Where to buy bike lights you can't steal?

custardy

all these cree lights are fine(use them myself)
however the beam pattern isnt ideal

Also lights mounted on the head. fine for you,however people have a tendency to look up at fellow cyclists as they pass
so a dangerous dazzle and people tend to veer towards the light without even realising it.

I keep meaning to convert my commuter to a dynamo hub for fit and forget

[Deleted User]

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

I generally agree that it's worth spending money to get something decent but I started experimenting with cheap Cree based lights based on recommendations here and haven't been disappointed. At the moment I have four Ultrafire WF-502B's with Cree XML-U2 emitters which are newer, more powerful and more efficient than the Cree XP-G R5 used in the Fenix TK15. As they were only a tenner each I expected them to fail hence buying four but so far in over a year I've yet to have a single one fail despite them being used for night time mountain biking so they're frequently used when it's raining and in muddy conditions. I'm sure they will go wrong at some point but I don't mind given their low cost if I'm going to get a decent amount out of them first. It's also far from impossible for decent lights to fail unexpectedly as well.

The main recommendation I'd make is to ensure you choose decent batteries, some of them are bundled with cheap Trustfire/Ultrafire batteries or you can buy these batteries separately but they tend to vastly overstate their capacity and their performance is not good. I quite often lend my spare lights out to people on a ride because they've had a Trustfire/Ultrafire battery which has not lasted a decent amount of time at all.

John

I tried the new emitter cree xml u2, quite cheap drop in modules from China, once again they disappointed, not being as good as a genuine Fenix top quality emitters. As I say , using a too powerful emitter doesnt work with just 1 x 18650 lion, as it cant handle the power long enough and soon drops down a mode. My Fenix tk15 was brighter and the runtime longer. I have used the best rechargables possible and found in general that the GREY Ultrfires have been OK in general and havent had a failure with any . I am in my 3 rd year with my current batch of Ultrafires I use my Fenix ALL day, and every day in my job as a meter reader and have found the TK 15 the best of the bunch for a single 18650. I own the TK40 too and if you think that a cheap copied cree can match it depite its claims of 1600 lumens you are mistaken. That thing would dazzle a Mercedes headlight if it did nt dip its beam and I think its rated at 800 lumens, takes 8 AA s

Johnmcl7

They're not cheap copied Crees, the LEDs are genuine but the bodies tend to be copies just as the Fenix LED emitters are produced by Cree. I never said their lumen claims were genuine, just that the XML LEDs are more powerful than the older XP-G R5's and they're more power efficient. You can repeat your misinformation all you want but the simple fact is that regardless of what you believe, the actual figures for the LED emitters show the XML LEDs are more power efficient than the XP-G R5's. There is no problem driving the XML's from a decent 18650 battery (but there is likely to be if using a cheap *fire battery) and if you are having trouble driving an XML based light with a single 18650 battery it would be worse with an XP-G R5 LED.

The data for the Cree lights is here:

http://flashlightwiki.com/Cree

Output is as high as 340 lumens at 700mA (bin U3, which is still rare) therefore it is more efficient and puts out more light at any current than earlier single-die Cree LED's

It's now possible to get the newer XML2 based LEDs which are brighter but at similar power consumption.

The beam pattern on your lights may well be better than some of the cheap ones but it's completely wrong (as the figures demonstrate) to claim that your XP-G R5 lights are brighter and more power efficient than the XML lights when they're less powerful and less power efficient. It's also wrong to claim that XML lights can't be driven at full power from a 18650 battery for a sustained period of time. I'm not sure what point you're making about using a light for meter reading, it's not really challenging conditions for a light but I'll leave you to your delusions about your XP-G R5 light because I will not be continuing this conversation any further. The facts are there, people can make their own minds up based on actual data rather than flawed perception.

John

Johnmcl7

custardy wrote: »

all these cree lights are fine(use them myself)
however the beam pattern isnt ideal

Also lights mounted on the head. fine for you,however people have a tendency to look up at fellow cyclists as they pass
so a dangerous dazzle and people tend to veer towards the light without even realising it.

I keep meaning to convert my commuter to a dynamo hub for fit and forget

The brightness is a concern, I only have the helmet light on when off road and when on road dim the bar light and push it slightly so it's effectively dipped. It also conserves power for off road which is when you really need it.

I was initially looking into fitting a dynamo hub as the original front light I had (a £60 Cateye model) didn't use standard batteries and was prone to dying without warning which wasn't very useful. However the 18650 powered lights on dim last a while and easy to change so haven't needed to look into it the same, how much work is it to fit the hub and cabling?

John

[Deleted User]

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

They're not cheap copied Crees, the LEDs are genuine but the bodies tend to be copies just as the Fenix LED emitters are produced by Cree. I never said their lumen claims were genuine, just that the XML LEDs are more powerful than the older XP-G R5's and they're more power efficient. You can repeat your misinformation all you want but the simple fact is that regardless of what you believe, the actual figures for the LED emitters show the XML LEDs are more power efficient than the XP-G R5's. There is no problem driving the XML's from a decent 18650 battery (but there is likely to be if using a cheap *fire battery) and if you are having trouble driving an XML based light with a single 18650 battery it would be worse with an XP-G R5 LED.

The data for the Cree lights is here:

http://flashlightwiki.com/Cree



It's now possible to get the newer XML2 based LEDs which are brighter but at similar power consumption.

The beam pattern on your lights may well be better than some of the cheap ones but it's completely wrong (as the figures demonstrate) to claim that your XP-G R5 lights are brighter and more power efficient than the XML lights when they're less powerful and less power efficient. It's also wrong to claim that XML lights can't be driven at full power from a 18650 battery for a sustained period of time. I'm not sure what point you're making about using a light for meter reading, it's not really challenging conditions for a light but I'll leave you to your delusions about your XP-G R5 light because I will not be continuing this conversation any further. The facts are there, people can make their own minds up based on actual data rather than flawed perception.

John

How the hell do YOU know if I bought cheap copies. The XlMs I got were from Dealextreme driven by the best rechargeable Panasonics and they were pretty abyssmal. I have no faith at all in most stuff coming out of Fake China.What do you mean by the facts ! its getting hold of the genuine article and best quality emitters , ( they are graded ) which is the problem. Meter reading is extremely challenging for any torch, what would YOU know. I work in a lot of cellars and the torch is constantly on the go, day in day out.The tailcaps go in the end, even the expensive Surefires let me down, but so far a Fenix torch has nt yet failed. I push torches further than most people would ever use in their lifetime. any torch company could use me as a testbed as to how long the tailcaps last
I also own the Fenix TK 21 which is an XLM emitter, its not as good as the TK15, it soon loses turbo mode and the throw is nt as good but has a better spread more suitable for cycling, not as white neither. I would maybe buy an XLM emitter from a US website to get the genuine article
Its OK you saying only use these emitters with good batteries, but this is a money saving forum and we have to use the cheapest batteries otherwise it will cost a bomb in prime batteries. The cheap rechargables are the only way. I have used old laptop batteries which are 18650 s and good quality for peanuts. The grey Ultrafires may be a bit hit or miss but at less than £2 each they are excellent.