I’ve used a bunch of lights starting way back when BLT first came out. I’m currently running several lights including some pretty sweet Lezyne Micro Drives, and some of the Chinese Cree lights from Dealextreme.
What are you running and what are your thoughts on them.
The Chinese ones are a great price, but the batteries have a limited lifespan, significantly shorter than my more expensive, brand name lights. The advertised Lumens are certainly not true either.
I’ve got a Light & Motion 800 and love it. It’s light, compact and charges fast. It’s more of a commuter light but with 800 lumens it throws off more than enough light for the trails too. I’ve used it in temps as cold as -15 and it wasn’t affected. It’s never failed.
The only light I have had and used is from Magicshine and is very similar to the MJ-808. I believe mine is 1100LM with High, Medium and low brightness settings. It charges fast, is quick to install and remove, and lasts for over 3 hours at full brightness. I am really happy with it and would definitely buy another if the need comes up.
I think the Lumens they specify for the Magic shine and the clones are based on the CREE LED spec sheet and amount of current they are diving it with. It is a fair comparison between lights that use the same method.
Other manufacturers are likely using an after assembly test which is more accurate but makes them look worse compared to the CREE spec sheet method.
In my opinion, CREE LEDs seem to be the best LEDs out there as everyone is using them and they are amazing compared to previous generation LEDs.
I’ve never felt that my 1000LM knowk off from China was lacking in light. It was always the battery packs that let me down.
Regarding the terrible Chinese manufactured batteries you can always buy replacement 18650 cells from Panasonic or another vendor and with minimal electronics knowledge replace the original cells with those for what would turn out to be probably a better battery pack then the expensive lights at the shops.
It’s the soldering to live cells to build the 4 pack that concerns me.
I have a Chinese light and it was something like $60. It is advertised as 10000 lumens but no where near that. It is still plenty bright, to the point where illumination on the trail is a non issue. If I use the light on the brightest setting I can get 70 minutes on the coldest of day. If use it on the medium setting I can get 2.25 hours and that is plenty for a night ride
Have had no issues with the light or battery. It does not run hot or anything like that. I would recommend one. Even if it is not perfect, you can buy one a year for 6 or 7 years before you would equal the price of a brand name, entry level light
I have one of these. Hard to beat for the price (+free shipping) and these are pretty popular out west.
I also should ]mention I have an 800 Lumen Cygolite that I use on my handlebars as well as the Chinese Light on my helmet. If anything ever happened to the chinese light or battery the (maybe) more reliable “brand name” battery and light would get me out of the woods with not too much trouble.
That’s what these are for. : )
If the cells are in parallel (which many of the Chinese lights are) that’s a 13.6Ah pack!
I really like my NightRider Minewt 750. It has gotten me though many winter rides that run late, early morning commutes taking the long way to work, and at least one 6 hour slog through the backcountry as we stubbornly pushed on toward camp until the wee hours of the morning. Hasn’t let me down once. Worth the brand-name price.
Our best light is a Light and Motion Arc HID light. About 700 lumens. Nice and bright. Old technology though. I bought two others of these off Ebay. One doesn’t work at all (ballast probably bad). The other works for a while and then dies. Again, probably bad ballast. Not sure if it’s worth sourcing a ballast or buying a new LED, like a L&M Stella.
Our second best light is a NiteRider Enduro HID. Again, older technology. It’s pretty bright, probably 5-600 lumens. Only catch is, it doesn’t like cold weather. Doesn’t fire up when it’s cold. Works well in warm weather. CyclingGirl and I joke it needs a little romance before using it (e.g. sticking it down your pants to warm it up before use 
).The ballast is probably going. Someone is selling a ballast that may work for both lights on Ebay for about $70.
I’ve got an old BLT halogen light as a backup, but it’s pretty dim. One or more of the NiMh batteries is probably gone. Not sure if it’s worth trying to replace the batteries.