Fenix Wholesale 750 Lumen Bike Light 18650 or CR123 BT20
Fenix Wholesale 350 Lumen Bike Light AA BT10

Being out of cycling for a few years, for a few reasons until now has kept me out of touch with new tech, but I easily believe this. As a firearm enthusiast, I know that security, weapon lights have improved by leaps and bounds in power output over the last few years, and are lightweight as well. I was wondering about a mount for them as I entered this forum topic.

That comment you replied to is almost six years old, and things have changed. Now it's quite easy to get a bike specific light that puts out a lot of light for under $50. In fact, you can get three of those $16 Magicshine clones from Amazon for that price.

As for mounts, this mount is very simple but works well. Now, that's probably not going to work for use on a gun (unless you want the light to shine sideways), but there's a lot of other mounts that might work too.

I recently picked up the new ALB-10 flashlight mount from Fenix, and after some use can say that it's the best flashlight mount I've ever used. It's dead solid, adjustable side to side so you can get your light centered to your liking, quick release, and completely jiggle free. It's a winner.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=376419

Kinda need a new flashlight, might look into it.

Flashlights are really benevolent for any situation. Choosing an appropriate flashlight is important.

After browsing the forum(s) and the last couple pages of this thread, here's what I decided. I'll give a short review once I've had a chance to use them a few times. Front and Rear for under $36...

Note they are both in the US, as I didn't want to wait for them to come from China or Hong Kong.

Black Solarstorm 5000LM 2X CREE XML U2 LED Front Bicycle Bike Headlight Headlamp | eBay

Cycling Bike Bicycle 2 Laser Beam and 5 LED Rear Tail Light Lamp 6 Modes Safety | eBay

5000 lumens? Somehow, I doubt that. That would consume about 50 watts of power (assuming a good LED) (so it would get very hot, even on a moving bicycle) and would have it putting out more light than a typical car halogen headlight.

That said, even if it's really "a mere" 1000 lumens, that's sounds good for the price.

I've seen several of the "laser bike lane" lights and have never been impressed ...

We'll see how your review turns out.

Yeah I'm sure it's not 5000 lumens...

I received the headlight today and the tail light a couple days ago. Definitely better than ordering China. They both look promising. Better quality than expected, and super bright. I'll post back in a couple weeks...

I've only used it once but I can't believe how awesome this light is for $26, & free shipping. I started riding about 5:30am so it was still dark. I used it for 30 minutes on medium then when it was daylight enough I changed it to low just to see how long it would last. it has 3 LEDs as a meter to tell you roughly how much power your battery has left. I rode for 4 hours exactly and the 3 LEDs were still on!

Quality wise it is way better than expected. The only thing that looks cheap to me is the battery holder.

Brightness wise, well this is a very bright light! About 3 years ago I bought a nice branded $300 HID light. It was about 13 watts and rated at 750 lumens. I loved it because it was a lot brighter than my older 10watt halogen light but it only lasted me 2 seasons. I was fairly bummed when it quit working. I was looking for a replacement bulb and realized I can buy a whole new light for cheaper. Not surprisingly lighting technology had come a long way. Given the battery was also 3 years old I decided to by a new one instead, but wasn't wanting to pay another $300...

So I came to BF and started researching lighting. It was fairly obvious LED and battery technology had surpassed the old lighting I was used to. I always loved the newer LED flashlights anyway.

Sorry, getting long winded. I'll get back to the point. Brightness wise, it's as bright on medium as my HID is on high. I used it on medium in pitch black dark but I feel low would have been fine. Medium seems twice as bright as low and high seems twice as bright as medium.

Only question now is how long it will last. If it lasts only 1 year it will be well worth it. I'll just buy another one next season lol...

I just ordered this Metro 360 & Hotshot 2W Combo from ebay (CygoLite Bicycle Metro 360 Hotshot 2 Watt USB Rechargeable Combo Set Rear Front | eBay). Not quite under $50, but it comes with the Hotshot rear flasher, and was under $70 with free shipping. The rack mount wasn't included, so if the one I have now isn't compatible I'll buy it from either cygolight spare parts, the ebay vendor (says it'll be available by the end of the week), or rig something up like I talk about in this other post: http://www.bikeforums.net/electronic...rear-rack.html.

I wanted something I didn't need to worry about breaking, buying extra lenses for, and that didn't have an external battery pack. mtbr and bike light database have some beam-shot comparisons that make deciding easier. I'll let you know how it works out.

Care to give us an update after 1 month?

I've only used it about 4 times total, but so far so good. No issues at all.

I have exactly the same light here in the UK.

You really can't explain how bright this thing is.
I live in an area with no street lights and i can EASILY see 100 yards, no kidding.
Lasts about 4 hours on full brightness, 7 hours on low, I bought 2, one for each bike!

willieb and Amdathlonuk, how's the handlebar mount for that light? Do you mount it above or below the bar? Also, will it work with a thick handlebar? My bar is 31.8mm thick.

The handlebar mount is fine. It mounts with heavy rubber band. I mounted it to my aero bars but it will mount fine on thicker bars as well. It comes with several sizes to accommodate different size bars.

I've used it at least 10-20 times now, still no issues at all. I've even used it as a flashlight in the yard and on the beach lol. It puts other flash lights to shame...

I've been running a Magicshine headlight for a few years now. I just added the rear light and I'm very happy with it too.

There are so many great/cheap options now that I can't understand spending big $$.

My bar is also 31.8mm.

No issue at all.
I also think there's an opportunity to modify a decent aluminium mount if you wanted to.

I haven't ran the light on flash yet to see how l I n it lasts, I will try at some point.

As a note my battery seemed to improve further after a few cycles.

Love this light!

The Cree U2 LED has a 5000K color temperature minimum, I think that's where the "5000" comes from. It puts out 742 lumens @ 2 amps. The maximum input current is 3 amps. A pair of these might be good for 2000 lumens total, at 6 amps and about 3.3V, call it 20W.

Anyhow, I bought one of these $26 2x U2 jobs and it works great, amazing at the price. The mount does not fit (but probably works fine on) 31.8mm bars in the thick section, but fits well near the grip if you have a spot that is pointed the right direction.

Well, except that the title was "Black Solarstorm 5000LM 2X CREE XML U2 LED Front Bicycle Bike Headlight Headlamp | eBay".

Usually "lumens" are abbreviated "lm" rather than "LM", but beyond that it's pretty clear what they're trying to say -- and they're not talking about the color temperature. And if you're still not convinced, the description read "④ 2 pcs CREE XM-L U2 LED, a maximum output of 5000 lumens" -- which should remove all doubt.

Of course, we know better, and that doesn't mean that the light is a bad purchase -- I just wish they'd be honest.

That said, I just picked up a pair of what looks like these exact lights on Amazon for $21 or so each (my kids wanted something better than the P7 flashlights they had on their bikes) -- and they are indeed very, very good. Not 5000 lumens good, but very good.

... and now they're $15 each, sheesh! (Though I did pay a few dollars extra to have them come from the US so they'd get here quicker.)

I bought one of these last fall Hotest 1800 Lumen CREE XM L T6 3modes Bicycle Light LED Light Flashlight + 4*18650 battery pack & Charger-in Bicycle Light from Sports & Entertainment on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group for my winter bike.

Used it all winter, about half an hour a day on average. It was plenty bright at the lowest setting, worked flawlessly and got about a month/charge out of the battery pack. It comes with everything - charger, several mounting straps and a strap so you can wear it on your head.

I purchased one of these from Amazon. I paid $22 or so ($28 with shipping), but the extra few dollars meant I wasn't waiting for the slow boat from China to deliver the $16 version around Thanksgiving.

It arrived fully charged, so I just played around with it outside last night bud didn't get the chance to ride since I just got off a plane from Detroit. I have no doubt that any animal that jumps out in front of me on a night ride will burst into flames before I run into it. This thing is BRIGHT.

Ride report to follow after I get the chance to use it.

Cheers.

After seeing the $15 one, I ordered another. It arrived yesterday ... which had it arriving in two weeks.

Things I've ordered from China in the last year or so are getting here more quickly than in the past ... two weeks is pretty typical now, where four was the norm. Not sure why.

Not being a candlepower forums guy, I'm curious if anybody can point to a "laymen's" or "KISS principle" site for Cree tech timeline or tech-hierarchy???

I notice the following:

XM-L T6
XM-L
XM-L2 (I understand this to be the latest tech?)

And the $20 amazon dual-lamp versions to be XM-L U2. (U2?)

It's enough to drive a person bat ***** crazy if you read too long.