LED battery headlight recommendations

[sparky33]

It's dark here.
What LED battery headlight do you recommend?

My trusty Light&Motion Urban 500 is dying. I like that this light is bright, efficient, very compact, lacks an external battery pack, and is easy to move around. Probably I would get the new Vis 1000 if I cannot find an even better battery LED unit.

Is there a better headlight option?

Let me know your best tail light too!

[ChainNoise]

Outbound Lighting Detour for road use. End of story, close the thread.

[p nut]

I use a Lezyne Megadrive 1800. I don’t care for its looks but very bright and lasts a long time.

https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-front

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by ChainNoise

Outbound Lighting Detour for road use. End of story, close the thread.

Cool. I've never heard of it before now.
It looks like the mount is a bolt-clamp on the handlebar, and there is a quick release to attach the light to the mount, yes?

[ChainNoise]

Originally Posted by sparky33

Cool. I've never heard of it before now.
It looks like the mount is a bolt-clamp on the handlebar, and there is a quick release to attach the light to the mount, yes?

Yes. You can also get a GoPro mount from them which I have. Best setup ever. I would recommend the GoPro mount to clear up the bars.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by ChainNoise

Outbound Lighting Detour for road use. End of story, close the thread.

I've got the Trail Evo, its the best headlight I've ever used. How long have you had your Detour? I might get one for the road bike, the Trail Evo is a serious traffic blinder.

[ridethecliche]

Do you prefer having an all in one unit or something with a bigger external battery pack? I've had a few of each and I'm also in the market-ish... now starting to think about something with a bigger battery pack so I don't have to worry about things as much if I forget to charge it between a ride or if I want to go out for a early morning or chasing daylight kind of ride and might be out for an hour or two in suboptimal natural light conditions for riding.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by ridethecliche

Do you prefer having an all in one unit or something with a bigger external battery pack? I've had a few of each and I'm also in the market-ish... now starting to think about something with a bigger battery pack so I don't have to worry about things as much if I forget to charge it between a ride or if I want to go out for a early morning or chasing daylight kind of ride and might be out for an hour or two in suboptimal natural light conditions for riding.

I like the all-in-one units for this purpose, and charging is not a hurdle for me.

For a situation where I need more run time etc, I'll use a dynamo set up instead of an external battery.

[Bob Ross]

I've been using the Niterider Lumina series for several years, very happy with those. Comes with both handlebar and helmet mounts, so in those rare instances where I want to go cycling in complete darkness -- hey, it can be fun out here in the desert! -- I'll use one of each.

Nice wide beam spread without too much of a hotspot in the center, charge lasts a long time and recharges fairly quickly, has three separate intenity settings plus a couple flashing modes that will trigger a seizure in most oncoming traffic (I never use flashing mode at night...but at times during daylight it's a great way to get traffic to move out of your way, because it resembles an emergency vehicle as you approach in their rear view mirror).

[eippo1]

So I use the Vis 1000 trail for my gravel bike because I can do a Gopro style undermount on the computer mount. Also have the regular 1000 for my road bike and it's fine, but I do find that the batteries definitely have shorter run times when it gets colder.

As recommended above, Outbound makes fantastic stuff. I use their Hangover for a helmet light on most trail rides. Their lights are so good for a self contained unit.

If you want something that lasts a while with an external battery, Gloworm is pretty awesome. Have an X3 for the bars for mtb or the gravel if on real gravel at night and an X2 for bars or helmet depending.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by eippo1

So I use the Vis 1000 trail for my gravel bike because I can do a Gopro style undermount on the computer mount.

Yes, that's a nice thing about the symmetric Vis lights.
It turns out that Outbound has a similar undermount bracket for Gopro style attachment. https://www.outboundlighting.com/col...n-camera-mount

[Alistair]

I've had good luck with Exposure Lights. I have a couple of their Diablo model (large pen light) that are suitable for helmet or bar mounting.

https://www.exposure-use.com/Brands/Exposure-Lights

I also have some Bontrager headlamps. Nothing fancy, but they're fine for what I paid.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by Alistair

I've had good luck with Exposure Lights. I have a couple of their Diablo model (large pen light) that are suitable for helmet or bar mounting.

https://www.exposure-use.com/Brands/Exposure-Lights

The Boost-R rear light from Exposure is intriguing. Any real world feedback on that one? Turns out my L&M taillight needs replacing too.

[BdaGhisallo]

Originally Posted by sparky33

The Boost-R rear light from Exposure is intriguing. Any real world feedback on that one? Turns out my L&M taillight needs replacing too.

I use Exposure running lights and they are an outstanding product. You can't go wrong with the Boost, TraceR or Blaze rear lights. I would choose between them based on how much battery time you want and where you want to mount them.

The Boost and Blaze both have longer run times than the TraceR thanks to their larger battery capacity, but they have a larger size.

I actually switch between the three of them. The one caveat on the Boost-R is that the seatpost mount is not as solid as the ones for the TraceR and the Blaze. Both of those grab the light around the cylinder circumference and have a firmer hold than the Boost-R that locks into its mount via a lug on the end of the cylinder.

I do use the Boost-R with the seat rail mount, which clamps the light, as the TraceR and Blaze seatpost mounts do, and that is rock solid.


If you look on Exposure's site, they offer a myriad of mounts for a ton of different locations and tube profiles.


Another plus wiht the Exposure tail lights is there side visibility, thanks to the design of the lens that allows light to escape sideways out of the light and not just straight backward.

[ridethecliche]

I'm intrigued by this magicshine as well:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285471793783

Link at magicshine:
https://magicshine.com/products/evo-...xoCx_UQAvD_BwE