What night riding lights are people recommending?

[dlovett]

On the Fatty/HT/Susser, it's a Revo/Red Eye and Diablo for proper off road DH, just the Revo/Red Eye for normal off road terrain and road sections.

On the road bike it's b&M dynamo lights.

On the Adventure bike its a B&M luxos u and toplight on the rear for normal off road terrain and road sections, plus the Diablo for off road DH.

A very good point made was how many lumins do you actually need, far fewer than you most likely think, but terrain and other people change the numbers. Also do you want a bar light, lighting where the bike is going or do you also want to see where you are looking?

[jam bo]

A very good point made was how many lumins do you actually need, far fewer than you most likely think, but terrain and other people change the numbers. Also do you want a bar light, lighting where the bike is going or do you also want to see where you are looking?

a couple of hundred more than the person behind you.

[psling]

"massive 3LR12 4.5v battery strapped to the back" .... "no more than a warm glow but it was fun"...""original" petzl".

Yep them there things. I can feel a test run coming on, must go and dig it out, so that I can recall those halcyon days. The yellow warm glow made you feel part of the surroundings, left plenty of spooky darkness, and allowed a little frisson of fear into the proceedings; unlike these blasted bright white LEDs scything our way across the countryside...

Must dig mine out too and weigh it; see how it compares to my current Black Diamond model which is about the size of half my thumb and a lot brighter (lumens brighter than the Petzl, not intelligence quotient brighter than my thumb...).

I'm a fan of the Use Exposure range, love the simplicity of the single unit, cable-free designs, and have a few!

Having said that, and having read all the comments of different output requirements, there's a certain ethereal beauty in riding across remote open land on a clear night with only a Harvest moon lighting the way that I'm sure we all appreciate on here.

[kazafaza]

Two lights are a must in my case - on as low as poss, the other stuck to my helmet. I use Revo mounted on the crown arch with Cateye Volt600 or Cateye Volt300 mounted via Cateye centre fork mount and another one on the helmet.
I also have a couple of cheap Chinese lanterns from fleebay, however I’m not to keen on the beam pattern...

[Ray Young]

Think I've come to a decision. MTB Batteries Lumen 800 for the helmet and then a decent battery off the same people for the bar mpunted solar storm.

[mechanicaldope]

I use both the solarstorm x2 on my helmet and the X3 on my bars. Both have performed without a hitch so far but haven't really been exposed to biblical rain or freezing temperatures. My biggest criticism of them is the battery life indicator. Only three bars and goes down to the second one almost straight away. It will then stay there for ages before suddenly dropping to one bar then cutting out. I think this is due to the pretty consistent voltage of the battery across its discharge cycle and the monitoring circuitry being one of the costs that has been cut in order to deliver a £15 light. Think I am going to stick with these for a while with a new battery from mtb batteries as a spare. I would love it if you could get an inline battery monitor as not having the first idea how much power is left does cause some anxiety!

[Ray Young]

I use both the solarstorm x2 on my helmet and the X3 on my bars. Both have performed without a hitch so far but haven't really been exposed to biblical rain or freezing temperatures. My biggest criticism of them is the battery life indicator. Only three bars and goes down to the second one almost straight away. It will then stay there for ages before suddenly dropping to one bar then cutting out. I think this is due to the pretty consistent voltage of the battery across its discharge cycle and the monitoring circuitry being one of the costs that has been cut in order to deliver a £15 light. Think I am going to stick with these for a while with a new battery from mtb batteries as a spare. I would love it if you could get an inline battery monitor as not having the first idea how much power is left does cause some anxiety!

Yes, I'm perfectly happy with my solar storm light but the batteries supplied are rubbish, only getting 4 hours when new and now only 3 hours and that's on medium setting.

[Trail-rat]

use Revo mounted on the crown arch

I've just moved mine back to.he bars from the crown. The beam shape suits this much better seems a much better light when on the bars.being on the crown just flattened everything out

[Bearbonesnorm]

I would love it if you could get an inline battery monitor as not having the first idea how much power is left does cause some anxiety!

I used to have a very small one fitted to my drag bike when I ran it on the road (no alternator fitted) ... don't see why the same couldn't be fitted to a light battery.

[kazafaza]

Ah, thanks Trail-rat, I'll give it a go. I've assumed that one of the lights being as low as possible with the other perched on top of my pot will be the best option but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try bar & helmet setting!

[Trail-rat]

Tbh so did it. I also thought it would stop the bottom end cut off by my bar bag but I couldn't live with the flattening of the trail
My joystick was having to do double the work

I now have Jones bars and with the light on the loop it sits high enough and forward enough not to be cut off so it was worth moving it to avoid the flattening out.

[RobMac]

Exposure Race Mk12 here