Front light recommendations?

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Joan
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Front light recommendations?

Post by Joan » 2 years ago

A year or so I had my front light stolen** I had been managing around the city since with my previous light, but I tried to ride in complete darkness and it was a fail. I had to ride the brakes downhill because it wasn't bright enough to show potholes (and eventually muntjak deer) at any distance which left me going too slow to happily climb the next rise.

I would love to get a replacement for the light that I lost because I have 3 spare batteries. Unfortunately, I can't see any out there (Moon XP300/XP500). My inclination is to buy a Moon Meteor X because it's cheap at halfords, I like the brand and gets good reviews.

Any other suggestions? I am not doing much night riding, so don't want to spend a fortune.


**The theft is infuriating. I took it off my bike, when there was about zero chance of it being stolen, then left it on a shelf in a shop for 5 minutes. It was gone when I got back, and I rang the shop the next day, it wasn't handed in.
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Joan
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Re: Front light recommendations?

Post by Joan » 2 years ago

Well, I ended up getting bikehut 1600 lumen behemoth. So far very impressed by it, and sad I didn't buy it a week earlier.

(we are not a cycling forum any longer. Cyclists always nerd out on the subjects of lights 🤓)
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JohnToo
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Re: Front light recommendations?

Post by JohnToo » 2 years ago

I use a Phillips front light that I got for my first Friday, so that must be nearly 10 years now. It runs off 4 AAs which was part of the attraction (you can carry spares as long as you also carry the right size Allen key to change them) but nowadays would be seen as a technical dead end. From memory the highest setting was 1600 lumens which lasted a notional 2 hours or an actual more like 1 hour, but lower settings would last a night. But it has really good beam shaping so all that light goes down on the road in front of you and none dazzles oncoming travellers. I carried on using it for commuting and felt you could compete with car dipped headlights in terms of road visibility.
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Mister Paul
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Re: Front light recommendations?

Post by Mister Paul » 2 years ago

I have three of the Aldi usb front lights. Two of them is enough for unlit lanes.
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Iris
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Re: Front light recommendations?

Post by Iris » 2 years ago

https://www.amazon.co.uk/cree-bike-ligh ... light

All of those look better quality and value than the ones I got from 7 day shop for about a fiver. They were perfectly good for unlit roads.

My real recommendation is for a decent LED unit attached to a front wheel dynamo - but I accept that might be de trop for someone mainly riding in London. Having said that, my Brompton is dynamoed.
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