New Lights Needed Options

[Freester]

OK so the HID bulb on my Lupines gave up tonight.

I need to consider my options. Getting a new bulb properly changed or DIY are in hand.

But I am out of the loop wrt new lights. I wouldn't consider anything but LED now. I want GOOD off road light. What should I be looking at is P7 the way to go? If I was to buy off the shelf should I be looking at?

Don't say lupine. Customer service is less than legendary and longevity is suspect. And I ain't spending that much this time

[Mad Pierre]

Light & Motion. Not cheap but quality can't be beaten.

[Kerr]

One or two P7s for helmet (2* 900)
Magic shine for the bar. 1*900

2700 lumens for about £100 -£150

dealextreme

Kerr

[glynn six 0]

i still think the dealextreme lights personally.alot of light for considerably less money,tho with a slight risk of having to return .my two p7 torches and magic shine light are still going strong with smudge batteries.

[Muscleburn]

Another vote for the DealExtreme units, I have a bar mounted DX P7 light and it's very good for the money. On full brightness I can get about 3 hours, on half I get about 5-6 and on flashing mode it will run for a good 12 hours+

Only niggle is one of the screws in the mount rattles lose every month or so but takes 20 secs to fix! For the price I don't think you can beat 'em.

[Mad Pierre]

I bought a DealExtreme Magicshine as a stop gap between my old L&M HID and affording a new L&M Seca.

I has to be said that while they are cheap the Magicshine's are cheap for a reason. They usually work and lots of people are happy with them however mine has had constant battery issues from the off. Smudge fixed it after only a few weeks and it has been bodged several times since.

some of the other things are:

The beam pattern is absolute pants compared to my proper lights which are designed for a combination of near and far light.
Build quality is pants compared to the L&M. E.g the beam pattern varies from light to light amongst the ones we have. Charger is cheapo plastic etc
Battery and connections are not waterproof like the L&M
Mounts are rubbish compared to L&M
Tech support / warranty from Deal Extreme exists but takes forever....

I know everyone cannot afford an expensive high end light but my HID lasted donkeys years (it still works fine in fact - just the battery life is a bit down) and I expect my new light to last years too.

[KurvZ]

I guess you get what you pay to a certain point , but once in awhile you get something extra from what you pay.

My Daughter bought me a bike Cam for Fathers-day was only 15 notes , and when I first used it had a nasty rattle on the recordings , after a while I worked out what it was and made it more secure ..

It worked fine for about three rides now its gone all weird getting all messed up files , but I think the Battery is a bit suspect and its losing power quite fast just sitting around so I'm trying it straight after a charge next time , If I can work around the few Quality issue and get it going its a awesome bargain if I cant I may end up claw hammering it ..

The Deal-extreme Lights do get mixed reviews but worth a shot

[Freester]

Yup good advice all above. Thanks.

My thinking is I can't be arsed with the time of faffing about with budget setups. I just want to buy a system that works. I have also been spoilt with the light and beam pattern from the Lupine. Main disappointment was the control wire failed just under a year ago - meaning it was stuck on full beam. I managed to fix it myself but seriously there was just the thinnest strip of copper for the control - made me doubt Lupine design. Also Lupine importers weren't keen to fix - just encouraged me to buy a new LED light unit at a 'trade in' cost.

So my current options are 'trade in' the Edison lamp for a 2010 Wilma LED for £225. Risk with this is if my battery gives up going to get expensive again. Also slightly reluctant to stick with Lupine for the reason above and my mate's Pasubio battery gave up after 2 years.

Or consider another system for ~250UKP. I hear Hope have some new ranges on the horizon? Or maybe Light and Motion?

Cheers

[Gareth]

Yes the P7's from Dealextreme are a good deal, you either get quality issues or you don't. Comparing them to an L&M Seca is like comparing a Ford Cosworth to a Bugatti Veyron, you may find all the speed you need with the former and it's affordable unlike the latter. There just aren't the problems with waterproofing or robustness as these had already been ironed out and they're incredibly strong so long as you don't punch out the inset glass face. If you do get any quality issues the torches are only £20. There are few 'light spread' issues as you can run one on your helmet and one on the bar for an almost ideal combination. Anyway this has all been said before I do agree in many ways that the Seca is worth the money but I just can't justify it over my P7's even though I could afford one.

Now seen the above, no issues with batteries for P7's as they are cheap as chips...

[DrBike]

And what happens with a Bugatti Veryon?

[Doug]

Give smudge a shout. mtb batteries.

[torihada]

I'm one of the people who had issue with the cheap imported LEDs; I had a P7 from Dealextreme, plus with two batteries, charger etc. It was to supplement the Exposure joystick on my helmet. I never got on with it; connections were not good and it would cut out (usually in the middle of leery DH section) and when fixed on the bars it would flicker on and off, so had to go on my helmet (damping provided by my body stopped most of the flickering on/off). One battery held a good charge, the other was useless. When it was working I'm sorry to say other riders Exposure lights put it in the shade. Supposedly 900 lumens was more like 450 lumens. In the end my faffing around in the middle of a night ride; changing batteries, fettling to fix connections etc got me down. I then spent a lot of cash on an Exposure Maxx D. 1200 lumens and it just works: 3 hrs, no fade, flicker or black screen of death. Its very robust & waterproof and lights up the trail perfectly. The charger seems well made and works (choice of 240 v or USB charger). It is also a very nice piece of British engineering rather than a piece of shonky Chinese plastic.

So you do get what you pay for (and so you should at that price) but the pleasure of cash saved vs crapness of lights meant I just felt cheap and stupid when I was left in the dark.

[Gareth]

So you do get what you pay for (and so you should at that price) but the pleasure of cash saved vs crapness of lights meant I just felt cheap and stupid when I was left in the dark.

We are sorry for your loss!

But you didn't lose much and could have just got another unit for a few quid...

[Kerr]

Im just curious if anyone feels that the difference between £20 quid p7 (or £40 quid magicshine) and "branded" £300+ lights is justified or is the industry having a laugh?

I think its kind legacy that lights used to be expensive before leds and battery technolgy improved, but the bike industry is hanging on to the pricing scale of pre-led.

The only two people who DONT have p7/magic shine combo that i ride with in the winter BOTH have had issues with their lights.
One is a hope 2 (battery wouldnt charge) and the other is nuke proof thingy (switch broke) ... Both are far weaker than my Magic shine. The nuke proof was over £300!

Get this in perspective... if you got 10 p7s you still have saved £100 .
Worried about waterproofing ... get the caving version (or grease the o rings on the standard one).


IM sorry, I really can see no sense in the pricing of branded lights.
If you ask me (and i know this is harsh... sorry) if you spend over 300£ on lights, you have more money than sense.

Kerr

[Mad Pierre]

I guess how I would sum it up is:

My magicshine was only 50 quid but I don't think I have had 50 quids worth of "value" out of it.

My old L&M HID was just over 200 quid and I have definitely had more than 200 quids worth of "value" from it.

I expect similar from my new one (one winter completed already) which cost £450 though obviously I have no sense according to Kerr!



When you are miles from base on a freezing, wet night that "value" of a reliable, bright light increases somewhat?

[Weak Knees]

I ordered one of THESE yesterday

looks ok for the money

[Mad Pierre]

I ordered one of THESE yesterday

looks ok for the money

That's a brighter (newer?) version of the one I didn't think much of

[craigf]

Ha this topic is almost as confrontational as the other great debate 'flats vs clip on pedals'

I have a P7 torch and a set of lumicycle halogen lights.

I had a problem with the P7 from the off, but after a chat with Jarl was able to solve it, although it doesn't seem to work on low anymore. But I've had it for 2 years and for £20 can't really complain. The build quality is just 'ok' and the mounting is a bit faffy but you know what you're getting when you order one of these. It's cable free but you have to change batteries every hour or so.

The lumicycle lights have been fantastic (I bought them 3 years ago for £74 from lumicycle clearance section). The build quality is good and I know they will work whenever I need them with no problems. But I had to buy a new battery last year which cost £120.

I'm now looking to upgrade my lumicycle lights and ideally am looking at either the lumicycle led xpg lamp or an Exposure Maxx-D. (I like the idea of cable free on the Exposure lights).

Both have good and bad points but if I can raise the money (and that's the real issue), I would definately get a branded light.

[Kerr]

That's a brighter (newer?) version of the one I didn't think much of

water resistant. 1200 lumens, 3-4 hour battery

£30 !!! ???

<scratches head> Please someone explain to me how branded lights can justify being 1000% more expensive?

Kerr

[Mad Pierre]

water resistant. 1200 lumens, 3-4 hour battery

£30 !!! ???

<scratches head> Please someone explain to me how branded lights can justify being 1000% more expensive?

Kerr

I'm not saying the branded lights are a good price but:

If the above is true then buy buy buy however based on experience it will probably be:

battery not water resistant at all, cables too short, 1.5 hour battery, poor reflector and wobbly mount around led means most of the lumens don't end up where you want