
http://www.jos-international.com/in...GXMBFVMSEZUDEYIDC&DocId=0002&pg=1&prod=79&nb=

I think that might actually be the same as / similar to one Halfords sell,
although I'm not sure if they do it with a charger:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...1362_crumb_33980-31270_parentcategoryrn_31362

I've heard it's not very water-resistant though (see AUK mailing list).

Anthony

 

[Tony Raven]

Anthony Jones wrote on 01/11/2006 09:56 +0100:
> squeaker wrote:
>> Trelock LS600 works for me (up to ~20mile/hr on unlit roads), but a
>> bit difficult to find in the UK.
>
> I recently got one for the girlfriend from here:
>

Seems like a fair swap ;-)

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Daniel Barlow]

Tony Raven wrote:
>> I recently got one for the girlfriend from here:
>>
>
> Seems like a fair swap ;-)

And all this time I never realised you could get girlfriends from
Cyclesurgery.


-dan

 

[POHB]

permajeo wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike.
> I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to spend
> more than £80 - £100.

I've just started using an Electron twin 5W + 10W set for commuting on
unlit paths and it's pretty good. It was 40 quid from chainreaction
but they seem to have discontinued the offer and the equivalent is now
50 quid, but there's still plenty of similar sets for under 50 on their
site.

 

[Me]

permajeo wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike. I've
....
> I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to spend
> more than £80 - £100.
>
> All comments/advice/experience welcome.

A comment/experience about Ni-Mh: they do not like to be overcharged
they will not hold any charge if you do so.
Make sure that the charger you get is clever enough to detect when the
battery is full and stops charging it (the Electron one does so, not
sure about the Cateye).
You can get by with a 'stupid' charger by timing it but this is prone
to error and impractical (e.g. top-ups of a partially charged battery
are a bit of a lottery).
I had a NiMh battery for my lights and rendered it unusable by
forgetting to switch the charger off.

cheers

 

[Ian Smith]

On 1 Nov 2006 07:31:22 -0800, Me <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> permajeo wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm looking to get some decent front lights on my winter bike. I've
> ...
> > I think I want rechargeables, preferably Ni-Mh, and don't want to spend
> > more than 80 - 100.
> >
> > All comments/advice/experience welcome.
>
> A comment/experience about Ni-Mh: they do not like to be overcharged
> they will not hold any charge if you do so.

They are less tolerant of abuse than NiCd, true. You really do want
an intelligent charger, and preferably one that does the cells
individually (check to see if it will do one cell on its own). That
will give best life from the cells.

What NiMH really don't like, however, is reverse discharge - never let
a battery drop below about 0.9V per cell - you're liable to reverse
the weakest cell in the pack, and immediately destroy it. This is why
it's better to recharge frequently with an intelligent charger than
try to 'fully discharge' the pack.

Final point - memory effect (in NiCd or NiMH) is a myth.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

 

[mbike]

Anthony Jones wrote:
> mbike wrote:
> > I just bought the 1.25 watt LED from Maplins for £24. More than enough
> > light to see by at 20mph. Another £1 buys a pack of drain pipe O rings
> > from the DIY to hold it to the bars. The whole thing is at least £20
> > cheaper than a pucka LED cycle lamp of the same power.
>
> Are you sure about that? Trelock LS-600, Cateye EL-320, Smart Nova. All less
> than £30.
>
> Anthony

Yes this is 1.25 watt luxeon LED much brighter than the 320 and about
the same as the 530.
Mike

 

[permajeo]

All,

Just for info, yesterday evening I bought a EL530. Pretty bright but I not yet convinced about the beam pattern. Oh and I think the switch is a bit naff. But I did decide that I prefer integral batteries rather than a frame mounted one with cables and switches. Fewer connections to go wrong.

Next on the list is a computer/workstand/proper chain cleaner/ Cytech course and bike no.4. All depending on which shoes (non-cycling) my (non-cycling) wife NEEDS next.

P