What's your bike light?

[Quattro Pete]

Been a while since we had a bike light thread.

I'm currently using some inexpensive Bell Lumina light. It's good for being seen, but not too good to see much at night. Not sure what its lumen rating is, but it's probably no more than 50 or so.

I've got a C8 CREE XML T6 (rated at 1000 lumens supposedly) flashlight sitting around. I ordered a handlebar mount for it just to see how it'd do on a bike, but the battery life is fairly short on this one. If this doesn't work, I might look into a dedicated bike lamp with an external battery pack, but I don't want to spend a fortune. I've seen Pablo's S14 light which looks pretty cool.

Those of you riding at night, what have you got?

 

[SLCraig]

Magicshine MJ808E.... I almost bought the 880 but honestly the 808 is enough. What a great light for the money. I cannot wait for night rides this year!!!!

 

[REDDOG]

I have a cheap LED handlight black electrical taped to a modified mount for an older bike light I had. It actually works well-and it's so stylin'!

 

[BeerCan]

I use a dinotte I got years ago. It has been an excellent light
http://www.dinottelighting.com/

 

[JHZR2]

I just have an LED flashlight that takes an 18650 Li-ion battery. I mount it up on a little handlebar mount with velcro. Works great for the bike and around the house.

 

[Klutch9]

I use the Costco 3-pack LED compact mag flashlights. They're mounted on a little wooden strip that clamps right onto the handlebar. They put out 600 lumens combined, which is plenty bright enough even on pitch-black trails.

 

[whizbyu]

Light and Motion Seca 1400. Stadium lights. Find them on Chainlove. Great warranty. About $210 now at the said website. I wear this on my helmet. I have a handlebar mount Cygolite Trion 600. With the two lights, it's daylight. I think having two lights, one fixed on handlebar and the other on the helmet allows you to turn your head towards the trail ahead of you, specially on twisty singletrack, and gives a slight advantage. The handlebar mount points to what is directly in front of you.

 

[kwijibo]

On my bike I currently have two inexpensive Bell lights I bought on clearance at target. While computing to work I would use one in the strobe mode and the other as a steady beam of light. At Christmas I bought a Niterider 650 lumina on sale at a local bike shop for $110 and just checked and it's still on sale but for $120. It's also rechargeable in a USB port. It's charged and ready to go. The down side is I have over a foot of snow in my front yard and the low's at night for the coming week will be around 0°F. I can handle the low 20's but 0°F is a little to cold for biking at least for me.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Got the rubber strap mount. It's not as tight as I'd like, but I haven't ridden the bike yet, so it's really hard to tell how it'll hold up. If it sucks, I might buy a dedicated bike light. The light output from my C8 CREE XML T6 flashlight is certainly a lot more useful than my old Bell Lumina (sitting at the top) though.

 

[MrQuackers]

Schwinn solar on my trusty 1999 Fuji Thrill

 

[huffmuds9320]

I have the Bell Night Trail, nothing fancy but kind of a neat light. Uses 4AA batteries, xenon bulb and 2 small leds. Has 4 modes: high, low, led and blinking. If the battery runs low it switches to the led light. The bulb is typical flashlight incandescent bulb. I upgraded it to a halogen bulb I got from Radio Shack and it is noticeably brighter. I don't ride at night much so its good enough for me to get home.

The rear I have the Planet Bike Blinky 3, fairly bright and very long battery life. I used to have a Blinky 7 but dropped it somewhere while riding.

 

[ekincam]

Just FYI, but you probably can take that reflector off the bars.

I don't know what the laws are like in Illinois but in California we do not need to have a white reflector in the front if we have a light and now a front light is required. In other words a light is required and no reflector requirement.

Wheel/tire and pedal reflectors are still required. Rear reflector is still required even though rear light is mandatory.

Of course all this applies only if the bicycle is ridden at night.

As far as my lights go, I have two Blaze flashlights from Shinningbeam.com; they were going for $30 each for blemished ones a while back. These are up 700 lumen on high (manufacturer claimed) but the medium mode is adequate at 400 lumens. lights. The 700lumen mode requires 2.1A and the 400 lumens mode is 1A. My batteries are 2.9Ah so the light should go for about 80 min on high or almost 3 hours on medium. I think low mode is less than 50ma; it's not very useful on my bike. I don't use the strobe mode.

 

[NYEngineer]

I have an Exposure Toro on my bars and a Diablo on my helmet.
These have internal batteries and super clean mounting systems.

900 lumens each.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Xeccon S14 on my other bike...

 

[Tempest]

A strike bezel on a bike light?

 

[SLCraig]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
A strike bezel on a bike light?


I smashed my first bike light off a tree and totaled the lens.
A strike bezel is a nice addition.. Although on lights like that one (looks identical to my Magicshine) the mount is fairly flimsy so the light moves easily when you hit something.