The betty is by far the standard bearer in the industry that all others will be compared to.. Sure you can put a combination of lights together that will match the output but have seen a lupine - they are impressive lights..

I find the run time on high for the Phillips to be right about 50 minutes and 90 minutes on low, kind of short but it's using 4 AA rechargeable bats, so maybe once the bats go dead I can get larger amp hour bats to replace those with. I never ride longer then that at night anyway so it's not an issue for me.

I would not buy the dynamo version because the light output is about half of the Saferide 80. Also according to Peter White you can get a dynamo hub and recharge the Saferide 80 with it! See: http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/philips-bat.asp Also scan down that page and see another light show from the Phillips. Peter White is now liking this light over any of the dynamo lights that he has sold before.

And very recently Phillips released a rear tail light with 6 LED's that make the rear light up with a very bright ring effect using 6 very high powered led's that is claimed to be visible 360 degrees around the bike, and avoids the problem of a spot rear light. Initial reports are claiming that the light is the brightest tail light they have ever seen. As with all Phillips lights they are first introduced in Europe before coming here to the US, so far their not found here, but the beauty of the internet does away with that hassle. But I'm going to wait till I see comparison shots because I was thinking about the Light And Motion Vis 180 but now I may wait. The new Phillips light is called the Lumiring. I also just learned that so far this Phillips does not have a flashing mode, it's either on or off, some cyclist don't like that idea, but cars don't flash, and this light mimics a car tail light, also flashing tends to confuse distance judgement of people seeing them from behind. So probably if I get one I will combine it with a flasher.

Glad that works for you. According to the Swhs review I linked to two of my posts up, there was a batch that had faulty electronics causing sort runtime. You might have one of those units. I'm not sure if mine, purchased late Nov 2011, exhibits this, since I didn't check runtime much before putting in the voltage converter.

You might be able to run it with an external USB feed, though I found that mine refused to run when I had it charging from a computer. With the different plug I haven't ever fed 5V high current to the jack. When I installed my converter I drilled a hole I could seal and fed the power to the battery terminals. IIRC I posted details to "Total Geekiness".

I haven't looked up the marketing material, but if the bold portion is verbatim, it seems rather sketchy at best, and downright dishonest at worst, unless qualified in the literature. Certainly avoiding the "bright spot, hit or miss on curves" is a good thing.

Tor

I'll call consumer care tomorrow and find out if that run time is a problem, thanks for the tip.

The tail light I haven't seen any comparisons yet, but supposedly it mimics a car tail light, not extremely bright in the spot but can be seen from a long ways similar to a car tail light. And they built the thing with a center section being a reflector designed to work if the bats die. It seems promising, and if it's anything like their head light then it should be good, but I'll wait for a comparison.

Ha! I knew I wasn't delusional on this. And now that I have the proper name for it...

Here's a Vimeo vid of the Lumiring and a Saferide mounted to a bike. Not mtbr type of review, though. And here's a thread here that is actually devoted to the Lumiring. Scroll down to post #12 for more of in depth description and mini-review.

Great information especially post 12. The pics you showed is interesting and it looks cool, but it's not a comparison so it's difficult to tell just how it stacks up to other lights.

Yeah, I'd like to see a comparo as well. Apparently, the Lumiring was designed primarily for the German and other EU markets in mind, hence the lack of a blink mode. I'd like to see it up against a B&M 4D Toplight.

I called Phillips, the service rep (Mary) said that the specs claim the light is suppose to run for 2 hours on high! I never knew that because neither the specs, nor the box that came with the light even mentions run time. So someone is suppose to contact me and let me know more about it.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I appreciate it. I'll let everyone know what they say and what they do about it. This will be a test of their customer service.

Awesome. I want one for my next bike. On my current commuter, I've got a B&M Selectra that I picked up in Germany. It has three LEDs, one main light in the center and two pointing off to the sides from each end of a big reflector.

Check out bike24- they have both the battery powered and dyno powered models.

Glad to help. Interesting that the specs don't mention the runtime. I would have told you that it was at least in the instruction manual of mine, and I thought on the Bike24 website. Maybe I'm imagining things after reading reviews that do mention runtime for so long before buying it.

Tor

I ordered one today. Thanks for the tip.

Not a marketing rep for Niterider, but they are great lights. I have the 350 and for me it is plenty. Had it a couple years and either the battery or charger went South. I called Niterider and they said send it in. Week or so later I had working unit--no charge. Great customer service--I wonder if the cheaper ones offer that? I also have Nitreider tailights and they have worked flawlessly and battery life is very good.

+1. I think if you look at the ratio of cost to quality on bicycle-specific lighting, NR is one of the top makes for front lights. There are lights (like the Lupines) that are better performers, but I'm speaking from a cost-to-quality standpoint. They lag a little in tail lights, though. The CherryBomb is very good, but there's others in the price range that are gooder.

I heard back from Phillips, the dropped a new light in the mail today! That's great customer service. All I have to do is when I receive the new one is to return the old one.

They said something's not right, their not sure if the electronics are not correct in the light or charger, or there's something wrong with the batteries, but is should run for 2 hours on high not 50 minutes, and 4 hours on low, not an hour and half.

They thought maybe I hadn't charged it up correctly but I told them it sat on the charger when it was new for about 48 hours, and after every use I charge it again and it could sit on the charger for 24 hours, plus I've been using it about once a week and it's consistently last 50 minutes on high. So I know it's not how I'm charging it. They said it was safe to leave on the charger since it automatically stops charging after it reaches it's full state, so their not sure what's going on, but they were leaning toward a bad or partially bad battery.

I have a 0.5 watt Cherrybomb. I bought it from the LBS and it was the best of the rest that I could afford from a limited selection. I actually prefer the flash to the seizure inducing PBSF/Radbot patterns. It's currently my only light (removed the rack and with it the 4D Toplight). My main beef is that it's like just about all other lights in it's price/performance class- it has to be properly aimed for max effectiveness, which I have difficulty doing on my own. That being said, I'm currently considering another one.

dyno lights? Where can I get that, sounds interesting.

Dynamos, dynamo hubs, generator lighting, etc. Most of the shop guys around here look at me cross-eyed if I say the word "dynohub". :p

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm
http://harriscyclery.net/product-lis...-powered-1459/
http://www.bumm.de
http://bike.shimano.com/publish/cont...S.-type-..html

Glad to hear they have good customer service. I'm not sure they'd still take mine, now that I've drilled some holes, but I'm not too worried. As long as the LEDs themselves stay good I'm convinced I can keep mine going - and I probably can as long as the reflector and case are good.

Seems like there is a known batch that were electronically bad and doing exactly that with good batteries, so I'd probably lean that direction - and maybe they are too, but don't want to admit it. No use arguing about the reason, though. As for me and mine, it runs just fine even after the battery lights vanish, so I'd say the change to low brightness is probably triggered by voltage drop. That satisfies me.

Tor

Just got myself one of these puppies:

http://www.exposurelights.com/produc...4/maxx-d-mk.4/

Built like a tank, and on dark country roads I'm being yielded to from a 1/4 mile away :D And unlike most other high-lumen lights out there, this one is an all-in-one, self contained unit. No cords, not battery pouch, etc. Quick release mechanism and you're good to go! 3 intensity levels, plus strobe mode.

http://www.google.com/url?source=img...3HT740e8zWbgtg

Maybe a late reply here, but wow!! It is plain to see that you are super, duper serious about lights!! ;)

Direct current that the vehicle uses comes from the battery on startup, and the alternating current during vehicle use comes from the alternator. The engine does not itself produce any electrical current.

Semantics, shmemantics... ;)

My point was that you don't have to make sure that the battery for your car's lights is charged before you go driving at night.

For me, convenience -- with enough light, that is -- is better than inconvenient mega-candlepower. A sweet light with a dead battery is always darker than a pretty good light that's running off a generator.

But anyway, the horse is kinda hurtin' now. ;)

no1mad, thanks for the bike24 tip. :thumb:

Im using this Magicshine chinese copy - amazingly bright and great value at $40 shipped. I'm an Amazon Prime member so I got it in 2 days ;):

http://www.amazon.com/Lumen-Bicycle-.../dp/B006QQX3C4

I managed to ride twice with the new Phillips and it now will last exactly 2 hours on high before automatically dimming down. So something was wrong with the old one, not sure what but now it's good.

Thanks for providing that information because before you said anything I thought 1 hour on high was normal!! Thanks again!!