2_i 

The dynamo version turned out to have a flawed mount, with flattened wire giving rise to points where stress from mass accumulates and leads to breaking. I had to solder metal pieces on to strengthen that mount. Another flaw is the toggle switch. If you use the light in daylight, you have to put your hand in front to ensure that the light is on or off. Still I made the mount investment and keep it on the bike, but I won't be buying more of them.

PaulRivers

Wow, what a long thread. Here's what I know:

The Good:
1. The Phillips light is relatively cheap at around $100 on amazon
2. It has a shaped beam, like a car headlight, for night riding. For a number of reasons, if you're riding on the road or a bike trail, this gives it better effective light than most lights with more lumens (not great for mountain biking though)

The Bad:
1. The reason why it's relatively cheap is because it's being discontinued.
2. As people have mentioned, you need to buy better batteries separately, and even then the run time only seems to be somewhere between 1-2 hours.
3. And apparently you cannot just hook up another battery via the usb port - there's some sort of circuitry in it that turns it off after a certain amount of time.
4. Busch and Mueller may or may not be making another better battery light. It's hard to figure it out.

If you actually had a dynamo front wheel, that makes things a little easier. The Lumotec IQ Premium Cyo seems to be the best cost effective dynamo light you can get right now. (As in it's noteably better than anything cheaper, and there's nothing more expensive that's substantially better). I'm buying one if Peter White ever puts up beamshots and it still looks good. I have a dynamo light on my commuter - it's *way* easier than a battery light.

1. Your light is always with you on your bike.
2. You never have to spend time charging it
3. You never accidentally leave it behind while it's charging
4. You never accidentally end up with a dead battery in the middle of your ride, because the battery just got old and doesn't keep a charge (it's happened to me - twice)
5. It's permanently affixed to your bike, like anything else on your bike, so you don't have to take it off. (It's both a plus and a minus - if you leave your bike locked in really sketchy places, the kind of places where they might steal your saddle or your derailler off your bike, you might have a problem, but I don't really leave my own bike anywhere like that, so it's more convenient than a light that's easy to take on and off that I always have to take on and off).
6. If you're biking in the winter, you don't have to deal with the battery not lasting as long because it's cold out with a dynamo.
7. Almost all dynamo lights have a shaped beam like a car headlight, that only puts light on the road in front of you. It doesn't waste light going up, but far more importantly, it doesn't make your eyes adjust so you can't see outside the headlight beam (any more than using a dimly light cell phone would).

You might want to seriously consider just buying a dynamo light and front wheel.

rekmeyata

Phillips is not discontinuing the Saferide, it's still on their web site. See: https://www.mea.philips.com/c/front%2...bcat_asc_group

Because this question came up I sent an e-mail to Phillips regarding the battery question and the discontinuing issue.

noglider 

I have the dynamo version. I like it very much. So far, no failures. It's very reliable, as is my Sanyo dynamo hub. I use the hub to power a tail light, too.

ijsbrand

I use the dynamo version, with a Shimano DH3N80 hub dynamo. And for the second winter in a row it is my favourite light. [I can compare it to two different B&M IQ Cyo lamps, I have on other bikes]. Together with the hub it creates a slight vibration though, in my front fork and handlebar, when I ride 34 km/h.

MrCjolsen

So I did a couple test runs with good batteries after using the onboard charger. Last night I rode home and it took 29 minutes for the first little blue indicator light to go out. When I shut the light off, it was 55 minutes and I still had two little blue lights going. I didn't charge it, and today I'll see how much longer it goes when I ride to work.

rekmeyata

Problem with rechargeable batteries that a lot of companies do not put in the instructions which I've could never figure out why they don't, but when you first buy a product that is rechargeable you have to charge it for 24 hours regardless if after 4 or so hours the charger light indicates fully charged. Then you have to run the batteries to complete discharge and a full recharge 3 times in a row, after that the batteries will be fully useable anyway you see fit. I have read that at least once a year you should still fully discharge the battery then fully recharge. Phillips told me that over the phone, but it's no where in their instructions, and I have bought rechargeable batteries for other stuff and they don't mentioned that either, nor did my L & M Vis 180 or my Cygolite ExpiliOn 350! I don't know if Phillips was accurate about that or not, but I did what they said and I get a full 2 hours on high and 8 on low exactly as their specs say it will run for.

If I were you I would try running the batteries to exhaustion, and fully recharge for 24 hours, then repeat that 3 times and see what happens, it won't hurt to try it. I did mention in an earlier post that my first light came with a bad battery and all I could get was about an hour of run time, Phillips replaced the entire light with new bats and since then it runs as their specs say.

If your light is still under warranty and you can get near 2 hours then contact Phillips for a warranty adjustment. Then when you get the new light do the recharge stuff I outlined.

MrCjolsen

Why would they send me a new light when I just need some good batteries?

MileHighMark

The SafeRide 80 is one of my favorites for on-road riding.

See my review here:
https://www.gravelbike.com/?p=1449

ItsJustMe

I really would like to get the Philips light, but the thing switching in to low power setting after 1 hour means that for me, runtime is 1 hour. There are times on my ride when I absolutely need all the light I can get - I'm coming down pretty steep hills where I'll be doing 30 MPH at the bottom unless I ride brakes, and they're gravel roads where massive arrays of potholes can just spring up overnight.

I was really just about to pull the trigger just now, but I think I'm going to go get something else.

rekmeyata

If you are under warranty, simply e-mail them or call them and tell them something is wrong with your light but your not sure what, but ever since it was new it never would stay lit on high for more than 55 minutes (or whatever minutes it is), but the specs say 2 hours. They'll do one of two things, either send you a new set of bats or entirely new light with new bats, they sent me an entirely new light. They will of course want the old light or bats returned after they send you the new stuff.

Don't tell them you suspect the bats, act like you don't know anything and let them decide to make whatever decision they want.

GeneO 

Look at the Lezyne Mega drive. Constant output, max setting 1100 lumen. Not shaped though.

ItsJustMe

I am really looking for a shaped beam. If I want unshaped, I'll just go with one of the newer 2 beam lights. The Mega Drive is out in my books because it's one piece, so I can't just swap batteries if they die. A 1.3 hour runtime is pretty poor too.

I was looking at the MJ-880 and similar lights yesterday, but it really seems to me that at that intensity, I really don't want an unshaped beam. But the lights with shaped beams all have issues (to me) like the light deciding that I would rather have 30 minutes more run time than a bright light. *I* will damned well decide when I will turn the light down - if the light wants to start flashing the power level at me telling me I'm running low, and *I* will decide whether to drop to lower power, that's fine.

gsa103

Light and Motion Seca?

The other major thing with the SafeRide is that they were using NiMH batteries. I would assume they're re-working it to use Li batteries, which should roughly double the run time.

rekmeyata

Incorrect, Amazon says that but their wrong, Saferide uses Li Ion batteries, it says so on their website, it says so on my box, and it says so on the batteries.

And the run time is not 1.3 hours it's 2 hours on high and 8 on low, trust me, unless you suffer from severe night blindness your not going to use high often at all. If you do run on high after 2 hours it auto switches to low and will run for 2 more hours, so you won't be left in the dark.

GeneO 

The mega drive has an easily swappable battery, that is one of the reasons I bought one. The sealed back opens. You have to charge the batter in the light though.

The 1.3 hours is for 1000 (true) lumen.

ItsJustMe

Weird, since all the reviewers say NiMH and they show what are clearly NiMH batteries. Your comment here is the ONLY one I've seen anywhere that says that the Philips Saferide uses Li Ion batteries. I've found numerous posts from people who own them that say specifically that they have NiMH cells.

I do see on their website that it says "Battery: 4 AA Li-ion batteries" - but there's no such thing as an AA Li-Ion battery. There is a 14550 cell that's the same size as AA but LiIon chemistry provides a 3.7 volt per cell voltage. You could certainly not remove a 14550 and put in a regular AA cell which are 1.2 to 1.5 volts per cell. LiIon in there would put the pack voltage at about 14.8 volts which would require pretty sophisticated charge circuitry to charge from a 5v USB plug.

The MTBR review says "Uses standard ‘AA’ batteries sot it’s easy to replace and carry spares"

Honestly I'm more inclined to think that the Philips page is wrong. It just doesn't make any sense that they would be LiIon cells.

I'm seeing reference to a "generation 2" light - are there two versions? How do I know what version I'm getting?

On my route I have 4 miles of gravel road including descents where I frequently hit 30 MPH. It's tree covered and pitch black, animals frequently bound out in front of me so I actually like to have a little light spilling up into the surrounding bushes, and there are whole minefields of potholes covering half a lane for dozens of feet
that can just spring up overnight. I like to have a WHOLE LOT of light and when I want it, it's because I need it. I don't care if kicking to high will result in me only having 5 minutes of runtime left, because on my way home when I really need it, I'll be home in 5 minutes.

ItsJustMe

I already asked this but it's buried in a wall o text so:
Are there two versions of the Philips Saferide 80? What are the differences? How do I know which I'm getting?

fietsbob

AFAIK, case color. and whether it's for Dynamo Power , or Batteries.

& (site link above) , 40,60 or 80, lux. you say you got a Philips Saferide 80? , I Suppose its 80 LUX

znomit

Maybe they mean they are ok with lithium AAs (1.7v). Not all AA gadgets are happy with them.

ItsJustMe

Could be. I found two different unboxings and also the detail photos submitted by customers on Amazon's site, and every one of them very clearly shows NiMH cells, NOT lithium.

However, Li-ion generally means rechargeable. Lithium primaries are generally just Li, not Li-Ion.

MileHighMark

I just popped open my SafeRide 80, and it contained four Philips-branded NiMH 2450 mAh AA batteries.

rekmeyata

That's weird, I don't recall what the first set of batteries that were in the one I sent back, but I popped my open earlier due to this discussion and their Li-Ions rated the same 2450 mah! Maybe the low cost one in Amazon does use NiMh's and the more expensive doesn't? Either that or Phillips is having different sources build to different specs, or perhaps Phillips decided to use a cheaper costing battery because mine is 2 years old? but they never changed their website read this: https://www.mea.philips.com/c/bicycle...specifications. But regardless the NiMh is rated for the same 2 hour/8 hour run time.

MileHighMark

Mine came directly from their US (PR) agent, but I'd be curious to see what other folks' units came equipped with.

rekmeyata

Me too!

Read your box and see what batteries they say they are.