Cycling Light Recommedations?

A question about : Cycling Light Recommedations?

Had nothing but good advise so far in this part of the forums so hoping for some more from the cyclists here.

I'm looking to purchase some lights for my cycling but i've never cycled at night on the roads before so never needed them.

Looking for something with the following if anyone can recommend.

Good battery life preferably with cheap to replace batteries, or rechargeable.

Easily removed from the bicycle including mounting bracket. I have a few bikes and would likely to be using the same lights on all 3 at various times.

Be able to be forced to stay on, without the flashing and bright enough to see on unlit roads in front of me.

I've seen a few that fit the above, but i'm not familiar with brands or anything and i heard cheap ones can fail in wet weather or aren't very good build quality.

Best answers:

• I've always found Cat Eye stuff really good.
• Front light - I highly recommend the Cateye Volt 300. Review here: https://road.cc/content/review/108798...00-front-light
  Less than Ј50 (you can spend an awful lot more), solid construction and recharges via USB.
  There's a low-battery warning light that comes on about 45 minutes before it conks out, so fine if your commute isn't longer than that.
  Really bright - you'll definitely be seen and it very clearly shows up all the potholes in front of you! I always use it on full-on (no flashing). It has flashing, always-on, and also a strobe type setting where it's always on (but a bit dimmer) with flashing on top. The idea being you can have it flashing so people see you but can still see where you're going. I don't bother with it though - it's so bright that cars spot me with no problem!
  Good bracket and easy to pop the light on and off. You can buy Cateye brackets separately (would just need to find out exactly which one comes with the Volt) so could get extras for your other bikes.
  If you have any Tesco Clubcard vouchers, you can double them up for Evans Cycles vouchers (ie Ј10 Clubcard voucher becomes Ј20 Evans voucher), so get stuff half price.
• The other question you need to ask yourself is whether you want to comply with the law (Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations). If you do, then you will need "approved" lamps, which means ones that conform with either BS6102/3 or SI2559, or an equivalent European specification. That will rule out the majority of the lamps on the market.
  There is no European spec exactly equivalent to BS6102/3, and there haven't yet been any test cases in court to establish which specs are close enough.
  SI2559 relates to lamps that only have a flashing mode, and no continuous mode, it's therefore irrelevant to your requirement.
  BS approved lamps are like hens teeth, paragraph 11.1(c) requires that BS6102/3 be durably marked on lamps that comply, so if you can't see a marking, it isn't compliant.
• I'm never normally one to advocate law-skipping, but I've never heard of a cyclist being pulled over for having good but non-compliant lighting.
  Police in my town aren't even pulling over the idiots with no lights and dark clothing on the commute home, so I'm not unduly worried about them making an issue of my light...
• I'm going to fall foul to the law at times regardless as one of my bicycles doesn't have pedal reflectors.
  It's strange the law states you must have them at night but reflective clothing is optional (I'll be wearing reflective clothing)
  The cats eye linked above looks excellent and exactly what i'm looking for as seems to tick all the boxes.
  Thanks again everyone, good advise as always
• Two SMART 1/2 Watt rears -- bright, good all round visibility and very good value. Two because I run one steady and one flashing, and because you can't see them when you are riding and so won't see straight away if the batteries run out. brackets are screwed on, but can be moved and spares are available at reasonable cost. My batteries have lasted over 100 hours.
  Front light, see ebay for massive amounts of light, from Ј2-3 for a bright touch and bracket, upto Ј100s to out do range rovers. Aim them carefully and consider a cheap flasher as well.
  Check that they are working at the end of a ride as well as the begining as flat batteries recover enough to fool you.
• I agree, the Cat Eye ones are really good. I recently replaced a front light with a cat eye- the beam is really good!
• I love cateye. I always replace the flextight bracket that comes with the light with a Cateye H31 or H32 bracket depending on the handlebar diameter. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade for about Ј4. Cateye do sell British Standard lights. The front LED one has five dim LEDS and doesn't have a flashing mode so is much less visible than the non British Standard ones. I usually use 2 front and 2 back lights so normally have a British Standard one front and back combined with a bright flashing light.
• I certainly wouldn't pay anywhere near the Ј50 that has been suggested above.
  As is usual with Decathlon, you can get really good stuff a lot cheaper than other places. I have these (which can be recharged via a USB):
  https://www.decathlon.co.uk/vioo-300-...d_8281184.html
  They are bright and are easy to put on and remove.
  That's my advice.
• When you buy bike lights you have to define:
  Am I trying to be seen by traffic or
  Am I trying to light up roads and paths with no lighting.
  If you just want to be seen a cheap flashing light may be OK. If you want to light the road up then you really need serious lights. The new LEDS are very bright and last a long time on battery. Their price is coming down rapidly and I am looking at a Volt 300 to replace my EL610RC which was Ј90 5 years ago. The Volt300 is far lighter, brighter and is a bargain at Ј37. The rechargeable battery is starting to fail on my EL610RC and it is cheaper to buy a new light than replace the battery. A Cateye light with a H31/H32 bracket is reliable and solid. I have bought cheaper brands in the past but have suffered from dodgy connections, lights spinning round handlebars etc etc. I love things that JUST WORK and am willing to pay that little bit extra.
• New bicycles in France have to be sold with lights. Decathlon in the UK used to sell such bikes. At the cheaper end of the market they had a front light with a plastic clip that went half way round the handlebars. No clamp. I used to stand in the shop spinning them round the handlebars. There was absolutely no way anyone could ever use those lights. They would have to go straight in the bin as far as I could see. I have never looked for lights in Decathlon since.
• For the rear, Smart Lunar R2.
  With respect to front lights, I don't think the super bright, burn your eyes out Ј500 front lights are needed at all. One single light and a couple of flashers is all you really need.
  It's also worth considering some 3M retro-reflective tape on the seat post, seat stays (red) and front forks (white/silver).
• I use a "Knog Blinder R" at the back, which is very noticible. The eco-flash mode (which is actually usable, unlike some lights where eco-mode is emergency-use only) lasts for ~16hrs on a single charge. It plugs directly into a USB socket to recharge. And it attaches directly to the bike (without mounting brackets):
  https://www.wiggle.co.uk/knog-blinder...ed-rear-light/
  At the front, I have a pair of Cateye EL-135 set to flashing mode to get attention and be easily identified as a cyclist:
  https://www.wiggle.co.uk/cateye-hl-el...k-front-light/
  And, to see where I'm going I have a "Philips SafeRide 80". It's one of the very few front lights with proper optics (like car headlights). So you can see where you're going without blinding oncoming traffic. It has two modes -- low and high (no flashing), and the power button shows green/amber/red to indicate charge levels. It uses li-ion AA batteries, charged via USB.
  https://reviews.mtbr.com/philips-safe...ights-shootout
  https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/BF48L20...inium/overview
  For off-road use, I have some blindingly bright torches that use P5 LEDs running off 18650 lithium-ion cells.
• T6 cree XMLs from ebay (4 LED or 6 LED version). So bright I have cars flashing me and I was stopped by a policeman who wanted to know where I got them from.
  Ј25 incl delivery.
  I've stupidly paid over Ј200 for off-road lights before but these are the best I've ever owned. Almost like daylight. I think there is a youtube comparison vid showing just how bright they are.
  Also, surprisingly, they recently lasted me over 4 hours although admittedly that was on a mixed ride where I took them down to 1/2 power on occasion.
  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4X-CREE-XM...-/231081957971