Whats lighting your ride?

[Mariner]

Sold my L&M bar and helmet lights earlier because although very bright the full beam life was relatively short and recharging was a long process that required a mains supply. Also the accumulator was quite large and all the batteries were factory replacement only.
I am looking for recommendations for a bar and helmet light with reasonable output to light the trail at night - not flat out riding.
Switchable to lower useful power output for longer battery life and road use.
Rechargeable within reasonable time say four to five hours from a pebble type thing.
Has accessible batteries that I can swop out if the pebble is out and maybe a usb input for dynamo option should I ever get round to fitting one.
Best I can come up with is a pair of B&M Ixon Pure. 80 lux for 5 hours or 15 lux for 20 hours nothing in between. 4 x AA NiCad 5 hours recharge per light.
The Ixon IQ Speed 50 lux looks better and can run two lights but has an accumulator and cant find the recharging requirements to see if it works off the pebble type thing and hugely expensive compared to 2 x Pure.
So what is everyone else using not just for a night riding but longer rides over a couple of days/nights that require longer run times and battery life?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Joystick on the helmet and Revo on the bike. Have a spare single cell piggyback for the joystick and it'll take a charge from either the dynamo or a back-up battery. As long as you're riding on your own / people with similar lights, I find the joystick powerful enough.

[Single Speed George]

2 of thoes cree things from ebay (one helmet mounted one bar mounted ) this kinda thing http://www.google.co.uk/aclk?sa=L&ai=Cx ... groupid%3D

cheep and had one for ike 4 years and the other for 3 dead reliable and are bright , i have riden Downhill at Ae Dh track at night with them in the past
have a few baterys as they are cheep too , have one big batery that lasts about 6 hours full beam , the ones that they come with last about 3 full beam

allso use them for winter climbing at night and are ok in cold aslong as you tuck the battery down ur jumper haha

[whitestone]

I've Hope Vision 2 on the bars and a C and B seen device on the helmet. Plenty enough for the speed I ride at

[ianfitz]

Joystick on the helmet and Revo on the bike. Have a spare single cell piggyback for the joystick and it'll take a charge from either the dynamo or a back-up battery. As long as you're riding on your own / people with similar lights, I find the joystick powerful enough.

Similar for me except I got a good deal on a Diablo.

Generally use it on the third setting so 3, 6, 24 hours on the three levels. More than bright enough on the low setting for slow climbs and on medium or high for quick descents. Never had (or needed) a piggyback battery...

[HaYWiRe]

I have little experience with bike lights beyond the basic LEDs I use for traffic, however I have a pretty well dialed setup for milsim

On my OpsCore helmet I've mounted an Eagletac T20C2 via the RIS on the side 600 lumens max, but low setting at 200l I get around 12 hours runtime. Mounted to back in elastic loops I carry spare CR123s which are more than enough for a weeks use. I have a spare T20 on my bicycle for handheld and use an old SUREFIRE for a weapons mounted light, all torches are certainly bombproof and bright, and all share cr123, if you want a good proper light for everything, they're a good investment

Hoping to find a way to transfer this setup to my bike helmet and bars, as my military lights have incredible reliability, if not a bit hefty or overkill compared to their cycling equivalent

[Scattamah]

Exposure Spark on the bars and Joystick on the helmet. Backup lighting provided by a Petzl Tikkina.

Greetz

S.

[Pyro]

I've had a set of Ay-Ups on head and bars for years. They're getting a little old now but are still some of the best value lights I've ever used, so I think I'll be replacing at least one of the units and pairing it with the Exposure Equinox I got recently. Carry a Joystick as a backup, usually, and either a Tikka or E+lite for camp.

[johnnystorm]

Revo and Redeye on the commuter with a cheapo flasher on the rear.

Six pack and Diablo for offroad. Often have the Diablo set to 4/10 mode.

[composite]

Revo on the bars and Diablo on the lid for off road.

[johnnystorm]

As an aside I went for a longer than planned ride a couple of weeks back with just a lezyne macro duo. 400 lumens max, I ran it on Low between sunset and midnight with the rear flashing red and it didn't conk out. Interesting what you can actually get away with when.it's so easy to get something megabright and think you need It.

[Fat tyre kicker]

Hope vision 4 endurance pack.....to be fair though it's been used
More as a camping head torch than a bike light so far!

[slarge]

Joystick and Maxx d for me. Still got my Lumi halogen copies that we all thought were great not so many years ago which I keep thinking about going for a ride with. 20w flood and 12w spot used to be plenty, just not sure if I can still lift the battery pack...

[godivatrailrider]

Ay-Ups on the helmet, Maxx-D on the bars. Also got a Lezyne Mega Drive which I picked for a bargain price at Mountain Mayhem.
I have a piggy back for the Maxx-D if required.
I think a much lower output Petzl headlight for around the camp may be really useful.

[Pat]

I've only got ay-ups on my bars, and a cheap Chinese headtorch (99p, including postage!)... It claims 300 lumens, it's not, but it's better than 99p's worth!

My mate has a maxxD and a joystick, but I don't like the fact that it's like daytime when I'm riding with him......I like the night!

[Pete-G]

Hope R4 on the helmet and thats all. Which has been great so far although I suspect a new battery isn't far off.

[composite]

As an aside I went for a longer than planned ride a couple of weeks back with just a lezyne macro duo. 400 lumens max, I ran it on Low between sunset and midnight with the rear flashing red and it didn't conk out. Interesting what you can actually get away with when.it's so easy to get something megabright and think you need It.

At the winter event a couple of years ago I was heading up that big long road climb out of Mach towards Doll with Baker and Chicken Legs. It was a clear moon lit night and as I had dropped them both on the climb ( ) I switched off my lights and rode by moon light. It was ace.

[jam bo]

Mtb rides - GLoworm X1 wth a 2 cell battery helmet mounted. 2hr life if I run it on low for climbing/bimbling and high for DH's.
Switch it off for climbing if the moon is out.


Road Rides - GLoworm X2 with 4 Cell battery. Never run it out.

[jameso]

Tend to just use an Exposure Spark with a spare set of batteries, only get 2hrs per set of rechargeables but have had a lot more life from good (li-on?) single-use cells. It's very light and has enough output for most stuff, just not great for techy singletrack. I have a L+M Secca 1300 which is brilliant for faster off-road use even on low (300-350 lumen?) but a bit heavy and can't be recharged without a bulky pack so not good for more than one night's use. I also bought a s/h converted L+M that has a ~200 lumen lamp spliced to an AA battery pack, ideal for garage resupplies, intend to use that more for off-road stuff this winter.
For multi-day riding I'm totally sold on dynamos but only have one on my road-dirt drop bar bike currently. I just wish SP or SON would make a proper wide-flanged 135mm front dyno for my Jones, a couple of rides in mind for when I can get that bike power-independant.

[Mariner]

I just wish SP or SON would make a proper wide-flanged 135mm front dyno for my Jones

Is this what you mean?

http://www.nabendynamo.de/produkte/pdf/ ... export.pdf[/i]

[benp1]

I thought I'd responded to this thread but my post never appeared

On road/commuting set up
Front - B&M Ixon Core and Cateye VOlt 300
Rear - RSP Tourlite rack mounted and a fibre flare on an upright on the rack. Plus a Smart R2 usb on my rack pack
Helmet - Lezyne Macro Duo on top and a PDW Radbot 500 on the back. Whole helmet is covered in reflective tape too

Off road
Front - Solarstorm X2
Rear - usually nothing unless I'm going near the road, they maybe a silicon light
Helmet - Sunwayman V20c - will switch helmet if I need a rear light

[DrMekon]

Commuting on road - Revo and the Exposure Shutter SP rebrand plus 6 pack, and red eye and a couple of smart 1w on the back
Offroad - 6pack on the bars, joystick plus the red led on the helmet, red eye on the back

[ootini]

I was actually going to start a boring "What light should I buy" thread.
I do very little night riding at the minute, but would like to do more. By very little, I mean none. I have a couple of crappy led "be seen" lights on my road bike to let peds know I'm there in the evenings, but that's it. My budget isn't huge, in fact I don't know what it is, let's say, "As little as possible to get something effective." Also, not sure if I want bar mounted (could be a pain with bar harness etc) or helmet mounted, any theories?
So, anyone have suggestions?

[Bearbonesnorm]

There's lots of cheap yet decent options out there. The real difference seems to be in battery quality, I'd suggest buying from somewhere in the UK as it'll make any 'issues' easier to resolve.

I forget the name of last years 'must have' cheap light but I bought my nephew one via ebay, recall it was about £25 and I was amazed by the quality of the thing ... and the output.

[darbeze]

Joystick Mk 6 on the helmet and Mk 9 on the bars...

Works for me.

Si