I have been looking for a new bike light. I ride on the roads early in the mornings for an hour before the sun starts to come up.
I am leaning towards the Fenix BT30R.

Has anyone had any experience with this light ?

Or any other suggestions in this $150.00 price range ?

Thanks

I like Fenix and have a couple of their flashlights... not this bike light. Don't think about using the 2 brightest modes.. light with get hot really quickly.
About 350 lumens is enough. This light looks good but maybe overkill, and it will add more than 3/4 pound to your bike. Light itself 6 oz. Separate battery back weight unknown.

Light and Motion Urban 800 fast charge... enough for 3 hours of riding.

You will get many opinions on personal bike lights.

I know user [MENTION=384342]RR3[/MENTION] said they had the BT20R (the 20 not the 30) and they really liked it, led color output was fantastic (not the cold blue/purple that a lot of LED's have) and it goes way down the road. Haven't used it myself though.

I got the 700 Lumen Lezyne light (superdrive XL) for $100 and generally use it on low for my son and wife. Plenty of light and lasts several hours. I use a dyno light mostly myself

I recently got this BC30R from Fenix... and love it.
https://www.fenixlighting.com/bc30r-...ed-bike-light/

Knowing how much battery life is left, down to the minute, is really great.

MBurke: I have the (discontinued) BT10. I use it for night gravel riding and night single track rides. I got that light because I use rechargeable AA batteries but never needed the second set in even my longest (4+ hour) rides. The light you're talking about is currently on sale and has it's own battery pack. It's obviously going to be brighter and the "dual beam" is pretty nice for seeing down the path and lighting up pot holes. it sure looks like a super nice deal to me.

I have the Fenix BC30, which as the same LED and reflector design as the BT30R but with a self contained 18650 battery setup whereas the BT30R has a smaller "headlamp" and a separate battery pack.

The throw is not as good as the BT20 but the pattern is wider and more even. Very broad.

The 200 lumen setting is not sufficient for my needs whereas the next power setting of 500 lumens is overkill for my needs. I really like the 300 lumen setting of the BT20. With top of the line batteries (Panasonic), the 500 lumen output should last 6 hours.

The weight with batteries and overall size makes handlebar mounting a challenge if i want to run either a handlebar bag or aerobars. With a mounting knob on the fork, the overall effect feels unstable. On the bars, it is a fine light. My BC30 sits collecting dust along with Magicshines, etc.

I was just looking at the 600 XL (2 models) in the $75-85 range, but haven't done much research yet.

Lights | ProBikeKit.com

I only use the 700 lumen on low setting which is something like 300 lumens or so. You would be fine with the 600. I like the fact that it can be recharged in the case or the battery can be swapped with another 18650 cell as well. Great versatility of a rechargeable and a replaceable light all in one. That is the main reason I selected this light over many of the others available. Very nice to just have a spare charged 18650 in the bag and run the battery all of the way down before you swap. No more mental calculations like I rode it 3 times since last charge for a total of about 40 minutes so I only have 30 min left and my next ride is 50 minutes si I have to wait and recharge the light before I ride. That is all done with. I just go and ride and when it starts to falter I switch to a fresh cell and put the old on the charger when I get home.

Seems like a great light for $140. Nice that it has a countdown of run time. I still prefer the infinite light capacity of replaceable cells however.

With the commonly available re-chargeable USB power sticks out there these days, this light has infinite run time capacity.
Example of a USP power stick:

The BC30R will charge and also still operate on Level 1 "ECO" at 100 Lumens.
So a charge stick or two and, I will always have a get home light, even on the longest rides.
100 Lumens is brighter than it would seem with this light, the beam shape and pattern is superb.

I was just looking at this myself, and disappointed that it won't run at full beam (or even medium beam) with a battery pack plugged in. :-/ So close...

If you're willing to do an external sealed battery pack (which I'm willing to do in exchange for being able to leave it charged on the bike), I can find references to a 4 cell version number ba4b, but only in germany which is...annoying. :-/

So close...

Smart choice and a light that is at the top of my list if/when my NiteRider ever bites the dust. I do have a question. Please verify for me that the Lezyne can really use "generic" 18650 replacement batteries? If so, this is another huge plus.

Thanks,

Matt

Yes, I use off the shelf DX 18650 cells and a couple of Panasonics I have. Just unscrew the back cap and pop a new cell in. This is the number 1 criteria for me with a battery light. Back up cells are just a few bucks and very easy to carry. When the indicator switch turns from yellow to red then I have about 10% life left and I switch cells at next convenient opportunity. I can run the cells all of the way down this way, carry a very small and light spare, and never worry about leaving on a ride with an unknown amount of charge in the light. Other manufacturers seem to want to make a 'special' battery pack that you have to buy from them for a ridiculous price. Or the pack is not removabe at all and you are screwed if you find out your light is nearly dead when you are heading out for a ride. To me this is the best scenario. Now if they just would make a shaped beam versio!

Thank You for the response!

Matt

Do you zip tie this to your handlebars, or what? It seems kind of klunky to use compared to swapping a battery in the light...

It has a rubberized housing that makes it really easy to securely and neatly Velcro strap to the underside of my stem. I take off the key ring.
Since it weighs virtually nothing, it is easy to keep another one in a seat bag or jersey pocket and swap out as needed.

I use a round battery pack in a twofish flashlight holder

I have the BT10 and BT20. Both are good lights. Very well built and I've never had problems with them. I've used the BT10 for commuting for two years now, and have never really thought about replacing it. It doesn't rain often here and there's probably only a week or two throughout the year when I'm riding at dawn/dusk on my commute. The BT10 is 350 lumens and it's OK for most rides. However if it's raining or dawn/dusk, you're going to want a bit more, probably 450-500 Lumens. The BT30 looks like overkill for commuting, would probably be good for mountain biking/fast road biking at night however.

As a side note, both the BT10 and BT20 (or BT 20R or BTR20, I forget) can run on a power source up to 12V. They get hotter, but they are generally fine. Last winter I made a power source for my lights out of a 12V lead acid battery. I regulated it down to 9V for the BT10 and it ran fine all winter. (Yes I had to charge the battery obviously.) The entire body of the BT10 and BT20 is the heatsink, so it doesn't tend to get very hot.

I bought both the BT20 and BT30 to try them out.

The BT30 is not what you'd think. It's a very wide light. The BT20 is actually a better light for going far down the road, the BT30 is a light for people who want to feel like they can see everything if they might turn - and they don't go that fast. The BT20 let me see further down the road than the BT30, though it wasn't as wide of a beam. The drawback of the BT30 is it puts a lot of light in the nearfield, and it reduces your ability to see down the road past it.

The kind of light they put out was nicer on my eyes than the usual harsh blue/purplish light, but I didn't think either was as nice as the kind of light the philips saferide v2 puts out. Still very annoyed they left the bike lighting business, other than their non-great battery management, they really knew a lot about lights.

I'm grateful to know all this, [MENTION=131376]PaulRivers[/MENTION], even though I probably won't buy either model. I didn't even know Fenix just left the bike biz.

I think that he meant that it was Phillips that left the bike biz. 8)

Delete seems to be broken

I meant philips left, not fenix.

The fenix f30 had some cool features, 2.5 hours of runtime on high was repectable, and the oled display that showed remaining battery life was fantastic. Was just hoping for something clealy superior to my philips saferide but it was more of a different light rather than a clearly better one.

Philips had the best reflector design but weak LEDs. I considered gutting and replacing with CREE XML with an external battery pack mod. This has been done and well described on another forum.

Fenix BT20 is a single LED design with a longer throw than the BT30 dual LED light. I also prefer the switch ergs on the BT20 because the button is ever so slightly larger and being recessed, it is easier to turn on or increase power when wearing winter gloves or lobster mitts. The only place to effectively mount the BT30 is on the handlebar due to its weight (batteries are contained in the unit) IMHO whereas the BT20 has a separate battery unit so, the headlamp is relatively light and can easily be supported by a NOB on the fork or even a NOB on clip on Tri bars. YMMV