Cycle lights

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2006
Posts
3,975
Hi guys, wonder if you could help me.

I need to get some lights for riding when it’s dark. I got some lights from evans cycles in Bristol when I bought my bike from there a few weeks ago, some cat eye LED things for £30 – but they’re crap. Cycled back last night in the pitch black on an A-road and they were nowhere near up to the job. I really need some lights, front and back, that are suitable for riding on a road with no street lighting.

Can anybody advise me on what I should be looking at? It’ll need to be rechargeable in some way – I can see you can get properly rechargeable light sets, but rechargeable batteries would work I guess. Not sure how much I can afford, but I’d rather be safe on the road with less money than splatted with lots. ;)
 
Cheers chris. :cool:

I couldn't be bothered to faff about, so I've gone and ordered two lights, four batteries, two chargers and two nylon mounting straps.

I figure I can mount them both on my handle bars, and either use them both together when I'm on the road in total darkness, or just alternate between the two if the roads are lit. I got all that for about £70, which is pretty good considering a single Cateye light alone is £100. I’ve also paid for the express delivery so it should hopefully only be a couple of weeks before I can get them on the bike.

By the way, do you have to be wary of them when they're charging? By the sounds of it you can't just plug them in and forget about them.

I figure they should be bright enough for front lights, now for the rears!
 
Last edited:
I was looking at that Platypus, but ordered what Chris recommended as I can get two of them, with all the trimmings, for £20 less.

I am going to be cycling down a 4 mile road without any street lighting so I figured the more lumens the better! Not really fussed about how big they are particularly, as long as I can see the road... yesterday was actually pretty scary. :o

I'll just have to see how it goes I guess and leave a follow-up on here, in case anybody else is interested in them.
 
I think, as already has been mentioned, is that there is a large difference in the choice you make for lights if you're cycling in town with street lights, and if you're cycling in pitch black darkness.

Still waiting for my lights, the company dealextreme hasn't even got the stock from it's suppliers yet, so I think it'll be a while yet.
 
OK, well I got the lights on Friday and very chuffed with them. They are nowhere near as big as you'd think they'd be by looking on the websites. They're fairly small, with a heavy duty feel. About 140gramms a piece with the battery in.

They are very, very bright - almost ridiculously so. I bought two of them and with both of them on together you get a very good amount of light with them. Drove to a country lane earlier in the dark and you could see a good long way. Couldnt give you anything but a guesstimate of... pfft. Err, 80 feet. Who knows. I'll have to have work it out one day. We have a long garden and it lights the end up qiute nicely, put it that way! They have two settings, and even the dimmer one is pretty bright.

Would certainly recommend them. For about £70 I got two lights, 8 batteries (they only take one each - not the two that I thought, so I have 4 spare for each light!) and two mains chargers that charges 2 batteries at a time each. Considering a single light by cateye is £90 - which I could not possibly imagine would be as bright as one, let alone two of these - I think they're a good purchase.
 
One thing though, whilst I'm here, is that I'll need to find a suitable bracket to fix it properly to my bike.

I got two of the brackets recommended by the site up there, but they only grip in line with the torch. I'd need a bracket that firmly holds it in place, but at right angles to the handle bar. I don't think I could properly affix the lights to the handlebars in a suitable position otherwise, as it stands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom