On the flashlight, take that "ships in 1 to 3 days" comment with a grain of salt. Mine showed "waiting on supplier" for four days, and now it's been "order received-in stock" for three days.

Huh? Do you know of a faster one which actually cuts off at 4.20v and doesn't cost $200?

Dang, thats a nice looking bike. How does it ride compared to higher end aluminum bikes? I just got the P7, what flashlight mount are you using?

sku.6105

1A charge for a single and 0.8A or so for 2 at the same time.

those batteries, they won't work with that charger.
you want either sku.4757, sku.6979, sku.5790 which go up to 4.2V, are protected and have higher capacity.

Jaa, those DX chargers aren't famous for overchaging. :rolleyes:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

well, if you want quality you can count on...

personally, I haven't had a single battery overcharge and die on me with the 6105.

Have a look at the comments under your charger at DX. Sometimes it's better to spend a bit more money on a decent product, especially if it uses electricity......

Let me finish that sentence for you.......well, if you want quality you can count on...go with a Plia.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...d.php?t=201323
http://www.flashlightz.com/product.p...product=171829

yes, that's the charger I wanted to say, but I totally forgot the name of it.

I paid the premium for the Pila IBC charger. I used the $10 dealextreme Trustfire charger before.

You get what you pay for. The Trustfire charger was a piece of crap. Only one side ever worked.

I bought this one from batteryspace:

http://davidclary.com/images/charger.jpg

The description is here

This is the one recommended by batteryspace for the 18650 I ordered from them. I haven't used it on the 18650 yet because I'm still waiting on the flashlight from DX; however, I have used it with a CR123 that I use in my Romisen RC-N3 Q5. So far so good, however, if you read enough posts on CPF, you might end up too scared to plug in any charger with a Lithium battery in it! :)

New P7 hits the marketplace.. I have bought many flashlights from this vendor and have always been happy. He sells the best performing 18650 batteries.. Here is the P7, he tells me twice as bright as Q5 but over 2+ hours of burn time in high mode

http://cgi.ebay.com/SSC-P7-LED-Flash...QQcmdZViewItem

The light has been shipped and will arrive by Saturday.. I will of course run burn time with AW, Trustfire and his cells and see what the true runtime is.. Here is a link to his cells, they gave me about 10-15% better runtime over any other cells.. Only downside is that they are unprotected..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rechargeable-3-7...QQcmdZViewItem

I'm already there just from reading these forums.

Not really, but I sure try to keep an eye on things when I'm charging. Don't know if the paranoia is justified or not.

With cheap chargers and cheap (or unprotected) cells there is reason to be worried. With quality cells and charger there is much less reason to be worried.

Well, I do have protected cells but the charger is the cheapie from DealExtreme.

It's your call. Personally I've found that it's far cheaper in the long run to buy quality in the first place.

Have you tested the voltage of your cells hot off the charger to see if they are being over charged?

I've been using cheap for over 3 years.
4 unprotected $2.99 rc123 cells and a nano charger.
but then I'm only using them in single cell lights.
I did have a AAAA cell explode in a streamlight penlight, it was a loud pop.

That's just not something I'm willing to risk due to a few dollars extra for a better battery on my helmet mounted light.

me neither but it was a regular alkaline battery that exploded.
besides we all have some sort of Lion battery in our pockets, belts or bags.

To me it's still worth the extra few bucks for a quality battery from a known and tested source. AW batteries are top quality, and really not that expensive.

I fully understand, I used to be on CPF a lot.
back then I've researched the cells and nano charger I bought and there appears to
be no issues and I'm still using them. and they were bought from a reputable dealer
who's still around this day. YMMV. caveat emptor and all that stuff.
perhaps I'm lucky but we all have some sort of Lion in our pockets, bags or belts.

It's not chemistry that's my concern, but rather quality.

I think I have distilled most of the info in this thread. I am coming from a NR Classic plus, hated all of the dam wires. I was also using the NR taillight, now replaced by a PB Super blinky. Although the setup was terribly complicated I loved the light it put out and an equivalent light output would be ideal. I am a roadie avg ~ 18-20 on the flat non-windy Houston roads.

Is a single P7 as "good" as my NR setup? Is a single p7 sufficient or should I go with 2? Or upgrade straight to the 100lumens?
Option 1
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16092 Light (MTE "P7-D" SSC P7-C 5-Mode Memory 900-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650))
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.936 Charger
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790 Batteries

Option 2
Same battery and charger as above but with this light :http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18071 (UltraFire MCU WF-1000L MC-E (BIN K-WC) 3-Mode LED Flashlight (2*18650))

How long do you ride for? The one drawback to these lights is their short runtime.

Also, if someone says they are getting X minutes runtime, don't expect to get the same if you order a light as the specs are known to change from batch to batch.

2hrs max, so I would carry atleast another set of bats. So single 900, 2X900, or 1000, which is comparable to the NR classic?

I don't know any P7 flashlight that will run 2 hours on max setting.. Most run for about an 60-80 minute then the gradual dimming process begins.. The new light I bought from a US seller has a solid runtime.. It ran consistently 80-88 minutes then dropped about 50%.. Ran solid for another 15 minutes then dropped again and began the gradual dimming.. It ran close to 2 hours of useful light using the AW 2200mah and Trustfire 2500mah batteries.. I bought mine for 60.00 shipped but did not have to wait for long delivery time.. The 60.00 price was for the flashlight only, the link below includes a charger and battery, since I already have those I just asked for a price on the flashlight alone..

I tested the light next to my Trinewt, it easily outshined the Trinewt by about 100 lumens.. This light is mostly flood but produces a defineable hotspot..

I wish people listed which P7 light they are using, which batteries they are using and what kind of burn rates they are getting.. It seems the 5 and 8 mode DX P7's are very popular and most likely I will ordering one of those just for comparison sake.. Here is a link to the P7 light I bought.. Seller shipped fast and received 3 days after purchase..

http://cgi.ebay.com/SSC-P7-LED-Flash...QQcmdZViewItem