Battery Lighting

[glueman]

Lighting is an area that changes quickly so is anyone bang up to speed with what's what in the latest generation of battery powered lights?
I appreciate there are advances in dynamo driven LED lamps but realistically the bike I have in mind will need lights for a fraction of its normal mileage - though I want enough brightness for unlit lanes when required. For the rest they won't be fitted and a dyno set up would just be so much dead weight.
Expensive exotica, though luverly, will lose out to a good price/lumens equation when the wallet appears.

Any recommendations?

[belgiangoth]

What's your budget?

I used some cateye 10+5 NiH rechargables for a couple years, about £50 (should be cheaper now) and they worked on unlit canals. SMART do a similar set (with heavier battery) for less £. The new thing is Lithium Ion batteries, you can use bright LEDs or Halides - check lumicycles or solidlights on google. The latter used to make battery powered, but now do only dynamo lights - though they can still be connected to battery packs which they do sell.
For the latest stuff we're talking £100-250+. If you buy the top hub dynamo (Schmidt) + solidlight headlamp it will cost you ~£300 and you will not notice the difference in the front hub if the light is not on.

[glueman]

As they'll go on a good weather bike - I have another with a dynamo for the darker months - they won't get a lot of use so throwing money at the problem might be a waste. I'm thinking more of a multi-AA cell driven lamp or pair of that'll fit in the saddle bag for those days mileage beats daylight, rather than state of the art illumination. But not a fag end, bobby-dodger, something that works.

[rbrian]

I have a set of Cateye EL530 front and LD1100 rear, which were about £40 I think. They are very bright, sufficient, in my opinion, to use in the dark without streetlights. I bought a second bracket for the headlight for £4 and switch it between my folder and tourer. The folder also has cheaper LED lights, which are ok for being seen, but not enough to see by, and a Cateye LD600 rear light. The tourer has Reelights for being seen.

[rualexander]

Previous thread here : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20897
In my post on that thread there are links to previous previous threads also!

[andrew_s]

Some options:
Hope Vision 1 LED, £75
4xAA, runs about 3h on full power, 5 brightness modes plus flash, torch type beam, light cuts out when the batteries can't cope. You can turn it straight back on in a lower power mode, but that's no consolation if you've crashed first. I use it one or two steps off full power.
B+M Ixon IQ £83 (includes charger and set of 4xAA)
4xAA, runs 5h on high, 20h on low, shaped beam that puts more light on the road than the Hope despite being less powerful.
Fenix L2D torch
2xAA, runs 2h on full power, 4 brightness modes plus flash. Almost as bright as the Hope. I usually use mine on half power/4 hours
Tesco 2xAA torch £8
2xAA, runs about 1.5-2h, Full power only. About as bright as the Fenix, but a narrower beam and less sidespill. Body was too narrow for many high capacity AA rechargeables, though I heard rumours this was OK with the latest batch

The Tesco torch is considerably better to see by than a Cateye EL530, which also has a very narrow beam.
The Tesco and Fenix torches will require a bar mount of some sort on top. I use a tent rubber from a camping shop in the same way as a Dinotte O-ring. Probably the best option is to get a spare QR bracket from some other light, and cable-tie the torch to the bracket.

Generally, one AA has the energy in it to power one of the recent 3W LEDs for about an hour. You need about half that power to give a reasonable riding light, assuming a torch-shape beam. If quoted battery life is much longer, it's a sure giveaway that you aren't getting enough brightness to ride on for a lot of the time, even if it's OK on fresh batteries.

For occasional get-you-home use, I'd probably go for the Fenix

Edit:
A lighting test page here.
The IQ Fly is the dynamo version of the Ixon IQ.

[glueman]

Thanks for such thorough replies. It's saved an age of web searches.

[squeaker]

Been pleased with my Trelock LS700 (now discounted as there's an updated model)
Also Smart Superflash rear always impresses with size / weight / light output