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Well it's getting to that time of year when your lights are permanently on during a daytime ride and I haven't got any lights apart from £5 aldi specials.
Can anyone suggest some good lights that don't cost the earth say around £30/£50 ??
Any advice warmly welcome
Are we talking for road or off-road and to be seen, or to see where you’re going?
There’s been some good deals about on Lezyne lights - Evans had some ex-display ones up on the online shop the other day for decent prices. Ah, but they’re gone sorry, still, something like the Micro 500 is available at <£30?
Joebristol to see where I'm going
Moon Vortex Pro can be had for about £40 from, I think, Leisure Lakes. It’s bright, comes with helmet and bar mounts, and works for on or off road.
I was going to say the Moon Vortex Pro is pretty good. I’ve got one as a helmet light for off road and it’s great. Just spotty enough for helmet use without being too small a beam.
If you also want a bar light that’s really cheap then a Brite-R Duo isn’t much over £20 if you’re happy to fiddle with the bar mount and don’t have a 35mm handlebar clamp area (which is too big for the clamp).
As a pairing they’d give you enough light for technical off road riding as that’s what I was using last winter. Got a new bar light in a sale that’s an all in one unit in the summer so now got a Ryder Alumia 1600 on the bar but that’s out of your budget at the moment - whilst still being fairly cheap for the power.
if you don;t mind ordering from abroad I use a Convoy S2 or S2+ .... two friends liked it so much they've since gone and bought one.
Personally I prefer one without built in batteries as t's easier to have a couple of spares around in case you forget to charge before you go out, if you have a look and have any interest let me know and can help with decent batteries / charger that will stay within budget for the set up.
To add the Moon Vortex Pro is 900 lumens and the brite r Duo is 1300 (claimed).
Links:
This was the cheapest delivered price a quick google threw
up for the Vortex Pro. There is a Vortex (non-pro) which is 600 lumens that is only £29 from Leisure lakes bikes. I bought one recently for my road bike that I commute on. It’s definitely less bright but still ok. Depends if you want it for off road or on road:
To save starting a thread, is there such a thing as a bright off-road beam light whicn can also do a road legal type beam?
Not that I’ve come across. I’m not sure if there is an official standard for on road lights which is part of the issue. I forget the make but I’m sure there’s a previous thread where one brand were quoted as having lights more appropriate for road use.
I tend to now run two Moon lights on the bars of my commuter (a meteor vortex and a meteor x auto) - the auto just as a flasher and the vortex as a steady light but not running the full 600 lumen power whilst on the road. I think there are 300 lumen and a lower power setting again. I have part of a commute on a dark cycle track / tow path so its useful to have the 600 lumen setting for that.
To save starting a thread, is there such a thing as a bright off-road beam light whicn can also do a road legal type beam?
The closest you'll get to a 'road legal type beam' is the German standard, which produces a beam with a car-type cut-off to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. They tend not to be very bright in off-road terms and my experience of riding off-road with an Supernova Airstream and one fo the Philips Saferide is that the cut-off makes them quite disconcerting, though better with a helmet light to fill in some of the upper void.
Something like an Exposure Strada, which has a sort of flattened eliptical beam would work better as an off-road bar light I guess, but be a little less road specific, though if you angle it slightly downwards and to the left, it's actually pretty good. Expensive though.
Or this maybe for dual road/mtb use?
https://road.cc/content/review/221409-ravemen-pr1200-usb-rechargeable-dualens-front-light
I an a B&M Ixon core - had a german road beam. Really didn't like it off road, the cut off was disconcerting. Got nicked though, gutted
Now use a Strada, brighter light but doesn't have the same beam pattern, so is fine using it off road (last few MTB rides have been with this light team with a diablo or joystick on my lid)
Leyzne strip drive y11 is what I've ended up buying for £35 for front and rear thanks to everyone for replying