Night riding... I can't see!

[extremelights]

What we do is reconnect them and then re-seal them. This is only done when there is a connection issue with the battery. 

For further reading on batteries.

 

[HuckNorris]

 

NiteCore BR35 Light....  I have had mine since April this year , and used it around ten times now.

 

I am blown away every time I use it . The service from NiteCore is also really great.

 

I had an issue with the clamp , spoke to both the local guys as well as the manufacturer in USA , in a month , they sent me an upgraded one free of charge. 

[Baracuda]

Most guys in our night riding group use:

 

https://www.extremelights.co.za/collections/bicycle-lights/products/endurance-bicycle-light-1

 

Gives plenty light for ups and downs. Lasts a good 3-4 hours if you use the low beam for climbing and most of the time and only turn up to max for down hills. I have had mine for 2 years, used once a week and it is all fine.

[EatPrayRide]

If your "Chinese cheapie" get's you through your 1-2 hour ride in the mornings or evenings then that's great.

 

The battery is the more expensive part of the set so you will find that the R 600 light's battery will eventually go dead and then you end up with a head unit without a battery. Then you come to us for a new battery ( )and a lot of the times the head unit is not compatible with the battery so you end up buying a new set.

But then again it's all about what kind of riding you are going to do and for how many years you intend to ride.

 

But for those rides you might look at a integrated light that has a built in battery.

[Squier]

I bought the "cheapie" from cwc about 4 years back. It think I paid R699 back then. Still use it on Trans Baviaans every year. It gives me 10 hours on full power. Great light.

[Martin PJ]

It is noticeable here that the reported run times are less than those claimed on the web links of the various products.

 

The consumer protection act protects us from faulty products. If the product is not fit for purpose, then it must be replaced or repaired. If this is not possible, then there must be a refund.

[Edge_Design]

Magicshine was the original "affordable" bicycle light and there are 1000's of them around SA (been available locally for more than 10 years) - at one stage they were rebranded and sold under other names but Magicshine is the international brand name. Although there have been some genuine Magicshine models available for around R600, I trust those are not included in the "Chinese cheapie" description.

[Shebeen]

I bought the "cheapie" from cwc about 4 years back. It think I paid R699 back then. Still use it on Trans Baviaans every year. It gives me 10 hours on full power. Great light.

You sure on that one?

 

I think an issue with CWC cheapies is that they are pretty generic. i doubt they have all been made by the same supplier over the years.

[Squier]

Magicshine was the original "affordable" bicycle light and there are 1000's of them around SA (been available locally for more than 10 years) - at one stage they were rebranded and sold under other names but Magicshine is the international brand name. Although there have been some genuine Magicshine models available for around R600, I trust those are not included in the "Chinese cheapie" description.

I vaguely recall mine being a Magicshine.

[Squier]

You sure on that one?

 

I think an issue with CWC cheapies is that they are pretty generic. i doubt they have all been made by the same supplier over the years.

 

Positive, I tested it again before Baviaans. 10 hours on full power before it switched off. I could then still run it for 30 minutes on a lower setting.

 

Rode Baviaans with it and we did roughly 6 hours after night fall. Ran it at full power the entire time.

[Skylark]

Positive, I tested it again before Baviaans. 10 hours on full power before it switched off. I could then still run it for 30 minutes on a lower setting.

 

Rode Baviaans with it and we did roughly 6 hours after night fall. Ran it at full power the entire time.

For a light to be able to run 10hrs at full power on a single charge either means it's not very bright or it has an enormous capacity battery. There's no free lunch when it comes to light output or runtime other than the basic efficiency of Led's and how energy dense Li-ion cells are.

[tinmug]

I have a 1000 lumens Ryder light works great and best of all it has a lifetime warranty.

I'd hate to burst your bubble, but have you read the fine print of the Ryder light (or any of their products?)? 

[bullet77]

I'd hate to burst your bubble, but have you read the fine print of the Ryder light (or any of their products?)? 

I have the Ryder Centaur 1000 lumens, great light and it's 4yrs old. Only used on full power going down Bergplaas at TB and then on med for the rest of the way, battery showed 50% left after about 5 - 6 hours of use.

Did not know about the "lifetime warranty". 

[DieselnDust]

Bloke at my club has a few zooty lights.

Something called night lightning . Made in New Zealand 1800 lumen and it runs for 13hours on the 1000lumen setting. Duty cycle of the LED’s is the key. The driver switches the LED on and off like 20times per second. The eye doesn’t notice it but the battery does.he reckons he bought it about 10 years ago and recently replaced the battery.

I’ve been through a few popular brand lights in that time.

 

I see bikemob advertising Exposure lights. Self contained unit and bright with long burn time.

 

I think you get what you pay for with lights

[Skylark]

Bloke at my club has a few zooty lights.

Something called night lightning . Made in New Zealand 1800 lumen and it runs for 13hours on the 1000lumen setting. Duty cycle of the LED’s is the key. The driver switches the LED on and off like 20times per second. The eye doesn’t notice it but the battery does.he reckons he bought it about 10 years ago and recently replaced the battery.

I’ve been through a few popular brand lights in that time.

 

I see bikemob advertising Exposure lights. Self contained unit and bright with long burn time.

 

I think you get what you pay for with lights

The light flickering on and off is a power management technique called PWM(pulse width modulation), it is only used below max output when the output needs to be dimmed. It's generally preferable not to use PWM to dim a light but it's ok if well designed and apparently on extremely bright(probably over 5000 lumen) lights it's the only effective method. PWM is also used by virtually every cheapie lower power lights because it's cheap to manufacture.

 

With the advent of high quality Chinese light brands you can get incredible lights for not much money at all, they use decent LED emitters, nice design and quality manufacture and add some good brand name li-ion cells and you have an ultra output high quality light for R1-2k.

 

The well known branded lights are nice to have and generally have top shelf builds but for the price you pay not very good value and I have had amazing service from the branded Chinese lights I've had over the years.

 

By the term "Chinese cheapie" I mean the non branded generic and often really poorly designed lights that get sold all over the place, they actually work surprisingly well all things considered but for a little bit more you can get a branded Chinese light that is really good in all regards.

 

What's really getting good these days is the lights with high CRI(color rendering index), very neutral light output that's easy on eyes and makes identifying things in your view that much better, I wouldn't consider any expensive light without high CRI at this point. Only drawback is high CRI LEDS have slightly less output than their colder/bluer LED cousins but at the level of efficiency that LEDs have reached it's not even worth worrying about.

[Me rida my bicycle]

Weren't you selling the 1500 lumen Ryder light in the classifieds?

yes I have sold that 1 it was my brother's and since he is on 1 of my bikes and only used that light once we decided to sell it.