Lights - advice

[Phil Fouracre]

Looking for new front light, as looks like I will be riding in the dark for a while! Got light and motion halogen at the moment, must be a few years old now, working fine, but, a couple of issues. Fairly 'chunky' battery with cable, no indication of charge, and risk of overheating if not moving! Guess things have moved on substantially. Anyone got any suggestions/recommendations.

 

[lpretro1]

There are loads of really good LED lights available - all depends on what you want to spend really and where you ride. This might help
www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/best-bike-lights-for-road-cycling-32289/

 

[themosquitoking]

I have one of the moon x-power lights quoted in that article, it's like turning on a small super-nova.

 

[fossyant]

There are loads of lights and all sorts of budgets. Plenty of us are using the Chinese lights these days, but you need to be careful with them on roads as they are ideally off road lights.

 

[Klassikbike]

Current trend is for USB recharchable lights and they are plenty of good ones.
Important things you have to consider about your riding needs:
-What is your budget.
-What running time do you need.
-What light output do you need (riding in city, rural area, forest, only needing a light to be seen...). A 1000+ lumen light is probably overkill for commuting.

and other things that you have to consider about the lights:
-What kind of beam pattern does the light have? (Some lights have focussed round patterns, some square to not blurr traffic, others super wide for offroad riding).
-Real lumen VS Lumen announced by company? (Many Chinese lights might say that their lights have 5000 Lumen but actually they might have only 600).
-Is the light waterproof?
-How stable is the mount and is it easy to detach the light when needed?
-Does the light fade over time?
-How easy is the light to handle?
-How many different lighting modes does the light have?

Heres a recent review of 2014/2015 lights:
http://reviews.mtbr.com/2015-lights-shootout
http://reviews.mtbr.com/2015-lights-shootout-beam-patterns
http://reviews.mtbr.com/2015-lights-shootout-lumen-measurements


PS: More power or Lumen does not necessarily mean better!