NEW LIGHT Options

[martyn748]

I've been runnign with a Hope One for years now and its doen me proud. until my mate got an Exposure 4 which made it impossible for me to see what I was doing.
Some thing had to be done but I didn't have £300 for a light!!!
I managed to pick up one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1800-Lumen-BICYC...=item3375300f5a
For £25 worth a punt.

Arrived dead on time,is a lot smaller than it looks on the pictures. Has differant mounts, head band, charger (that will require an adapture £4.99 argos) and build quality was quite good. Even better you can take it all apart to change lenses depeneding on what you want to use it for!!! How many top end lights can you do that??

First ride and WOW The beam was noticable brighter than the exposure!! so is prob close to the claimed 1800 lumens. The beam is a little narrower Aprox 6' spot but the cast off light easiely makes up for it giving a clear view of the trail. You can get a wide beam coverter reflector which in time I might try.
Extramly happy and would reconmend it to any one.
my mate with the Exposure was so impressed im getting him one too.

[glynn six 0]

looks good! and for £25 definately worth a shot.
reliability might be an issue.i got the dealextreme xml t6 and it failed on me after a very short while. i started to become dissillusioned with some of the cheaper imported stuff but contacted smudge (forum member) and sent it off to him rather than send it back to china.he did some jiggery- pokery with it and apart from not indicating low battery, its worked fine since

[smudge]

Thanks for the mention Glynn

Looks a nice light martyn, but it wont be 1800 Lumens, you cant get that from a single XML, (in theory it will be just under half that) Also I think the battery spec is wrong as that would mean the cells are only 1.5Ah but normally these batteries are a standard 4.4Ah (2.2Ah each)

Coming with 2 lenses is a good idea though.

At night who cares how much youre light cost, you having fun and enjoying it, thats all that matters.

Hope it serves you well though.

Smudge

[martyn748]

Ok heres a comparision

Pic 1: Hope 1, found to work perfectly well and have been happy with it for years. Long battery life and good bright beam if not a little narrow.

Pic 2: Cree, WOW as Ive mentioned this beam is stupidly bright and for £25 good beam spread, got a wide lense kit on order so should be amazing with that.

Its about 20 meters to the shed which much therefore than you would normally set your lights to.

Why spend £300+?

After a 2 hour ride on Wed and just left it on for another 2 hours and it still has not run out

Attached File(s)

 hope1.JPG ( 8.4k ) Number of downloads: 13
 cree.JPG ( 17.24k ) Number of downloads: 23

 

[Gareth]

Surely the Hope is almost as bright?

[martyn748]

Quick update. Just got my wide lense kit at a massive £5
You have to leave the orginal lense in too as the new one is a little thin and not 100% secure But as you can see from the orginal pic the beam pattern is greatly improved spaning the whole width of the garden and is quite smooth.
Still not worn the battery out yet..

Attached File(s)

 widwlense.JPG ( 17.77k ) Number of downloads: 12

 

[Gareth]

That does indeed look like a worthwhile improvement.

Still not worn the battery out yet..

Ride man ride!

More expensive sets will still attract buyers on quality, longevity, colour temperature, support etc. Even at only £25 it needs to last a couple of winters before it seems more than a disappointment especially if you use it as your only light when faults can be very annoying. I'm still happy with my P7's but there are way more options these days if you prefer wired units.

[martyn748]

So far a few wet rides and holding up.

BUT at £25 if I buy 10 and throw 1 away every year it would still only be £250 for 10 years of riding.

Now hand on heart will your £400 hope ect still be going in 10 years??

No didnt think so

[Mad Pierre]

So far a few wet rides and holding up.

BUT at £25 if I buy 10 and throw 1 away every year it would still only be £250 for 10 years of riding.

Now hand on heart will your £400 hope ect still be going in 10 years??

No didnt think so

Actually my 200 pound Light & Motion HID is still working after something like that...

I bought a cheap (at the time) 40 quid Deal Extreme light a couple of years ago and it pretty much f*cked up straight away! Smudge fixed the battery for me but it went wrong again. I've never got much use out of it. 40 quid wasted. Others bought in the same batch are still going but they don't night ride every week like I do.

The other thing with these cheap lights is the reflectors can be somewhat random in the beam pattern they produce. Put two next to each other and they can be totally different - I've seen it. Also build quality in terms of connector and battery sealing, chargers and sometimes the unit itself is variable and often not the highest.

Don't get me wrong: they are great for getting out at night cheaply and I would recommend them to anyone for that but they definitely don't compare in lots of aspects to a modern branded unit.