Cycling UK Forum

Senso problems? I presume you've taken them back to the retailer for warranty work?

The warranty is not the issue. Lights failing when you need them is.

[/quote]Senso problems? I presume you've taken them back to the retailer for warranty work?[/quote]

The warranty is not the issue. Lights failing when you need them is.

As above, I was until a year ago, a retailer and B&M was a consistent top 5 seller from the moment we first stocked it. Of the few returns we had the majority were Senso lights. Now this is no comment on any of the posters above, I know none of you and this short post reveals very little if anything of us. Of those returned Senso's I did wonder if a fair number of their owners could wire a basic circuit as the Senso lights throw a complete wobbly if you connect it the wrong way around. This doesn't move us from the fact that of the 6-7 B&M lights a year that went back under warranty more than half were Senso's now whether this was people cross wiring them so the standlight and Senso did not work properly or electronic failure I cannot prove either way. The only warranty replaced light that ever came back to us worked absolutely fine and is in a drawer waiting for my 10 year old Lumotec Oval to fail. By comparison to other light brands we sold, B&M returns were negligible. That is honestly a return rate of 6-7 lights from £8-10K a year of B&M sales.

I'm glad I did not wait until mine failed before replacing it, I would have completely missed the explosion in lighting brightness of the cyo range and spent the next fifteen years riding round with a relative glow worm.

WOOLIFERKINS wrote:As above, I was until a year ago, a retailer and B&M was a consistent top 5 seller from the moment we first stocked it.

For a niche product, that's impressive.

I have five B&M products.
1) Lumotec IQ Cyo T R Senso Plus,
2) Rear Busch&Müller Toplicht Linetec
3) Lumotec IQ2 LUXOS U
4) TOPLIGHT Line Brake Plus
5) SECULITE plus (rear).

The only one to give any trouble is the seculite, which just recently has taken to staying on very dimly after a ride. It's been about 40 hrs after my last ride and it's still glowing. The light is still very bright when pedalling, but the stand light only stays on for a short while now. It's not much of an issue as I have other lights and the Toplight Line Brake plus also has a stand light.

Sounds like the capacitor has gone west. Trying to remember when I bought my Seculite, wasn't this centurt

WOOLIFERKINS wrote:Sounds like the capacitor has gone west. Trying to remember when I bought my Seculite, wasn't this centurt

I can't resist upgrading... just noticed there is a newer version, the Secula Plus. Found a video on youtube, and promptly ordered it.

The Secula Plus appears to be a good light, but I haven't had mine (2) long enough to comment on reliability. They seem to be well made, and are quite bright, and the single LED has a "diffuser" in front of it so it's not a dazzling point source. The lamp produces a "disc" of light, with good side visibilty. My only criticisms are that it is rather small, but no smaller than many cyclists use for a rear light, and there could have more choices of mounting options

MikeF wrote: and there could have more choices of mounting options

Two seculas one for mudguard fitting and one for seatpost/seatstay fitting, it's always been a replacement for the Seculite and has more mounting options, B&M do a wealth of rack mounted dynamo lights.

WOOLIFERKINS wrote:

MikeF wrote: and there could have more choices of mounting options

Two seculas one for mudguard fitting and one for seatpost/seatstay fitting, it's always been a replacement for the Seculite and has more mounting options, B&M do a wealth of rack mounted dynamo lights.

The mounting for the mudguard is OK, although the bolt could benefit by being shorter. The "clamp" for the seat post one is a cable tie! albeit a strong one. What I meant was that the mounting point clamps could be designed better and more versatile.

B&M do make a wealth of rack mounted lights, but the quality of light produced and the shape, varies greatly. This site is good for comparisons and comments.

I like the light output from the Secula Plus, but the lamp itself is not large. The output is very different from the Seculite.

I have bought a Busch Muller rear battery light D Toplight at nearinf £20. When I opened it to put batteries in I was amazed at the "cheap" poorly made quality of the rough plastic, the switch is hard to use and looks internally from post war Britain. The light produced is poor compared to a new XLC rear light that I have bought to replace the BM. I wondered if it was a "FAKE" as many products are copied now? I am returning it to the BM factory to check if it is a fake.

sgn1948 wrote:I have bought a Busch Muller rear battery light D Toplight at nearinf £20. When I opened it to put batteries in I was amazed at the "cheap" poorly made quality of the rough plastic, the switch is hard to use and looks internally from post war Britain. The light produced is poor compared to a new XLC rear light that I have bought to replace the BM. I wondered if it was a "FAKE" as many products are copied now? I am returning it to the BM factory to check if it is a fake.

yes I used to have one. Terrible. In the end the switch failed, the plastic just decayed. You should see the first post of this thread. In the end I bought the same light but for dynamos and that has lasted me 20 years stil going strong - reason? no moving parts. The battery version is a load of old c**p.

sgn1948 wrote:I have bought a Busch Muller rear battery light D Toplight at nearinf £20.

I don't think it is a fake. Assuming it is the D Toplight model 328BL, that design is at least 12 years old probably 16 years. They have tweaked it slightly over the years and still sell spare parts to it (the red transparent plastic cover is somewhat brittle and can get smashed by a closing gate etc.).

I have always found it charming that B&M still sells front and rear lights using S3 halogen bulbs, and that when B&M introduce a new model, the old model doesn't get removed from the market. As someone that have experienced several times that favourite bicycle parts get removed from the market without warning, I like B&M's approach. But I guess it can lead to disappointment if people aren't aware of this.

As I see it, the DToplight and the halogen bulb Toplight are mostly for fans of the designs, so they can re-buy exactly that model they have used for perhaps a decade or more and have worked perfectly for them. Personally I retired my DToplights many years ago, but the DToplight series really was something else back when it came out.

g.meredith wrote:I have had two Busch Muller rear battery lights pack up on me within two months of purchase. Other brands I have owned have lasted for years. I am of the opinion that B&M are expensive and substandard in quality. Anyone else had issues.

I don't share that opinion after having used B&M lights for the last 16 years. Before I switched to dynamo lights, I probably bought a new pair of battery lights every year, because they rarely lasted more than a single winter season; bad attachment systems was probably the bane of most of them, either by falling off when hitting bumps or being dropped to the ground when trying to insert them with winter gloves on.

My oldest B&M light (a halogen "Oval") from 2004 is still in use by a friend. My B&M Cyo from 2009 was in use every day until recently when I retired it because I got the Cyo Premium instead. Out of the many B&M lights I have owned (Oval, Fly, Cyo, Cyo Premium, DToplight, Selctra, Line Plus , only one has been giving me trouble, and that was a Toplight Line Plus that lost its standlight function after several years service.

Several vendors like Rosebike gives 3 years extra warranty on B&M lights, presumably because the return rate and warranty claim rate is so low compared to other products.