I'm at a loss: Last year, I decided I wanted a light that provided better illumination than the Cat-Eye I'd been using. I contemplated light systems with external batteries, but finally decided that self-contained, USB-charged lights would work best for me. Silly me. Initially, I went with a Night Rider 350. It pretty much sucked: the light was nice and bright, but the mounting bracket kept slipping out of position, and since it cost $120, I didn't feel comfortable zip-tying it to the handlebar. In addition, it didn't hold a charge for nearly as long as advertised. Then, more recently, I spent $159 on a Light & Motion Urban 500. This turned out to be no better. It's a great light when it works, and has a much better mounting arrangement, but it takes forever to charge, and it, too, does not last nearly as long between charges as advertised. In all honesty, the $35 Cat-Eye lights I'd been using before were more reliable and easy to maintain, and a hell of a lot less expensive. But they weren't that bright, maybe 90 Lumens compared to 466 Lumens for the Urban 500.

What lights do you use, and how well do they work for you?

Keep in mind USB was never intended to be power outlet. It contained a power line in order to power small peripherals; not to recharge stuff. The USB chip on the computer is usually not capable of supplying much current.

If you want to charge faster get a powered USB hub; or, even better, use a USB wall charger (just remember to unplug it when you are not using it, otherwise it will waste energy as a phantom load).

Hmmm...I was actually considering the Urban 500, but now you've got me wondering. How far off for you are the run/charge times from the manufacturer claims? The other usb light I was considering is the Lezyne Super Drive https://www.lezyne.com/led-lights#panel-1 , which might work better for you regarding the run times, because you can carry an extra battery and change it out if you need to.

I used a Magicshine from Geoman for a few years and didn't have any major complaints. Then I switched to a NiteRider MiNewt 600 and have been very pleased. I've heard the complaints about the mounting bracket, but mine has been trouble-free since the day I installed it. The runtimes are pretty accurate, from what I can see. I use the same USB wall charger as my cellphone to charge mine every night, and it lasts me 1.5hr on medium and 30min on strobe every day without the light turning red. I think I could get another day out of it between charges, but I don't want to risk it.

I have the Light and Motion Stella, which has been serving me well. It uses 4 AA batteries. That makes it easy to carry spare fresh batteries along, or worst case, fresh batteries are as close as the next convenience store.
That said, the battery life doesn't seem to be as long as advertised, but I'd say I get somewhere around 4 hours from a set of batteries. If you buy batteries in bulk, that's still fairly inexpensive. And of course I recycle the spent batteries properly.
The one issue I'm having with the Stella is that the rubber mounting strap is starting to show cracks, so I'm expecting it to fail eventually, at which point I'll have to engineer a replacment mounting system.
My concern with rechargable batteries is that they have a finite life, and when the time comes to replace it, if it's even available, I'll bet it will cost as much as or more than a new light.

Before I went with dynamo lighting I used a Cateye Single Shot 1w LED rechargable. It provided decent illumination and was good for about 2 hours in High mode. I still use it as an aux light and the nimh battery is still holding up. It takes 5 hours to charge though.

Consider a dyno hub. It's a bit of an effort to build up the wheel but once done you have great lighting with no worries about batteries. Yes there is some drag, but I challenge anybody to feel it when riding.

-G

When I opened this post, I thought you were asking why lights are suddenly powered by USB in the first place? Am I missing something? Is it so you can power them off your laptop? And why would I be carrying around a laptop on my bike? Was there something wrong with the old Edison plug chargers?

I have a couple of Cygolite Expillions, I do not commute but ride regularly at night. I generaly use the included wall charger, but have charged off my desck top from time to time, either way it takes 4-5 hrs to recharge from discharged. Battery life about 2-6 hrs dependening on what setting I run. I believe the idea of USB charging is so that you can easily recharge at work. The handlebar mount remains secure and the lights are bright enough for urban riding.
https://www.cygolite.com/products/expilion350.html

I use the USB RavX @ 80 lumens, works great for me...but that's urban riding. If I'm going country I add a cateye opticube el530.

SON20R + Schmidt Edelux + B&M DToplight Flat Plus. Definitely overkill over my commute[1], but since I only have room for one bike[2] I'm using my Audax/Touring bike for commuting as well so it does sort of make some kind of sense.

[1] Particularly in the summer months when it never gets darker than nautical twilight.
[2] Well, until I decide I just have to have a Brompton!

>>>>I believe the idea of USB charging is so that you can easily recharge at work.<<<<<

Sorry, I'm not trying to be a wise guy, but I still don't get it. Aren't there regular power outlets at work?

Check these out, $99 dyno wheels

I am pretty sure that my 26" dyno wheel scavenged off a dead breezer is that exact wheel, it is great.

I'm not a fan of the USB lights for 'to see by' duty. They cost too much, several accounts of poor mounting designs, batteries either can't be swapped out "in the field" or have an expen$ive properitary design.

I'm currently running a sub $18 flashlight rated at 510 lumens, a $2.20 bar mount that is surprisingly effective, a pair of $7.99 protected 18650 cells (all from DX), along with a wall charger from shiningbeam.

Haven't had a chance to battle test it as a 'see by' light yet as I leave the house around 0730 for an 0800 clock in, but I have noticed using it as 'see me' light is doing its job.

Of course, and the charger would take up little space,and weigh nearly nothing. I never said it was a good idea. One thought, you could charge both at home and at work without haveing carry your charger with you. Of course if you only needed to charge occasionaly this is a non issue. Another case of solving a problem that we did not know existed.

To me, the advantage of USB charging units is simplicity and convenience.

I like the USB charger design. I can carry around a single USB wall charger base and two cords to charge 3 lights and my cellphone. Before I'd have to carry around 4 different proprietary charging units. If I left my magicshine charger at home, or if I wanted to charge my AA's at work, I'd be screwed. At my work, everyone has a mini or micro USB charger. I could easily borrow theirs and charge my bike stuff. That's much better than carrying around some companys' chargers that only fit that one specific light.

Sure, a lot of people don't work around computers or need USB compatability. Even then, the nice thing is you can use one single cord to charge both your MiNewt and your HotShot (or whatever else you use).

USB makes a ton of sense for me. I have three USB chargeable lights: Cygolite 350, Knog Boomer and a Blackburn Flea. The Flea charges the fastest, the Knog takes about 2 to 3 hours fully drained and the Cygolite will take about 6 or 7 fully drained. Honestly, all last as long as advertised and all charge within my shift for the ride home no problem. It makes sense for me since I commute daily, and have computers all around me (but not necessarily wall outlets). Truly, they are a godsend.

Did you follow the manufacturer instructions explicitly while charging the light for the first time? They often have a quirky regimen for the first charge to maximize battery life.

I don't think I'll ever buy a non-USB chargeable light again.

I am running a NiteRider MiNewt 600 Cordless as my helmet light. Bright. I use it on the bike, and then at work doing golf course maintenance. We start before daylight and this light gives me loads of light to do setup (empty trash cans, refill water coolers, pick up the trash from the restaurant, change pin positions, etc., etc.). I have never felt I needed to use this light on a setting brighter than low; and while I've never actually timed the run time; the published run time may be a little liberal, but the actual run time seems to me to be very good. In fact the brightness and run time are excellent-outstanding when compared to some 4 AA lights I've owned. In use I run the battery down until the light goes into "reserve mode", and then charge it using the supplied wall outlet charger. I have never tried to charge this light using a USB port, and am probably not going to since the wall outlet charger works so well.

My handlebar mounted headlight is my old Cateye HL-EL530. Bright for a 4 AA. Run time, of course, depends on what batteries are used, but this light seems to have a very low power draw for the brightness. The bright spot of this light seems very small to me; and at one time, after I had been using this light for years, I did start running into a problem with the magnetic switch sticking. But a couple of light raps on a hard surface fixed that for me. I am currently trying lithium batteries in this light to see if I get a significantly longer run time over my old rechargeable AAs I was using, but I may go back to some new, more powerful, rechargeable AAs.

There is someone on the rei website who had a similar problem with the niterider slipping out of position. He contacted NiteRider, and they gave him another bracket which fixed everything. I'll post it here:

"

Oh, something I have been doing for so many years I almost forgot to mention it:

Anything that gets mounted to my handlebars gets a couple layers of cloth tape wrapped around the handlebar under the mount. This gives the mount something to bite into that has an adhesive back.

Any kind of cloth first-aid tape seems to work very well. It doesn't take much.

Another thing that works well is to replace the hard, slick, plastic shims that come with most product's mounts with a shim cut from an old inner tube. The rubber inner tube material is much softer and less slick allowing for a much better grip on the mounting surface.

One factor that will affect charging time for USB lights when connected to a computer is whether the computer has a "High Power" USB port or not. For example, my 2009 Macbook Pro has one, but my earlier macs do not. This is why you can only charge an iPad via USB on more recent Macs (requires too much power for old-style ports.)

So obviously this will also have an effect on charging time for USB lights - and also explains why USB has started to become a more popular charging option: manufacturers have realized that many people now have computers with high power USB and for those people this option is very convenient.

USB is now a standard for cell phones, tablets, and all other kinds of things that need to be charged. The handy thing about a USB light is that you probably already have a charger at work, at home, in the car, etc...

I have been using 2 x Cygolite Explion 350's since November 2011. No problems at all... mounting is solid, charge lasts approximately 5 hours on Medium setting which I use most of the time, batteries are replaceable though you have to source them from Cygolite. Charging is via usb connected to the PC at work or to the iPhone charger at home.

>>>>USB is now a standard for cell phones, tablets, and all other kinds of things that need to be charged.<<<

I understand that, but why go USB to USB? Isn't it more practical and convenient to go USB to AC power?

+1 to both ideas.

I use a NiteRider minewt.600 lumen light. So far it is great! Very bright and wide area of visibility. Did need to put a rubber strip on the bar mount for better mounting grip. But I love this wireless light.
I only use the light a 1/2 hr. at a time, but it seems to last a few days before I recharge. Sometimes I use it blinking, sometimes full steady light for night commuting. So I haven't kept track of how long it lasts before it needs a recharge.

I guess having a USB charger as well as a wallwart supplied with the light gives you another option for charging, which a commuter needs. I don't think anyone wants to carry their wallwart to work just for a recharge.