# Front bike light for seeing, no battery pack or mount required. Suggestions?



## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

I need a bike light to be able to see, not just be seen, and I'm trying to avoid strapping an extra battery pack on, and I'm trying to avoid having to make my own custom mount. Let's say for a minute here that I'll be able to save some money and thereby do not care what it costs. What can I buy?

Someone mentioned the lezyne superdrive 450, but it looks very small, ie like it won't be that powerful. Anyone used it?

Then there was the planet bike 2-watt blaze, does anyone have experience with that?

Should I be buying two of these ?


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## gte105u (Aug 12, 2012)

Really need to know what your use is. The superdrive 450 is 450 lumen which is quite bright for many uses. It is far and away brighter than any 2 watt light. If the light doesn't say the lumen it isn't probably putting out enough of them to be practical. I have a Cygolight Expilion 350 which I am happy with. I actually typically use it on the 200 lumen setting which is plenty bright for street riding at 5am.


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

gte105u said:


> Really need to know what your use is. The superdrive 450 is 450 lumen which is quite bright for many uses. It is far and away brighter than any 2 watt light. If the light doesn't say the lumen it isn't probably putting out enough of them to be practical. I have a Cygolight Expilion 350 which I am happy with. I actually typically use it on the 200 lumen setting which is plenty bright for street riding at 5am.


Gonna use it for urban riding pre-sunrise and dark paved bike paths, no dirt. Tried the EL-520. From cateye, it seems to make a big target on the road instead of making the whole road bright, not sure if all of them do that. I'll look for the lezyne tomorrow


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## Mr. Versatile (Nov 24, 2005)

I can't help you as far as a decent light without a battery pack. I commuted in the predawn hours for years & used this light. Niterider – Technical Lighting Systems » MiNewt Pro 750 – 2013 It's very small as you can see & the battery is also very small & very light. The battery Velcro's on the the head tube. I was disappointed when I got this light & opened the box. I thought it was too small to do much of anything. But I charged it up & tried it the next morning. *HOLY CRAP!* That thing could light up previously unseen portions of the moon. It's extremely bright & has a good light pattern. It has high & low settings & if you leave it on high beam cars will be flashing their lights at you. The battery recharges in a couple of hours & will last about 2 hours on high. The light plus the battery pack weighs considerably less than a pound. There's a helmet mount available too.


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## ecub (Sep 2, 2011)

I use a Cygolite MityCross 480 on the handlebar & a Cygolite Expilion 410 on my helmet. The MityCross 480 has dual beams, which help widen the pattern. It's enough to light the road ahead of me. Unfortunately, it produces a hot spot in the center and lessens as it gets wider. It also uses an external battery. The Explion 410 does not have an external battery. It's good to have 2 lights, one on the handlebar, which helps light up in front of the bike, while the helmet light, helps light up where your head is looking. This helps you light up areas ahead of a turn. Another good reason of having a helmet light is so that I can aim the light (flashing mode) in the direction of vehicles at intersections, so they can be aware of me.

Cygolite does have an Expilion 700, which appears to light up majority of the road. An example is given on their website. It does not use an external battery pack. Unfortunately, it looks huge. The only problem I can see about using a light like this is that you may end up blinding the driver in an oncoming vehicle. He may flash his high beams at your or worse, keep his high beam on, thus blinding you.

I also use Cateye taillights and I know they have several headlights. The nice thing about Cateye is that they have PLENTY of mounting solutions.


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## ecub (Sep 2, 2011)

One thing I forgot to mention is that, keep in mind that if you want a very bright light, you will need a big battery. This will be either an external battery or a light & battery in one. Unfortunately, if you get a light and battery in one, then the whole unit will be rather large. The good thing about having an external battery pack, is the light stays more compact.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

I use a cyglolight expilon 400 and ride mostly in the mornings before it get's light, most just under 2 hours. Relatively small and no external battery. It lasts the entire ride on high and is very bright with good coverage for the road - looks like a car headlight, For bike paths that snake through the woods and tighter turns that you would see on the road, a wider beam would be helpful or having it mounted to my helmet, mine's mounted to the bars. It also has a flasher / strobe setting for riding in daylight hours. About $100 on Amazon.


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## slow.climber (Nov 25, 2010)

Lights with small internal batteries aren't going to be very bright for very long.

I recommend learning a bit more before you make any major purchase. These forums will help a lot,

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forum.php

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/


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## teflondog (Aug 23, 2011)

From personal experience, I can recommend either the Niterider Lumina 650 or the Light & Motion Urban 550. I use the Urban 550 for commuting since it's small and has a cleaner look on the road bike. I use the Lumina 650 on my mountain bike when I need more light on the trails. Both lights are very bright I use them in the low setting 90% of the time, which gives me around 6 hours of runtime before I have to recharge them.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

I get 2 hours on max setting on my Cyglolite Expilion 400 - it didnt' die at 2 hours, that's just all I tried, and it's what they claim it will last on high. I don't really need more than 2 hours, so it works for me.


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## bikerjohn64 (Feb 9, 2012)

Have you looked at the Serfas True 500? 

I use it as my helmet light and really shines up the trails. Similar to the Nite Rider and others in shape and design. 

The one thing I really like about this unit is that extra internal batteries can be purchased that you can pop in when you run out of juice.


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## ParadigmDawg (Aug 2, 2012)

Srode said:


> I use a cyglolight expilon 400 and ride mostly in the mornings before it get's light, most just under 2 hours. Relatively small and no external battery. It lasts the entire ride on high and is very bright with good coverage for the road - looks like a car headlight, For bike paths that snake through the woods and tighter turns that you would see on the road, a wider beam would be helpful or having it mounted to my helmet, mine's mounted to the bars. It also has a flasher / strobe setting for riding in daylight hours. About $100 on Amazon.


I just ordered 2 of these so I hope you are right. We don't really ride at night but now that the days are getting shorter, I figure this should help some. We actually didn't get home, from our ride, last night as quickly as predicted and I wish we had lights then.

We just have the Superflash Turbo on the back. Will this suffice?


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

Hopefully you like them - Can't imagine how they would disappoint you. Let us know what you think when you have a chance to try them out.


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

Srode said:


> Hopefully you like them - Can't imagine how they would disappoint you. Let us know what you think when you have a chance to try them out.


So everyone is probably going to hate me for doing this, but I ended up ordering off fleabay. I ordered two mounts for two torches that are fake-advertised "1300 lumens" because I saw in a few reviews that, even though one doesn't do 1300, it still does a lot. There's a five or seven-week waiting period while they free-ship from hong kong, as far as I can tell, so I'm just going to have to wait it out.

My problem right now is that I'm buying all this gear with borrowed money until I get accepted for a residency position in June 2013, so I've had to skimp on basically everything. I bought a used jersey for $12, a use wireless cadence computer for $30, all my clothes from Wal mart, my helmet and gloves clearance....

I know it's important to be able to see, it's a safety issue. With that in mind, I bought two lights instead of one. If they're still not bright enough then I'll go in for something more expensive, but so far this all cost about $23


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## TDI Hoo (Apr 1, 2012)

I ordered a Cateye Nano Shot+ 600 lumen light with "massive output." Will update when it arrives in a day or two.

Edit: The light arrived tonight. It is lightweight and quite small, smaller in length and width than a playing card (smaller than a bridge card) and just a bit thicker than a deck of cards. The output on the 600 lumen "high" setting is superb, easily illuminating more than the length of my 40 foot long driveway. It actually will illuminate the house across the street as well as the low and high beams on my VW Golf. The Hyper Constant mode is actually the low mode on constantly with the higher output strobing on top of that. Space aliens should see you coming down the road. I will show some photos of it next to my 20 year old Cateye Halogen, which is still in excellent working order, though not so bright with it's 2 C batteries. The Nano Shot + is even brighter on low than my Terralux Lightstar 300 flashlight, but the light color is not as white. The beam pattern is wider than the width of a traffic lane. 












































HL-EL625RC | CATEYE


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## TDI Hoo (Apr 1, 2012)

To the OP, the Cateye Nano Shot + (EL625RC) is 5000 cd vs. the EL520 which had 1800 cd. I am not affiliated with Cateye at all. I just had a 20 year old light and needed a new one. Technology has significantly advanced. Ride on. At night. Be careful.


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