Does anyone else use LED torches as front lights?

[slowmotion]

... did experience the mode switching and found what was rattling loose so could be sorted, but it's annoying when it happens.

Yes, you could describe being plunged into pitch darkness when going downhill at speed in the middle of darkest Sussex as being "annoying". I think I muttered something a bit stronger than "Oh bother".

 

[MontyVeda]

Yes, you could describe being plunged into pitch dakness when going downhill at speed in the middle of darkest Sussex as being "annoying". I think I muttered something a bit stronger than "Oh bother".

yup... i guess that was an understatement... pitch black lanes on Xmas day night and the c*nting thing kept switching between bright, mid, dim, strobe, sos with every decent bump in the road. Cracking light when it works... they (or I) just need to make it rattle proof.

 

[Wobbly John]

I'm still using a pair of Tesco 3Watt Cree torches wired to a hub dynamo.

 

[ColinJ]

yup... i guess that was an understatement... pitch black lanes on Xmas day night and the c*nting thing kept switching between bright, mid, dim, strobe, sos with every decent bump in the road. Cracking light when it works... they (or I) just need to make it rattle proof.

My old light was 'zoomable' but I broke it. I might try sticking it back together but the cheap lights I linked to above looked worth a punt at under £3 each.

The original light did the auto-mode switching thing. I fixed it by wrapping the battery holder in cardboard and inserting a piece of plastic round the spring-loaded battery connector to stop the battery holder moving whenever the bike hit a bump. It went from being affected by every bump to being totally unaffected by vibration. (I tested it by switching it on and throwing it as hard as I could at a pillow and I could not get it to fail then!)

 

[slowmotion]

My old light was 'zoomable' but I broke it. I might try sticking it back together but the cheap lights I linked to above looked worth a punt at under £3 each.

The original light did the auto-mode switching thing. I fixed it by wrapping the battery holder in cardboard and inserting a piece of plastic round the spring-loaded battery connector to stop the battery holder moving whenever the bike hit a bump. It went from being affected by every bump to being totally unaffected by vibration. (I tested it by switching it on and throwing it as hard as I could at a pillow and I could not get it to fail then!)

My torches used 18650 batteries. There was a sprung-loaded copper tit on the inside of the screw-on battery cover at the back of the torch which was a bit feeble. I tried everything to make it push harder on the end of the battery...copper packing discs, extra springs etc. In the end I just gave up. Never mind being plunged into darkness, the random switching into SOS mode was driving me seriously bonkers.

 

[ColinJ]

My torches used 18650 batteries. There was a sprung-loaded copper tit on the inside of the screw-on battery cover at the back of the torch which was a bit feeble. I tried everything to make it push harder on the end of the battery...copper packing discs, extra springs etc. In the end I just gave up. Never mind being plunged into darkness, the random switching into SOS mode was driving me seriously bonkers.

Understandable. I felt the same way with my original light but my bodges completely fixed the problem. Why on earth the company making them didn't spot the problem and fix the design, I don't know!

 

[swee'pea99]

Can't remember how I settled on them - think I probably read a review somewhere - but I got a set of these a couple of years back, and have been very pleased with them. They're very bright, totally reliable, and - crucially - the brackets are very strong. Having said which, two important caveats: 1) I only need to be seen; I don't need lights that light up what's ahead, 2) I only ride on city roads, so the brackets have never been put to the kind of battering I guess they might get out in the wilds. Bottom line: having bought fiver jobbies off ebay for years, I've finally found some lights that cost a good bit more but, so far at least, seem to be worth it. (FWIW, the big problem with cheap lights is almost always the brackets. The electronics are fine; but the brackets are almost always rubbish, and break very soon.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I always have a maglite with me as an emergency back up light

 

[shouldbeinbed]

@MontyVeda re rattly DX torches. Yes, I sorted it by wrapping the battery in a layer of insulation tape to bulk it up a tad, made it a tight fit in the charger as well

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Not a torch but I have used a petzel on my touring bike in the past. I have just attached it using the elastic head strap around my barbag which has worked great.

 

[cyberknight]

@MontyVeda re rattly DX torches. Yes, I sorted it by wrapping the battery in a layer of insulation tape to bulk it up a tad, made it a tight fit in the charger as well

I did that too on the outside .

 

[ColinJ]

I only ride on city roads, so the brackets have never been put to the kind of battering I guess they might get out in the wilds.

The roads round here are almost as rough as the bridleways! My GPS sometimes switches itself off due to the shaking it gets. (A known problem with some early Garmins.)

 

[Profpointy]

Not a torch but I have used a petzel on my touring bike in the past. I have just attached it using the elastic head strap around my barbag which has worked great.

likewise - not as good as a proper.bike light but heaps better than the old ever ready rubbish we had when I were a lad....

....ever ready lights - luxury.! we had candles....

 

[swee'pea99]

we had candles....

What, two? Front and back? Lah-di-dah...

 

[ColinJ]

The lights have arrived and I am just charging the batteries so I can test them.

I had one which was pretty good until I broke it by dropping it onto a hard surface.

I have just ordered 2 of THESE which look like a real bargain. I'm thinking that they can be backups for each other and to point one directly in front of the bike and one up the road.

I might set one light to flash and use the other on steady.

PS The flash mode is too strobe-like so I will not be using that for fear of inducing fits in myself or other road users!

The lights are made from a plastic which looks like it wouldn't stand being dropped from a significant height Sorry - the lights are actually made from aluminium painted or coated black to look like plastic!

The previous light was mainly of metal construction but the lens was attached to a plastic ring which shattered when I dropped the light. The new lights also have a plastic ring holding the lens on so that would be a weak point again.

The internals are the same design as the original light so the new lights may be as sensitive to shock as the old one, but at least I know the bodge to fix the problem. (See a few posts back.)

Ok, the batteries are charged ...

The light is pretty bright! I tried shaking it while it was switched on and so far I have not been able to get it to auto-switch modes.

I also ordered a rear light which has a feature which might be a bit of a gimmick, but I wanted to see if it was useful - it projects two red lines onto the road behind the bike, I suppose to suggest an 'exclusion zone' to drivers?

Hmm, the light is very bright and the 'laser tramlines' are interesting. They would certainly catch the eyes of drivers, which would probably be a good thing. The tramlines can be steady or flashed independently of the main leds.

Each front light takes 3 AAA batteries and the rear light takes 2, so that works nicely with the 2 packs of 4 NiMH AAA cells that I ordered. My charger does 4 cells at a time, so it will take 2 charging cycles to sort all 3 lights out.

If it is dry tonight, I might go out after dark and test the lights. If so, I will take some photos somewhere poorly-lit to show how well they work.