Just got back from my first night ride with the MTE P7. I am won over to flahslights for bike lights. I will be selling or giving away my 15W halogen Marwi NightPro to someone here in Dallas.

Had the 140 lumen Coast Lenser on the helmet and the two lights together gave me all the light I will ever need for my 10-20 mile night rides.

what was the throw and flood like with the P7? Did it dazzle drivers? How far ahead did it allow you to see and did it highlight the road enough? Also were you running it on high? Thanks

You probably already know this but I thought I might mention you'll want some extra batteries along especially for a 20 miler. I immediately quit using my 15W Cygo when discovering these but one thing it did have was a battery that lasted a while.

To answer daven's quesiton from my perspective, yes I do run it on high and it lights very, very well.

Welcome to the club.

Thanks

got pics?

Of the new light set up or the Marwi?

The throw was surprisingly long. Luminscent street signs a block or two away were glowing incredibley bright. I focused the hot spot about 30 ft in front of me and I could see every crack, rock, stick, etc on the road with absolutely no problem at all. I may try to move the hot spot out a bit next ride and see how cars react with the light pointing a bit higher. Avg. speed was around 15 mph but got into the mid 20s a few times and I was not outrunning the light. The light was very floody, almost too much so for me, but I could see as far as I needed.

I did run it on high the whole time and I do not think it dazzled any cars, as I did not get flashed, brighted, etc by any of the cars that approached me or overtook me.

Road a heavily treed stretch of road that usually requires me to reduce speed due to darkness, and I did not ever find myself wanting to slow down due to lack of light/vision.

I had the exta 18650 in a ziploc bag in my saddle bag.

yes....and beam shots too.

I have a cheap Kodak digital, but I will see what I can do.

Thanks for that I still am not sure whether it is worth me getting both the spot and the flood versions of the 2*18650 lights to cover all bases. I want the 2 battery versions for extra run time but may just go for the 1 battery version but get 2 batteries.

Glad you like the light. I assume you are reviewing this without a hood on the light - i.e. as the light comes.

Thanks again

Daven

Yes, light was as I received it from the BF member I bought it from. Did not even charge battery.

My MTE P7 certainly dazzles on-coming riders and walkers. A rider shouted a complaint to me the other morning. Still, it's not dazzling anyone just now due to (1) the end of daylight saving and (2) my Trustfire charger burning out after 3 months. They tend to do this I gather from the comments on DX. Apparently there are fake Trustfire chargers around, odd as that seems.

I get the impression the burnout issue tends to happen in 220-240 volt countries such as Australia. I took it apart to see what I could see and I noticed a couple of components rated at 125 volts, even though sticker is for 110-240 volts. This item would probably not certification for sale in Australia -- it could be a fire hazard.

that is a bit dodgy. I think I am going to try to get the batteries and charger from a UK supplier - it may cost a bit more but at least I can complain to them if something like that happens.

What do people think of this one: https://www.caving-gear.co.uk/show_product.asp?id=790

thanks

It's exactly the same charger as DX sells for £5 less with free p&p.

It's exactly the same charger that DX sells and many people are using with no problems and have been for a long time.

You'll be £5 + £5 p&p down initially and if it goes wrong you'll have to pay to return it. I can't see how you can benefit from paying more for the same item. It would be cheaper to buy from DX and buy a replacement from DX if you ever need one.

Try to bear in mind that it's very likely that much, much less than 1% of buyers have expressed concerns about these chargers and that's mainly paranoia as they haven't had problems, but are just concerned they might have.

Reliability will be the same regardless.

hmm I guess you are right. Well I'll just have to make sure I keep an eye on it - and take the battery out when it is done!

I'm not trying to be 'right', If you want to pay £20 for a charger that costs £9 inc p&p and you believe that benefits you, then that's ok.

DX sells thousands of these chargers and I've searched for reports of failure but can't find any, I'm using one, so are several of my friends and I know a lot of people on here are using them as well - I would never knowingly make a poor recommendation.

Take the reports of high voltages with a pinch of salt, most of them are people measuring the no load voltage of the charger - which is about as entirely irrelevant as it is possible for anything to ever be.

Considering that DX sells worldwide and are not the only retailer, the voltage measurers can't compromise more than 0.001% of total sales - and they are only casting aspersions anyway.

The only real test would be to have a WF-139 and a 'better' charger alongside each other and to put a large number of batteries through each, a lot of times and then to measure the end capacity of each battery.

Bearing in mind the number of times a battery gets charged a year, if you aren't charging daily it could be 3, 4 or 5 years before a drop of even 10% of capacity occurs (if it ever did - which I doubt).

Is this such a huge issue on a $5 battery ?

In any case, nothing has been proved, only alleged.

The testing I've seen that has been presented as 'evidence' is mostly to a poor standard and several important relevent facts seem to have frequently been ignored.

I've been criticised for joking about the validity of the 'testing' but as the problem is pure conjecture I really believe my point is valid. Unless a significant number of WF-139 failures are suddenly reported, this paranoia is about as sensible as being scared of the dark.

you make a very good point, which has reassured me. So thanks for that

Back to P7 torches ?

yep back to the torches

(although which charger is recommended?
https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12162
or
https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1251

and also can I just use a uk cable in them?
that is the last charger question - I promise!)

thanks

I have the WF-139 and it doesn't come with a UK plug, I use an adaptor.

However, you can always cut the plug off and fit a normal 3 pin, just make sure you use a low value fuse.

cool thanks might find a cheap adaptor on the 'bay.

The SoShine SC-S1 Universal Li-Ion 2-Channel Digital Battery Charger looks ok and I'll probably buy one at some point.

It's interesting that it has different amps for different channels

The minimum current output is 500mA and the max is 1700mA.

I'm not sure the 12V car adaptor will be a great deal of use as you'll need to have the engine running to supply enough power (if you want the car to run later).

I guess you could charge your batteries for 'free' on long journeys....

so does that mean that it'll charge a 2400mA battery in 2 hours in slot 3?