This light was great while it lasted, but it is not so great that it only lasted 3 or 4 months of intermittent use. I'd love to pay a bit more for a little more reliability and retain the same batteries (18650)--unless there is a new light that is good enough to justify buying new batteries, charger, mount, etc.... Not waiting 3 weeks for DX to get it to me would be nice too.

This is the light that just broke: https://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafi...-1-18650-55241

Try shiningbeam.com

Their flashlights usually last for years. They are often less costly than DX/KD in the long run, and ship quickly to US addresses for low S&H fee. I have one SB light I've used 6-12 hrs daily as a desklamp, nearly every day since purchase in May, 2008.

I think Bryan is still located in Brooklyn - maybe you can ride by and pick it up.

That's a great idea. My boss has suggested that site before. He is a bit of a flashlight--and other stuff--nerd.

How is this for a placeholder? https://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafi...-1-18650-39359 I'm thinking that the runtime is pretty bad?

Another vote for Shiningbeam, maybe this one: https://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/t...4-II-R5/Detail I had one of those and it wasn't bad... I liked how it would seamlessly drift off into Medium mode as the battery ran down... nice to have a light that runs hour after hour, in case I don't have time to charge it, or forget to.

Interesting this should come up. My Aurora 2-mode P7 finally died after 2.5 years.

("I'm not dead yet" ... yeah but you drop to low brightness after 10 minutes, which I admit is still brighter than my backup light ...)

So after reading some of the recommendations here I decided to get a Shining Beam P-Rocket XM-L. It's about $10 more than another P7 would cost me, but it sounds like the XM-L has a bit better throw.

I hope it comes soon. I'm spoiled from the bright light I used to have.

ShiningBeam or SolarForce Store. I've had good luck with multiple lights from both.

ShiningBeam will be faster as they ship from the US. SolarForce Store ships from HK, but they ship quickly and have all the products in stock as they are the retail end of a light manufacturer. You can also mix-and-match at SFS to get exactly the light you want. They also have a larger selection than SB. But you can't go wrong with either SB or SFS.

https://www.solarforce-sales.com/index.php

I just ordered an upgrade for the Trustfire 801 on my helmet. The runner up is the Shiningbeam S-Mini in the XP-G model. The winner was is the Uniqefire UF-2100 from manafont. The cheapie light got good reviews on budgetlightforum.com. Both of these lights met my size requirements for helmet light: under 5" long, under 1" diameter.

Also try:

Kaidomain.com
Manafont.com
CN Quality

kaidomain takes forever and has terrible customer service. They are even worse than DX.

I started out the same way. After my DX light died, I got a Fenix TK11 (good throw), and later a Solarforce L2 with MCE dropin (more flood). I use them together on my rides home in the winter and haven't had any issues with either of them.

Did that change recently? I'm pretty sure my order last year shipped from Texas.

There are several places that sell SolarForce lights. You must have used a US seller. Do you have a link to the shop you used?

Just buy a drop in for that light, here is a us seller that I have bought from in the past..

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=190585993398

If you have not made the jump to the XML it is worth getting one.. Here is a video I did comparing MS P7 bike light vs. XMLFlashlight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5A0ZBaAitA

Oh right, Solarforce didn't have direct sales when I ordered my light. I was wondering why I didn't see the MCE dropin on that site. I got mine from here: https://sbflashlights.com/

I'd really like to know how the XM-L fares next to the new Philips. I'm currently using a SolarForce XM-L drop-in, but if the Philips can hold it's own the extra runtime would be excellent.

FWIW, when my cheap Chinese flashlights have failed in the past, all I had to do was to tighten up the ring inside the endcap with a spanner. I've got a couple of them including the one the OP references, and while they did flake a bit, when they do I just screw the endcap off and give them a good tightening (usually just with the longnose pliers part of my leatherman) and they're good for another 3 or 4 months. I've only ever had to do that about 3 times with any given flashlight before it got seated in enough that it didn't need it after that.

There always seems to be a new better - brighter light coming soon. Have you seen any beamshots of the phillips or approx runtimes?

A two hour runtime, and beam shots are here: https://reviews.mtbr.com/philips-safe...out#more-35025

What exactly are you talking about tightening? I'd like to give it a shot.

Ziemas, I always took you as more of a dynamo hub user.

PS, buying some XM-L drop-ins sounds like a good idea since I already have the rest of the flashlight.

This is the tailcap IJM is talking about. It's a common failure point on cheap lights.

Recently I have been thinking about a dyno for my winter commuter. :-)

Just received my new XM-L T6 from this ebay seller. He's got a good rep and I ordered it after reading about the torch at BudgetLightForums (Their light geeks put our light geeks to shame BTW). 9 days to deliver. New light is slightly lighter than my Manafont Palight C8 R5 and puts out a bit more light, excellent thrower. I expect to get the same 2.5 hours run time. It totally blows away my P7 flashlight. Medium on the XM-L is brighter than the P7 on High. If you look around, there are a lot of good rated sellers on ebay and Manafont has several variations on the same light.

I always wonder about how durable some of these non-cycle specific lights might be. There's nothing like having a light that operates most of the time.

Having said that, I have a 1 watt PB Blaze that isn't the most stellar in this department... especially after I dropped it once.

I've found that cheap lights from DX and the like tend to break rather quickly. Lights from ShiningBeam and SolarForce stand up to tons of abuse and I've hod no issues with them.

Update: Well, there was no fixing my old light. I dropped in a replacement LED and it turned on immediately. Once this one breaks I'll get one from Shiningbeam