Lights, lights, and more lights...
 

Now that Betsy (the bike) is on the road and is officially my commuter I am in need of some lights...I will be forward by telling you that I am not in the place to afford top of the line lights so I need the best bang for the buck.

Help me pick some out...my budget is ~$35 for the set.


http://www.amazon.com/CatEye-HL-EL13...1176505&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Bike-Su...176505&sr=1-11

http://www.amazon.com/Portland-Desig...176505&sr=1-12

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Bike-Bl...1176688&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Portland-Desig...1176688&sr=1-6

http://www.amazon.com/Bell-iPulse-LE...1176688&sr=1-8

http://www.amazon.com/Biologic-Flash...176714&sr=1-35

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Fish-Unlim...176714&sr=1-45

p.s. I have a mini mag light (LED) that I was considering to use as my headlight...good or bad idea?

Thanks!

I have the Dangerzone on both my bikes and it is a great tail light. In regards to what you should choose based off my two cents, I would go with the PDW set that includes the Radbot.

I'd second that recommendation. PDW makes good stuff, well designed and built to last.

I started commuting with a 4 D (LED) Mag light, it worked, not as well as the MagicShine that replaced it, or as well as the B&M Lumotec that replaced the MagicShine.

I am not sure how the mini Mag would work for you.

Those aren't the best bang for your buck. This one is. The other lights are very low output lights...in the 80 lumen range. The actual output of the Cree isn't 1200 lumens but it's more like 600 to 700 lumens. The other lights are going to put a little barely visible spot on the ground in front of you. The Cree is going to light up the road.

You can find lots of LED taillights for around $15 to $25. The Planet Bike Superflash is a good choice for around $25. I know the whole package is slightly more than you were planning on spending but you'll get top quality lighting for bargain basement prices.

A mini mag won't work at all. You need anything with a CREE Led light like shown in the above example which will give you alot of bang for your buck.

$35 will not get you a headlight to see by, but it will get you decent lights to be seen by. If you'll be riding after sunset, I STRONGLY recommend getting something like the MagicShine 808.

I wanted a self-contained light to SEE by, also with USB recharging. I found that you really have to shell out the bucks to get anything decent that will fit that bill. I'm talking $80-$120 or so. I'm loving my Cygolite ExpiliOn 700. Awesome light, but runs about $120. USB charging is really handy for me.

I'll third that recommendation. If you ride much after dark, though, you will want to upgrade the headlight before too long. But that will at least get you into the game.

An alternate is one of these for your headlight:

SSC-P7 3 Mode 1200 Lumen Cree LED Bike Light Set

I agree on the headlight with the Cree LED and nominal 1200 lumen output - it's a huge step up from the choices listed in the OP. For the tail light I'd go with the Cygolite Hotshot:
http://www.amazon.com/Cygolite-Hotsh...hot+tail+light
Much brighter than the PB Superflash at a similar price and conveniently rechargeable.

I agree with the others who say, the Superflash and the Radbot are good tailights. The Cygolight is awesome. However the headlights you linked to are lights that let the cars see you. You will not be able to see the ground to avoid small things most of the time, with those lights.
The headlight cyccomute linked to is a very, very, good value, and you can see well with it.

Up your budget and get the front light cycommute recommended. I bought one at the start of this winter and couldn't be happier. It's as bright as one of my car's headlights. The whole external battery thing threw me for a loop but once I figured out where to mount it I've pretty much forgotten about it until it needs charging.

After 3 winters of commuting with the little 1-watt PB front light I can't believe I didn't switch sooner.

As for the rear, the Planet Bike Superflash is good. That's what I use in back.

Upon first glance, I thought I was being challenged...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8439/7...7922000be9.jpg

My budget for lighting is a little higher than $35 due to my needs, I don't think I'd be of much help.

Whatever you do eventually choose, please don't be a firefly-in-a-supernova type rider. They may be just as bad as ninjas ("well, I do have a light" has the potential to cause a lot of problems).

I have used deal extreme tail lights with pretty good results. http://dx.com/p/bicycle-bike-2-mode-...2-x-aaa-120031

This is obviously a superflash knock off, as are the ones I have previously purchased. Though the ones I bought a couple years ago didn't look so blatantly like a PB product. I have owned deal extreme tail lights, PB superflashes, and radbots (as well as dinotte, cateye, and others). The deal extreme lights have held up as well as the superflashes, but not as well as the radbots.

the PB 3 blinky flash is no good despite all the reviews...mine stopped blinking after about 7 months of casual commuting (used ~2x/wk) in the seattle area. now it's constant red and won't go back. at about the 5 month mark it started having issues due to the battery not connecting properly to the terminals...

My Super Flash has worked flawlessly for years. But that's kind of the point: It's old tech. The CygoLite Hotshot or Portland Design Works lights are superior for about the same money. And for the little extra you pay, you save on batteries since the CygoLites and PDWs are USB rechargeable.

I skip the Battery lights , have a Hub Dynamo and wired tail and headlights.
the bucks are up front, the LED lights dont burn out Bulbs, and so thereafter
all I do is turn the wheels. the power is generated as I go.

rechargeable batteries have a finite number of recharge cycles.

That's a lot of up-front cost, though, and probably way out of the OP's budget.

I have dynamo lighting my commuter, but only because I got a deal on a wheelset with a SON28 dynohub. To fit that to all my bikes would put me in the poor house.

I would also recommend the type of CREE lights linked to above, and would also suggest you can look into CREE flashlights with comparable brightness and attach it to your handlebars with two interlocked hose clamps; or get a cheap flashlight/handlebar mount for a buck or two from dealextreme (many people seem to like the twofish lockblock or its knockoffs). I'm just sayin, you might get a little more bang for your buck if you expand your search to general flashlights, rather than specific bicycle lights.

A word of warning; any super-cheap CREE light packages you are likely to find online has a risk of including bad batteries. I am very happy with a flashlight I bought off eBay for I think $27, but a "full charge" of the two 18650 batteries lasts not much longer than half an hour. (That's the bad news. The good news is that the length of my commute is not much longer than half an hour -- and by the time I get near work, the sun is well up and I can switch to energy-saving blinky mode)

So you might buy a light now, and save up to later spend $20-30 for high quality replacement batteries from an American company (batteryjunction.com, there are others as well). You can read more about batteries in this thread. Good luck!

is the mini mag one of those new mini mag pro 230 lumen lights, or is it an old 1 watt?

It may take a few charge/discharge cycles for the batteries to reach their full potential.

I've been using it for a few weeks now, and after discovering on day 2 that it was dead from day 1, I've been charging it every night. Maybe time for another test; I can just turn the light on when I get home and see how long it lasts.

But really, I'm resigned to 30-40min duration from these batteries, for $27 it's still a good value, and meets my current needs, and I know I can spend another $20-30 someday to get some batteries that might last me a week. Certainly way way cheaper than what it would cost to get that kind of brightness from a "bicycle light".

Hey, I read your Good Ol Fashion Appalachian Butt Whoopin from your .sig! What a great travelogue! I made a web travelogue kind of like that once for a (much smaller!) touring trip I took with a college friend. I should dig it up and see if I can post it online again.

Shimano's dyno hubs are pretty cheap, Machine built wheels are not much more.
Planet Bike offers a wired version of their superflash headlight,
inline plug now makes putting it in your pocket easy.

for those who prefer stuff on the handlebar.

a second battery operated headlight makes a handy flashlight..
when you have to mend punctures in the dark.

Where do you find cheap dyno hubs? I looked yesterday and the absolute cheapest Shimano dyno hub was still $100, and the cheapest wheel with dyno hub was nearly $170. Not exactly cheap, to me anyway.

I heard you can get Shimano dyno hubs in Europe for something like $30-$40, but not in the USA.

Sanyo has cheaper hubs, like about $50. The owner of my LBS likes them.

I agree with this in that we should have asked if he needs a light to see the route or to be seen while on the route. My route is well lit so I only need lights to be seen.

I have a few of them. I don't think it is a knockoff, but rather the same thing without the brand name. Only real difference I have found is my actual PBSF came with a seatstay bracket while the ones from DX only have a seatpost mount and the clip on the light itself. If you are on an extreme budget it's a good option for a bright tail light. There is also a seller on Amazon offering them for just a touch more, shipping from a US warehouse.

Headlight is going to be more difficult. Lots of good "be seen" lights in that price range, but more powerful ones that work well will be a tougher find.

I have a few of the Superflash clones. I remember reading someone's circuit analysis of a real Superflash and one of the DX versions, and there were differences. Nothing I can remember, and nothing substantial, but differences.

They are great lights for a great price. Get a few.

DX has a lot of lights that put out a lot of lumens for very little money. If you can manage the detached battery pack, you can get a massively bright light for under $40. I have this one, it's bright, it can induce seizures at 50 feet and it has more than enough battery life for my needs (it lasts three 1.5 hour long commutes, usually on low,before I get paranoid and charge it, even if it isn't low.)

This is the best deal I've come across ($99 for the hub & wheel)

http://clevercycles.com/blog/product...lex-XCE500-36H

I bought one just to try it out. It has worked great for almost two years. My only complaint is that it comes designed for disc brakes and the braking surface for a rim brake is not machined... it's painted. Oh well, $99... no big deal. I've continued to use the hub/wheel with cantilever brakes on my touring/commuter... I can still stop just fine - especially since my back wheel has a machined surface for braking. I wish I would have tried the dyno hub a lot sooner. I think this wheel and dyno hub will end up on my daughter's bicycle (she has disc brakes) and I'll probably go to the son dyno hub.

You mean two years...and still going strong, right? All of a sudden, I'm interested in dynamo lighting!

There are comments on that page that indicate they at some point added a 26" size as well as the original 700 -- maybe they're improving their offering generally and the rim braking surface would be machined? (It does say "6-bolt disc and rim-brake compatible")