Lights for winter

[Tankman]

If you want to save the money for the lights ride with Tankman. His lights are flippen bright but he has a bit of an usnteady, jittery, cycling style which makes his lights swerving right to left and back all the time. sometime he briefly stops in the middle. So when in fornt of him it's daylight. Because I have hips like a whasp there's almost no shaddow from my upper body, just the huge calves shed some light.

 

:lol: I only get jittery and unsteady went those flippen trees jump in front of me and I only stop because I heard you huffing and puffing that you could not keep up!

[Tankman]

Also have a look at the new safety lights by serfas, they have a nice rear usb rechargeable light in red, got one for about R250 I think, good rival to the Flea lights, its got side leds so is more visible and attaches under the seat to the rails with a silicone strap

 

Link to the Serfas rear light please! I have tried many different rear lights and most of them sucked.

My main concern when buying a light is brightness and I must be able to swap it between bike without installing clamps and whatnot!

The Serafas I currently have is by far the brightest I have ever tried

 

 

BUT ... the design is a bit ***. At the bottom of the light there are springs and having springs on something that vibrates constantly is a bad idea. More often that not when I look back the light has switched off

 

 

Not sure how to fix this perhaps one of you light building engineers has some suggestions?

[splat]

For road riding, I use a magiclight MJ808 on my bars and a MJ818 on my seatpost.

 

For nightrides on my mtb, I use 2 x 808's. One on my bars and one on my helmet.

 

http://www.magiclight.co.za/_/rsrc/1291274408333/products/bike-lights/mj818/MJ818%20Tail%20Light.JPG

[grumpy]

Hi Ronster

 

The bike light depends on what your needs are and your budget, the magic light and a head lamp is probably good enough if you do single track and off road cycling.

 

But if you ride on tar (like I do) then there is a better light around, I have a Light & Motion Seca 900, the beam of a Magic light disappears when the Seca is switched on, cars frequently flash their lights are me, thats how bright it is.

 

L&M now have a Seca 1400, have not seen it yet but if the 900 is anything to go by then there is nothing better on a bicycle.

 

Only one problem, they are really expensive, I saw a Seca 900 last week at WEbike for R4500

 

Follow the link if you are interested www.bikelights.com/seca1400.html

[Bike Lore]

There are a new Magic shine/light out. The MJ-808e or MS1000. It has a very narrow spot light and a wide flood so it reaches very far and fill in the gaps. I really would not look much further than that. If you buy it form MagicLight.co.za you will get a 3 year warranty . Or you can buy it from other gray importers on the hub and get 3 months warranty.

 

Just a warning there are people advertising light that runs for very long and pump out huge number for the same price as the magic shine. They are blatantly exaggerating with a factor of x3 on the light output.

Edited June 7, 2011 by Hannes Zietsman

[Tankman]

For road riding, I use a magiclight MJ808 on my bars and a MJ818 on my seatpost.

 

For nightrides on my mtb, I use 2 x 808's. One on my bars and one on my helmet.

 

http://www.magiclight.co.za/_/rsrc/1291274408333/products/bike-lights/mj818/MJ818%20Tail%20Light.JPG

 

How is this rear light?

Only reason I have not investigated this is because you have a battery and cable to contend with. Battery, cable, carbon road bike, nope sorry wont do it. I dont even use my MJ808 on the road bike, rather the Ledlenser M7 with bikemount and no cable or battery to worry about, much easier.

[TNT1]

How is this rear light?

Only reason I have not investigated this is because you have a battery and cable to contend with. Battery, cable, carbon road bike, nope sorry wont do it. I dont even use my MJ808 on the road bike, rather the Ledlenser M7 with bikemount and no cable or battery to worry about, much easier.

 

And besides, as a general rule, ledlenser is the very best bang for buck in terms of lights.

[javadude]

And besides, as a general rule, ledlenser is the very best bang for buck in terms of lights.

 

 

Where can I get one from?

[Tankman]

www.ledlenser.co.za - Had mine delivered within 48hrs

or

Cape Union Mart

Due South

[javadude]

www.ledlenser.co.za - Had mine delivered within 48hrs

or

Cape Union Mart

Due South

Thanks. What do you use on the back? The Vis 180 looks pretty good, but is damn expensive:

 

Vis 180

[Ronster]

shot, checking them all out.

[Ronster]

@hannes the magic light website also says 3 months warranty and not 3 years

[Tankman]

Thanks. What do you use on the back? The Vis 180 looks pretty good, but is damn expensive:

 

Vis 180

 

I use the Serfas on the first page of this thread at the back. Dont want any cables or batteries to worry about.

I Use the M7 on the front for the road bike and have the H7R as a headlight

 

When you buy the pouch, there are coulored lenses included (red,blue,yellow) so you can turn the flashlight into a rear light by using the red lens.

Edited April 25, 2011 by Tankman

[Brighter-Lights]

It's very simple. You get what you pay for.

 

The cheap Chinese lights are good value, but lack performance - there's numerous threads about them breaking, batteries giving in etc etc. Exaggerated light output and battery capacity, poor performing battery cells (cheap as dirt) . If you've delt with Chinese suppliers before, you'll know that they lie about almost everything they sell. It's a risk riding with a light that might go dead on that fast downhill...

 

One supplier here is claiming that he's the sole appointed importer / distributor for these Chinese lights, but I guess they say that to everyone they sell to. They are hungry for sales, they'll sell to anyone contacting them.

 

There's a few hubbers making lights. I was the first to build a proper LED light in 2006. Light output and battery technology has improved a lot since then, but all the lights I've sold are still going strong. Some has had to replace batteriy packs, but the batteries I build now use even better performing Japanese made cells and they'll last even longer than the old type batteries.

 

Brighter-Lights have finished 2nd (mixed cat) in Trans Baviaans 2009 and 2010. Brighter-Lights powered me to ride 437km in 2008's 24 Hours of Omni-Motion and win it, and in 2010 took first in the Solo cat for Ladies in Bicycling/Omni-Motion 24hr . Brighter-Lights also finished first overall in the Oudtshoorn 8 hour MTB Marathon in 2010... etc. etc. etc.

 

Good lights are expensive, but they are reliable, and built by people who can ride, and who has a passion for what they do. With my lights, if anything break, I'll fix it. There's a 2 year warranty and after that I'll continue to support any problems i.e. when you had a crash and something broke.

 

My best advice, do proper research, and buy the best you can afford, as this type of investment will greatly determine your ride quality at night. I've had many many many customers coming back to me saying 'You know, R4500 is a lot of money for a light, but I'm so glad that I took the leap, it has turned night into day, literally'