[Closed] Lights.. opinions please

I used to buy a cheap Chinese flavour of the month light every year.
Then 3 years ago I bought a joystick and a diablo.
Money well spent.

There must be something not quite as good for a lot less thats bot Chinese

I’d say go for a pootle, see how it is. Quite often the numbers quoted on here for night riding are for doing the equivalent of full gnarly rides.

I had my 1st ride last night on 1600 bars and 1000 lid
Worked really well
Dunno if 400 on the lid would be enough for twisty steep forest trails
Just my opinion though

Whilst the numbers seem low, if you are riding solo it might be fine. Give it a go.

Depends really, give it a go on a simple route you know well. You can go faster with more light, but it's more exciting IMO with less. Did plenty last year with just 800lm on the bars. And a decade or so ago, people would laugh if you said you only had 1400lm.Technical stuff I'd be less sure on.

agree with Yak - riding alone, I think you'll be OK in general and will soon find out if your intended riding demands more

If you're with other riders you need to be reasonably matched, IME

I've ridden for about the last 10 years with a 1200 lumen MaxxD. I was fine, rode to the level of my lights, and enjoyed night rides for being different to day time rides.

If you want night rides to be daytime type rides at a different time if day, you will need 3000 genuine lumens and that won't be cheap.

I used to night ride with those tesco torches 🙂 Thing is, it depends what you want. Do you want to ride at night, or do you want a night ride? Mostly, I just want to go for a ride and it happens to be dark, so I like atomic lights. But I used to like night rides as their own thing and actually, having too much light for that kind of spoiled it as I could ride pretty normally and I lost the whole "spec in the infinite darkness" thing. You really don't need much light at all to have a great Night Ride, but you do need quite a lot to have Ride Which Is At Night.

IMO diminishing returns kicks in at about the 1500 lumen mark, with good colour temp etc. That's also about the point where the whole spotlight/floodlight stops being a thing, because you can have a floodlight with good range and that just works better than the old chase-the-dot.

Unfortunately, it's still hard to do a light that bright that's self enclosed and also has good battery life so that means compromise- do do it all generally means a helmet wire, which is annoying. But that allows for a very lightweight helmet light so that's a plus.

I don't know what's good this year, but, it's very obvious that there's been no big steps forward except in the "huge power" category where it seems to be mostly about regaining sanity. Absolute museum pieces like the Magicshine 872 and Hope R4 are still competitive.

I use a Convoy s2 torch and rechargeable batteries on my helmet, using a cheap torch mount and go pro attachment. Along with a decent bar light, I manage on the darkest of nights in the woods.

My ancient (but reliable) Exposure lights are less powerful than that, but have served me well.

Joystick on the head - 240 lumens
Race Maxx on the bars - 480 lumens

If you are riding on your own, what you have will be plenty - if you are riding with friends who have brighter lights, you may get ghosted in their beams

Ravemen PR1200 or PR1600

Road and off-road specific beams/emitters (one of each).

Has remote switch.

Done.

I use the PR900 and that’s sufficient tbh, for gravel - slower technical trails, and still also better on the road compared to any other bike light I’ve used (which over decades includes Moon, Exposure, Cateye, Smart, RSP, Lezyne)

*dammit, you said ‘helmet light’ 🙃. Sorry.

Sell it all and buy a Ravemen PR1200 for the bars and a half-decent helmet light for filling in any gaps 🙂

Give it a go.

I started night riding with a cat eye lead acid battery job with two 10w spots. 1 hour run time with both on, 2 hour runtime with one on.

It was a 4h ride from my folks, to the pentlands, through the pentlands and home. I regularly ran out of light riding by crappy commuter ligts, and riding off moon light or the reflected city lights on the clouds.

This was fun and fine on trails I knew that were wide open and not particular technical.

O graduated onto torches ziptied to my helmet and a pocket full of batteries, via magic shine solar storm, and ended up with exposure lights on the bar and head.

The solar storm lights are plenty bright for me to ride as fast as I want to and are £20 on eBay.

Lights?
Yes, you should use them.

I used to buy a cheap Chinese flavour of the month light every year.
Then 3 years ago I bought a joystick and a diablo.
Money well spent.

This, used to pick up batteries every few months as they'd die, faff with mounting the battery packs, fav with mounting the light to the bars as the little o ring was cack. Picked up Exposure's few months ago and have done more night rides in a few months they I did the last few years due to the hassle and ball ache of cheap lights!

You’ll probably be fine as long as you haven’t got someone riding behind you with a small sun on the bars.

A brighter and all in one helmet light that isn’t exposure money is the Moon Vortex Pro. Had one of them (and also the plain vortex) for quite a few years now and it’s been relentlessly reliable.

I ride with a group who are dominated by Exposure fanboys - the mounts are badly desighed , the light sea to be hugely over complicated with features you will never knowingly need - but they are impressive at illumination.

Unfortunately they are also a little annoying to almost everyone else out on the trails.
I am no convinced you need 3000 lumens plus - and I ride every week on the South Downs.

BTW - MTB batteries Luminator - and the head light ( which I wear rarely)

Having good results with some cheaper Lezyne's at the mo. 1,500 on the bars, 750 on lid (if I can be bothered). Seem reliable, waterproof enough, easy to swap between bikes. TBH much better than various much more expensive lights I've had.

https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-lights

I used to night ride with only a few hundred lumens and now ride with 2200 lumens on bars and 900 lumens on my head but I believe 1000 lumens to be the minimum for speedy off road rides. Needs to be a nice spread pattern though. The older cheaper lights tended to have darker spots so a good spread pattern is also key.

I ride with a group who are dominated by Exposure fanboys – the mounts are badly desighed , the light sea to be hugely over complicated with features you will never knowingly need – but they are impressive at illumination.

I bought my first exposure light about a month back and it’s epic. What’s wrong with the mounts? Mine’s a Maxx D and the handlebar light is by far the best mount I’ve had on a big bike light. It does have loads of modes I’m not going to use - I just put it on the highest Reflex mode and ride. Dims when I’m stationary, bit brighter when climbing and full 4000 lumens when going fast.

400 lumen helmet light and 1000 lumen bike hut for bars.. initially for road use. Will this be enough for night trail riding?

My opinion: yes, definitely. Have ridden many many times over the years with far less wattage! Get out there. Crashing is fun anyway.

Exposure on the bars (and it's a great mount) and Chinese 2-beam on the helmet (with the battery in my pack).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nestling%C2%AE-Cree-X2-Flashlight-Rechargeable/dp/B0747MYNGF/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=cree+bike+light&qid=1604386909&sr=8-5

Although many I ride with just use a pair of the Chinese lights, bars & helmet.

Mine’s a Maxx D and the handlebar light is by far the best mount I’ve had on a big bike ligh

After much faffing with chinese cree lights with o rings of diff sizes and then bodging the light onto a go pro mount, the Maxx D bracket is excellent, I have had no issues with it moving.

As others have said, that should be totally fine, unless you're riding particularly technical trails?

Regarding the comments about Exposure lights being too bright: I think some people go straight to the big lights when they might be better served by something like the Toro on the bars - cheaper, lighter and plenty enough light and battery for most of us.

Anyway, give them a try and report back OP.

Like others have said, if you're riding on your own then it'll be fine, I managed with a 1000lm light for years, the only time it struggled was when my mates behind me with their exposure portable sun and all you can see is your shadow.

I bit the bullet in June and picked up an Evans return exposure 6 pack for about half price. Now it's more than enough light (too much on max) but the best bits are no battery pack and not having to worry if I forget to charge it prior to a 2hr ride as it'll have enough left over from last time.

That's my thinking Chakaping - just picked up the latest toro at a decent price from sdj sports. Couldn't stomach any more outlay for the more powerful options. Fingers crossed it'll do the job.

Oh the memories of the Tesco light when LED were in the infancy.

Though repeated possibly too often I have a superb troute 2000 lumen on the bars and am waiting for my new Four4th scorch to arrive.

Having just come back from a couple of hour spin out over the tops of Rossendale I am pleased to reflect the troute light is great for flood

I've just got Toro from SDJ also. Got it for £235 with extra 20% off it seems really good after first ride. SDJ delivery fastest i've seen and customer service seems really good.

I have a trusty (now very old) Hope Vision that throws only about 800lm - it's been fantastic (and I have to say that Hope service over the years has been amazing - it's had several repairs over the years, even outside of warranty, and they've never charged me a penny!)

I also bought a s/h Lupine about 5 years ago - that throws out more light still at about 1200lm - that's been amazing too (I paid about £75 for what had originally been a £500 light)

You will have more than enough light there - go and enjoy yourself!