The Amusement Bike Park

Can't Sleep/Need Lights: Fall/Winter's shorter daylight hours are swiftly approaching and daddy needs hiself some lumination.

Anyone ever use the Bright LIghts brand from the Amazon? they have like 1200 lumens with 5 hour battery life for around 60 bucks. (too good to be true?)

What do you recommend for helmet lights? I have a gopro/light mount for my bontrager helmet, so something compatible for that could be cool. Maybe I'll throw the local Trek store a bone on that one and get a bonetracer helmet light?
 
I run a Niterider Lumina 650 on the helmet and a corded N.R. 750 on the bars, both are a few years old. Been very happy with them. Looks like pricing has stayed pretty affordable, while lumens have gone up. The Lumina 1200 looks to be about the same size as my 650.

https://www.niterider.com/mtb/
 
TimBay said:
Can't Sleep/Need Lights: Fall/Winter's shorter daylight hours are swiftly approaching and daddy needs hiself some lumination.

Anyone ever use the Bright LIghts brand from the Amazon? they have like 1200 lumens with 5 hour battery life for around 60 bucks. (too good to be true?)

What do you recommend for helmet lights? I have a gopro/light mount for my bontrager helmet, so something compatible for that could be cool. Maybe I'll throw the local Trek store a bone on that one and get a bonetracer helmet light?
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Unfortunately, cheap Amazon/eBay lights are often not what they claim to be. HOWEVER, a set of cheap lights can be a good way to get your feet wet with night riding. There is a chance you'll decide it isn't your thing and in that case it's better to be out $60 than $500.

Definitely get a light for the bars and another for your helmet. Trust me on that one.

I have Outbound Lighting lights and they are awesome.
 
+1 for one on bars and one on helmet
I have a light and motion urban 650. I paid $66 for it on amazon, it is pretty great and it’s self contained. I use the low or medium setting so that I can get more run time out of it. It’s not my only light but it’s often the only light I run and it’s enough. When the trail 1000 goes on sale I’m going to get one.
 
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Hot damn 390 for a light? Yeah, I figure trying to keep it budget for now. I'm not trying to do full on or anything, just want them in case I get stuck out there after sunset, if ya know what I mean.
 
TimBay said:
Hot damn 390 for a light? Yeah, I figure trying to keep it budget for now. I'm not trying to do full on or anything, just want them in case I get stuck out there after sunset, if ya know what I mean.
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Well it is $390 for 2 lights but yeah, hot damn. I took a chance and got them when Matt first started the company so the pre-order was "only" something like $250 for the set.

I've got an Amazon light that wasn't too bad. I used it for an entire Autumn when I first started MTB. It was totally adequate until I experienced better lights.
 
Paul H said:
For fight club or road?
For fight club.... don't skimp out. Too much at stake.
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This is right on. A cheap light will get you out of the woods. Good lights let you ride almost as hard/fast as daylight. For off road night riding you need 2 lights. If one fails the other can be relied on to at least get back to the trail head.
 
Paul H said:
For fight club or road?
For fight club.... don't skimp out. Too much at stake.
Click to expand...
The only night road riding I do is to and from The bar which is less than a mile and all small back roads. Trying to fond that happy medium between garbage and $500
 
TimBay said:
The only night road riding I do is to and from The bar which is less than a mile and all small back roads. Trying to fond that happy medium between garbage and $500
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i run cheap lights and they are fine on the trail - a little awkward having a corded light on my helmet, but will change that out soon.
get a diffuser (1 direction) for the bar light. it will create a wide beam, rather than a spot. somewhere on here i took some pics of
the lights at different settings with/without the diffuser.
 
Patrick said:
i run cheap lights and they are fine on the trail - a little awkward having a corded light on my helmet, but will change that out soon.
get a diffuser (1 direction) for the bar light. it will create a wide beam, rather than a spot. somewhere on here i took some pics of
the lights at different settings with/without the diffuser.
Click to expand...
Did you buy a light with the difuser or a separate stick-on diffuser?
 
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i'll also mention that i cut the strap off the 'headband' and used a velcro strap to attach it to the helmet - then the light can pivot.
The battery goes in the jersey pocket, or straps to the hydration pack.

Some folks will put the bar light battery in an old water bottle, and use the cage. Or make a special bottle battery (couple of batteries in parallel, or custom)
 
Patrick said:
i'll also mention that i cut the strap off the 'headband' and used a velcro strap to attach it to the helmet - then the light can pivot.
The battery goes in the jersey pocket, or straps to the hydration pack.

Some folks will put the bar light battery in an old water bottle, and use the cage. Or make a special bottle battery (couple of batteries in parallel, or custom)
Click to expand...
That second one is actually the Amazon light I was referencing earlier. Hmm. Thats a good starting point maybe. I was tjinking of getting a cheap front triangle frame bag for the battery pack/possible backup ligjt or battery. I like the fireproof bag also. Thats a good $5 investment
 
Hmmm. Some of the lyzene lights have capability of running their external battery pack to double runtime. I wonder if I could get a less expensive USB battery pack to run on any usb light? Not sure how lights respond to charging while running.
 
TimBay said:
Hmmm. Some of the lyzene lights have capability of running their external battery pack to double runtime. I wonder if I could get a less expensive USB battery pack to run on any usb light? Not sure how lights respond to charging while running.
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Some will work and some won't. It depends on the circuitry/programming of each respective light.
 
An important thing to look for especially with the cheaper lights is the quality of the battery pack. @Patrick is on the money in suggesting a fireproof bag. Lithium Polymer batteries are quite impressive when they fail/rupture. I have the 1600 lumen version of the bright eyes light. It has, in my opinion, a decent battery pack. It comes with the difuser for the lens. For $50 it's hard to beat.

I'll admit that I am kind of a light nerd. I guess you already figured that out based on the fact that I spent as much as I did on my lights. There are definitely some cost effective solutions out there like the Bright Eyes lights on Amazon. The more expensive lights generally get you better batteries, better water-resistance, lighter materials, better beam patterns, and better circuitry. Some riders prefer warmer colored LEDs that are often only available on higher end lights. All that stuff comes at a cost. You can buy 10 Amazon lights for the price of a high end set of quality lights. As long as you know what your risks are and potential points of failure there is nothing wrong with getting a cheaper light/s.
 
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