What is best ebike lighting available?

miro13car said:

Latest tech LED means simply that instead 3 LED you would need only one for thesame light output

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best technology is using more(!) LEDs and use special mirrors to direct the light the way you want to have it.

If you use one LED you often get something like a torch, especially if you wnat to have soemthing cheap. But this is not what you want/need as your bike light.

Look at cars and see how they do it. They don't use torches.

Every LED consume power, right?
To get given lumens output it is all which counts.
I need my front light for seeing in front of me
Batteries last only that long
Using latest technology is a key.
It cost $$$ for the reason - less power consumption.

miro13car said:

Every LED consume power, right?
To get given lumens output it is all which counts.
[...]
Using latest technology is a key.
It cost $$$ for the reason - less power consumption.

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Fun fact: white LEDs produce more lumens per watt if they're driven below their rated power. So for best efficiency, yes you want up-to-date, high quality LEDs, but it's more efficient to spread the load out across two or three of them than to put the same power through a single one. They also run cooler and last longer.

Ever since white LEDs became available, cheap lights tend to use relatively low performing LEDs and drive them very hard to pump up the light output. Often, transplanting in a better quality and/or higher power emitter can really improve the color and output of these lights.

Qulity LEDs cost money , look at CREE
that is why China conterfaits LEDs .
It is well documented.

Check out this light: https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=1055278
Don't have any personal experience with it but I want to order one.
I'm in Europe though so to save some shipping and lots of taxes I'll wait for a friend to fly over and take the light with him.

BotoXbz said:

Check out this light: https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=1055278
Don't have any personal experience with it but I want to order one.
I'm in Europe though so to save some shipping and lots of taxes I'll wait for a friend to fly over and take the light with him.

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That's a lot of money for a bike light
I would just order one or two really good flashlights and a few clamps to mount them on your bike. So you can also use them for other tasks. The Lumintop GT mini in neutral white is what I would get: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/LUM...9c-4494-aa83-6bd4215ffab6&transAbTest=ae803_3

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Or, if you want to run the lights directly from your battery pack, get some of these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2PC...66-49a7-b20b-ea6cc6aebd18&transAbTest=ae803_3

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sup...66-49a7-b20b-ea6cc6aebd18&transAbTest=ae803_3

SlowCo said:

That's a lot of money for a bike light

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I've got a BT40S on the bars and a Yinding on the helmet, it's great for off-road riding.
But most of the time I'm driving on the street or bike path with trafic, so I have to turn off the helmet light and aim the bar light way down on lowest settings.
At that point they become pretty shit and anything that doesn't have a good light pattern with a cut-off will blind oncoming traffic.
The lighthead only is $150 (maybe $130 with coupon), I think that's still okay for a good quality light.

From Aliexpress ???
Are you sure you are going to get real CREE LED in this torchlight??

I still wouldn't pay that much for a bike light. I'm a cheapskate and would just buy a motorbike lamp with a wide angle pattern that can run off my battery pack voltage and mount it low on the bike. Just glue a black plastic piece of sheet on top of the headlamp unit like a baseball cap to create the cut off line for oncoming traffic. Something like this maybe: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/HuJ...000&pvid=85d6aee1-2aa6-45af-9318-78298a4b7c07

miro13car said:

Qulity LEDs cost money , look at CREE
that is why China conterfaits LEDs .
It is well documented.

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The no-name under-$2 star LEDs I've bought in the last 3-5 years are way, way better-- light output, color, and efficiency-- than the fancy expensive Luxeon and Cree LEDs I was buying 12-15 years ago. Battery power is cheaper and smaller now, too. I don't see any compelling reason to shop from the top shelf anymore. I'd rather mount two or more cheap lights than one expensive light that costs more. It's more versatile and fault tolerant.

Is that a brand "star"?
I see your previous post, in the link address is luxeon star, but your other term was orange. Interesting is that the light spectrum you wanted?
I want something physically more compact then my Unibond from Princess Auto/Harbor Freight. Plus hopefully less consuming of amps. The key is always the reflector right.

Chalo said:

The no-name under-$2 star LEDs I've bought in the last 3-5 years are way, way better-- light output, color, and efficiency-- than the fancy expensive Luxeon and Cree LEDs I was buying 12-15 years ago.

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markz said:

Is that a brand "star"?

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No, not a brand. A style of LED (with a heat transfer pad) that is not as relevant anymore since the introduction of COB type devices. But there are lots of lights that are built around these modules, and they can provide an intense point light source that's easy to collimate with a reflector or a refractive optic.



When white LEDs were new, this was the format of the first commonly available high flux emitters. At a time when 5mm LEDs were usually powered with less than 80mW, star LEDs showed up first with 1W and then with 5W and 3W versions.

Modern LEDs are so much better than the options we had 20-30 years ago, that I find the differences generally trivial and mostly a matter of how much you want to spend. There is such a wealth of good options at a wide range of prices that it just boggles the mind. Cyclists have never had it so good.

For my commuter, I went with a Chinese-made headlight designed for Harley Davidsons. They claim it is a 30 watt low beam and 45 watt high beam. But the draw is actually 19 watts and 28 watts respectively. But whatever the actual performance and output, the thing lights up the road well enough to ride at just about any speed.

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https://www.amazon.com/Wisamic-5-3-5-75-LED-Headlight/dp/B01DZU30S0

I back it up with a little self-contained rechargeable LED that pops off easily and does double duty as a flashlight and a daytime front facing stobe/flasher. But it can also provide enough light to let me ride at about 20 mph at night. Pretty nifty for a small $15 light.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07556TT9T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have no problem with lighting...well I do wish the beam was wider...but I just use my convoy C8 flashlight in an adapter on the bars...takes 5 seconds to attach and detach from the bars and on high it's like 900-1000lm so no issues with brightness. The thing is crazy bright in the city. Way brighter and tighter beam then headlights around here...