Anyone know where I can get a GOOD bicycle light?

[yyz2hkg]

Looking for front and rear mounted lights that's bright enough to light up the road in front, any suggestions. Did a search, but not looking for something at CT or uses the wheels to power the light. Is there something other than LED's?

[yyz2hkg]

Come on....someone on this forum must ride a bike and have lights on them...ANYONE? Give me some ideas.

[mrsmagoo2001]

I asked my Hubby to reply to this as he las had lots of lights over the years.


I have a couple of suggestions for you to try; I have some personal experience with them. One of them is to see if you can adapt a rechareable " drill style light" by that I mean a light that would be produced by DeWalt, Makita, Black and Decker, Ryobi, or Mastercraft etc., about a 12 volt or 18 volt model with a pull out style battery. You could purchase extra batteries for the light, and it would give you every bit as much light as a good rechargeable light that is produced by a bicycle light manufacturer. However, if you would rather get a proper bike light, I myself, have a "vista Light" made by "Nightstik" and it comes in three or four wattages, from 5 to 30 watts. About 15 to 25 watts is best. The higher the wattage, the better the light, but the moroe battery power you will need to run it. It will also require more batteries to get a long run time. The only other method would be to actually purchase a good high wattage L.E.D. rechargealbe light, and one that would give you at least the equivilent of 20 watts. More wattage or lumens are needed for L.E.D.'s as they tent to become absorbed by wet roads and dark conditions and are very expensive. BLT makes these, and there are other models that are less expensive. For instance, Mountain Equipment Co-op in Toronto sells a couple of L.E.D's that are rechargeable for around $150.00, and they also have a very good xenon bype of light that is more expensive, and three times this cost. I know this sounds almost crazy spending a lot of money on good lighting, but it is better than being killed or injured at night especially if you want to do some serious riding.

One more method to try is to buy a couple of Mag lights and mount them on to your handlebars. They are bright and failrly reliable, and use ordinary batteries, or rechargeables. It takes a bit of imagination, and I know because I have tried everything except the really expensive lights; the ones that would cost you a motgage payment; but they are also worth considering.

Hope this helps.

[UrbanPoet]

is this for hard core biking?

What i did was Tape a LED keychain onto a Big paper clip.
I then secured it with an elastic band.
I clip it onto the front of my bike and it actually lights up pretty well and provides some visibility @ night.

[TheBrain]

I made my own from a 20w halogen bulb(MR16) and used my two battery packs from my cordless drill. Works good, gives me about 70min of light, enough for the dark parts of the trail. I'm going to make myself a real battery pack soon that'll last a couple of hours. I have it strapped to my helmet.

Lots of info on lights: LED, Halogen, HID, DIY, here:
http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=124

[ShadowVlican]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1755372

haven't read through it... but i'm sure u'll find something of use :)

[wushudrew]

you can always go to MEC and look for a good light. if you live near one, that is.

[IronMac]

Geeze...that's a really tough question even for the bike experts. First off, where are you riding and, second (probably most important), what's your budget?

There are other options besides LEDs such as halogen and plain incandescent.

[just_For_ipod]

Get a candle and mount it to the handle bars of your bike, ride slowly though :lol:

Anyways, LEDSHOPPE has some lights

http://ledshoppe.com/Product/ledp/LP3002.htm
http://ledshoppe.com/Product/ledp/LP3001.htm

I bought the front head light and its pretty bright, obviuosly not as bright as a bar but it uses 4 AAA batteries. I haven't used it because 1 the clip was too small for my bike handles, don't know if my bike handles are small or the thing was too big, and second, I don't like riding in the night time, I rather TTC.