Well it's official -- I'm not happy with my Cateye Volt 700. It'll do nicely when summer comes, but it doesn't work in the cold. Last night, the light cut out on me as I was riding home from the gym. I had it inside my jacket pocket until it was time to go, and I got about ten minutes of light from the time I mounted it on the handlebar.

And yes, it was fully charged.

Lithium in general doesn't do very well in the cold, which is why I picked a light with huge rated runtime. This week I got less than 2 hours from my XML-3 on low which is rated at 10 hours.

At least the lights with a separate battery pack you can keep the battery warm. I used to put my Stella battery in a small camera case.

Dyno powered lights worked this morning, as they did last night, freezing both ways.

Just saying.

Cateye sucks gun?

My knog blinders don't put out much light, but I've had them work reliably down to -30C. If I were to guess, I'd say that the Cateye has a contact somewhere that contracts just a little too much, leaving the light without a complete circuit. A 2 hour run time should still be better than 10 minutes, even in the worst cold.

Cateye sucks a$$

I was kidding.

Huh, I bought a battery light 'cause it was cheaper. Guess I got what I paid for.

Yes. Cateye sucks because they can not alter the laws of chemistry and physics - those sorry bastards!

I've had the same issue with my Nano Shot Plus. Even moderately cold weather effects their duration adversely.

Bought a Bontrager Ion 700 in January. I been using it at night around 7 pm and it's fine in the cold. I ride for an hour. When i get home i plug it in to top it off. It charges to max battery in a few minutes so there is alot of juice left after an hour ride. It has 5 brightness settings. I only use 400 lumen, the 700 lumen is way too bright. Nice to know I have brightness if I need it.
Runtime per mode
700 lumen = 1.75hrs
400 = 3hrs
200 = 6.75hrs
50 lumen with flash = 22hrs (Driver Alert Mode)
Strobe = 45hrs (Emergency Mode)

This was my first thought when I read about OP's issue. To clarify - I don't, nor have ever owned a Dyno light.. Can anyone confirm, they're insusceptible to cold?

Just thinking outside the box here, but batteries do generate some heat as they discharge due to internal resistance (which is quite low in Li Ion types). Perhaps wrapping the battery portion in something insulative will allow it to warm itself up. In trying this, I'd be careful about insulating the LED heatsink portion of the light. Many inexpensive DVMs come with thermocouple temperature probes that could be used to investigate this.

Yes, they are not suscepitble to cold. The problem is not the light, it's the battery. I usually ride one of my dynamo-equipped bikes, and the light works 100% of the time. If you haven't read it yet, here is my post on my system on my Bianchi. I installed it about two years ago, and it just keeps on working. I run it day and night.

I just can't bring myself to believe that the Lithium Ion battery is the problem with my light. Certainly the cold will shorten the battery life, but would you expect a two-hour battery life to be reduced to ten minutes?

My LED blinkers also have LiOn batteries, and they go for about 45 minutes in the very worst cold, or just less than half the expected life. It just doesn't add up; some other part of the Cateye light probably isn't very well-made.

Nevertheless, I think I'll go for a dynamo light setup and fix the problem once and for all.

Hand warmers on the batteries.

you can say ass, and gun

Let the battery warm up some before you charge it. The cold affects the recharging, and it works better if the battery has warmed up before you recharge it.

Not when they posted a year ago though.

well they could have said "ass" but not ***

Yeah, just to agree, I ride in the winter in Minnesota, my dynamo light always works.

I think the limit for electronics that aren't specially made is around -40f, so if you ride in conditions that cold or worse I'm not as sure.

I wouldn't normally expect as drastic of a drop in runtime as the OP is saying from a lith-ion battery though. The runtime gets a little shorter in the cold, but it should not be getting that much shorter.

I had bad experiences with Cateye products as well. I bought a Cateye Opticube a few years back. About less than a year after I bought my Opticube the batteries started leaking & I tried sevral different brands of AA batteries but every set leaked in the light after about a week or so & the batteries were brand new so it was the design of the Opticube headlight that was faulty.

Also the crucial clip that held the light to the bike broke off rendering it useless as a bike light. Aparently quality controll is virtually non existent for their lower end lights in the $20 to $30 price range. Although they are bright, the quality was god awful. Anyone know of a good alternative light brand that is as bright as or brighter than Cateye lights at a reasonable price?

I run two opticube lights on the front. One is about 5 years old and the light isn't as bright as the newer model, which came out right after I bought that first one. The new model is brighter, but it seems like I have to replace it every year or so. Early on I had batteries leak, but that hasn't been a problem since I went to rechargeables. But even without that the newer ones just seem to have a short lifespan. The old one keeps on going.

Just bought a cygolight 800 though, so I think I'll transition away from the cateyes.

I had trouble with my cygolite hotshots last winter. Only a 7 mile commute, and they kept going dead on me. Ok, so maybe I didn't charge them every day, but they would go dead very quickly in the cold. I'm going dyno on my fatbike, that was the last bike without a dyno