Sure there have been plenty of these threads floating around, a couple others I saw got kind of off track for my taste. Here is my current light Planet Bike Blaze 2W. It is an ok light. But on those dark nights on dark roads, not quite enough light to see around and ahead enough.

Budget, have a little extra bday cash so say around ~100$ Would rather not spend quite that much though to be honest, even though it would get used 5 times a week.

I could then use the new light and the 2W in unison when it is really dark or have the 2W on flash and other would be primary light.
Currently use rechargeable batteries. I am totally ok if it uses AA batteries. Would rather go that way then a proprietary battery pack that would eventually cost too much to replace. But I am not stuck on that.

Riding conditions are street and bike path. Most of the places do have street lights but some do get pretty dark. I am not getting too fast, fastest area can get up to is 40mph doing downhill. Being in the Pacific NW, Portland OR, it does get wet. So visibility can get.

Recommendations?

Magic shine 808. Cheap and bright and little bit under your budget.

Tiring of recharging and battery life-spans.

I'm using a Schmidt SON hub dynamo, an E delux headlight ,
and a Busch and Muller taillight wired thru the headlight.

Have a E6 secondary and primary halogen lamp pair, FS, my last winter used.
they are such that you would kick in the 2nd lamp when the speeds are high enough
and double the illuminated area , ahead .

the halogens will draw what they want, I had a 5 D cell flashlight battery pack,
used a Union reflector in the 80s. It was fine for an hour long commute..

You could get any number of Cree XM-L lights with rechargeable 18650 batteries. These put out a lot of light, a lot more than the Blaze. I'm using this one. The head mount could also be helmet mounted.

I bought a 200 lumen Cygolite Pace/Expilion earlier in the year on sale for $69, recently upgraded to a 400 lumen version for $89. The 200 is the minimum I find acceptable to see in front of me, the 400 lights up a dark trail quite nicely. I usually run it at the 300 lumen setting to keep runtime up, and just boost to the 400 when conditions warrant.

I did experiment with some flashlights and decided I was happier with a dedicated name brand bike light.

How long does a 1200 lumen flashlight run on a single 18650 battery?

The Cygolite does peak my interest over some of the others currently. Also hoping to find something REI carries. They are more expensive yes, But I have a 20% coupon that brings the price down. Cannot beat the return policy, even when there are issues years after the fact.

Seth, I'm a big fan of the Niterider MiNewt series, and today I held a Lumina 650. It's got a better mount than my MiNewt 600, and it's lighter, brighter, and may have better run times. I've always had good luck when my lights had problems (the old halogen systems) in getting NR to fix them under warranty, or for a reasonable price. Personally, I'd go that way if I was on the market for another light.

I'm really impressed with the Lezyne self-contained LED lights. You can buy the Super Drive, which puts out close to 500 lumens on high, for about $100 on line right now. Lezyne is coming out with new models, so that's why the prices are low. If you don't mind paying more, it might be worth paying extra for the new models. What I like about the Lezyne lights is that they use standard 18650 rechargeable batteries, so you can carry spares to extend run times. I've got a Light & Motion Urban 500, which is very comparable to the Lezyne in terms of light output, but it uses a proprietary battery so it has to be recharged when the battery gets low (which takes several hours) rather than simply popping in a different battery.

If you want to get about the same light output for less money, look into LED flashlights. You can find a number of good quality flashlights in the $20-30 range that will put out 300-600 lumens with decent run times using 18650 batteries. You would also need to buy a handlebar mount as well as a charging unit and spare batteries, but that option should still come out cheaper than the various self-contained units.

You've got a lot of choices, most of them better than the one you currently use. Spreading the lights out between the handlebars and the helmet give you more flexibility and redundancy, for the $100 you could get a couple of the lights in this thread, batteries and a charger.

+1 on the Cygolite 400 (i have the 410) . It's amazing how much lights have improved over the last 5 years. I use it on 3/4 power and almost never need full power and this is on totally unlit MUPS. Price is in your rage, and you can buy an extra battery pack that it a snap to change. Nice design and mount. I can't say enough about it.

I'll throw up another recomendation for NiteRider minewt series. I am running the minewt 100 wich is now a 350 model for the same cost. It incredibly bright has a great flashing mode, recharges with USB wich is great for a commuter. they have a great warranty. and the company support cycling events by offering free charging and cheap rentals, and on site warrenty swaps at 24hr events (thats HUGE in my book) Its right at $75-$100 depending on where you order it. I can use it all week commuting on one charge

oh and good warranty dosn't mean they break often, but were cyclist we fall, we drop stuff, were hard on things, nice to have a company that knows that and willing to replace it.

LED Lenser P7 + Fenix Bike Mount

https://www.rei.com/product/845391/cy...ont-bike-light

This ^, I got a cycgolight 350 from perfromance on sale last year for about the same, great light, and like the USB recharge system.

Other bonus, switches between bikes easily or the light comes off the mount to go in my bag or pocket when downtown at night.

I'll ask again... why do I want to buy a tactical flashlight with the exact same LED assembly and maybe even the exact same reflector housing as a MagicShine or Gemini Titan? I mean... the MagicShine and Titan and other bike specific lights will have handlebar quick release clamps and/or helmet mounts as standard and will usually have external packs with 4400 or more ma/hrs. Why do I want a tactical with one or two cells and I have to look elsewhere to buy a handlebar mount for it????

I bought a NiteRider Classic for $130 and crashed the very night I tried it out. Needed a new mount. $30. Both NR Classic and new mount, unopened in its package are sitting in my garage. My MagicShine which is now on its third season is a thing of joy for me. I got a 'Y' connector when I bought it and one of these days I am going to get another MS light head to reach night riding nirvana. I am doing my part to spread the knowledge. Somone did the same for me in this very forum, three years ago. I listened. I see more and more flame throwers on the roads at night. Sadly I still see too many of you cranking away in the dark with puny lights that are barely bright enough to make you seen let alone allow you to see anything.

H

I use two bikes each day for my commute. I take lights on and off the bikes a couple times a day. A tactical flashlight is real easy to slip in and out of a lockblock style holder, which costs a couple bucks. I used to use a light with an external battery pack and it was just a lot more hassle to deal with multiple times everyday. I agree with you that there is little reason that a rider should not have a sufficiently bright light (>100 lumens) to at least be seen. 200 lumen flashlights with an 18650 battery, charger, and a cheap but effective mount can be had for <$25.

Here's what I'd do given a few different scenarios:

On a budget, if a one hour runtime is good enough: 18650 based flashlight (probably 300 lumens). < $50.
On a budget with longer runtime: MagicShine MJ-838 (350 lumens), about $60

With a bigger budget (I'm here right now and will be spending this money soon):
Magicshine MJ-868 (800 lumens) $125
Magicshine MJ-880 (1800 lumens) $200 or (more likely) the new Gemini Duo (1600 lumens) $250

I'm using Busch & Müller headlight and taillight. These are made for generators (dynamos). I have a Sanyo dynamo hub. I like not having to think about batteries. This setup should last longer than most battery lights.

The headlight throws a queer beam: it's rectangular. I'm sure this is the result of highly detailed German government regulations. There are many regulations about bike lights there. For instance, bike lights MUST be dynamo-powered. Batteries are not allowed.

I don't know how many lumens it produces. Not many, really, but it's enough for me to see far ahead enough at 25mph, which is plenty fast enough in the dark.

The lights have a Ständlicht feature (stand light): the lights stay on even after you stop. The headlight also has a switch with three positions: off, on, and auto. If I left it in auto, it would light up only when needed. But I decided a daytime running light can't hurt.

If anyone is interested in learning more about my setup, I'll look up the records I have from what I bought.

I'd recommend checking with https://bikeempowerment.com/Magicshine.html before you pull the trigger here. I got a replacement light head from him that's got a great clamp for mounting on the handlebars. It's way better than the one I got from magicshine.

Do you happen to know the runtime on the 6 cell light?

After much looking around, i got one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o02_s00_i00 Works great and it survived my crash last week when I was rear ended at 20mph.

The reason's why to buy a flashlight are plentiful:

-Generally cheaper than bike specific lights, i.e. more output for the dollar.
-Not everyone needs the runtime of an external pack
-Not everyone wants the hassle of a battery pack
-Flashlights can easily be used off the bike, but bike specific lights (depending on design) aren't.

IMO, if it wasn't for the popularity of of the inexpensive tactical flashlights being adopted by commuters on a budget and other frugal folk, I suspect that we currently would not be seeing 400+ lumen lights for less than a $100 now from the dedicated bike light manufacturers.

If it were really putting out 1200 lumens, less than an hour would be my guess. But they don't really put out that many lumens, that rating is the max for a single lamp cell and a 18650 can't supply that much power. You get more like 600 lumens, still plenty of light, and it'll last just over an hour on high. I run mine in strobe mode and it lasts a lot longer but I don't know how much as I've never let it run completely down from the full charge. I've only been using it a few months, and it is only now getting dark early enough that I'm likely to ride in the dark the entire way home. I used mine on the way into work for about 10 minutes and on the way home for an hour yesterday and it was still going strong.

Keep in mind too that these batteries take a long time to charge, something like 5-6 hours on the charger that's included.

I also have a Lezyne Super Drive and the funny thing is that I've hardly used it at all, but it is also a nice light. It is better made than my flashlight, and has a USB charger built in. It may be worth it at the discounted price, but I wouldn't pay full price for it as it isn't worth 4x the price of a flashlight. The reason I don't use it is that the bike I used it on went away to college with my son. He didn't think he'd need anything like that to ride around campus, and I still wanted to use it myself.

I feel a lot more visible at night now than during the day. Nobody dares cross in front of me because they think there's a freight train approaching, not a bike!

Quote:

Sure there have been plenty of these threads floating around, a couple others I saw got kind of off track for my taste. Here is my current light

I'll be the third person in this thread to recommend the NiteRider self-contained lights (MiNewt and Lumia). They fall within your budget (except the 600/650) and are bulletproof. However, I think everyone's suggestions in this thread are great - That's the cool thing about bicycle lights is there are soooooo many great choices. I use a flamethrower (NR 1500) that is beyond awesome, but exceeds your budget a bit - -

No. The original battery that came with the original light I got had a 3 hour run time, the geoman replacement battery (the battery sent to me after the original battery was recalled) is only 1 1/2 hours. I think the new batteries are supposed to last about 3 hours.