LIGHTS MEGATHREAD - all questions on riding lights asked and answered here!!!

[the drizzle]

Or.. this on my helmet

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mj-808...umen-led-bike-light-set-4x18650-57100?item=20

And.. this on my bars

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mj-872...bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-80953?item=6

For $200 delivered that seems like a pretty sweet deal?

 

[pharmaboy]

you've got the right idea on the bars - the number of power modes is really useful on that light, and I like the form factor - if its a broad spread it may well be all you need, which has its advantages - eg i often go out at dusk and only throw the light on the bar - this is on trails I know very well of course. With highly focused lights like ay ups you have buggar all peripheral vision and NEED a helmet light as well.

cant help but see the triple one and think only a mother could love that....

 

[redbruce]

Such a great response. I appreciate all of your input. Such a wealth of information on this forum, l love it!

Maybe magicshine is thew way to go coupled with one of the cheaper options on my helmet.

Saw this on ebay and it looks the goods for handlebars at least.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/270975390811?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

I have been using one of those on the bars and an 808 on my helmet. Both are good value and the 816 has excellent spread. It does have a tendency to vibrate and it is fairly (twice the weight of the 808) heavy (not suited to helmet mount although some do). This setup is easily as good light wise as the more expensive Ayups but is not to the same quality standard.

The 872 has more power (actual is more like 1200 lumen) and more compact. It would be my choice over the 816 and I would use it on helmet.

Generally you run a spot pattern on your helmet and a spread on the bars. You can get a diffuser lens for the 808 to improve spread.

Magicshines had a number of quality and construction issues in the early days (2 years ago) that have been pretty much addressed. Those same issues however exist (mostly inside the light head where you cant see them) in the cheap copies found on ebay. For the small premium over the bottom end units I would get Magicshines.

 

[redbruce]

With highly focused lights like ay ups you have buggar all peripheral vision and NEED a helmet light as well.

Ayups can be configured with spot, medium and spread or combination of lenses to suit your need. They also have a low form factor that is desirable for helmet mounting (particularly for tall riders).

I would advise at least two lights just in case one dies on the trail and leaves you stranded.

 

[matt_dog]

I've used my www.ayup-lights.com lights for 5 years now. I've used them for adventure racing, 24 hour racing, social night rides, black outs, camping, rabbit shooting, safety lights on boats...

Best darn lights ever.

 

[moorey]

I bought 2 sets off ebay recently. Identical to the deal extreme ones. one at 900 lumen, which is easily as bright as mates 900 lumen Aye Ups, and another 1800 lumen, which I can run on half power and get similar to the Aye Ups, or rum on full, and blow them into the weeds.
Both cost around the $40-45 delivered, and can be bar or helmet mounted. i only ever run helmet mounted, with a pad of velcro permanantly on my skate lid.
Both give in excess of 3hrs light on full. based on mine, half a dozen mates have bought them, and are all chuffed with quality and price.
I'll hunt down the links if you want, but I reckon all the cheap ones on ebay come from same factory, and are the same as the deal extreme ones.

 

[carpetrunner]

MTB Bike Light geek warning

There are several corners to the MTB light design space, having some idea of the tradeoffs can help the buy decision.

Ayup concentrates on selecting the most efficient single (expensive) LED emitter, with the best match to some very efficient optics and matched to power supply and battery voltage to minimise the battery size and/or maximise battery life and provide the best beam pattern. All this optimisation comes at a cost.

Everyone I know who has them loves them and Ayup support their customers with a refurb service to give your old Ayups new more efficient emitters.

At the other end of the design space is the "I don't care about the beam pattern or efficiency - just get some big numbers" use a multi emitter single module, drive it hard and keep the costs down.

In the middle somewhere are the triples and quads. These suffer a little efficiency penalty from the optics you have to use to stuff them into a small enclosure. I can easily notice the difference in brightness of a 35mm triple and a 20mm triple optic. In the same enclosure a triple could "look better" than a Quad. To be able to use the compact internal reflection optics, the triples and quads also use the same types of emitter as the Ayups, but maybe less expensive/efficient/brightness bin parts.

If you can only afford the cheapies and this the difference between doing the ride or not then the choice is obvious, go the cheapies! Be prepared to do some DIY replacing the battery about a year down the track... by then you will know enough about what you really need.

If you have trouble sleeping, you can spend hours in here (I have - can you tell?)
http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/
and spend your cash here;
http://www.cutter.com.au/

FYI - I use DIY triples - a few of us did a production run of ~20 at the place I work. I've used 'em for 3 years of commuting, a 3 ring circus and a Mont24 - all good.

- carpetrunner

 

[redbruce]

I bought 2 sets off ebay recently. Identical to the deal extreme ones. one at 900 lumen, which is easily as bright as mates 900 lumen Aye Ups, and another 1800 lumen, which I can run on half power and get similar to the Aye Ups, or rum on full, and blow them into the weeds.
Both cost around the $40-45 delivered, and can be bar or helmet mounted. i only ever run helmet mounted, with a pad of velcro permanantly on my skate lid.
Both give in excess of 3hrs light on full. based on mine, half a dozen mates have bought them, and are all chuffed with quality and price.
I'll hunt down the links if you want, but I reckon all the cheap ones on ebay come from same factory, and are the same as the deal extreme ones.

I have pulled apart a couple of those cheaper ebay lights and they look like the original magicshines in terms of quality; poor solder joins, loose wires, one had heatsink paste (but insufficient), one didnt, one missing a mounting screw for the LED, etc (hence the comment in an earlier post). Both were working, but like the original MS's, the question is for how long. My original MS was pulled apart at purchase and cold soldered joins redone, wires and components properly secured and extra thermal paste added. Despite that it only operates on low because the current limiting resistor for high developed an internal fault. All subsequent MS's were checked at purchase but had much better quality control and are still going after 3 years use.

They may well all come out of the same factory, it doesnt mean they are all built to the same quality.

 

[NullaTroy]

About to buy a second set of ayups (spot for helmet). I think the thing people often forget is that if you have multiple brands or styles of something then it's multiple chargers and mounting kits etc etc.

My view is find a brand and stick to it - learn the tricks of it and have spares that are common.

 

[KWICKS]

get the bottom 1 i have owned/used that exact one and a coupple of other cheap things that are pretty much the same and they all have worked perfectly fine
the only down side is there mounts i broke a few of the rubber rings in the end i just got a reflector mount took the reflector off and screwed the light in and its rock solid

Same here, work well with one on helmet and one on bars. But Aussie distributed for a few extra bucks or you'll spend the difference on an Aussie adapter anyway. 2 lights same is convenient for charging and always having one fully charged interchangeable battery.

 

[NIKO87]

I think it's important to point out that for commuting, there is such thing as 'too bright' and I think the 1800-odd lumen Deal Extreme bargains fall here. As rad as they are, you don't want to get into an altercation with an aggressive motorist.

i use 2 magic shines on the way to work... ive never had a problem with car's flashing me (not saying that it wont happen though), but i do angle them down a bit. They are bright, but they get real hot if they are on and your not moving and they are fairly heavy. If i could afford ay ups i would buy them, but I cant justify the money when i already have these....

Ive used them on some trails at night and they are great, but if you want to wear one on your helmet you need to sort out your battery pack - its too heavy to mount on your helmet....

 

[Ride_Guy]

So reading through the last few months worth of posts and trying to decide on what to get for the up and coming winter night rides this year, I havent rode night in a long time but always like having a bar mounted light and a helmet mount also. The Ayup V4 kit is out of my price range, $300 being my budget.

What are the Magicshines like in comparison now that the Ayups are upgraded? Anyone else recommend a twin setup within that price range?

Cheers Rhys

 

[pistonbroke]

So reading through the last few months worth of posts and trying to decide on what to get for the up and coming winter night rides this year, I havent rode night in a long time but always like having a bar mounted light and a helmet mount also. The Ayup V4 kit is out of my price range, $300 being my budget.

What are the Magicshines like in comparison now that the Ayups are upgraded? Anyone else recommend a twin setup within that price range?

Cheers Rhys

Get more money. Surely you can wait a couple of weeks and get the ayups. The magic shine lights perform well but reliability is an issue. I too am in love with my ayups.

 

[Ride_Guy]

Yeah looking around seems I might have to save some more pennies.

 

[frensham]

AyUps are over rated and over priced compared to what is now on the market. Have a look at Nitelights: http://www.nitelights.com.au/index....&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

These are WAY brighter than AyUps and come with superb local support. As for reliability, my Magicshines have been faultless for over three years now. Don't waste your money on dimmer lights.

 

[pliskin]

AyUps are over rated and over priced compared to what is now on the market. Have a look at Nitelights: http://www.nitelights.com.au/index....&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

These are WAY brighter than AyUps and come with superb local support. As for reliability, my Magicshines have been faultless for over three years now. Don't waste your money on dimmer lights.

local support? you do realize that Ay-ups are an Australian company dont you? they have a head office and a retail shop in Queensland. the contact details are on the website.
the link you have posted is for a single mounted light that retails for $170. the weight is listed as 350gm.
i just went and weighted all the same components from my set 2009 of ay-ups. they came in at 224.5gm.
light 58gm
battery 3 hour 72gm
helmet mount 10.5gm
extension cord 24 gm
charger 60 gm ( i have a dual channel charger ) a single charger is 47.5 gm
which all weighs up to 224.5 gm ( 212gm ) if you count the 1 channel charger . not to mention that i have no need for the extension cord, so the weight is even less ( 188 gm )

so a similar set up Ay-ups are a hell of a lot lighter, compared to Nite lights.

 

[Ride_Guy]

I don't really care what they weigh, for that kind of differenece I can go poo and and loose the same.

 

[pliskin]

I don't really care what they weigh, for that kind of differenece I can go poo and and loose the same.

of course you could lose the weight
when its mounted on a helmet the reduced weight advantage is awesome. go strap 3 mars bars to the top of your helmet, ride around for a few hours , then get back to me .

 

[wilddemon]

I don't really care what they weigh, for that kind of differenece I can go poo and and loose the same.

I have found some humour in this comment in the past, but never fully understood it. So you take a shit before riding with heavy gear, but don't bother when riding light gear? just take a crap before your ride. Regardless of the weight you will feel much more comfortable. If it is just as some sort of comparison, I'm trying to get the weight of my bike under the weight of a rhino shit. If you take riding seriously you will consider the weight of components, no shit

 

[frensham]

local support? you do realize that Ay-ups are an Australian company dont you? they have a head office and a retail shop in Queensland. the contact details are on the website.
the link you have posted is for a single mounted light that retails for $170. the weight is listed as 350gm.
i just went and weighted all the same components from my set 2009 of ay-ups. they came in at 224.5gm.
light 58gm
battery 3 hour 72gm
helmet mount 10.5gm
extension cord 24 gm
charger 60 gm ( i have a dual channel charger ) a single charger is 47.5 gm
which all weighs up to 224.5 gm ( 212gm ) if you count the 1 channel charger . not to mention that i have no need for the extension cord, so the weight is even less ( 188 gm )

so a similar set up Ay-ups are a hell of a lot lighter, compared to Nite lights.

If weight is more important than brightness go spend heaps more on dim AyUps... It's your money. However, the 'single' light setup from AyUp is $100 more than the NiteLite and is nowhere near as bright. The MTB light they recommend (with two lights) is $270 more and still nowhere near as bright. At 1100 lumen and with a nice wide beam, the Nitelite negates the need for a helmet light - weight on the bars not such an issue.