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Tempted to see if the kids fancy a night ride with me, but we need more lights. As they might be used twice I don't fancy dropping Exposure-level money on them, and don't want to randomly buy cheap lights off eBay without recommendations, so can anyone recommend some nice and cheap lights for slow/blue trail night riding?
Can you borrow some?
Otherwise Halfords Ravemen and Lifeline are the usual suspects.
Moon a bit better I suspect.
Or upgrade yours and drop yours down to the kids.
Mine are a pair of Exposure, not sure I have a spare few hundred to upgrade both and I need enough new lights for two kids...
I'm not up on the latest chinese cheapy, the last I bought was Solar Storm X2 but cheap nasty clones of those appeared all over ebay. I'd be looking at amazon 'all-in-one' jobbies, where you could return it, if it's rubbish, or the kids would still have a useful torch for off the bike playing? (who didn't love a torch as a child?)
The Halfords Advance 1600 - usually £60, mine was £40 unopened on eBay, it works and is safer than random buying from cheap supplier on eBay....
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/LIPXSMH2W/planet-x-super-mini-2-way-200-lumen-bike-helmet-light due in midweek?
Tried my one year old one on helmet mount this morning as secondary light, might work well enough on mid or high off-road.
Big fan of Moon lights - these look decent, less than £40
Moon Meteor Vortex Rechargeable Front Bike Light - 2020 | Merlin Cycles
Big fan of Moon lights – these look decent, less than £40
I've got one of those, and it's excellent with a couple of caveats:
1) the on/off and function cycle buttons are not that easy to use, especially with gloves on, and when it's helmet-mounted
2) It features an 18650 *form factor* battery. In reality, both poles are at one end, rather than the + and - being at their own respective end. This means that, if you were thinking of re-using a load of excellent 18650 cells you have to hand, you're out of luck.
I've actually come on here to find an 18650-compatible torch for just this reason, by the way. The only problem is that it has to be at least as good as the Moon, and the Moon is, despite those two issues above, really good.
Halfords 1600 is very good, if you want to risk eBay then the Solarstorm X2 is a good option, very bright with good battery life and I've not had any issues in years of ownership
I've had a couple from torchy which have been good but looking at this site there only appears to be one but it looks decent for £30.00. Service and comms have always been good.
http://www.torchy.co.uk/product-category/bike_lights/
Solarstorm copies off amazon, £20 a set and have been great for the last 2 seasons. I have one for each of the kids and it is more than enough light.
I have actually loaned them to 2 mates when their more expensive lights packed up and they were both impressed.
have a shufty at the Nestling rechargeable LED lights.....plenty bright and cheap enough....I bought a set from Amazon warehouse...cost me £9.87 and the front light can burn retinas.....LOL
I might be in the minority, but I find most of the cheap lights crap. No proper optics so the light just ends up with a hotspot in the middle of the beam and a vague circle of light around it. All the ones I've had have also just stopped working generally, maybe one winter then done. Definitely worth spending a little more for some half decent ones IMO.
I've a set of converted lights with a good battery, old lumicycle ones that have lain unused in a drawer for a few years, I don't use them cos I like using no cable units, as its for your kids, you can have them if you want, gimme a PM.
A friend has the Halfords 1600 and now in its second year with no problems with the light itself. His mount needed some fixing as it wobbled about on downhill sections.
He uses it for the main bar light and it's very bright. Bargain at £60.
If it's literally just the nippers tootling about See if there's any of the Aldi cree sets left, cheap as chips. Spend the saving on warm gloves and waterproof socks!