Front lights

[mike the bike]

I am looking to spend around £30 on a front LED light and wonder if anyone can recommend a good light for this price that isn't too heavy on battery usage.
Thanks.

[Andy Tallis]

Cateye do the EL500 which is BS with 20hr full beam for about £32. This and the cheaper cateye LED ones aren't too well sealed though IMO. The EL-500 is waterproof, brighter and the full beam lasts 30hr on the same batteries, but it's £45 and a very tightly focussed beam that you can't ride by on unlit roads.

Andy

[bikerdave]

Andy just beat me to it! I'm getting 6 months battery life from my EL500 which does 5hrs commuting a week often in the dark both ways.
dave

[mike the bike]

Thanks for your replies to my query.

Anyone got any experience of any other Cateye lights (or light sets) ?
How about the new Halfords front light reviewed in the latest CTC mag ?

Thanks for your help.

[crs1953]

I was looking at this light on the SJS site - I'm quite interested and might buy one. It doesn't say on the site whether it has a flashing mode. Does it ???
Thanks

[Andy Tallis]

I did use an EL-200 for a while commuting to school and back. Unfortunately it didn't like the rain so I've abandoned it and the EL500 doesn't differ in battery life too much (at least not on steady mode with full beam.)
Their EL-300 (5 LED BS job) looks like it would suffer the same leakage problem as the EL200 so I avided it but several people seem to use both with few problems.
Electrical tape to make sure it stays in the bracket is adviseable though on bumpy roads. It's very nasty when you're going at 30mph and the £45 EL500 ejects itself! £ signs appeared before my eyes but it survived!

[PW]

If you look around the Smart rechargeable twin halogens have been going for as little as £25 recently, I think St John Street are one of the culprits. Not as light (weight) as some but a lot brighter & cheaper to buy & run.

[Andy Tallis]

I went through 4 (yes 4) smart twin halogen sets last winter. The first 2 were neat alll in one units with a daytime LED and leaked like sieves in the rain, then switched themselves off etc randomly afterwards even when fully charged. I then went for the 2 lamp units one which lasted a couple of months before the 2.4w seemed to half stop working (only worked some of the time) so I had to get a new lamp unit. Fortunately due to a friendly LBS all changes were free of charge but if youwant to use a system intensively then the smart ones really don't seem to be up to it. They're not lightweight either.
On the other hand the smart polaris is the most reliable LED light I've had (though only any use as a backup.)

Andy

[Pedalling Pete]

Agree with comments re Cateye EL500 & EL300. The 5-led EL300 does have the advantage of compliance with BS standard. That doesn't stop water getting in and steaming up the lens - c'mon BS, how can that standard be any dam'n good?? And if you can get one from Europe, it seems the black cased models have a higher tested standard of led to comply with German standards; and they'll be cheaper as well.

The single-led EL500 is brighter and seems waterproof, but not to BS standard.

As I already had the El-300 before the newer El-500, I use both: The wider beam of the EL-300 illuminates the nearside kerb to centreline, and the brighter beam of the EL-500 is run further ahead and towards the offside to catch the eyes of approaching motorists.

Unlike more expensive dedicated battery or dynamo systems, there is 100% redundancy in the case of a failure, and enough illumination for most occasions. And you've got a light to carry with you when you leave the bike.

[PW]

Odd, people I know both on the net & in real life think the Smarts are reliable.. Personally I made something similar from a 10 amp/hour 6V battery & a pair of miners lamps - now that really is bombproof & it will make an errant motorist dip headlights from a good 200yards.