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I need to expand the family night riding lights - my eldest is interested in joining for some evening rides and my lights are a little long in the tooth.
I've had a legacy of P7 torches, some dual LED mtb lights with crappy battery packs held on by velcro just before Solarstorm X2's come in and then haven't done enough night riding since.
What's the modern equivalent? Either I'm not looking in the right places (likely) or things haven't moved on that much unless I'm prepared to pay proper (Hope or Exposure) money?
(yes I've done a forum search but it didn't turn up anything recent...)
The Halford Light often gets a mention as a dip a in the water option. Apparently you need a better mount for it
Moon lights do some good option in the £40-70 range. Well made and decent battery life.
The old Halfords 1600 with the Hope mount is great. The problem is I've misplaced mine and can't find it anywhere.
I'll be buying the new version unless there's something better available.
Halfords is very good, if you want to go cheaper then I got an all in one light from AliExpress called OffBondage that's really quite good for money, it's certainly bright enough but not sure on battery longevity (though it does have various modes).
Thanks - self contained is always good (I've managed to tear out a connector once with a good crash) and the halfords has replaceable batteries....
As are they too heavy for a helmet mounted light or does the mount just not suit that? On a helmet I just end up suffering a cable from pack to helmet with the benefit of reducing weight on the head.
It also claims to have a second, fixed mount - is this an upgrade from the previous? And is the mount on the light body a direct fit to a Hope mount??
As are they too heavy for a helmet mounted light or does the mount just not suit that? On a helmet I just end up suffering a cable from pack to helmet with the benefit of reducing weight on the head.
IMO yes the halfords lights are a bit weighty for your noggin, it’s part of the trade off to have the lumens and runtime.
I still actually have an old X2 that works and have used it on my lid, but I don’t trust it and I hate the battery lead.
I am taken with the newer Chilli ‘capsule’ things:
https://chilli-tech.com/content/cree-capsule-pro-helmet-light-1100-lumens/
Basically a 1x18650 torch body with the LEDs on the side, that makes sense for a helmet light, but I do wonder if it would get swamped by others if group ridding. Certainly cheap enough to justify the spend and has the bonus of being a self contained unit, but can have the cell swapped when out and about.
I do keep looking for an AliExpress knockoff but I haven’t spotted one yet.
The Halfords 1800 is way too heavy for a helmet, you can't really get away with much more than 100g. I have an Exposure joystick because there wasn't a decent cheaper option for a helmet, this was a few years ago so there might be more options now. You ideally want around 1000 lumens, at least an hour of run time on full power, probably 150g max weight and a fairly focused beam pattern
This is the Hope mount I have. It's a straight fit onto the old 1600. Hopefully the new 1800 is the same.
My moon meteor pro came with a helmet mount in the box. They weigh 170g. I’ve had it on my head once. It was quite heavy but not crazy
I had the Halfords and the hope mount. Be aware that it doesn't fit on 35mm bars.
I wear the moon meteor on my head. Didn’t know the weight until the post above. It’s absolutely fine, but wouldn’t want it any heavier. I pair it with a Lezyne of similar quality on the bars and they’re definitely bright enough for my level of riding. You can’t go wrong with this level of lights, unless you’ve got a lot of spare cash or doing some serious long distance night riding there is no compelling reason to spend more.
The Ravemen PR2400 is a great front light at £103.99 - beats all the other suggestions in this thread by quite some way IMO.
Code RAVEMEN35 auto applies and stack WITCHY20 on top of it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/405179461504
Just found a Chilli capsule-alike on aliexpress for a tenner, claims to do 1200lm. For a tenner it’s worth a go I reckon.
I won’t post a link though (search for yourselves), I know some people are funny about far eastern tat and obviously I can’t make any conclusions on how good/bad it is yet, if I’m lucky I will have it before November to try.
A hint at your search term may be useful or sellers name
Halfords light on the bars / Moon Vortex on the helmet is a pretty good budget setup. I ran that for at least a whole winter, possibly 2 winters of night riding.
After a ride where someone had an Exposure Maxx D on the bars I invested in one of those - which is a big step up from the Halfords light.
That said I got fancy and swapped the Moon on the helmet for an Exposite Axis and have been quite underwhelmed by it. Whilst it is a little brighter (the Moon version I had was about 900 lumens on boost) and smaller I find the battery life really underwhelming. Felt like the Moon had better battery life vs lumen output.