Headlight Recommendations for Winter Training

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by rice rocket

What dies? Lights are real simple, I don't think I've had anything die ever, but I also don't buy lights with integrated batteries or charging. Battery life is infinite when you can carry an infinite number of batteries and swap them...

Every single light and motion I’ve owned, and that’s maybe 3-4 headlights and two tail lights have all either quit working entirely, or the plastic disc on the bottom of the light snaps off when removing from a garmin go pro mount…two times for that and I lost count on warranty replacement for lights that quit.

They warranty replaced their garbage tail light something like 4 times. I finally just tossed the last one that quit and didn’t bother with a warranty.

[kvlin94]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

Every single light and motion I’ve owned, and that’s maybe 3-4 headlights and two tail lights have all either quit working entirely, or the plastic disc on the bottom of the light snaps off when removing from a garmin go pro mount…two times for that and I lost count on warranty replacement for lights that quit.

They warranty replaced their garbage tail light something like 4 times. I finally just tossed the last one that quit and didn’t bother with a warranty.

Plastic casing failing? That seems pretty unfortunate and a build quality issue
Why do you keep buying L&M if they keep failing?

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by kvlin94

Plastic casing failing? That seems pretty unfortunate and a build quality issue
Why do you keep buying L&M if they keep failing?

I am not sure they are failing....the disk is designed to break so if you crash, the light is not damaged....spares are readily available: Seca Breakaway Disk

I've been using L&M lights for 20 years. My first light failed (HID) and they offered me a 50% deal on a new LED (Seca 900) light to replace it. Better light and better battery.

Only other issues have been when I have left the old NiMH batteries uncharged for too long, but replaced those with Li Ion batters and no issues at all

[verticaldoug]

Originally Posted by Hypusmellitus

I recently bought an Exposure Maxx d Mk13 and absolutely love it. I also bought the Exposure Diablo Mk12 for my helmet and with 1800 lumens it is bright enough to use alone but the battery life is not the longest. I did also buy a red bulb attachment which plugs into the charging port and between the 3 of them dearly hope that some kind pilgrim driving a milk float doesn't 'do me in' suggesting that they didn't see me. If they don't then I still hope to be posting here next summer

You can get a Exposure Tracer back light. It has an accelerometer in the body so when you brake, it glows brighter light a car light.

Exposure makes solid products. In the winter, I ride most weekdays in the dark.
The stuff is great.

[aydraper]

I’ve been partial to Niterider. Have had two or three. I had one Light & Motion but it died in about a year.

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by Ozz

I am not sure they are failing....the disk is designed to break so if you crash, the light is not damaged....spares are readily available: Seca Breakaway Disk

I've been using L&M lights for 20 years. My first light failed (HID) and they offered me a 50% deal on a new LED (Seca 900) light to replace it. Better light and better battery.

Only other issues have been when I have left the old NiMH batteries uncharged for too long, but replaced those with Li Ion batters and no issues at all

It’s not replaceable. I don’t have the light on me to show a photo. It snapped from the casing.

I never had issues with their hid lights. Only with the cylinder shaped models and vya rear light.

I’ve had great success with some of their products.

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by kvlin94

Plastic casing failing? That seems pretty unfortunate and a build quality issue
Why do you keep buying L&M if they keep failing?

Bought one, snapped, warranty, snapped again, tossed (edit, tossed in storage bin for a backup camping light)

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

It’s not replaceable. I don’t have the light on me to show a photo. It snapped from the casing.

I never had issues with their hid lights. Only with the cylinder shaped models and vya rear light.

I’ve had great success with some of their products.

Sorry, that sucks...when you mentioned "disk" I figured it might be the part I referenced....

I've had their HID, Seca 900, Stella 200, Taz 1500, Vis 180 Pro and Seca Comp 2000. I sold the Seca 900 and Stella 200 last spring...cool lights, but I like the self contained models for most my riding. Build quality has all been great...only issue is tab covering charging port on the Vis 180 broke off...still works, but no longer attached to light.

I liked the HID light, but was weird....it put out tons of EM interference that messed with my HR monitor and other computers. It just went kaput one day. LED seems like a more robust design for a bike light anyway....

[roguedog]

May have to give that Outbound Light a try but will probably wait until next year to see what commute I have next year. Intrigued by the light pattern that doesn't blind folks.

[BdaGhisallo]

Your budget may get stretched, but it's hard to top Lupine lights for features and performance. I have used them for years now, starting out with their last halogen model before they went to LEDs.

Their Wilma light head is a fantastic option.

https://www.lupinenorthamerica.com/wilma_class.asp

You can up to a Betty class light head if you need a ton of light or are going off road, but for road use the Wilma is all you should need.

[mudhead]

+1 for the Cygolite Metro series. Going on three years of use, mounted via GoPro adapter on a k-edge garmin mount.

[froze]

That headlight from Light & Motion is not very bright, 500 watts is borderline, and for dark roads in the winter with dark cloudy skies isn't adequate enough, you should be looking at a 700 lumens at least, which means you'll need to spend more money, but trust me, 500 won't be enough. The other thing concerning lumens is that companies LIE about their lumens, so one light rated at 700, or whatever lumen, could be far dimmer than another at 700, so you have to do some research.

The other issue with most lights on the market is that they cannot have their internal battery replaced, I personally hate companies that do that crap, you have an LED bulb that can last at least 50,000 hours but the battery is lucky to make it 10,000 hours, so you throw away a perfectly good light because the battery is shot.

Cygolite is not a bad company but only one light that they have uses a replaceable battery and that's the Ranger 1200 USB, they won't say how llumens is high, on turbo it's 1,200 lumens, and that will run for 1 hour 15 minutes, you will have to email the company to find out how many lumens is high, on high the bat will last 2 hours, so you'll have to run it on medium setting to get 3 hours which means you will need to find out how many lumens is the med setting as well.

The other light to consider, if having a replacement battery seems like a good idea is the Fenix BC30, the prices at Fenix are tricky because the price of the light does NOT include the batteries, so you have to buy the highest output battery they have which cost $26 each and you need two, or more if you want backup batteries, the light cost between $89 to $120 depending on where you get it. Fenix is out of stock on the lights but Amazon has them, however the Amazon batteries are crappy, you need to get the batteries from Fenix directly.

If having replaceable batteries is not your concern then I suggest you go to this site and compare various beams:

https://road.cc/content/buyers-guide...e-212914#beams

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by froze

......The other thing concerning lumens is that companies LIE about their lumens, so one light rated at 700, or whatever lumen, could be far dimmer than another at 700, so you have to do some research.
....

One of the lights discussed here (Busch & Muller) uses Lux rather than Lumens to rate their lights. I found this very interesting, and actually much more useful than using Lumens, since it actually measures how lumens are projected and distributed. I found this article that discusses: Why lux is a better way to rate bike lights...

[froze]

Originally Posted by Ozz

One of the lights discussed here (Busch & Muller) uses Lux rather than Lumens to rate their lights. I found this very interesting, and actually much more useful than using Lumens, since it actually measures how lumens are projected and distributed. I found this article that discusses: Why lux is a better way to rate bike lights...

They can lie about lux or lumen, it doesn't matter, what matter is going to the comparison site I gave in other post you can actually see the light beam differences between 2 lights and pick and choose from a list of lights, that is the only real truth we're going to find on beam outputs.

[poff]

After trying most of the lights I have stuck with the Exposure Maxx D

https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/ac...-light-review/