Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

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Tangled Metal
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Joined: 13 Feb 2015, 8:32pm

Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Tangled Metal »

Looking at a non German legal front light for UK use with high enough lumens to light up a dodgy gravel track that's like offroad riding. I'm on a Brompton so need 22.2mm bar capability or a simple way to get a light with bracket only good down to 25 point something to fit the Brompton bar. I know the 300 lumens light mounted at the bottom of the m bars isn't good enough,

The ones I'm looking at includes:-
https://fawkes-cycles.co.uk/ravemen-pr1 ... ght-p11414

https://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/acces ... ck__356943

https://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/acces ... ck__327231

I can get the ravemen pr1600 for about £122 with extra bracket to fit the Brompton bar diameter. The others I'd have to bodge.

I am not looking at the German light standards because I'm looking for a higher lumens flood and wide beam. The German standard lights don't seem bright enough for my needs.
Manc33
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Manc33 »

I cringe when I see people are spending £120 on things like this. :shock:

I've been using one of those cheap Cree x2 lights for at least three years, lights up everything right down the road on full blast when there's no streetlights. I paid less than £7 for it from AliExpress, but they are also on eBay if you don't want to wait weeks for it to arrive. They are so cheap I got a backup that's sitting in a drawer brand new.

For example:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203545384246

I had one of those with 3 LED's in and it was too bright so I sold it and started using the one with 2 LED's.

With 2 battery packs (4x18650 and 6x18650) I have about 10 hours of lighting on the lowest setting.

Here's a raw video of it on full blast on a road with no other lighting:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/md86kjhtp7kda ... S.mp4?dl=1
We'll always be together, together on electric bikes.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

"The German standard lights don't seem bright enough for my needs."

The German standards are based on beam shape rather than a maximum brightness.
https://www.bumm.de/en/products/akku-sc ... /196l.html?
Image

That's a lot of light, and it's all put where it's needed - not signalling the ISS.

Different equation if you are looking out for low hanging branches, but for lighting up the road/path in front of you... there is really no comparison.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
mattsccm
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by mattsccm »

The bike with battery lights on either wears a Halford 1600 lumen (yeah right!) job https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-a ... 53334.html 60 quid or a Chinese Solarstorm jobby with a after market battery. Both more than good enough for off road use. My commute sees 25/30mph gravel down hills through the woods and the boar don't wear lights.
Daniel B
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Joined: 16 Jul 2007, 10:13pm

Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Daniel B »

@Tangled Metal - I have a PR1200 and a PR1600, and they are superb quality, and give great light output.

I commute in the dark on some totally unlit country roads, and even having one not far off horizontal, never get flashed or beeped at by motorists coming the other way, as you likely know they have a diffuser which is meant to replicate the 'dimmed headlight' that most cars are meant to have.

My only annoyance with the design is that you only have one button to adjust the brightness, and it can only go in one direction.
So say I am in a lit area and want to reduce the power to save battery, I can push the button X number of presses to get there, but then to get back, I need to cycle through the rest of the modes to get back to my higher output again.

It would be nice to have up and down buttons, but I suppose in the scheme of things it is a minor gripe.

I'm yet to utilise the full beam feature, but likely will do as the amount of darkness I ride in increases, and the quality of the roads goes in the other direction.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

They only need one button - short press to go up, long press to go down.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Daniel B
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Daniel B »

[XAP]Bob wrote: 7 Nov 2021, 8:16pm They only need one button - short press to go up, long press to go down.
Intriguing, was completely unaware of that - that method works on the PR1200, but on the 1600 if I hold and press it just switched to 'high beam' for the duration of the press, and then returns to the previous setting.

I might see if they have a support e-mail address, as doesn't seem likely to me that it's working in the correct manner.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Daniel B wrote: 7 Nov 2021, 8:31pm
[XAP]Bob wrote: 7 Nov 2021, 8:16pm They only need one button - short press to go up, long press to go down.
Intriguing, was completely unaware of that - that method works on the PR1200, but on the 1600 if I hold and press it just switched to 'high beam' for the duration of the press, and then returns to the previous setting.

I might see if they have a support e-mail address, as doesn't seem likely to me that it's working in the correct manner.
Sorry - I wasn't saying that's how they worked, I was proposing a method of having them work with only one button. It's interesting that at least one light *does* do it. Mine switches on/off with a long press and rotates through brightness settings/blink mode with a short press.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
mattsccm
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by mattsccm »

Not so long ago the Ravemen lights were being punted out at the usual Chinese bargain prices. Guess that someone has spent enough advertising money to change the brand into something "high end" instead. Quite a few examples of that really. Grip Grab are another example.
Of course nothing wrong with that. I doubt that many lights are actually made in the UK/EU.
Daniel B
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Daniel B »

[XAP]Bob wrote: 8 Nov 2021, 11:20am
Daniel B wrote: 7 Nov 2021, 8:31pm
[XAP]Bob wrote: 7 Nov 2021, 8:16pm They only need one button - short press to go up, long press to go down.
Intriguing, was completely unaware of that - that method works on the PR1200, but on the 1600 if I hold and press it just switched to 'high beam' for the duration of the press, and then returns to the previous setting.

I might see if they have a support e-mail address, as doesn't seem likely to me that it's working in the correct manner.
Sorry - I wasn't saying that's how they worked, I was proposing a method of having them work with only one button. It's interesting that at least one light *does* do it. Mine switches on/off with a long press and rotates through brightness settings/blink mode with a short press.
Ha, that's really funny :lol: Weird how one does it, and one doesn't.
mattsccm wrote: 8 Nov 2021, 12:04pm Not so long ago the Ravemen lights were being punted out at the usual Chinese bargain prices. Guess that someone has spent enough advertising money to change the brand into something "high end" instead. Quite a few examples of that really. Grip Grab are another example.
Of course nothing wrong with that. I doubt that many lights are actually made in the UK/EU.
I bought my 1200 3.5 years ago from Tredz, was meant to be £70, but I had a £10 off voucher.
I had been looking for at least 6 months prior to that, and prices were at that level or higher.

The 1600 was bought in the last couple of years, pretty sure it was just under £100.

As it stands today, I could buy a 1600 for circa £93, which is very tempting to have a pair of them, I saw a review that said a chap had managed to run two lights off the same wireless remote, which would be pretty cool, and potentially a bit less faffy than having to look at each light to try and get the brightness adjusted, bit tricky sometimes whilst also trying to avoid potholes and road debris, nearly got sucked into the verge earlier this afternoon on the way home :roll:
The 1200 I'd be looking at about £73, so no different to 4 or so years ago.

When were they way cheaper, are we talking 4+ years ago?
I wasn't even sure the design was that old, but maybe they had some glowing reviews, and that allowed them to bump the prices up.
I still feel they are excellent vfm.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Tangled Metal »

Daniel B wrote: 6 Nov 2021, 4:39pm @Tangled Metal - I have a PR1200 and a PR1600, and they are superb quality, and give great light output.

I commute in the dark on some totally unlit country roads, and even having one not far off horizontal, never get flashed or beeped at by motorists coming the other way, as you likely know they have a diffuser which is meant to replicate the 'dimmed headlight' that most cars are meant to have.

My only annoyance with the design is that you only have one button to adjust the brightness, and it can only go in one direction.
So say I am in a lit area and want to reduce the power to save battery, I can push the button X number of presses to get there, but then to get back, I need to cycle through the rest of the modes to get back to my higher output again.

It would be nice to have up and down buttons, but I suppose in the scheme of things it is a minor gripe.

I'm yet to utilise the full beam feature, but likely will do as the amount of darkness I ride in increases, and the quality of the roads goes in the other direction.
Little tip, switching to full beam and back to dipped on the pr1600 skips the dipped cycle and seems to go to higher brightness level. It is quicker than cycling through the options, not that cycling through take that long anyway.

The dipped light is kind of close to the German standard. Bear in mind the German standard now allows for lights to have a full beam option too. So I guess the Germans see as advantage in having the lighting option of full beam like I do.

Before the clocks went back it was really dark when I rode into work. It also coincided with period of heavy rain and flood at work in the dodgy but I needed the light for. I had to ride a different way to work for nearly two weeks. After the road reopened it was gravelly mud, huge puddles hiding potholes and very rough ground. Very treacley to get through on a Brompton. I was glad of the full beam. With the wider, dipped beam it lit what was directly ahead but also to the side. As I was wobbling through the rough stuff I often had to turn suddenly to the periphery of the light to avoid dangerous hole at short notice. That's at a slow speed. It is impossible to ride that section fast. Even skip lorries and a 6 wheel drive truck used on road building sites goes slowly through that section. As a kid my dad took me on to his site where a new bypass was being built. We bounced around the site in a land rover in low ratio gearing. That was similar in terrain to my commute.

Standard German standard would not suit. That photograph posted convinced me. It's too road focused which is what it's intended purpose is.

Someone baulked at the idea of spending £120 on a bike light, favouring a cheap Chinese cree light or Halfords cheapo. IME cheap isn't reliable. I've bought cheap head torches from a well known outdoor brand, alpkit. High lumens, writeup sounded good but the reality was it had good performance for a few months then it was scrapped or dog walking on the pavement where performance isn't needed. Not cycling use I know but ime cheap, Chinese lighting, even one badged up by a brand you can trust with other products aren't so something up risk. Personal experience and choice.

I bought a cateye light 8 to 10 years ago I think, it's still good. Cost a bit more than cheaper, Halfords light with more lumens but I got my money's worth out of it. I bet I'll get my money's worth out of my £120 light. Bear in mind I hit a pothole i missed in good light in April this year and ended up off my bike for 7 weeks with a broken arm. In that case it was because of distraction by a badly driving motorist that took my attention until too late but it made me aware of what missing a pothole can feel like. Compared to 7 weeks off my bike I think £120 isn't expensive if it reduces my risks of a repeat. I can afford it so why not?
Tangled Metal
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by Tangled Metal »

mattsccm wrote: 8 Nov 2021, 12:04pm Not so long ago the Ravemen lights were being punted out at the usual Chinese bargain prices. Guess that someone has spent enough advertising money to change the brand into something "high end" instead. Quite a few examples of that really. Grip Grab are another example.
Of course nothing wrong with that. I doubt that many lights are actually made in the UK/EU.
The difference between cheapo Chinese and ravemen lights is design IMHO. They're not copying but developing their own lights. There's a degree of innovation that cheap Chinese lights don't. They're Hong Kong based but they have a business or design model for their lighting that is closer to the likes of cateye and other Western, top light brands. The use of a fresnel lens in the dipped light is closer to German standard design than you get from cateye or exposure or moon for example. They've not gone for German standard certification though, possibly because it's not their main market. This design and innovation route is a differentiation.
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gazza_d
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by gazza_d »

Tangled Metal wrote: 10 Oct 2021, 9:41am I am not looking at the German light standards because I'm looking for a higher lumens flood and wide beam. The German standard lights don't seem bright enough for my needs.
German standards mean the bike lights are like car headlights and focus the light onto the road rather than just spew light everywhere.

Once you change mindset they are much better as this actually makes them more efficient, and are also much more friendly to oncoming cyclists and other traffic too.
pwa
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by pwa »

gazza_d wrote: 9 Nov 2021, 4:39pm
Tangled Metal wrote: 10 Oct 2021, 9:41am I am not looking at the German light standards because I'm looking for a higher lumens flood and wide beam. The German standard lights don't seem bright enough for my needs.
German standards mean the bike lights are like car headlights and focus the light onto the road rather than just spew light everywhere.

Once you change mindset they are much better as this actually makes them more efficient, and are also much more friendly to oncoming cyclists and other traffic too.
But the problem I have with them is that they are not bright enough, even on the parts of the road they do light up. They are not as bright as car headlamps on dip. If I could find a light that gave me the effect of a pair of car headlamps on dip, that would be great. Does anyone know of such a light?
freeflow
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Re: Any opinions/experience on these front lights?

Post by freeflow »

The B&M IQX-E (150 lux) is pretty close to what you are looking for with respect to being as bright as dipped car headlights. I'm based about 12 miles south of Cambridge if you ever need a demo. If you Audax, that would also provide an opportunity.

They also have a new toy coming that will improve the utility of such lights.

https://www.bumm.de/en/products/kurvenl ... la%20.html
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