I've had this light for a few years and it works really well. Great quality too.

NiteRider Lumina 750 Boost Bike Light for $49.98 (as of 12/20/17).

https://www.amazon.com/NiteRider-Lum.../dp/B01HEF5C6K

My wife bought me this model for Christmas. I was really looking for something to use during daylight hours in order to make myself a little more noticeable on the road. I don't do any night riding. Tonight, while dark, I hooked it up and rode down the street about 9-10 houses and had my wife stand outside and see how it looked. If pointed up too much it will almost blind you. Even when I directed the light more towards the ground she said it was still incredibly visible and bright. This would have been about 1/8th of a mile away.

A search of this thread has a few mentions of using cheaper (not not bike centric) Fenix flashlights with a mount. Even with a mount, it appears the newish flashlight have a better lumen/$ ratio. Anyone try this option?

IMHO, I get the sense that bike lights are just overpriced and repackaged flashlights.

I've tried a whole lot of bike lights as well as modern flashlights with mounts. I've cheaped out too many times. A light designed for a bike is best for me, even though it costs a lot more. I need the mount to work many times, and quickly. Recharging should not take many steps. Durability and reliability are important. The cheap stuff has not satisfied me. If I had gotten something good in the first place, I would have saved a lot of money.

I had my light crap out at 6AM one winter morning while it was still pitch black out. Fortunately I had a spare (nowhere nearly as many lumens however, but enough to get me to the office). It wasn't as bleak as I make it sound - while I was in a park with little lighting, there was a 7-11 type of place within 100 yards of where the light went out.

Without the spare would have gone in for a cup of coffee and waited until the sun came up, but in reality the thing could have crapped out a few miles further up the road where such options weren't as readily available.

This got me wondering about other types of things that might go wrong. For example, how much harder is it to fix a flat in the winter when the rubber is stiffer and all the tools are cold as can be?

I spent $55 on a nice Cygolite bike like, the Metro 550 for a daytime flasher for commuting. The problem is that if you ride a lot, the battery life goes down. I had issues with the light and for $19, it got repaired. I think they claimed the battery was defective and replaced it. But it still has ****ty run time. My metric century ride is 5 hours of wall clock. Guess what? It doesn't last for 5 hours in flashing mode. And I can't pop in a fresh battery. When I commute, I have a backpack and I carry a spare flashlight. But when I go on a weekend ride, I don't want to be carrying a ton of stuff.

If you don't intend to take long rides and you don't use the light that often, these are all great lights. Otherwise, a single 18650 flashlight is the way to go. I haven't started searching for the ideal flashlight with decent flashing modes, but the bike specific lights just isn't working for my riding style.

But the Cygolite bike likes are very nice.

YMMV.

Right now, as of June 2018, REI and a couple other outlets are blowing out some older model NiteRider lights like the Lumina Micro 750 for $45 and less. Good price for lights intended to be used for relatively short rides up to an hour.

I wouldn't have purchased a NiteRider at full price due to their sharp drop-off in brightness, but at the discounted price I'm satisfied with the Micro 750. I've been using it for a week and it's adequate for longer casual speed rides in the medium setting. It starts out brighter than my Light & Motion Urban 500, but dims significantly so over the same run time the L&M ends up being brighter during the final 30 minutes before both are exhausted. The result was very noticeable in my handlebar videos.

And the NiteRider comes with a quick release that's fairly easy to use after a break in and seems to hold securely across bumpy pavement and railroad track crossings. It's a little too easy to accidentally unlatch but I'll get used to it.

I have had some pretty expensive lights up to a $150 Edelux, but I have a new favorite for less than $8. It is rechargeable, and has a horizontal cutoff so you do not blind others and has a pretty wide road view too. 600lm. If you want wider just mount two of them spread beams just a bit. Throws more light further down the road for even illumination.


https://www.banggood.com/XANES-600LM...r_warehouse=CN

Really, it is $8. Free shipping from the far east, but heck it is very reasonable for road riding...

Cool, thanks. I've been looking for another helmet light, mostly a to-be-seen light. That should do the trick.

Can anyone recommend a good but cheap headlight that doesn't have internal batteries?

I'm going to have a handlebar bag anyway, so I was thinking of keeping a USB power bank in there. That way I can charge my phone, power my light, etc. & just take the handlebar bag off when I'm done riding. The light could stay permanently mounted, as I won't be locking the bike up outdoors.

What shuld it have and offer to be considered as good by you?
Why should it have an external power source?

Problem is that most headlights can't be used during charging. And only few headlights even have no internal battery.
How about the B&M Ixon Core?
bumm.de/en/products/akku-scheinwerfer/parent/180/produkt/180l.html

Okay, here's the deal. I'm getting a folding bike that will mostly live in my car. I know that while they probably won't explode, most rechargeable batteries don't stand up well in the long term when kept at high temperatures. So, I'd really like to come up with a solution that ensures I remember to take the light and/or battery off when I'm done using it.

This light was made for my bike, and it's the sort of setup I'm thinking of: Tern Valo Direct light with a power bank in this handlepost bag.

I'm planning on getting that bag anyway, for holding my wallet, phone, keys, etc. while cycling. If it has a power bank in there, I can just plug it in to the light when necessary. I might forget to take a headlight off, but I won't forget all my other stuff in the bag.

I think it's a pretty good system, but the light itself isn't terribly bright, and I'm wondering if I have any other options.

Seems like a good choice! It even has a reflector.

Tried it. More trouble than it's worth. First time it rains it'll short out the exposed connections. And you'll go through cords pretty often, if not needing to replace USB batteries too if the ports are buggered.

For a more permanent setup you might try to weatherproof the cable and USB battery, and provide some form of strain resistance to make the USB ports last longer.

Rechargeable lights can take a lot of heat. Heck, some of them get pretty warm in normal operation. I wouldn't worry about heat in a car as long as it's a reputable light manufacturer like Light & Motion, NiteRider, Cygolite, Serfas, etc. I wouldn't trust the dozens or hundreds of generic lights using cheap battery packs made in China. There are too many reports of battery failures. There are good batteries and packs made in China, but they won't be the cheapest.

But if you want to avoid rechargeable batteries, get a Serfas SL-255. It's the lowest priced dedicated bike light that takes regular batteries (it uses two AA's) and is bright enough to be useful. There are cheaper light that use AA or AAA batteries, but they're too dim to be useful. The next step up would be the Busch and Muller Ixon IQ and IQ Premium, which use four AA batteries and cost more.

I've had a Serfas SL-255 for almost three years and it works great. It's mostly a backup light or errand bike light now. But for a year it was my main headlight. The beam is a bit narrow, more of a spotlight. And the 255 lumen maximum brightness is about as low as you'd want to go -- although I've managed with dimmer lights for 10 mile nighttime city and suburban rides at 8-10 mph.

Okay, you guys have me convinced. I decided not to go with the separate battery / light combo & just get a regular handlebar-mounted light. I found a Serfas USL-450 on clearance for $20 - it's 450 lumens, and the battery can be replaced when it wears out (or possibly carry a spare). Thanks for the advice!

Good choice. I checked out the Serfas E-Lume lights when they first came out and were full price. Better beam pattern than the earlier Serfas lights like the SL-255.

Cygolite Metro 850! It's currently exactly $50 on Amazon. Very bright, very durable and weather resistant! You can sometimes find them used for $40, too. They really are great lights that I can't recommend enough. I take them camping and people always ask what my "flashlight" is because they want one! lol

Would I be better off with a USB rechargeable light? Or one with regular AA or AAA batteries? Or a small flashlight on a mount? Are there any USB lights with replaceable batteries?

I've got a little Lumintrail that I like, but after about a year, and only about 6 months of actual riding, it's not holding a charge very well- less than an hour.

Most of my rides are on rails to trails paved routes, early in the morning.

That's up to you and your particular needs. But you should know that battery quality varies, especially among rechargeables. A good USB rechargeable battery should last three years.

Yeah, USB rechargeables taper off in runtime per charge, gradually at first, then suddenly at end of service.

Runtime per charge, when fresh and over time, vary significantly. I suspect most light engineers are constantly tweaking their designs, taking advantage of the latest tech that's still cost effective. They have to meet a price point that's increasingly competitive. If price weren't a factor they could probably boost overall performance and runtime considerably, if customers were willing to pay closer to $200 per light.

Check the "We test lights" website for comparisons between manufacturer's specs and real world performance. The site is run by Light & Motion but they aren't biased. Some of their competitors actually test better than L&M lights, but they don't fudge the data to skew results in their favor. And there are significant differences between different models within any brand. Very interesting stuff.

My Ion Speed Pro camera got more than the rated 90 minutes at first in July two years ago when I got it. I run it on almost every ride. Now it's down to about 80 minutes per charge, although that depends on the temperature. In the recent 100+F temps it ran closer to 80. On cooler days it runs closer to 90. Not bad.

My Light & Motion Urban 500 performs almost exactly according to manufacturer specs, even after 18 months of regular service. Excellent lights.

I recently got a NiteRider Lumina Micro 750 because it was discounted so heavily at REI. I like to buy locally because they let me test the lights. Same beam pattern and overall characteristics as my L&M Urban 500. But in actual practice the output tapers off very quickly and within an hour this particular NiteRider model on high is only as bright as the L&M Urban 500 on low. And that matches the real world test reviews, so it is performing as tested. Just not up to the same standard as L&M. However other NiteRider models do perform better. And I still consider the Lumina Micro 750 a good value at the discounted price, so no real complaint. I just run it on medium as a compromise between brightness and runtime. And I like the NiteRider's rubbery weather-resistant USB cap much better than the Light & Motion's, a plastic thing that broke off.

Serfas E-Lume lights are a really good value now that they're heavily discounted. Good performance. Weird mounts. Be sure not to overtighten the adjustable clamps or the pins will tear through the stiff rubber straps. The camming clamps can exert a lot of tension.

My idea of a good set:

www.bikeforums.net/20473066-post17.html

and some others (probably a merge candidate with this topic):

https://www.bikeforums.net/electronic...ts-budget.html

Exellent set to been seen for commuters:
ebay.com/itm/Set-di-luci-per-bici-CatEye-Rapid-X-TL-700-None/163170441735

Ah, not true! Here is a great light for less than $8 (+ free shipping) that puts out 600 lumens and in a shaped reflector with a horizontal cutoff so you do not blind everyone heading towards you. The light puts out more light at the top of the beam too so you get more light further down the road for overall even illumination and better night vision retention. Just like the headlights on your car!

This bike-specific light is outstanding and even has a decent rechargeable battery.

https://www.banggood.com/XANES-600LM...r_warehouse=CN

I've always been disappointed with off-brand stuff like this, but for $8, I have to try it. Thanks. I'll let you know.

Has anyone tried the lights that fit on your head? Are there any that would fit over a helmet?
For example:
https://www.amazon.com/Cobiz-Brightest-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Flashlight/dp/B074C9D8FK/ref=pd_sbs_468_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B074C9D8FK&pd_rd_r=f055918e-a6f8-11e8-8742-1712fd196554&pd_rd_w=d72zB&pd_rd_wg=8W9kJ&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=0bb14103-7f67-4c21-9b0b-31f42dc047e7&pf_rd_r=S764Q47FWYABHNX5C7K6&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=S764Q47FWYABHNX5C7K6

And yes, I'm taking the 6000 lumen claim with a very large grain of salt.

What about those spoke lights? Are they worth anything or more just for show?