MTB Night Rides - A bike light discussion thread

Noakesy85 · 19 Oct 2017 at 07:29

Ok so last night Myself and a few MTB enthusiasts went out for an evening jaunt around the Cliffs. Around 1830 it started to get dark so... On go the lights.

Now I thought my lights were pretty decent (I'd used them last year to commute to and from work and had no issue seeing where I was going). I found myself having some some major light envy

One of the guys I was riding with switched on his MagicShine F3 bike light and OH MY GOD... It lit the place up like the 4th of July.

Having now looked at the MagicShine website, the F3 (£139) has an output of 3000 lumens which at any rate is pretty bright. The next one down is the M2 (£87.99) rated at 2400 lumens. If I was to go for either I couldn't justify the £140 price tag of the F3 so I'd be tempted by the M2.

So my question is...

What lights do you guys use for night riding and how would you rate them comparing price to performance?

Lethal` · 19 Oct 2017 at 13:49

Any singletrack? If so you probably want a helmet light too. I've gone round Swinley in the dark a couple of times and although I had a great front light on (Moon LX760) when the bike isn't pointing round the corner it's hard to know what's up next.

If I was buying new lights I'd be looking at Exposure.

Noakesy85 · 25 Oct 2017 at 06:46

there's a small amount of single track around here, not much worthy of a head torch too. Although I am moving back to the uk next year so may have to invest in a decent one for when I hit the trail centres!

Beerbaron · 25 Oct 2017 at 07:33

Main light: Hope R2 LED Vision - Epic (1 X 4 Cell)
Backup spare: Exposure Diablo

Main light spare: Cheapo Chinese job off eBay

robj20 · 25 Oct 2017 at 07:38

I have a Four4th Holy Moses green LED on my bars. Found it so bright i havent needed one on my helmet as well. Probably the best built lights out there, fantastic customer service as well.

Begbie · 25 Oct 2017 at 17:43

2 cheap chinese things. One was £60 and the other like £20.

Both work fine when I've used them in the past all trail stuff.

Irish_Tom · 27 Oct 2017 at 18:48

robj20 said:
I have a Four4th Holy Moses green LED on my bars. Found it so bright i havent needed one on my helmet as well. Probably the best built lights out there, fantastic customer service as well.

For that price I'd hope so! :eek:

Roady · 13 Nov 2017 at 16:31

Using an Exposure Race mk12 here road riding & commuting. Superb light, the main selling mode (ReFLEX) is pretty redundant for me road riding and is aimed at trails/off-road so I use a different mode (4- high: 1450 lumen, mid: 1000 lumen, low: 600/700 lumen).

Awesome light for the money & bright enough for me. I previously used Cateye 600 & 800 and didn't find them bright enough on the roads in bad weather. I couldn't justify the price of the Strada 1200 so took a bit of a hit on battery life by going with the Race, but it does go brighter than the Strada. More than happy with it, even though it's primarily not a road light. Use it mostly on medium and it'll easily do 2+ weeks of commuting between charges (60+ miles).

ReFLEX goes up to 1900 lumen & did seem to work well when I played around with it.