cccorlew

Help me pick my light. I don't know much, but I'm leaning toward
Light and Motion Stella 200L.

Here's I'm leaning toward it:

• My wife has one and likes it
• It seems bright enough for my commute
• I really like the smart charger, because I'm not very organized.
• The battery on my existing Night Sun battery is wearing out, and it doesn't have a smart charger.

If I wait on Performance to have a sale and coupon it will be just over $200, which is a lot for me.

Is this a good choice at this price? I know there are better lights that cost a lot more, but can I get a better light for this price, or a similar quality/feature light for less?

Thanks!

ItsJustMe

Take a look at the Magicshine 900L light for $90 and 3x more light output (it's rated 900 but that's dreaming, but it does seem to put out at least 600L) A whole lot of us have the magicshine light now and we're all pretty darn impressed with it so far.

Here's one of the many threads going on about the Magicshine light:
https://www.bikeforums.net/electronics-lighting-gadgets/576697-has-anyone-tried-magicshine-900-lumen.html

chipcom 

I replaced my Vega with a Stella 200L last year and I loved it...especially the long run time since my commute was 20 miles each way. The only thing that was a little bit of a PIA was getting used to an external battery again after the Vega. Now that my commute is shorter, I've given the Stella to my wife for night rides and I use a P7 flashlight, along with my old Vega in flash mode (and as a backup in case the P7 dies). Runtime on the P7 really isn't a big deal, since I can just pop in a fresh battery, it puts out a LOT more light, and cost about 1/4 the cost of a Stella.

cccorlew

ItsJustMe
Thanks for the info. I looked at those threads and am more confused than ever. Typical internet
As far as i can tell this light is great, or really badly made, has a weird green tint, or doesn't. needs to be rebuilt upon arrival to function properly, or is fine out of the box. Yikes.

I didn't see any charging info. Do I have to time my charge with this?

CHIPCOM:
P7 flashlight? Do you have to manage the batteries with it? As in swap out a set each night (or few nights)?

I'm hoping for easy

chipcom 

I charge the lion battery each night...they last just over an hour on full power. I keep a charged spare in my bag, just in case...but even in the dead of winter I usually don't need more than one battery on my round-trip commute. The battery just a bit larger than a AA...when I get home I screw off the end cap, remove the battery, and put it in the smart charger...or if I forget, I just pop in the spare when I leave the next morning. It's a flashlight...it doesn't get much easier than that.

I charged my Stella battery each night too. I'm one of them guys who never likes to start the day's commute without everything topped-off...tire pressure, batteries, water bottles, etc.

Back in the day, all we had for night commuting were home-brew lights and flashlights.

ItsJustMe

The light has been greatly improved since being introduced in March/April of 08. The construction quality is now totally fine, the green tint is gone, just mount it and go. But early in the year there were problems. That's why the confusion.

It has a smart charger. Just plug it in, you can leave it all month if you want to.

FWIW, this light is essentially a P7 flashlight - it has the same P7 LED light source and reflector, it's just designed to mount on a bike and it comes with rechargables and charger. So light output will be the same as the flashlight.

Runtime is 3 hours on high, about 8 or maybe a little more on low. This was a great selling point for me; my ride in the winter is close to an hour, and with the batteries well below freezing, I would certainly have had to change the cells in a flashlight at least once and maybe twice per ride. Too much screwing around for me. And you really don't save that much going with a flashlight either, by the time you buy the rechargables and charger and mount.

here's my review.
https://johnridley.livejournal.com/266955.html

I think it's well worth spending the extra $10 and ordering from Geoman instead of DealExtreme - Even though I order things from DX often, they're horribly slow (they usually don't even get around to shipping stuff for me for 2 or even 3 weeks) and if there IS a problem (one guy received a light with a cracked glass for instance) they'll take care of it promptly.

cccorlew

ItsJustMe:
Thanks for the help. I think I'll get it! As far as GeoMan, I bought my Garmin through him and was very happy with the service. Looks like he's out of stock right now, but will get more really soon.

ItsJustMe

Hope it works out well for you. He's got some constantly on order and I think has been pretty accurate with his time estimates. There are also some ebay vendors selling them but I think I'd personally stick with the vendor we know about.