front light recommendations

Quoted post said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta  colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way.  Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf.  He will be leaving the bike at the station.  This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already.  He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days.

For a 3 mile trip in town all you need is a couple of blinkies coz
it'll all be lit up and you just want to help the drivers see you.
I'd recommend a couple of sets of LEDs from WIlkinson's. It'll be
about 10 quid for 4 lights and they're actually quite bright and well
made. http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0258253

Quoted message said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. He will be leaving the bike at the station. This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already. He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days. My take on the requirements:

Easy to remove. Small enough to carry on the train (secure switch a
bonus) either long run time or rechargeable. Probably LED. Budget
pref around GBP30 but would consider more with justification.

I am tempted to suggest two Cateye TLD 600s for the back (redundancy,
cheap enoughto leave tie-wrapped to bike) but I am not sure about
fronts. I think a dynamo recommendation might come better when he
decides to upgrade the bike

He won't be riding on unlit roads so a small LED front light will be fine,
though the one I recommend is actually bright enough to light up the road a
bit as well:

Front: Smart Polaris - 5 LED.

Rear: Cateye LD150. Just one will do fine.

These are bright and have long run times with alkaline, lithium or
rechargeable batteries.

LD600/LD610 are better lights except would more easily turn on accidentally
in a bag or pocket (not that I've experienced that myself yet). The models
I suggest above need a firmer push.

~PB

[email hidden] writtificated

Quoted message said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. He will be leaving the bike at the station. This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already. He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days. My take on the requirements:

Easy to remove. Small enough to carry on the train (secure switch a
bonus) either long run time or rechargeable. Probably LED. Budget
pref around GBP30 but would consider more with justification.

I am tempted to suggest two Cateye TLD 600s for the back (redundancy,
cheap enoughto leave tie-wrapped to bike) but I am not sure about
fronts. I think a dynamo recommendation might come better when he
decides to upgrade the bike

Cheapo blinkies are adequate.

If he's loaded or wants something hi-tech & expensive then a Cateye
Singleshot or Singleshot Plus will do the job brilliantly. For town riding
I like to combine a cheapo blinky on the front with a fecking bright steady
light - the bright steady light and blinkie combination is very effective.

POHB said:

Quoted post said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. He will be leaving the bike at the station. This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already. He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days.

For a 3 mile trip in town all you need is a couple of blinkies coz
it'll all be lit up and you just want to help the drivers see you.
I'd recommend a couple of sets of LEDs from WIlkinson's. It'll be
about 10 quid for 4 lights and they're actually quite bright and well
made. http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0258253

This is for someone who works in Canary Wharf! I'm guessing they can afford
better than a Wilko job :-)

~PB

Pete Biggs said:

POHB said:

Quoted post said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. He will be leaving the bike at the station.

This is for someone who works in Canary Wharf!  I'm guessing they can afford
better than a Wilko job  :-)

Nah, he lives in Canary Wharf but is about to start catching the train
from Liverpool St. to work. My guess is he's fallen on hard times
with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, lost his city job, is struggling
to pay his mortgage/rent and has had to take a job out of town to make
ends meet.

Maybe.

On Jan 29, 10:13�am, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta �colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. �Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. �He will be leaving the bike at the station. �This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already. �He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days. �My take on the requirements:

Easy to remove. �Small enough to carry on the train (secure switcha
bonus) either long run time or rechargeable. �Probably LED. �Budget
pref around GBP30 but would consider more with justification.

I am tempted to suggest two Cateye TLD 600s for the back (redundancy,
cheap enoughto leave tie-wrapped to bike) but I am not sure about
fronts. �I think a dynamo recommendation might come better when he
decides to upgrade the bike

tia
james

A Topeak Whitelite + Redlite set at twenty quid from: www.ukbikestore.co.uk

They are all you need in town. I use mine in and around Brighton/
Worthing without any problems. For the darker lane riding over the
Downs I have much more expensive kit but the Topeak lights are well
made and so very easy to install and take off the bike.

Quoted message said:

On Jan 29, 10:13�am, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta �colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. �Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. �He will be leaving the bike at the station. �This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already. �He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days. �My take on the requirements:

Quoted message said:

Easy to remove. �Small enough to carry on the train (secure switch a
bonus) either long run time or rechargeable. �Probably LED. �Budget
pref around GBP30 but would consider more with justification.

Quoted message said:

I am tempted to suggest two Cateye TLD 600s for the back (redundancy,
cheap enoughto leave tie-wrapped to bike) but I am not sure about
fronts. �I think a dynamo recommendation might come better when he
decides to upgrade the bike

Quoted message said:

tia
james

A Topeak Whitelite + Redlite set at twenty quid from:  www.ukbikestore.co.uk

They are all you need in town. I use mine in and around Brighton/
Worthing without any problems. For the darker lane riding over the
Downs I have much more expensive kit but the Topeak lights are well
made and so very easy to install and take off the bike.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

OR....the same on eBay for just shy of 11 quid "Buy it Now". Your mate
can't lose.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm a dynamo boy mydelf buta colleague is about to start commuting.
3 miles each way. Evening trip will be after dark. Liverpool street
to Canary Wharf. He will be leaving the bike at the station. This is
an experiment and he is using a cheapish bike he has already. He
asked for a recommendation on lights and I am not very up on the
market these days. My take on the requirements:

Easy to remove. Small enough to carry on the train (secure switch a
bonus) either long run time or rechargeable. Probably LED. Budget
pref around GBP30 but would consider more with justification.

I am tempted to suggest two Cateye TLD 600s for the back (redundancy,
cheap enoughto leave tie-wrapped to bike) but I am not sure about
fronts. I think a dynamo recommendation might come better when he
decides to upgrade the bike

Agree with the rest, a couple of half decent blinkies suffice on my bike.
(Well, the rear is on steady).

I recently stuck one of my old cateye lights on my helmet and do reckon it
adds a decent directional warning light. Good for when looking over the
shoulder etc. Yesterdays thread about head torches may be worth a read if
not a helmet wearer (but my local knowledge of around Liverpool St is the
particularly poor roads and fast buses ... ) The chances are I may be forced
down a pothole (which did happen the other day).

I had my front light decide to die in dramatic fashion last night -
just as we got out of the city lights onto the unlit roads. That's teh
second Cateye EL-530 that I have broken trhough a small knock (OK,
flying 6ft up in the air to land in a puddle isn't the smallest of
knocks).

So I am tempted by these http://www.ayup.com.au who will shortly (next
week) have a UK distributor. They are bright but more importantly they
are very durable so should last more than twice as long as the cateye.

...d

David Martin said:

I had my front light decide to die in dramatic fashion last night -
just as we got out of the city lights onto the unlit roads. That's teh
second Cateye EL-530 that I have broken trhough a small knock (OK,
flying 6ft up in the air to land in a puddle isn't the smallest of
knocks).

Quoted message said:

So I am tempted by these http://www.ayup.com.au who will shortly (next
week) have a UK distributor. They are bright but more importantly they
are very durable so should last more than twice as long as the cateye.

Bright enough so you can see whatever caused you to fly 6ft up in the air?
Glad that you didn't break anything else!

Roos - trying to remember if David was drinking wine at yesterdays
after-year-review-drinks-and-nibbles....

In news:[email hidden],
David Martin <[email hidden]> tweaked the Babbage-Engine to
tell us:

Quoted message said:

I had my front light decide to die in dramatic fashion last night -
just as we got out of the city lights onto the unlit roads. That's teh
second Cateye EL-530 that I have broken trhough a small knock (OK,
flying 6ft up in the air to land in a puddle isn't the smallest of
knocks).

I have had a couple of expensive Cateyes do a similar thing, as the bit
which slides onto the mount is fabricated from the finest cheese. The
addition of a sturdy cable tie to help Discipline the light seems to have
prevented recurrences.

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
The Real Slim Shady's gone to play tennis.

In article said:

I had my front light decide to die in dramatic fashion last night -
just as we got out of the city lights onto the unlit roads. That's teh
second Cateye EL-530 that I have broken trhough a small knock (OK,
flying 6ft up in the air to land in a puddle isn't the smallest of
knocks).

My EL-530 recently went from "switch doesn't always work after
changing the batteries, but does after reassembling a few times
to "doesn't work" after a much smaller knock than that.
(And I foolishly left my Hella HL-2000 on the bike and it was stolen
a while before that. And the dynamo hub is moving to another bike.)

Quoted message said:

So I am tempted by these http://www.ayup.com.au who will shortly (next
week) have a UK distributor. They are bright but more importantly they
are very durable so should last more than twice as long as the cateye.

Those do look nice. I was thinking of a Trelock LS-730 or two with the LED
swapped for a Q5 Cree from DealExtreme, or an Ixon IQ, but might rethink.

Alan Braggins writtificated

Quoted message said:

Those do look nice. I was thinking of a Trelock LS-730 or two with the
LED swapped for a Q5 Cree from DealExtreme, or an Ixon IQ, but might
rethink.

Decathlon do a Trelock LS-735 for £17 or so. Mine has problems with the
connections to the batteries. The connectors are stamped from a sheet of
metal and when bent they stay bent. Over moderately bumpy surfaces they
seem to get -and stay- a wee bit too bent to guarantee a good connection.
Result is that the light turns itself off, or pretends to have low
batteries.

On the bright side, they are Very bright

Quoted message said:

On the bright side, they are Very bright

A hi vis waistcaot (eg £1-50) and ankle bands are very effective
also and I leave the reflectors on my bikes or add more. They are like
free lights.
TerryJ

On 30 Jan 2008 12:42:07 +0000 (GMT), [email hidden] (Alan
Braggins) wrote:

[---]

Quoted message said:

Those do look nice. I was thinking of a Trelock LS-730 or two with the LED
swapped for a Q5 Cree from DealExtreme, or an Ixon IQ, but might rethink.

The Ixon puts out very good light, but has serious design faults. The
mounting is conceived in such a way that the weight of the unit is not
equally balanced on both sides of the handlebar clamp, with the
inevitable result that vibration from uneven surfaces will affect the
alignment of the lamp. No amount of hand tightening is enough to cure
this.

The electronics are also temperamental - if the power supply is cut
due to faulty battery contacts (as supplied, the spring contacts are
loose and need to be bent by hand to remove slack), the lamp will not
restart immediately on pressing the "on" button, but only after a
delay of a minute or so, which means that a stop is almost
unavoidable. That's not fun when it happens in traffic on an unlit
road.

From what I have read on the German cycling group <de.rec.fahrrad>,
the newer model Ixon (with the black housing) has improved light
output and focus, but still has the mechanical and electronics
problems.

In article said:

Alan Braggins writtificated

Quoted message said:

Those do look nice. I was thinking of a Trelock LS-730 or two with the
LED swapped for a Q5 Cree from DealExtreme, or an Ixon IQ, but might
rethink.

Decathlon do a Trelock LS-735 for £17 or so. Mine has problems with the
connections to the batteries. The connectors are stamped from a sheet of
metal and when bent they stay bent. Over moderately bumpy surfaces they
seem to get -and stay- a wee bit too bent to guarantee a good connection.

That's cheaper than
http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;product=5172;group=92;page=1;ID=b11b6428951f599a7f27cd439c7efb3f
except that it's miles to my nearest Decathlon.
Does anyone know what the difference between the LS-730 and LS-735 is?
Comparing
http://www.trelock.de/trelock/t2/en/produktdetails.php?id=ls730&pfad=licht
http://www.trelock.de/trelock/t2/en/produktdetails.php?id=ls735&pfad=licht
they seem to be the same power.

Alan Braggins said:

Does anyone know what the difference between the LS-730 and LS-735 is?

The Trelock LS-730 take 4*AA batteries, preferably rechargeable. When
the batteries discharge, you take them out and put them into a separate
charger.

The LS-735 has rechargeable batteries built in, that can be recharged
whilst still in the light. It is unclear whether the batteries can be
changed.

Out of the two I would go for the 730, and carry a spare set of batteries.

In article said:

Alan Braggins said:

Does anyone know what the difference between the LS-730 and LS-735 is?

The Trelock LS-730 take 4*AA batteries, preferably rechargeable. When
the batteries discharge, you take them out and put them into a separate
charger.

The LS-735 has rechargeable batteries built in, that can be recharged
whilst still in the light. It is unclear whether the batteries can be
changed.

The 730 is sold with a charger that will charge the batteries in the
light using its charging socket too, but that puts its price further
above the 735 - http://www.bike24.com/p25217.html
I'd be surprised if the 735 batteries couldn't be removed given the
problem MarkT described of the contact bending - if you were going to
fit a permanent battery, you could use solder tabbed ones. Though I
suppose they have to cut corners somewhere for it to sell for £17.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The Trelock LS-730 take 4*AA batteries, preferably rechargeable. When
the batteries discharge, you take them out and put them into a separate
charger.

The LS-735 has rechargeable batteries built in, that can be recharged
whilst still in the light. It is unclear whether the batteries can be
changed.

The LS-735 takes four AA batteries which can be removed. There is a small
plug on the bottom of the light for the charger, which isn't sold with the
light. Batteries not included either.

Lack of charger and batteries is prolly a good thing - seperate high
capacity rechargeables and a decent charger make more sense than paying
extra £££ for crappy batteries and a dumb charger.

I've had a look at the batteries and on the + end only the raised 'nipple'
is metal - the rest of the surface is non conductive. I'm wandering if
that's partly to blame.